The Wonder Years Season 1 Re-View

Ages ago, I bought myself the complete DVD set of The Wonder Years but I never got round to watching it. Why? To be honest, I just have so many on my TBW pile, I have been paralysed by indecision! In order to encourage myself to finally do so, I decided to make it the subject of a series of blog posts, and here’s the first one! As this seems to be working already, I will look for other big collections to blog about. I have written about The Wonder Years at quite some length for h2g2 so if you’re new to the programme, I definitely suggest starting there, mainly to keep this article to a readable length. So, without further ado, let’s look at The Wonder Years Season 1.

Season 1 Episode 1 Pilot

Few programmes have made such a strong start in their first 25 minutes. Pretty much everything that made The Wonder Years one of the best TV programmes of all time is on display here. Fred Savage plays Kevin Arnold with a freshness and truthfulness that shines through as something incredibly special, and never really matched, over 30 years later. His onscreen family are believable from the first few frames as the story sketches in their characters with a minimum of fuss. Wayne, Kevin’s older brother, played by Jason Hervey, is every inch the obnoxious sibling that many people will have experienced growing up. His efforts to get under Kevin’s skin are all too successful, especially when Winnie Cooper is concerned. Winnie herself, played by Danica McKellar, is every boyhood crush brought to life. In the pilot episode, she goes from gawky neighbourhood playmate and elementary school classmate to the object of Kevin’s affections. That this is only brought about by a change from glasses to contacts and pigtails to long hair flowing down Winnie’s back, reflects the superficial nature of young boys. She is still the same person she ever was, and she is still the friend and confidante he needs. Kevin’s sister Karen, the excellent Olivia D’Abo simply exemplifies the hippy tendency of the time. What is great, however, is that it isn’t a caricature of the movement, but a reflection of the times that she lived in and played with absolute sincerity. Kevin’s parents, Norma and Jack are experienced stage and screen actors, Alley Mills and Dan Lauria. The stressed out Jack is constantly on edge, but Norma is always there to keep the peace, though she does so subtly enough to influence his mood, and the family dynamic, to its best advantage. The final member of the regular cast is Kevin’s best friend Paul Pfeiffer, Josh Saviano, who has complete loyalty to Kevin, and who, despite being allergic to pretty much everything, has an inner strength and insight that is often crucial. Finally, the narration of Daniel Stern has the right balance of perception, humour and emotion as he reflects on his 12 year old self.

The first episode evokes the suburban surroundings, their safety, familiarity and restrictive nature effectively sketched out in the opening few minutes via the narration and the sheer ordinariness of the times. One of the strengths of The Wonder Years was its sense of time, and in the pilot episode, this is tied to two things, one central to the story and the other incidental but very effective. The first is Vietnam, the war famously fought on television, which invades their kitchen diners and living rooms every night. This is a faraway war at the start, but it comes much closer to home when Winnie’s brother, Brian, is sent to Vietnam. The second is the name of Kevin’s new Junior High School, renamed Robert F Kennedy Junior High School. Kennedy had been assassinated in June 1968, his death coming when he was in with an excellent chance of becoming the Democrat nominee for that year’s Presidential Election. Like his brother’s assassination it led to thoughts of the different path that America could have taken, and the renaming of the school seems completely in keeping with the prevailing mood in 1968. The way that the seemingly disparate storylines of Kevin’s crush, his school, his brother’s bullying and the Vietnam War converge is an early sign of the way that this series would refuse to pull its punches. Suffice to say, that the final scene with Kevin and Winnie is quite simply the perfect end to a fantastic first episode.

Season 1 Episode 2 Swingers

Still struggling with the events of the previous episode, Kevin is uncertain how to act around Winnie although he gets advice from an unexpected source. The main focus of the episode is, as the title alludes to, the forbidden pleasures of sex. Although Kevin and Paul are excited by their first sex education lesson, taught by Coach Cutlip, it turns out to be a complete let down. For fans of the series, Robert Picardo’s hilarious portrayal of the borderline insane Coach Cutlip seemed absolutely integral to the goings on at Robert F Kennedy Junior High, so it comes as a surprise that he only appears in 15 episodes across the entire series. The sex education talk is one of his absolute highlights as he draws female reproductive organs, and then a whole woman, in his own inimitable style! Feeling unsatisfied by this introduction, Kevin and Paul decide to buy a copy of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex. Unfortunately for them, their intended reading session is interrupted by Wayne and then Norma, leading to an unexpected revelation!

