The Wonder Years

For other uses, see The Wonder Years (disambiguation).

The Wonder Years
Intertitle
Created by	Neal Marlens Carol Black
Starring	Fred Savage Dan Lauria Alley Mills Olivia d'Abo Jason Hervey Danica McKellar Josh Saviano
Narrated by	Daniel Stern
Theme music composer	Lennon–McCartney
Opening theme	"With a Little Help from My Friends" Performed by Joe Cocker
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	115 (list of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	The Black-Marlens Company New World Television
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	January 31, 1988 (1988-01-31) – May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)

The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black. It ran on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988, following ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.

The show achieved a spot in the Nielsen Top 30 for four of its six seasons. TV Guide named the show one of the 20 best of the 1980s. After only six episodes aired, The Wonder Years won an Emmy for best comedy series in 1988. In addition, at age 13, Fred Savage became the youngest actor ever nominated as Outstanding Lead Actor for a Comedy Series. The show was also awarded a Peabody Award in 1989, for pushing the boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of storytelling. The series won 22 awards and was nominated for 54 more. In 1997, "My Father's Office" was ranked #29 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time, and in the 2009 revised list the pilot episode was ranked #43.

Production

Conception

The series was conceived by writers Neil Marlens and Carol Black. They set out to create a family show that would appeal to the baby-boomer generation by setting the series in the late 60s, a time of radical change in America's history. They also wanted the series to tie this setting in to life of a normal boy growing up during the period. After writing the script for the pilot episode, Marlens and Black began shopping the series to television networks. None of them were interested, except for ABC, with whom Marlens and Black reached an agreement.

Writing

When they started writing the series, Marlens and Black took a script for a future film that they had been toying with that featured an off-screen narrator. Black explained, "We liked the concept that you could play with what people think and what they're saying, or how they would like to see themselves as opposed to how the audience is seeing them." They based the show, in part, on their own childhood growing up in suburbs. Black recalled that "we naturally [took] elements of our experience and [threw] them into the pot. The basic setup, the neighborhood, the era - that's the time and place where we grew up."

Casting

The search for the main lead of the show ended up proving to be easy. Marlens and Black went to five casting directors and interviewed them for recommendations. All five of them recommended Fred Savage, who at the time was famous for his roles as the grandson in The Princess Bride and as Charlie/Marshall in Vice Versa. Marlens and Black, having never heard of Savage, decided to see the rough cut of Vice Versa. Said Marlens, "[We saw] a marvelous actor with a natural quality - which essentially means he has no quality at all except being a kid. It sounds funny, but it's a rare thing to find in a child actor." Marlens and Black took this approach when casting the other kids for the show, looking for natural ability rather than professionalism. According to Marlens, they saw 300 to 400 kids before narrowing it down to 70, "My wife and I made the final choices...each of whom had to be approved by the network." For the choice of Savage's character's main love interest, the choice came down to actress Danica McKellar and her sister, Crystal McKellar. With just days to go before shooting, the producers eventually selected Danica to play Winnie Cooper. However, Mary Buck, the head of casting, noted that, "it was practically a tossup." Crystal McKellar was liked so much by the producers that they eventually created the character of Becky Slater so that they could have her on the show. Danica McKellar later reflected on the experience, "I auditioned, like everyone else. They had read lots of girls but hadn't found their 'Winnie' yet, and I was thrilled to be chosen."

Filming

When filming for the pilot began, the script called for a kiss between Savage's character, Kevin Arnold, and Danica McKellar's character, Winnie Cooper. It was the first kiss for both of them. Savage recalled that it "was kind of tough and a little embarrassing, because we had to do it in front of our parents, cast and crew." He added that, "I had only known her for a week, and I think she was embarrassed, too." McKellar concurred, calling it, "a pretty nerve-wracking experience! But we never kissed off screen, and pretty quickly our feelings turned into brother/sister, and stayed that way." At the end of the first season, Marlens and Black departed from the show. Although they never gave a reason for their sudden departure, it may have been due to Black's pregnancy. She hinted at it in an interview in April 1988, saying "We have secret plans to leave Los Angeles before our kids reach the age of cognizance." As a result, Bob Brush was brought in to oversee the show. Brush also brought in writer Ken Topolsky to help oversee the writing of the show. One challenge for the cast and crew was filming around a child actor, meaning that the show had to obey child labor laws. Savage at the time explained, "You have to get at least three hours of school in every day. So whenever I'm on a break, I go to school. It's really intense because I have to get a lot done in short periods. And it's hard because if they need you back on the set, they pull you away every twenty minutes. If you're writing an essay and suddenly get inspired, you've got to stop and go back to work."

