The
Wonder Years, a gentle, nostalgic look at Baby Boom youth and
adolescence, told stories in weekly half-hour installments presented
entirely from the point of view of the show's main character. Young
Kevin Arnold, portrayed on screen in youth by fresh-faced Fred Savage,
provided the center of the action. Adult Kevin, whose voice was
furnished by unseen narrator Daniel Stern, commented on the events
of his youth with grownup wryness twenty years after the fact. The
series traced Kevin's development in suburban America from 1968,
when he was 11 years old, until the summer of 1973, his junior year
in high school.
A typical week's plot involved Kevin facing some rite of passage
on the way to adulthood. His first kiss, fleeting summer love, first
day at high school, the struggle to get Dad to buy a new, color
TV--these were the innocuous narrative problems of The Wonder
Years. The resolutions seemed simple but often were surprising.
Kevin the narrator always conveyed the unsettling knowledge that,
in our struggle toward maturity, we make decisions that prevent
us from going back to the comfortable places of youth. For example,
when pubescent Kevin stood up to his mother's babying, he took pride
in his new independence. But his victory was bittersweet--he realized
that he had hurt Norma by reacting harshly to her well-meaning mothering,
and he had lost a piece of the relationship forever.
Mundane situations that would resonate with most Americans' youth
experiences were shaded by the backdrop of everyday life in the
late 1960s or early 1970s. Hip hugger pants, Army surplus gear,
and toilet-paper-strewn yards helped to place the show in the collective
memory of the baby boomers who were watching it (and whose dollars
advertisers were vigorously seeking). Attention to period detail
was often thorough, but occasional anachronisms managed to slip
through, such as the use of a television remote control device in
the Arnold home in about 1970. The program often opened with TV
news clips from the era--showing a war protest, President Nixon
waving good-bye at the White House, or some other instantly recognizable
event--accompanied by a classic bit of rock music. Joe Cocker's
rendition of "I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends" was the
show's theme song, played over a montage of home movie clips depicting
a harmonious Arnold family and Kevin's friends, Paul and Winnie.
Much
of the series' historical identification had to do with oblique
connections with hippie counterculture and the Vietnam War. Kevin's
older sister, Karen, was a hippie, but Kevin was not, and his observation
of the counterculture was from the sideline. While Karen struggled
to define her identity against the grain of her parents' traditions,
Kevin, for the most part, accepted the world around him. He was
portrayed as an average kid, personally uninvolved with most of
the larger cultural events swirling about him. One serious treatment
of the Vietnam War did take intrude in Kevin's personal experience,
however, when Brian Cooper, older brother of his neighbor and girlfriend,
Winnie, was killed. Kevin struggled to support Winnie, first in
the loss of her brother and, later, after her parents' separation
resulted from the brother's death.
Episodes of The Wonder Years were often based on challenges
in Kevin's relationship with a family member, friend, authority
figure, or competitor. Kevin's father, Jack; mother, Norma; sister,
Karen; brother, Wayne; neighborhood best friend, Paul Pfeiffer;
and childhood sweetheart, Winnie Cooper, were heavily involved in
the storyline. Much of the action took place in and around the middle-class
Arnold home or at Kevin's school (Robert F. Kennedy Junior High
and, later, William McKinley High School).
While each episode was self-contained, Kevin's struggles and changes
were evident as the series developed. In one episode, Kevin's older
sister became estranged from their father because of her involvement
in the hippie culture. Other episodes reflected that estrangement,
and, in a later season, the program depicted Karen's reconciliation
with her father. Kevin's observations and feelings, of course, remained
central to exploring such issues. Although episodes sometimes showed
how characters' perspectives shifted, the emphasis was on Kevin's
own observation of his world. This acknowledgment of the character's
egocentrism melded with a major program theme--adolescent self-involvement.
Sometimes,
the primary point of the program was the effect of another character's
struggle on the egocentric Kevin. He watched as father Jack quit
a stultifying middle-manager's job at the Norcom corporation and
as frustrated homemaker Norma enrolled in college classes and launched
her own career. Often, Kevin spent much of his time reacting to
the personal impact of such events, then feeling guilty about expressing
his selfish thoughts. At the end of each episode, relations, although
marked by change, became harmonious once again.
As an example of a "hybrid genre," the half-hour dramedy, The
Wonder Years never amassed the runaway ratings of a show such
as Cheers (though it did wind up in the Nielsen Top Ten for two
of its five seasons). After a time, it was apparent to producers
and the television audience that Kevin Arnold's wonder years were
waning. Creative differences between producers and ABC began to
spring up from such instances as Kevin's touching a girl's breast
during the 8:00 hour usually reserved for "family viewing." Economic
pressures, including rising actor salaries and the need for more
location shooting after Kevin acquired a driver's license, also
helped to end the show. During its 115-episode run, however, The
Wonder Years generated intensely loyal fans and collected important
notice.
The
final episode on 12 May 1993 exercised a luxury few ending series
have: tying up loose ends. Bob Brush, executive producer of the
show after creators Neal Marlens and Carol Black left in the second
season, took a cue from sagging ratings when the last episode was
shot. In it, Kevin quit his job working in Jack Arnold's furniture
store and struck out on his own. Sadly, for some viewers, he and
Winnie Cooper did not wind up together. Unfortunately, the show's
resolution occurred in the summer following Kevin's junior year
in high school, so the formal finality of graduation, a rite of
passage so familiar to much of the audience, was missing.
Among
the awards bestowed on The Wonder Years were an Emmy for
best comedy series in 1988--after only six episodes had aired--and
the George Foster Peabody Award in 1990. TV Guide named the
show one of the 1980s' 20 best.
-Karen
Riggs
Blum,
David. "Where Were You in '68?" The New York Times, 27 February
1989.
Gross,
Edward A. The Wonder Years. Las Vegas, Nevada: Pioneer Books,
1990.
Kaufman,
Peter. "Closing the Album on The Wonder Years." The New York
Times, 9 May 1993.
Kinosian, Janet. "Fred Savage: Having Fun." Saturday Evening
Post (Indianapolis, Indiana), January-February 1991.
