The Wonder Years

This article is about the 1988 American television series. For the 2021 reboot, see The Wonder Years (2021 TV series). For other uses, see The Wonder Years (disambiguation).

The Wonder Years
Genre
Created by
Starring
Narrated byDaniel Stern
Theme music composerLennon–McCartney
Opening theme"With a Little Help from My Friends" by Joe Cocker
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons6
No. of episodes115 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
Producers
  • Joey Calderon
  • Ken Topolsky
  • Michael Dinner
  • Bruce J. Nachbar
  • David Chambers
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time22–24 minutes
Production companies
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseJanuary 31, 1988 (1988-01-31) –
May 12, 1993 (1993-05-12)
Related
The Wonder Years (2021)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Wonder Years is an American coming-of-age comedy television series created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black.[1] It ran on ABC from January 31, 1988, until May 12, 1993. The series premiered immediately after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.[2][3][4] The series stars Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, a teenager growing up in a suburban middle class family in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It co-stars Dan Lauria as his father Jack, Alley Mills as his mother Norma, Jason Hervey as his brother Wayne, Olivia d'Abo as his sister Karen, Josh Saviano as his best friend Paul Pfeiffer, and Danica McKellar as his girlfriend Winnie Cooper, with narration by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin.

The show earned a spot in the Nielsen Top 30 during its first four seasons.[5] TV Guide named it one of the 20 best shows of the 1980s.[5] After six episodes, The Wonder Years won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding 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 "pushing the boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of storytelling".[6] In total, the series won 22 awards and was nominated for 54 more.[7] In 1997, "My Father's Office" was ranked number 29 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time,[8] and in the 2009 revised list, the pilot episode was ranked number 43.[9] In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked The Wonder Years number 63 on its list of 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[10] In 2017, James Charisma of Paste ranked the show's opening sequence number 14 on a list of the 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time.[11] As of recent years, many critics and fans consider The Wonder Years to be a classic[12] with tremendous impact on the industry over the years, inspiring many other shows and how they are structured.[13]

  1. ^ "'Wonder Years' Pays Its Respects to '60s Suburbia - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. April 8, 1988. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
  2. ^ O'Connor, John J. (January 30, 1988). "TV: 'Wonder Years,' A New Series on ABC". New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  3. ^ Haithman, Diane (November 30, 1988). "Success Turns Into Mixed Blessing for Creators of 'Wonder Years'". LA Times. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  4. ^ Weinstein, Steve (October 3, 1989). "'The Wonder Years' Faces Growing Pains". LA Times. Retrieved August 24, 2010.
  5. ^ a b c "The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television". Archived from the original on January 2, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  6. ^ Peabody Award Winners Archive Archived April 15, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "The Wonder Years" – via www.imdb.com.
  8. ^ "Special Collectors' Issue". TV Guide (June 28–July 4). 1997.
  9. ^ "IMDb". IMDb. Retrieved March 22, 2015.
  10. ^ Sheffield, Rob (September 21, 2016). "100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  11. ^ Charisma, James (January 4, 2017). "The 75 Best TV Title Sequences of All Time". Paste. Retrieved January 16, 2017.
  12. ^ "The Wonder Years Complete Series Finally coming to DVD with Complete Soundtrack". Collider. February 12, 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  13. ^ "The TV Shows That Owe a Debt to The Wonder Years". October 17, 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2017.