Season 1 Episode 3 My Father’s Office

This episode is absolutely pivotal to the series, as it’s the first step in making Jack the fully rounded character he was rather than the remote, somewhat frightening, head of the family of Kevin’s memories. It was also pivotal to me starting to understand my own father, as it was the episode that really cemented the programme in the affections of both of us. From this episode onwards, my Dad and I used to ring one another without fail every Sunday after the episodes were transmitted to discuss what we thought of them. Kevin realises that he doesn’t have a clue what Jack’s job is, and what he does all day at work, so Jack tells him to come to work with him the next day, instead of going to school, so he can see for himself. To see Jack in his work surroundings was to give Kevin and myself a fresh insight into the way that a job can influence everything else whether we like it or not. Kevin learns what his Dad’s dream was when he was Kevin’s age, and we see the way that his and Jack’s feelings are changed in an instant by an appalling piece of management from Jack’s superior. It’s no wonder Jack is always in such a bad mood after work. It is a beautifully written character study that lifts an already excellent first season to an entirely new level.

Season 1 Episode 4 Angel

Karen takes centre stage for this episode which looks at the relationship between her and her parents, particularly Jack. From being his angel, she is now a source of confusion and irritation as he tries to keep up with the way that the new generation are turning away from the certainties of his generation. The catalyst for the conflict that occurs is a fellow student called Louis, played by John Corbett, later Aidan in Sex and the City and the sequel Just Like That, who is older and more experienced than her. Kevin doesn’t like him because he has the suspicion that he is heavily involved with another female student. There is a fantasy scene, something that would become something of a series trademark, of Kevin beating Louis in a fight, but given the difference in age and physique, Kevin has to content himself with glaring at his sister’s boyfriend! The real fireworks occur at dinner that night when Louis challenges all of Jack’s views and mentions the futility of the Vietnam War. This is too much for Jack, a Korean veteran. When you watch this scene it’s important to realise that Dan Lauria was a Vietnam veteran himself, and I wonder if like me you’ll decide that Jack the character has given way to Dan the actor?

Season 1 Episode 5 The Phone Call

This episode is a fantastically observed reflection on the rite of passage of the first phone call to someone you really like. Kevin suddenly realises that he fancies Lisa Berlini when they are in class watching the launch of Apollo 8, an event that happened on December 21, 1968. Now, if the timeline is correct from then on, school doesn’t break up until December 23, which seems rather late, but that’s a minor point. He wants to find out if he has a chance with Lisa so he asks Paul to ask one of Lisa’s friends in the dining hall. The chain of events from then on is very funny and absolutely believable. Kevin eventually realises that there’s only one way to find out for sure, but does he have the nerve to make that phone call?

Season 1 Episode 6 Dance With Me

The final episode of this shortened season revolves around that other rite of passage, the school dance. Kevin, now firmly settled in as Lisa’s admirer, decides to strike while the iron is hot and ask her to the school dance. She says yes, then changes her mind almost immediately as Brad Gaines, a more sought after date than Kevin, asks her. It is an episode that sets up Season 2 very well, as the scales finally fall from Kevin’s eyes and he realises that his feelings for Winnie run far deeper than he realised. He then decides to ask Winnie out instead. The trouble is that Winnie has been asked out by an eighth grader, a whole year older than Kevin himself, and she has already said yes. Unlike Lisa, she is not going to let down her original date. Will Kevin find another date for himself? Will Paul ask out Carla Healy, even if the very mention of her name triggers his allergies and makes him sneeze?! It’s an episode that answers some questions and leaves others for later, and the perfect ending to this extremely effective first season.

Final Thoughts

Given that I haven’t seen these episodes in over 30 years, it’s amazing how well I remembered them. They were an extremely strong start to a programme that would become better and better as Kevin, Winnie and Paul made their way through Junior High. It’s a programme that reminds you of your own childhood, however long ago it was, and it never fails to hit the right note emotionally speaking. Speaking of the right notes, the music never fails to evoke that sense of time and place. It is a character in its own right and from songs of the counter culture like Turn, Turn, Turn and For What It’s Worth to The Monkees I’m a Believer and Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf. For those who were around at the time, the different pieces of music will remind them of their own childhood like nothing else. I hope you enjoyed this first post about my favourite television series. Look out for more from The Wonder Years very soon.