Lawsuit

As the show was in the process of wrapping its sixth and final season, a costume designer on the show named Monique Long filed a sexual harassment charge against stars Fred Savage and Jason Hervey. The suit brought a lot of unwanted publicity to the show. In the end, the case was dropped, with Savage noting that he "was completely exonerated," adding that "it was a terrible experience."

Cancellation

The Wonder Years wrapped its sixth and final season in May 1993. This was partially blamed on conflict between producers and executives at ABC. As Kevin matured, the producers wanted the storylines to mature as well. However, the executives at ABC felt uncomfortable with more explicit content given the time slot, saying, "[We] felt it was inappropriate to present Kevin's sexual awakening because of the setting in the 1960s, the gentle tone of the series and, most importantly, the 8 p.m. time period." Bob Brush noted that, "When [Kevin] became 16 and 17, there were really things he needed to get to that we couldn't do at 8 p.m., especially with the kind of venerable cachet that the show had obtained with its audience. We would get notes from the network saying, 'You could do this on any show besides "The Wonder Years."'" Another reason for the show's cancellation was the escalating costs. The cast's salary increases, coupled with location shooting (which was due to the producers wanting to reflect Kevin obtaining his driver's license), led to Brush claiming that they were spending $1.2 million an episode. The final episode aired on May 12, 1993. Bob Brush noted that the finale was not what he would have wanted it to be, but because the cast and crew were unsure at the time of filming if the sixth season was going to be the last, he was forced to have the ending be open-ended, until the recording of Daniel Stern's narration. Fans were somewhat disappointed with the ending, in particular the revelation the Kevin and Winnie don't end up as a couple. Brush acknowledged this disappointment, saying, "Some viewers [were] surprised that nothing works out the way your fondest wish would be," and explained, "The message I wanted in there is that that's part of the beauty of life. It's fine to say, 'I'd like everything to be just the way it was when I was 15 and I was happy,' but it seemed more nurturing to me to say that we leave these things behind and we go on to forge new lives for ourselves."

Plot synopsis

Main article: List of The Wonder Years episodes

The series depicts the social and family life of a boy in a typical American suburb from 1968 to 1973, covering his ages of 12 through 17. Each fictional year in the series takes place exactly 20 years before airing (1988 to 1993). Neither the town nor the state the show takes place in are ever identified.

The show's plot centers on Kevin Arnold, son of Jack and Norma Arnold. Kevin's dad holds a management job at NORCOM, a defense contractor, while his mother is a homemaker. Kevin also has an older brother, Wayne, and an older sister, Karen. Two of Kevin's age peers and neighbors are prominently featured throughout the series: his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, and his crush-turned-girlfriend Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper. Story lines are told through Kevin's reflections as an adult in his mid-30s, voiced by narrator Daniel Stern.

In the pilot episode, Winnie's older brother Brian, whom Kevin admires, is killed in action in Vietnam in 1968. Kevin meets Winnie in a nearby wooded area called Harpers Woods, and they end up sharing their first kiss. This unsaid relationship between Winnie and Kevin remains dormant for a long while, with Winnie starting to date a popular 8th grader named Kirk McCray, and Kevin briefly going steady with Becky Slater (played by Crystal McKellar—Danica's sister). After Kevin breaks up with Becky due to his feelings for Winnie, Becky becomes a recurring nuisance for Kevin. Winnie eventually dumps Kirk as well, and Kevin and Winnie share a second kiss at the start of the 1969 summer vacation. Around Valentine's Day 1970, Winnie temporarily dates Paul, who has broken up with his girlfriend Carla. Winnie and Kevin start dating each other soon after.

Just before the summer break, Winnie and her family move to a house four miles away. Although Winnie attends a new school, Lincoln Junior High, she and Kevin decide to remain together and maintain a successful long distance relationship. A beautiful new student named Madeline Adams joins Kevin's school and quickly catches Kevin's eye, but it is Winnie who breaks up with Kevin after meeting Roger, a typical jock-type at her new school. Neither relationship lasts long, but Winnie and Kevin don't reunite until she is injured in a car accident. After graduating from junior high, Kevin and Winnie both go to McKinley High and Paul attends a prep school. Paul would later transfer to McKinley High and join Kevin and Winnie.

