The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years
Intertitle
Format	Comedy-drama
Created by	Carol Black Neal Marlens
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
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	115 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production company(s)	The Black-Marlens Company New World Television
Distributor	Turner Program Services (Original) 20th Century Fox (Current)[1]
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	January 31, 1988 (1988-01-31) – May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)

The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.^[2][3][3][4]

The show achieved a spot in the Nielsen Top Thirty for four of its six seasons.^[5] TV Guide named the show one of the 20 best of the 1980s.^[5] After only six episodes aired, The Wonder Years won an Emmy for best comedy series in 1988.^[5] 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 achieving two seemingly contradictory effects: evoking a traditional family sitcom while pushing boundaries and using new modes of storytelling.^[6] In total, the series won 22 awards and received another 54 nominations for various awards.^[7] In 1997, "My Father's Office" was ranked #29 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[8]

Contents 1 Plot synopsis 1.1 Final episode and epilogue 2 Setting 3 Major characters 4 Minor characters 5 Broadcast history 5.1 Ratings 5.2 Syndication 6 Home video releases 7 Audio soundtrack 8 References 9 External links

Plot synopsis

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 year in the series is presented as having taken place 20 years before the original air dates (1988 to 1993).

The 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 looks up to, 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 starts dating his co-worker Bonnie, a divorcee with a son, but the relationship does not last. Kevin's dad quits NORCOM, and starts up 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, anxious to experience a taste of adult life, plans a cross-country trip with his friends. Kevin's dad, Jack, vehemently objects to Kevin's plan and ultimately Kevin abandons his planned trip. Kevin returns to 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.^[9][10]

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. Feeling confused and frustrated over Winnie's behavior, Kevin searches out other activities to occupy his time. Kevin decides to play poker with the resort's in-house band members. Kevin wins big (by bluffing while only holding a pair of 2s) and goes searching for Winnie, anxious to share the tale of his good fortune. 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. The fallout with Winnie leads Kevin to play another round of poker with the band. This time Kevin ends up losing everything, including his car. 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. At first Winnie tells Kevin that she doesn't see them ending up together but quickly recants, telling Kevin "I don't want it to end." Kevin moves over to Winnie's side as she extends her blanket to Kevin and they 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." (It is implied that the two have sex for the first time in the barn.)

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 high school in 1974 and leaves for college. Paul studies law at Harvard. Karen, Kevin's sister, gives birth to a son in September 1973. Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and board chairman. 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, Kevin meets her at the airport with his wife and eight month old son.

The final sounds, voice-over and dialogue of the episode and series, is that of Kevin (Daniel Stern) providing concluding narration with the sound of children playing 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 (Daniel Stern) 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.^[11]

Setting

Co-creator Neal Marlens wanted the setting to be Huntington, Long Island, where he grew up. ABC insisted that the location remain nonspecific (the colloquial "Anywhere, USA").^[12] The production team endeavored to ensure that the suburb's name and location within the United States were never specified, but there are occasional, conflicting clues.^[13][14]

In the opening scene of the Pilot, Kevin and his family pose in front of their house at 516 University Ave, Burbank, CA. In the season 3 episode "Wayne on Wheels", the address on Wayne's DMV envelope reads "Culver City, 90230, CA". The writer of the episode, Mark B. Perry, has stated on Usenet that the crew member who created the envelope mistakenly used the address of the filming location.^[15][16] Similarly, other incidental visual details suggest that the setting is California. In another third season episode, entitled "The Family Car", a California license plate can be seen on the Arnolds' car as Kevin's father is shown repairing it. In one episode, Kevin displays his driver's license issued by the "State of California". When Kevin's high school basketball team advances to the state championship, the game is played in a large arena with a Los Angeles Lakers logo on the floor.

