Andrew Lutzke
As we grow older, we tend to look back at our adolescence – sometimes with fondness and other times with scorn. Every generation experiences a different world than those who came before them, and each carve out a new twist on how history will perceive their time frame. It was this philosophy that prompted Neal Marlens and Carol Black to develop a show for baby boomers to wax nostalgia while looking at an average family living through the tumultuous 60’s. “The Wonder Years” was passed on by all U.S. networks except for ABC, who embraced the show from the start – giving the program the coveted post-Super Bowl TV slot to expose the broadest number of potential viewers to the pilot episode.
The Wonders Years saw the life and misadventures of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) played out in an undisclosed location (to give the show a true “Anytown, USA” feel to it). We hear an adult Kevin’s thoughts on the ongoing events through the narration of Daniel Stern. To add to the ambiance of the times, an excellent soundtrack played the relevant hits of the 60’s and 70’s periodically during each episode.
Kevin – Fred Savage was cast quickly into this role as the show’s producers were told by several different casting agents that Savage was bringing in quality performances in the movies “The Princess Bride” and “Vice Versa” and was ripe to be utilized for the main role on this unconventional sitcom. Throughout the series we see Kevin go through his tweens and into high school, somewhat guarded from the changes in the world since his focus is still on school, family life and eventually girls.
We do see the era reflected around him though as his high school is divided up among groups of hippies, jocks, nerds and such. His neighbor Brian Cooper dies in Vietnam in the pilot episode, which leads to the first tease of a love interest as he consoles Brian’s sister Winnie as she mourns. In a later episode, Kevin participates in a peace rally as the war wages on half way across the globe.
Jack Arnold- Kevin’s father is portrayed by Dan Lauria wonderfully. Jack might be the most complex character in the series as he clings to his conservative view on life as America transforms around him. Jack grew up during the Great Depression and World War 2, later serving himself during the Korean conflict. At the beginning of the series we find him stuck in a tedious middle management job at NORCOM, trying to balance work and family time. His daughter Karen has embraced the hippie movement and is pushing back against social norms. His sons Kevin and Wayne are growing up in an era where drug use is becoming evermore glorified and with the Vietnam War in full swing, a distinct possibility remains that they may be called to serve in a place where thousands of other American boys died already. After a few years of discontentment, Jack finally starts his own furniture business.
Norma (Ally Mills) is a devoted housewife who is trying to keep things together at home while raising three kids. Eventually, with the kids self sufficient, she makes a move to continue her education and finds a job at a software company. This move ruffles Jack a bit, and helps show the rise of feminism that took place during the 60’s and 70’s.
Wayne (Jason Hervey) is the oldest son in the family. He tends to be an annoyance, an agent provocateur and seems not terribly bright, although you get the feeling its due more to apathy regarding his studies than any sort of mental shortcomings. Wayne struggles with women, even dating an older woman who is separated from her husband, before the husband returns to the scene to reconcile. Eventually Jack finds Wayne work at NORCOM and later a spot in the furniture business. In the finale, we find our Jack dies a few months into 1975 and that forces Wayne to mature quickly as he is thrust into the lead role of the family business.
Karen (Oliva d’Abo) is the daughter of Jack and Norma. She is very counter culture and embraces the flower child movement as well as the feminist ideals of the period. This causes a rift between her and Jack and eventually Karen moves away to Alaska and starts a family far away from her parent’s home.
Paul Pheiffer (Josh Saviano) is Kevin’s best friend. He in some ways is the best friend that many of us had, the dorky and uncoordinated kid who wasn’t “cool” but we saw their undesirable traits as mere quirky nuances that we learned to accept and perhaps adore. He serves as Kevin’s conscious at times, loyal friend at others, but the besties are separated by changes in life and school and drift apart as the series moved along.
Four hundred young actresses tried out for the role of Kevin’s friend Winnie Cooper. After weeks of casting calls Danica McKeller and her sister Crystal McKeller ended up as the final two options, with Danica barely nudging her sister out. The producers were so impressed with Crystal that they eventually cast her as Becky Slater, who gave Kevin problems occasionally, when hormones weren’t bringing them together as a couple.
Winnie would be the long term love interest of Kevin however, as she represented the girl next door, the attained crush who enveloped our early pubescence, our first love, our first kiss, our first physical intimacy and ultimately our first heartbreak. Kevin and Winnie went through many ups and downs as the series progressed, with the final result ending with Winnie going away to Paris for studies and not returning until the early 80’s, where she meets Kevin’s wife and son.
The Wonder Years went on to enjoy success in both critical and ratings form over its six seasons. The show managed to be one of the top 30 shows in America for four years before ABC switched the show to a new night, which was followed by a ratings downturn. Along the way The Wonder Years won 22 awards and received another 54 nominations. Fred Savage became the youngest person ever to be nominated in the “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series”. TV Guide eventually named two of the show’s episodes as being among the top 100 greatest TV episodes of all time for all of TV history. They later named the show’s finale as the 11th best final show ever produced for TV.
Despite all the awards, the final season of the Wonder Years was filled with behind the scenes arguments between the network and the show’s producers. ABC was hindering the creative process of the show by not allowing the writers to play up aspects of Kevin’s natural puberty related issues with hormonal urges and such. While other shows were doing similar story arcs, ABC deemed the Wonder Years to be kept more family friendly due to it’s early timeslot and the shows overall gentle tone. There would be some moments that occasionally made it past ABC’s veto however, such as when Kevin finds himself alone with a busty teenager who wants to skinny dip with the young man, to comedic results.
The episode costs began to rise as well as the show’s cast salaries were upped thanks to the healthy ratings. An increased number of on location shoots were also required once Kevin received his license, which added additional costs to the show. The uncertainty created by the producers/network clashes led to an open ended episode being produced to end season six. Once the call was made to ax the show, a voice over was filmed that revealed what became of each character, as Kevin talks about life and how he still looks back in wonderment at how it all came to pass.
With good TV becoming seemingly less prevalent with each passing year I’m glad The Wonder Years can still be found occasionally in syndication and a DVD release of the whole series finally came out last year after much delay due to licensing issues with all the music used. You can also find the show on Netflix, but some music is edited, including the theme song. If for some reason your reading this and have never seen the series, you owe it to yourself to do so.