Earlier seasons of the show tended to focus on plots involving events within the Arnold household and Kevin's academic struggles, whereas later seasons focused much more on plots involving dating and Kevin's friends.

Kevin has several brief flings during the summer of 1971 and the 1971/72 academic year. After Kevin's grandfather gets his driver's license revoked, he sells his car to Kevin for a dollar. Paul transfers to McKinley High after his first semester at prep school when his father runs into financial troubles. Winnie and Kevin are reunited when they go on a double date to a school dance and find themselves more attracted to each other than their respective partners. Facing peer pressure in the episode "White Lies", Kevin implies to his friends that he has had sex with Winnie, but the spreading rumor causes Kevin and Winnie to break up for a few episodes. In late 1972, Kevin's older brother Wayne starts working at NORCOM, and dates his co-worker Bonnie, a divorcée with a son, but the relationship does not last. Kevin's dad quits NORCOM, and buys a furniture manufacturing business.

Final episode and epilogue

In the finale double episode, Winnie decides to take a job for the summer of 1973 as a lifeguard at a resort. Kevin, meanwhile, is at his job at his father's furniture factory and telephones Winnie, who by all accounts is distant and seems to be enjoying her time away from Kevin. Eventually, Kevin and his father fight and Kevin announces that he is leaving, reasoning that he needs to "find himself." Kevin hops in his car and heads to the resort where Winnie is working, hopeful that she can secure him a job and they can spend the rest of the summer together.

Much to Kevin's chagrin, Winnie does not appear too pleased with Kevin's arrival and maintains her distance. Kevin is finally able to secure a job at the resort's restaurant and resides in the bus boys' dorm. One night, Kevin goes searching for Winnie, anxious to share the tale of his good fortune in a poker game. When Kevin finds her, Winnie is engaged in a passionate kiss with a male lifeguard.

The next day, Kevin confronts Winnie about her actions, and they fight. Kevin then plays another round of poker, losing his car in a bet in the process. Desperate, Kevin confronts Winnie and her new beau at the restaurant and ends up punching him in the face. Kevin then leaves the resort on foot.

On a desolate stretch of highway, Kevin decides to begin hitchhiking. He finally gets picked up by an elderly couple and much to his surprise he finds Winnie in the backseat. Winnie was fired over the fight Kevin instigated at the resort. Kevin and Winnie begin to argue and the elderly couple gets fed up and kicks them out of the car. A flash rain storm begins and Kevin and Winnie search for shelter. They find a barn and discuss how much things are changing and the prospects for the future. They eventually share a passionate kiss. The adult Kevin narrates that night they made a promise to always be together and "it was a promise full of passion."

They soon find their way back to their hometown and arrive hand-in-hand to a Fourth of July parade. During this parade, the adult Kevin (Daniel Stern) describes the fate of the show's main characters: Kevin makes up with his father, graduates from high school in 1974 and leaves for college and later becomes a writer. Paul studies law at Harvard. Karen, Kevin's sister gives birth to a son in September 1973. Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and corporate board chairwoman. Kevin's father dies in 1975, and Wayne takes over his father's furniture business. Winnie studies art history in Paris while Kevin stays in the United States. Winnie and Kevin end up writing to each other once a week for the next eight years. When Winnie returns to the United States in 1982, Kevin meets her at the airport with his wife and eight-month-old son.

The final sounds, voice-over narration, and dialogue of the episode and series is that of Kevin (voice of Daniel Stern), with children heard in the background:

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back... with wonder.

A little boy (Stern's real life son) can be heard asking his dad to come out and play catch during a break in the final narration. Kevin's narrative responds, "I'll be right there" as the episode closes.

In 2011, the finale was ranked #11 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.