A few elements hint at the show being set in the New York City area, as evidenced by Kevin's New York Jets jacket, though Paul reveals in the episode Nemesis that Kevin has never been to a Jets game in his life. The show also features frequent references to the New York Mets. In episode 16 of season 4 entitled "Road Trip", Kevin and his father get lost and end up in Hillsdale, New York when they thought they were in Loudonville, New York which is conceivable considering that those two towns are within 50 miles of each other and both located near Albany, NY. In the episode "Back To The Lake", Paul's directions for returning home include taking Interstate 91, which runs through Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont; the trip takes only a few hours. Adding to the confusion is the fact that in a few episodes, palm trees are clearly visible in the background, yet in one episode Winnie says that it might snow. In Season 6, Episode 11 titled "New Years", Kevin has a chance to go to a New Year's Eve party at a Colorado ski lodge, which he says is just two hours away. In season 6, episode 5, Kevin is assisting with a Senator's campaign. When they announce the results on the radio, the announcer says, "the senator from Massachusetts."

Major characters

• Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage): Character born March 18, 1956, Kevin grew up in the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s.^[17] 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 the year 1975, Kevin's father, was a laconic man and a Korean War veteran; he mentions having grown up during the Great Depression and having been in the US Marine Corps and he 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 last episode reveals that he dies in 1975, around the end of Kevin's freshman year of college i.e. two years after the time of the show's finale. (Though this directly contradicts the narrative script of a previous episode where an adult Kevin says his father would later be the grandfather of Kevin's sons.) His character was meant to be a reflection of the older and more conservative generation with the ideology of the Second World War / 1950s era being confused and angered by the changing world and ideologies of the 1960s that were becoming mainstream at that point.
• Norma Arnold (Alley Mills): Kevin's stay-at-home mother. Unlike her husband Jack, she is friendly and upbeat. She met Jack as a college freshman. When he graduated, she moved across the country with him and didn't finish college. She eventually gets her degree late in the series, and starts working at a software startup called Micro Electronics. She is shown to be more moderate (in contrast with her more conservative husband) and increasingly becoming bored and yearning to break away from her homemaker role hence reflecting the rise of feminism in the 1960s. (100 episodes)
• Karen Arnold (Olivia d'Abo): Kevin's older, hippie sister. She continually clashes with her overbearing father due to her free-spirited ways and his traditional views while her mother usually acts as the mediator. She has a falling out with her father when she moves in with her boyfriend Michael (David Schwimmer) during her freshman year of college. A year later, the pair get married in an outdoor wedding and move to Alaska, where Michael has secured a good job. Karen ultimately has accepted some of the conservative lifestyle of her parents by having a baby and a husband who realizes the importance of hard work to support his wife and child. (67 episodes)
• Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey): Kevin's older brother, who enjoys physically tormenting Kevin and Paul. One of his nicknames for Kevin is "butthead," which he calls him usually while picking on him. He takes over the furniture business when his father dies. Wayne is typically portrayed as a loser when it comes to serious romantic relationships. For a time he did date a girl named Dolores, but that was a more casual relationship than most others. In later seasons, Wayne shows a little more maturity. In the final season, he begins a serious relationship with a divorcee named Bonnie but is left heartbroken when she reconciles with her husband.(102 episodes)

• Paul Joshua Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano): Kevin's long time best friend, an intelligent and excellent student. He is allergic to several substances. Paul is Jewish, which is the focus of an episode where he has his Bar Mitzvah. While Kevin and Paul are best friends in the early seasons, their relationship becomes somewhat strained in later seasons. Kevin begins to hang around Chuck and Jeff more and this causes tension with Paul. On one episode, Kevin forces Paul against his will to take a trip with him to a cabin town to reconnect with his summer fling, Cara. On another episode after Paul loses his virginity, Kevin gets jealous and blabs to the guys which causes further tension with Paul. In the final episode it is revealed that he goes to Harvard University. There is an urban myth that the character is played by shock rocker Marilyn Manson, however this is untrue; Saviano is currently an attorney with the firm Morrison Cohen LLP.^[18] (94 episodes)
• Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar): Kevin's main love interest. In an episode entitled "The Accident" and in the final episode, it is stated that every important event in Kevin's life somehow involves Winnie. She lives on the same block as Kevin. Their first kiss and her older brother's death while serving as a soldier in the Vietnam War play an important part of the pilot episode. In one episode, her parents separate over their grief of the death of their son. In the epilogue of the final episode, it is revealed that Winnie goes on to study art history in Paris. Kevin and Winnie write a letter to each other every week for eight years until she returns; in the last moments of the finale Kevin states that when Winnie returned to the States Kevin met her along with his wife and first child. This caused much grief amongst Wonder Years fans due to a large following of people wanting a Kevin and Winnie pairing. However, Kevin does state near the end of his final narration: "Like I said, things never turn out exactly the way you plan them." (88 episodes)

