Miscellaneous Memories and Thoughts



"The Wonder Years is gut-bustingly funny and tearfully sad" - by Kyle

The Wonder Years is gut-bustingly funny and tearfully sad, frequently in the same episode. The writers and directors have used actual humor and pathos (as opposed to the "sitcom" variety) to relate or illustrate universal stories of first loves, parental arguments, sibling rivalry, and premature death.

Although the show has a huge younger viewing audience, thanks to Nick-at-Nite reruns, it is not a "kids" show per se. Some dialog seem harmless today, such as "butthead". But when was the last time you heard "scrote" on TV ("G-rated" TV, anyway)? Other words not often heard on TV include "horny" and "fart" (Ep 2 and Ep 7, respectively). They were not included for shock value, but because they are real words spoken by real people in real situations.(And just FYI, in Ep 7, Kevin and Paul smoke cigarettes, drink beer, joke about Winnie being "flat", and finally, tease Winnie about her glasses.)

The writing is very clever and intelligent, and won several awards. Many times it involves a familiar phrase, perhaps even a well-known quote, presented with a twist. Frequently, the same dialog is spoken by characters, at different times over the episode, with ironic differences in meaning. Ep 48 "Ninth-Grade Man" is a good example of this. In the beginning, Winnie says to Kevin, "You don't know how hard it is being the new girl in school." The same line is spoken by Madeline at the end of the episode. In Ep 10, Kevin says "Becky Slater?! I'll give you - Becky Slater!". Later, in Ep 11 after Kevin tells Becky he wants to break up, Becky says "Friends?! I'll give you - friends!". Sometimes, it is just something out of the blue. (My favorite example: In Ep 70 and 92, involving "Cara", Kevin would always say "Hi", and Cara always responded "Hey" - except in their final meeting, when the words are reversed. Also in Ep 70 (while we are here), Cara introduces herself "Hey, Cara", which is immediately echoed by her (off-screen) brother "Hey, Cara?...You want to hang out..." Also, most frequently of all, are the interjected words or phrases, by the narrator, or others, usually during one of Kevin's (humorous, to us) crises, and the opening dialog of one scene playing over the visual end of the previous scene (voice-over or "V/O" in transcripts). And, last, but certainly not least, there was no laughtrack, mercifully.

Technically speaking, the series belongs in the genre of "dramedy" (the other good example being M*A*S*H), which mixes humor and drama, and a laughtrack would just mess up everything. There is no doubt that TWY was a television phenomenon which will not be duplicated. Its presence occurred at the appropriate timeframe in history; it was expensive to make; it was a wonderful fluke of all components coming together, where the total is truly more than the sum of its parts. While some TV shows may have one or two aspects common to TWY, it is the interworking of all creative elements that sets it apart, and makes it much more than just a good TV show.



On 2/11/01, Rich D. sent me this...

I've been a fan of "The Wonder Years" since it's original run on ABC. I never missed an episode - I was able to relate to something from nearly every episode. That show brought back a lot of great childhood memories -- memories of friendships, years in junior and senior high school, past loves, etc..

I felt like I actually knew Kevin Arnold since the story lines were so real and familiar to me. I still laugh at the episodes that dealt with gym class -- and particularly the square dancing episode --> I always ended up with the girl who was the "dud" !!

The show made me laugh and cry --- and in reruns, it still does. There was just something about The Wonder Years --- it really gives you the "warm fuzzies", as I recall seeing as a quote about the show from some reviewer.

I've starting taping the reruns on TNN to watch at night, since there's very little "good" on TV this season in my opinion. Seeing these episodes for the first time in years, has rekindled my interest in the series.

(More of Rich's contribution is in the "near-TWY experience" section...)



On 5/11/01, Bob posted this to the group...

Hello. I've been reading this group on occasion, but I've never posted. I remember watching TWY when it was originally on and I really enjoy reliving the episodes now on TNN. How did the creators of this show capture my father and my older brother so well in Jack Arnold? The episode where Kevin wants to be a rock star and asks his father for a guitar at the kitchen table really cracked me up. Kevin desperately says he had piano lessons in his desperate attempt to get his father to say yes to a guitar. Norma Arnold says, "yes but that was real music". Kevin says, "so what's rock-n-roll." Jack Arnold in one of his great deadpan expressions says, "noise". I have many similarities in my own life to this show. Kevin's character is about 3 years older than myself. I also have an older brother and a sister who is the oldest child in my family. My dad, although he was not in the Korean War, was a World War II vet. My mom was very much like Norma Arnold in that she deflected a lot of my dads grouchiness towards us kids. Anyway, I just wanted to chime in and say hello, and say that although I've seen every TWY episode I hope it stays on long enough for my own children to enjoy.



On 6/13/01, Jeff sent this to me...

"Could/should TWY have lasted 10 more years?"

I think 10 more years of TWY would have been inappropriate because the wonder years are those years which the show covered, and even by the end some of the wonder was starting to fade away. I would have loved to see one more year, just so they could graduate high school, but I have seen far too many shows that are forced to adapt to the characters growing up, and the changes are not usually for the better. It would have been unrealistic to expect Kevin, Winnie, Paul, and the rest of the "gang" to all go to college near home, and stay friends, and never venture out on their own. At the same time, however, the show would have lost a LOT of its magic if Kevin moved away from his family, or started over with a whole new batch of friends in college. And we saw the result when "Kevin" got a job - that show was called "Working" and was not nearly as good as TWY, as I'm sure everyone will agree.

Overall, I simply believe that TWY perfectly captured those years it set out to depict, and it would have cheapened the experience had the show tried too hard to hang on when Kevin had in fact grown up.



On 8/14/01, Ken S. sent this to me...

The first episode of The Wonder Years I saw was no. 8, "Our Miss White." This moment came up, and I thought I had never seen anything so good on television:

MISS WHITE: So...what do you think? (Shrugs.)
KEVIN: Um...
(ADULT KEVIN): I hated the thought of acting. I hated the thought of rehearsing. I hated the thought of standing up in front of 300 people and making a complete and total fool of myself.
(Kevin gestures with both arms.)
KEVIN: Sure! (Smiles.)

What character other than Kevin so clearly shows our inner struggles, our mixed emotions, our weak wills? As I continued watching the series, I was amazed at the detailed memories it brought back: the orange clothes, the kid who forgets to change to white socks for gym, the girls' long straight hair. And many details seemed eerily familiar; for instance, my mom made the same still-life mosaic that Norma has on the kitchen wall. I tried to watch every week, but our local station started moving it and preempting it. The last episode I remember seeing on the first run was ep. 86, "Hero." I was very excited when the reruns started and didn't miss an episode until I got them all taped.



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11/29/14 20:10