Characters

Actor	Character	Seasons
1	2	3	4	5	6
Fred Savage	Kevin Arnold	Main
Dan Lauria	John "Jack" Arnold	Main
Alley Mills	Norma Arnold	Main
Olivia d'Abo	Karen Arnold	Main					Guest
Jason Hervey	Wayne Arnold	Main
Josh Saviano	Paul Joshua Pfeiffer	Main
Danica McKellar	Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper	Main

Major

(L to R) Paul, Kevin and Winnie

• Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage): Character born March 18, 1956, Kevin grew up in the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s. The voice of Kevin as an adult (and the show's narrator) is supplied by Daniel Stern. (115 episodes)

• John "Jack" Arnold (Dan Lauria): Character born on November 5, 1927, died in 1975. Kevin's father was a gruff, laconic man and a Korean War veteran; he grew up during the Great Depression, served in the US Marine Corps, and is seen in photographs wearing the uniform of a First Lieutenant. He works at NORCOM, a large electronics corporation, in a middle management position he loathes. Later, he starts his own business, building and selling handcrafted furniture. The series's last episode reveals that he dies in 1975 near the end of Kevin's freshman year of college—that is, two years after the time of the show's finale—although in a previous episode, an adult Kevin says his father would later be the grandfather of Kevin's sons. Mr. Arnold represents the viewpoint of the "Greatest Generation" that grew up during the Depression and came of age during the Second World War; it was confused and angered by the rapid changes taking place in the 1960s. (89 episodes)

• Norma Arnold (née Gustafson) (Alley Mills): Kevin's housewife mother. Unlike her husband, Norma is friendly and upbeat. She met Jack as a college freshman. When he graduated, she moved across the country with him and did not finish college. She eventually gets her degree late in the series and begins work at a software startup called Micro Electronics. Although she came of age at the same time as her husband, she is less conservative than her husband and increasingly yearns to break out of her homemaker role, reflecting the rise of feminism in the 1960s. (88 episodes)

• Karen Arnold (Olivia d'Abo): Kevin's older, hippie sister. Her free-spirited ways clash with her overbearing father's conservatism, and she depends upon her mother as a mediator. When Karen moves in with her boyfriend Michael (David Schwimmer) during her freshman year of college, she has a falling out with her father. The pair marry one year later and move to Alaska, where Michael has secured a good job. Karen ultimately accepts some of her parents' viewpoints and has a baby, while her husband learns to support his wife and child. (41 episodes)

• Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey): Kevin's older brother. Wayne enjoys physically tormenting Kevin and Paul, calling Kevin "butthead" or "scrote". He takes over the family furniture business when his father dies. Wayne is usually portrayed as a loser in romantic relationships. For a time he dated a girl named Dolores, but that was more casual than serious. In later seasons, Wayne matures. In the final season, he begins a serious relationship with a divorcee named Bonnie but is left heartbroken when she reconciles with her husband. (90 episodes)

• Paul Joshua Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano): Character born March 14, 1956, Paul is Kevin's long time best friend, a bright and excellent student, and an allergy sufferer. He is also Jewish and in one episode celebrates his Bar Mitzvah. Although Kevin and Paul are best friends in the series's early seasons, their relationship becomes somewhat strained later. Kevin begins to spend more time with Chuck and Jeff, causing tension with Paul. Paul also attends a private prep school for one season, leaving Kevin alone to start public high school. In another episode Kevin tattles on Paul after Paul loses his virginity. In the final episode it is revealed that Paul eventually attends Harvard. (92 episodes)

• Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar): Winnie is Kevin's main love interest and neighbor. Their first kiss, and her older brother's death in Vietnam, play an important part in the pilot. In another episode, Winnie's parents separate in grief over the death of their son. In the epilogue of the final episode, it is revealed that Winnie travels overseas to study art history in Paris. Kevin and Winnie write to each other every week for these eight years until she returns; in the concluding moments of the finale, Kevin says that when Winnie returned to the States, Kevin met her accompanied by his wife and first child, despite the hope among Wonder Years fans that Kevin and Winnie would themselves marry. "Like I said," says Kevin at the end, "things never turn out exactly the way you plan them." As suggested in an episode entitled "The Accident" and in the final episode of the series, every important event in Kevin's life has somehow involved Winnie. (65 episodes)

Minor characters

• "Grandpa" Albert Arnold (David Huddleston): Kevin's paternal grandfather, a loving but stubborn old man who constantly gets on the nerves of Kevin's father, Jack. Though their relationship is strained, Kevin's father and grandfather have a strong bond that has a lasting effect on Kevin as he grows older. Grandpa gifted Kevin both with his dog, Buster, and his very first car. (3 episodes ((plus 1 montage episode)))