Minor characters

• 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 SATs.) 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 tick". 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. 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". (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. (12 episodes)
• Rebecca "Becky" Slater (Crystal McKellar, sister of Danica 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 nuisance throughout junior high school. Her character is physically aggressive and hostile towards men. (10 episodes)
• Mr. Diperna (Raye Birk): The 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, later Mrs. Heimer (Wendel Meldrum): Kevin's junior high school teacher, upon whom he has a crush. Kevin simultaneously has to deal with his crush as well as foray into drama when Miss White asks him to play the role of Robert Kennedy in a performance she wrote about American leaders of the 1960s. Her name changes to Mrs. Heimer after her marriage. She is later pregnant in an episode, causing Kevin to have to drive her to the hospital to give birth. In the episode "Goodbye" her name is shown being spelled with a Y as "Mrs. D. Hymer". (7 episodes)
• Kirk McCray (Michael Landes): An 8th grader who dated Winnie. Kevin becomes friend with him. However, the friendship quickly dissolves when Kirk finds out that Kevin also has a crush on Winnie. (7 episodes)
• Debbie Pfeiffer (Torrey Anne Cook): Paul's younger sister, who has a crush on Kevin. In a later season Kevin is made to be her date to a dance while his friends are checking out cheerleaders at a football game. (6 episodes)
• Ida Pfeiffer (Stephanie Satie): Paul's mother. (6 episodes)
• Alice Pedermeir (Lindsay Sloane): One of Kevin's classmates in high school and girlfriend of Chuck Coleman. Occasionally whines to make the person she's with feel bad to satisfy her for what she wants. Her dad owns a used car lot and she uses him to help Kevin get a deal on a car. This causes Chuck to get jealous and punch Kevin in the face.(6 episodes)
• Tony Barbella (Tony Nittoli): Kevin's classmate in junior high. He is a typical school bully who occasionally harassed Kevin, although Kevin provoked their first run in when he lied about fighting him. (6 episodes)
• Alvin Pfeiffer (Josh Moskoff): Paul's father. He is an optometrist. Mr. Pfeiffer trusted Kevin to escort his daughter Debbie to a dance and complimented Kevin for doing so. (5 episodes)
• Grandpa Albert Arnold (David Huddleston): Kevin's paternal grandfather, Jack's father. He sells his last car (and Kevin's first) – a 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass sedan – to Kevin for $1. He also gives Kevin a beagle named "Buster" (see below). Unlike his son he is jovial and outgoing. Grandpa is a widower, as his wife died before the series timeline began and is only seen in flashbacks. In one episode, Grandpa takes the entire Arnold family to a funeral of a distant relative and in a rare instance of anger, furiously roars at Wayne and Kevin because they do not take the funeral seriously. (4 episodes)
• Mr. Collins (Steven Gilborn): Kevin's rigid but dedicated algebra teacher who Kevin comes to admire at a certain level. The character unexpectedly dies of a heart attack which caused Kevin some grief, as he had drawn funny faces on Mr. Collins' last test as a form of protest. When Kevin is informed that Mr. Collins had misplaced his exam (apparently an implication that Collins had intended to give Kevin a second chance at the test) and is told to take a test from scratch, Kevin diligently applies what he has learned, then momentarily sees Mr. Collins' ghost who commends him for good work. The episode "Goodbye" was nominated for three awards. (4 episodes)
• Dave "Wart" Wirtschafter (Scott Menville): Wayne's best friend, who gets shipped off to the Vietnam War. After he comes back, he shows signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He frequently repeats whatever Wayne says. (4 episodes)
• Madeline Adams (Julie Condra): Kevin's temporary flame during his final year in junior high. Madeline was exemplary in French class, while Kevin struggled in the class. They break off their relationship some time later when she makes a comment about Winnie Cooper. During a time when Kevin felt left out and that nothing had been going his way, it was his relationship with Madeline that helped him out as she said it was hard to find guys who were sweet to her. (4 episodes)
• Michael (David Schwimmer): Karen's live-in boyfriend and later husband. Kevin's father is happy that Michael will be a good husband to Karen and has a good job to provide for her. However, he (Kevin's father) is dismayed to learn he (Michael) will be working on the distant Alaskan pipeline. Kevin's father later comes to terms with the fact when recalling that when he first married Norma, he took a job far away from home. (4 episodes)
• Eric Antonio (Don Jeffcoat): Kevin's classmate in junior high who competes with him for Winnie's affections. (4 episodes)