• Buster: Kevin's dog, a loving and loyal brown and white beagle. Buster was a gift given to Kevin by his grandfather Albert, much to Jack's disapproval. Eventually the family all fall in love with the dog, especially when it is feared that he is lost after running away in the park. Though physically appearing in only 2 episodes throughout the entire series, Kevin reminisces that Buster would always be there happily waiting for him throughout the most important events in his young life, including his graduation from High School and from College. (4 episodes)

• Randy Mitchell (Michael Tricario): Kevin's friend, described as loyal and brave, though noticeably lacking Paul's intelligence. (He gets a 730 combined score on his SAT.) Though he appeared throughout the entire series, he usually had only minor parts in episodes. Randy and Paul are the only characters to remain on throughout the series as Kevin's friends in both junior high and high school. (21 episodes)

• Doug Porter (Brandon Crane): Kevin's junior high school classmate. In one episode, he briefly replaces Paul as Kevin's best friend after the two have a falling out. Doug is very agreeable and loves to eat junk food. In later episodes Doug befriends both Kevin and Paul where they engage in activities such as touch football or sneaking to a sleepover attended by older teenage girls. (19 episodes)

• Chuck Coleman (Andy Berman): One of Kevin's high school friends, who often appears with a "nervous tic". Chuck dates Alice Pedermeir and, on one episode, confides that he may have gotten her pregnant. However, much to his relief, the pregnancy test turns out negative. On another episode, Chuck punches Kevin in the face after he catches Kevin in a compromising position with Alice, who was helping Kevin to get a good deal on a used car. (19 episodes)

• Brett (Jon Frear): Kevin's classmate. He was featured a few times during the series. 1992–1993. (19 episodes)

• Coach Ed Cutlip (Robert Picardo): Kevin's gym teacher, who excels in bullying his students and always wears a red cap to hide his bald head, which has a steel plate in it. He enjoys drawing diagrams on the board that nobody can decipher, and Kevin describes him as having an inferiority complex. However, he is shown to be somewhat of a more sensitive person than usually indicated when he plays a department store Santa in a Christmas-related episode, where Kevin is the only student to know of Coach Cutlip's part-time job. Coach Cutlip is also aware of his mean personality towards the students, and admits to Kevin, "kids like me when I am Santa". During the 1988-1991 seasons, Picardo was simultaneously seen on the ABC Vietnam series China Beach in the role of Dr. Dick Richard, and is among a small group of television actors to achieve notoriety on two television series at the same time. (15 episodes)

• Jeff Billings (Giovanni Ribisi): Plays Kevin's good friend in the later part of the series. His parents are divorced and he lives with his mother, which is the reason that he moves in late. He has a girlfriend from his old town but breaks it off with her midway through the final season. (15 episodes)

• Ricky Halsenbach (Scott Nemes): Kevin's classmate. He was Kevin's first friend to get a driver's license. He fell in love with a new student named Haley but broke it off with her after Kevin and Jeff made fun of the size of her nose. (13 episodes)

• Carla Healy (Krista Murphy): Kevin's junior high school classmate and one-time girlfriend of Paul. (12 episodes)

• Mr. Cantwell (Ben Stein): Kevin's junior high school science teacher. He often shows filmstrips to the class while speaking in a monotone voice with steady emotion (similar to his performance as the monotonous economics teacher in the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which made him famous). (12 episodes)

• Rebecca "Becky" Slater (Crystal McKellar): Kevin's junior high school classmate and one-time girlfriend. He dates her purely to make Winnie jealous and she punches him when she finds out he still likes Winnie. She holds a grudge against Kevin and becomes a recurring, physically aggressive nuisance throughout Kevin's junior high school years. (10 episodes)

• Mr. Diperna (Raye Birk): The vice-principal of Robert F. Kennedy Junior High. In the earlier episodes, Kevin gets in trouble and spends time in his office. He fires Kevin's mom shortly after she is hired by the school as a receptionist. (10 episodes)

• Craig Hobson (Sean Baca): Kevin's junior high school classmate and friend. He often teases Kevin and Paul over their emotional hang-ups resulting from girlfriend problems, only to accidentally start a relationship himself by falling for Becky Slater when she hits him with her bicycle (her intended victim was Kevin). Craig's relationship with Becky stops her from harassing Kevin and allows the couples to happily co-exist. However, Hobson ends the relationship with Becky when he gets sent to military school for his ninth grade year, reviving her hatred of men and blaming Kevin. (10 episodes)

• Miss White/Mrs. Heimer (Wendel Meldrum): Kevin's junior high English teacher. Kevin harbors a crush on her and sometimes imagines that she feels the same way. She gets married after the second season and becomes Mrs. Heimer, but Kevin continues calling her Miss White, which she always corrects. In one episode, a pregnant Mrs. Heimer needs Kevin to drive her to the hospital on the day of his junior high graduation as she's going into labor and can't find her husband. (7 episodes)

• Michael (David Schwimmer): Karen's boyfriend later turned husband. Though a hippie like Karen, he's less opinionated, more level headed and seemingly more mature than Karen. He and Karen move into the same place together before marriage, which upsets Jack greatly. Michael wins Jack's approval and respect when he takes a job in Alaska, proving himself to be a hard worker who puts family first. (4 episodes)

• Wart (Scott Menville): Wayne's best friend. Wart early in the series is much like Wayne: immature and dimwitted. He later joins the Army and is shipped to Vietnam. He returns much more mature and serious. He receives accolades and respect from people like Wayne, Kevin and Jack, but also receives threats and verbal abuse from other people. Wart is hinted at suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), in particular when he takes off his shirt during a football game. (4 episodes)

Reception

U.S. television ratings

Season	Timeslot (ET/PT)	Season Premiere	Season Finale	Nielsen Ranking
1	Sunday 9:00 p.m. (January 31, 1988) Tuesday 8:30 p.m. (March 22, 1988 – April 19, 1988)	January 31, 1988	April 19, 1988	#16
2	Wednesday 9:00 p.m. (November 30, 1988 – February 15, 1989) Tuesday 8:30 p.m. (February 28, 1989 – May 16, 1989)	November 30, 1988	May 16, 1989	#14
3	Tuesday 8:30 p.m. (October 3, 1989 – May 8, 1990) Wednesday 8:30 p.m. (May 16, 1990)	October 3, 1989	May 16, 1990	#9
4	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	September 19, 1990	May 15, 1991	#27
5	Wednesday 8:30 p.m. (October 2, 1991 – February 26, 1992) Wednesday 8:00 p.m. (March 11, 1992 – May 13, 1992)	October 2, 1991	May 13, 1992	#37
6	Wednesday 8:00 p.m.	September 23, 1992	May 12, 1993	#44

Syndication

Reruns of the show aired in syndication between September 1992 and September 1997. Nick at Nite then reran the show from October 13, 1997 to February 3, 2001. It also reran on The New TNN (January 22, 2001 to late September, 2001), ABC Family (November 5, 2001 to October 2, 2004) and Ion Television (April 2, 2007 to October 4, 2007). Since October 11, 2010, The Wonder Years aired each evening on the cable network The Hub before being pulled altogether on June 24, 2012. The Hub re-added the show starting on July 16, 2012, before removing it once again entirely on August 31, 2012. In Canada, the show aired on CTS Ontario from September 2010 until September 2, 2011. In Australia, the show aired on ABC1 on March 31, 2012 from the former episode of a Network Ten between 1989 to 1995. In Spain the series initially aired Mondays 930pm on TVE2 (now La2) as part of the Monday night Comedy block which also featured Murphy Brown. The series was later promoted to main channel TVE1 where it aired Fridays 9pm. Years later, in the late 90s, commercial station Antena 3TV recovered the series and aired it first in its 2pm comedy hour, later relocating it to a 530pm slot as part of the youth macro-show La Merienda.

Home video releases

For many years, The Wonder Years remained unreleased on DVD as official season box sets, allegedly due to music licensing issues. Because of this issue, The Wonder Years routinely appeared high on the list of TV shows in-demand for a DVD release. Some episodes of the series were included in two official "best-of" DVD sets (The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years) without the original music. Anchor Bay also released two volumes (four episodes total) on VHS in 1997.