• Brian Cooper (Bentley Mitchum): Winnie's older brother. He was drafted and killed in the Vietnam War. (3 episodes)
• Mr. Chong (Michael Paul Chan): Kevin's boss in high school and owner of Chong's Chinese Food. He was known to shout rapid Cantonese and Mandarin at Kevin but speaks perfect English to his patrons. In order to work at his restaurant, he mandates that Kevin paint the company logo (a gigantic dragon) on his Oldsmobile, which Kevin does not bother to paint over even when he quits the Chinese restaurant to go into his father's furniture business. Chong's Chinese food also employs several kitchen workers who only speak Chinese, but are also aware of Kevin's relationship with Winnie and enjoy chuckling about it. (3 episodes)
• Donally (Seth Green): Appearing in the episode "Lunch stories", he plays a kid who asks Kevin to ditch class in order to watch an x-rated movie. He also is hired by Kevin at a low rate to help paint his teacher's house in "Sex and Economics," but hustles Kevin out of money without doing work. (2 episodes)
• Delores (Juliette Lewis): Wayne's girlfriend in high school; who was almost always seen with chewing gum in her mouth. Although by and large Delores was seen as a gum-cracking airhead, there were times she was attentive, such as when Wayne was goofing off and harassing Kevin, Delores scolded Wayne that he needs to take his driver education textbook seriously. (3 episodes)
• Cara (Lisa Gerber): Kevin's summer romance while vacationing with his family at a lake. He meets her before he begins high school and returns to see her after getting his driver's license. (2 episodes)
• Buster Arnold: A beagle given to Kevin by his paternal grandfather. He had major roles in the episode "The Powers That Be" (third season) and "Buster" (fourth season). He appeared in scenes in "She, My Friend, and I" in the third season and "Growing Up" in the fourth season.
• Mr. Nestor (Charles Tyner): Kevin's slightly eccentric shop teacher. He has minor parts during the fourth season when Kevin is in ninth grade. (2 episodes)
• Lisa Berlini (Kathy Wagner): Kevin's love interest in "The Phone Call" and "Dance With Me". (2 episodes)
• Linda Sloan (Maia Brewton): Kevin's lab partner and went to the dance with Kevin as friends in "Don't You Know Anything About Women?" (2 episodes)*
• Susan Fisher (Kelly Packard): A love interest of Kevin's in "Don't Know Anything About Women?" (1 episode)
• Eddie Pinetti (Robert Jayne): Appeared in the episode "Fate". He plays the school bully who Kevin stands up to. Pinetti also attempted to muscle in on Winnie, but she quickly realizes the true nature of himself and his flunkies when they do things such as lift up her skirt. Though Kevin confronts the bully, he is beaten up by him in at end of the episode. Never seen again in the series. Possibly expelled from Kennedy Jr. High (along with his cronies) by the principal for beating up Kevin and more than likely moved away from Kevin's town along with his family. (1 episode)
• Brad Gaines (Mark-Paul Gosselaar): Appeared in only one episode (titled: "Dance With Me"). Kevin asks Lisa Berlini to go to the dance with him and she agrees, but then decides to go with Brad Gaines when he asks her. (1 episodes)
• Louis (John Corbett): Karen's first-season hippie boyfriend whom Kevin takes a dislike to, and also enrages Jack by shooting his mouth off about political and military issues at the Arnold's dinner table. (1 episode)
• Julie Aidem (Wendy Cox): Appearing in the episode "Of Mastodons and Men", she was Kevin's girlfriend. Kevin is pressured to spend all his time with her, while his friends begin to feel neglected and begin to ignore him. Finally, Kevin begins to have second thoughts and breaks up with her. (1 episode)
• Sandy Tyler (Carla Gugino): Appearing in the episode "Triangle", she was Wayne's girlfriend who fell for Kevin. She dumped Wayne because of her feelings for Kevin. (1 episode)
• Bobby Riddle (James Caviezel): Appearing in the episode "Hero", he was the star of Kevin's high school basketball team. (1 episode)
• Arlo Bottner (Scott Jaeck): Appearing in the episode "Day One", he uses Kevin as a whipping boy in his American history class. Bottner has an ear injury from the Korean War and thus dislikes the ripping of paper from spiral notebooks. After Bottner gives Kevin detention, Kevin leads a revolt where all students in his class rip paper from their notebooks.
• Gary Cosey (Breckin Meyer): Appearing in the episode "The Heart of Darkness," he cheats on Kevin's math work and invites Paul and Kevin to smoke and drink around a bonfire.
• Joey Harris/Joey Lapman (Dustin Diamond): The character of Joey Harris first appeared in the episode "Loosiers". The character again appeared in the episode "The Glee Club", but with the last name of Lapman. There was never any explanation as to why the name change, so it is assumed that it is the same character in both episodes. (2 episodes)