In a blog update on the Netflix website on March 30, 2011, and a press release issued the next day, Netflix stated that they would be adding The Wonder Years to their instant streaming service. The other three 20th Century Fox series noted as part of the deal were added to the Watch Instantly service by April 2, while The Wonder Years remained unavailable. On October 1, 2011, 114 full-length episodes of the series were added to Netflix streaming. The clip show from the end of Season 4, which was released on DVD, has not been included.

On September 26, 2011, it was announced that Amazon Prime's streaming video service would be adding The Wonder Years, describing the series as "available on digital video for the first time", although Netflix added the series ahead of Amazon's release. All 115 episodes (including the clip show) became available to Prime members starting October 6, 2011.

On both digital streaming services, portions of the soundtrack have been replaced. The show's opening theme, Joe Cocker's rendition of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," has been replaced on Netflix and Amazon with the version of the song that played in the UK and other overseas airings. The majority of the show's soundtrack remains unchanged. Songs such as "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix have been replaced by generic sound-alikes with different lyrics.

On February 11, 2014, StarVista/Time-Life announced the upcoming DVD release of the complete series in the second half of the year, noting that they were "painstakingly securing the rights for virtually every song."

Soundtrack

Main article: The Wonder Years: Music from the Emmy Award-Winning Show & Its Era

The official soundtrack was released in 1988 by Atlantic/WEA and contains a total of 13 tracks, featuring Joe Cocker's cover of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", which is the show's theme song.

Also, after the series' original run was over, Laserlight Digital released a 5-disc compilation box set under the title Music from 'The Wonder Years in 1994. This is the same company that later released the only two DVDs for the series, The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years. The disc included 40 oldies favorites and 5 original songs (each is repeated twice in the set) written exclusively for the series by W. G. Snuffy Walden.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
1991	American Cinema Editors' Eddie Award	Best Edited Episode from a Television Series	Dennis C. Vejar (For episode "Goodbye")	Nominated
1993		Best Edited Half Hour Series for Television	Dennis C. Vejar (For episode "The Wedding")	Nominated
1989	ASCAP Film and Television Music Award	Top TV Series	Stewart Levin	Won
1988	BMI Film & TV Awards	BMI TV Music Award	W.G. Snuffy Walden, John Lennon and Paul McCartney	Won
1989				Won
1990				Won
1988	Casting Society of America's Artios Award	Best Casting for TV, Comedy Episodic	Mary V. Buck and Susan Edelman	Won
1989				Nominated
1990			Meg Liberman and Marc Hirschfeld	Nominated
1989	Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directing – Comedy Series	Steve Miner (For the pilot episode)	Won
1991			Peter Baldwin (For episode "The Ties That Bind")	Nominated
1989	Golden Globe Award	Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy		Won
1990				Nominated
		Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy	Fred Savage	Nominated
1991				Nominated
1988	Humanitas Prize	30 Minute Category	Carol Black and Neal Marlens (For the pilot episode)	Nominated
1989			Matthew Carlson	Won
1990			Todd W. Langen	Won
			David M. Stern (For episode "The Powers That Be")	Nominated
1991			Bob Brush	Won
			Mark B. Perry (For episode "The Ties That Bind")	Nominated
1992			Craig Hoffman (For episode "Hardware Store")	Nominated
1993			Sy Rosen (For episode "The Nose")	Nominated
1990	Peabody Award		ABC Television and Black/Marlens Company in association with New World Television	Won
1988	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Comedy Series	Carol Black, Neal Marlens and Jeffrey Silver	Won
		Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series	Carol Black and Neal Marlens (For the pilot episode)	Nominated
1989		Outstanding Comedy Series	Carol Black, Neal Marlens, Bob Brush, Steve Miner and Jeffrey Silver	Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series	Matthew Carlson (For episode "Pottery Will Get You Nowhere")	Nominated
			Todd W. Langen (For episode "Coda")	Nominated
			David M. Stern (For episode "Loosiers")	Nominated
			Michael J. Weithorn (For episode "Our Miss White")	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series	Peter Baldwin (For episode "Our Miss White")	Won
			Michael Dinner (For episode "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation")	Nominated
			Steve Miner (For episode "Birthday Boy")	Nominated
		Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series	Robert Picardo	Nominated
		Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series	Maxine Stuart	Nominated
		Outstanding Editing for a Series - Single Camera Production	Stuart Bass (For episode "Loosiers")	Nominated
		Outstanding Costume Design for a Series	Scilla Andreen (For episode "Birthday Boy")	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special	Agamemnon Andrianos, David John West, Ray West and John L. Mack (For episode "Birthday Boy")	Nominated
1990		Outstanding Comedy Series	Bob Brush, Bob Stevens, Jill Gordon, Matthew Carlson, Michael Dinner, Ken Topolsky and Kerry Ehrin	Nominated
		Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series	Bob Brush (For episode "Goodbye")	Won
		Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series	Michael Dinner (For episode "Goodbye")	Won
		Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series	David Huddleston	Nominated
		Outstanding Editing for a Series - Single Camera Production	Dennis C. Vejar (For episode "Goodbye")	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special	Agamemnon Andrianos, David John West, Ray West and John L. Mack (For episode "St. Valentine's Day Massacre")	Nominated
1991		Outstanding Comedy Series	Bob Brush, Jill Gordon, Ken Topolsky, David Chambers and Michael Dinner	Nominated
		Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series	Peter Baldwin (For episode "The Ties That Bind")	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy Series or a Special	Agamemnon Andrianos, David John West, Nello Torri and John L. Mack (For episode "Little Debbie")	Nominated
1992			Agamemnon Andrianos, David John West, Nello Torri and Craig Hunter (For episode "Grandpa's Car")	Nominated
1993			Agamemnon Andrianos, David John West, Nello Torri and Craig Hunter (For episodes "Summer" and "Independence Day")	Nominated
1988	Television Critics Association Award	Program of the Year		Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in Comedy		Won
1989				Nominated
1990				Nominated
2006	TV Land Award	Favorite Series Finale		Nominated
2007		Favorite Heard-But-Not-Seen Character	Daniel Stern	Nominated
2008		Character You'd Pay to Do Your Homework for You	Danica McKellar	Nominated
1989	Viewers for Quality Television Award	Best Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Won
1990		Best Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Won
1991		Best Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Nominated
		Best Writing in a Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Specialty Player	Robert Picardo	Nominated
1992		Best Quality Comedy Series		Nominated
		Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Nominated
1989	Writers Guild of America Award	Episodic Comedy	Carol Black and Neal Marlens (For episode "My Father's Office")	Won
			Carol Black and Neal Marlens (For the pilot episode)	Nominated
1990			Matthew Carlson (For episode "Pottery Will Get You Nowhere")	Nominated
			Todd W. Langen (For episode "Coda")	Won
1991			Bob Brush (For episode "Goodbye")	Nominated
			David M. Stern (For episode "The Powers That Be")	Nominated
			Bob Stevens (For episode "Rock 'N' Roll")	Nominated
1989	Young Artist Award	Best Family Television Series		Won
		Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Comedy Series	Fred Savage	Won
		Best Young Actor Guest-Starring in a Drama or Comedy Series	Robin Thicke	Nominated
		Best Young Actor in a Featured, Co-Starring, Supporting, Recurring Role in a Comedy, Drama Series, or Special	Josh Saviano	Nominated
		Best Young Actress in a Featured, Co-Starring, Supporting, Recurring Role in a Comedy, Drama Series, or Special	Danica McKellar	Won
1990		Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series	Fred Savage	Nominated
			Jason Hervey	Nominated
		Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Series	Danica McKellar	Nominated
		Best Young Actor Guest Starring in a Television Series	Robert Jayne	Nominated
			Joshua John Miller	Nominated
1992		Best Young Actress Co-Starring in a Television Series	Danica McKellar	Nominated
		Best Young Actor Guest-Starring or Recurring Role in a TV Series	Brandon Crane	Won
		Best Young Actress Guest-Starring or Recurring Role in a TV Series	Crystal McKellar	Nominated
			Lisa Paige Robinson	Nominated
1993		Best Young Actor Co-Starring in a Television Series	Josh Saviano	Nominated
		Best Young Actress Co-Starring in a Television Series	Danica McKellar	Nominated
		Best Young Actor Recurring in a Television Series	Giovanni Ribisi	Nominated
		Best Young Actress Guest-Starring in a Television Series	Wendy J. Cooke	Nominated

External links

• The Wonder Years at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Documentary The Wonder Years – Coming of Age at the-wonder-years.com

Preceded by Hard Copy 1987

The Wonder Years Super Bowl lead-out program 1988

Succeeded by Brotherhood of the Rose 1989