Broadcast history

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.^[19] The show was later rerun on ABC Family from 2001 to 2004. It was also seen on Ion Television from April 2 to October 4, 2007. As of October 10, 2010, The Wonder Years can be seen each evening on the cable network The Hub. In Canada, the show aired on CTS Ontario from September 2010 until September 2, 2011.

Home video releases

Unlike most long-running popular American television series, The Wonder Years has still not yet been released on DVD as official season box sets, allegedly due to music licensing issues.^[20] Because of this, The Wonder Years routinely appears high on the list of TV shows in-demand for a DVD release.^[21][22][23] 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.^[22][24] Anchor Bay also released two volumes (four episodes total) on VHS in 1997.^[25]

In a blog update on the Netflix website on March 30, 2011,^[26] and a press release issued the next day,^[27] 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,^[28][29][30] while The Wonder Years remained unavailable. On October 1, 2011,^[31] 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.^[32]

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",^[33] 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.^[34]

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^[35] and Amazon with the version of the song that played in 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.

Audio soundtrack

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.^[36]

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. Walden.

References

External links

• The Wonder Years at the Internet Movie Database
• The Wonder Years at TV.com

Preceded by Hard Copy 1987

The Wonder Years Super Bowl lead-out program 1988

Succeeded by Brotherhood of the Rose 1989

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series (1976–2000) The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1976) · The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1977) · All in the Family (1978) · Taxi (1979) · Taxi (1980) · Taxi (1981) · Barney Miller (1982) · Cheers (1983) · Cheers (1984) · The Cosby Show (1985) · The Golden Girls (1986) · The Golden Girls (1987) · The Wonder Years (1988) · Cheers (1989) · Murphy Brown (1990) · Cheers (1991) · Murphy Brown (1992) · Seinfeld (1993) · Frasier (1994) · Frasier (1995) · Frasier (1996) · Frasier (1997) · Frasier (1998) · Ally McBeal (1999) · Will & Grace (2000) Complete List · (1952–1975) · (1976–2000) · (2001–2025)

Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy (1969–1989) The Governor & J.J. (1969) The Carol Burnett Show (1970) All in the Family (1971) All in the Family (1972) All in the Family (1973) Rhoda (1974) Barney Miller (1975) Barney Miller (1976) All in the Family (1977) Taxi (1978) Alice/Taxi (1979) Taxi (1980) M*A*S*H (1981) Fame (1982) Fame (1983) The Cosby Show (1984) The Golden Girls (1985) The Golden Girls (1986) The Golden Girls (1987) The Wonder Years (1988) Murphy Brown (1989) Complete List · (1969–1989) · (1990–2009) · (2010–2029)