The Wonder Years

In the series finale, Winnie decides to take a job for the summer of 1973 as a lifeguard at a resort. Kevin, meanwhile, is at his job at his father's furniture factory and calls Winnie, who is distant and seems to be enjoying her time away from Kevin. Eventually, Kevin and his father fight and Kevin announces that he is leaving, reasoning that he needs to "find himself". Kevin drives to the resort where Winnie is working, hopeful that she can secure him a job and they can spend the rest of the summer together.[14][15]

Kevin eventually secures a job at the resort and plays a round of poker with the house band. He wins big and goes out to search for Winnie to tell her of his good fortune. To his surprise, he sees Winnie engaged in a passionate kiss with another lifeguard.

The next day, Kevin confronts her and they fight. Kevin then plays another round of poker, losing his car in a bet. Desperate, Kevin confronts Winnie and her new boyfriend at the restaurant and ends up punching him in the face. Kevin then leaves the resort on foot.

On a desolate stretch of highway, Kevin decides to begin hitchhiking. He finally gets picked up by an elderly couple and much to his surprise finds Winnie in the backseat. Winnie was fired over the fight Kevin instigated at the resort. Kevin and Winnie begin to argue and the elderly couple lose patience and kick them out of the car. A rainstorm begins and Kevin and Winnie search for shelter. They find a barn and discuss how much things are changing and the future. They make up and kiss passionately (it is heavily implied that they lose their virginity to each other).

The narrator's monologue states:

Once upon a time, there was a girl I knew who lived across the street. Brown hair. Brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way, had to do with her. That day, Winnie and I promised each other that, no matter what, we would always be together. It was a promise full of passion, truth, and wisdom. It was the kind of promise that can only come from the hearts of the very young.

They soon find their way back to their hometown and arrive hand-in-hand to a Fourth of July parade. During this parade, the adult Kevin (Daniel Stern) describes the fate of the show's main characters. Kevin makes up with his father, graduates from high school in 1974, and leaves for college, later becoming a writer. Paul studies law at Harvard. Karen, Kevin's sister, gives birth to a son in September 1973. Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and corporate board chairwoman. Kevin's father dies in 1975 and Wayne takes over his father's furniture business. Winnie studies art history in Paris while Kevin stays in the United States. Winnie and Kevin end up writing to each other once a week for the next eight years. When Winnie returns to the United States in 1982, Kevin meets her at the airport, with his wife and eight-month-old son.

The final sounds, voice-over narration, and dialogue of the episode and series is that of Kevin as an adult, with children heard in the background:

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back ... with wonder.

A little boy (Stern's real life son, Henry) can be heard asking "Hey, Dad, want to play catch?" during a break in the final narration. Kevin responds, "I'll be right there."

In 2011, the finale was ranked number 11 on the TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.[16]

The series was conceived by writers Neal Marlens and Carol Black. They set out to create a family show that would appeal to the baby-boomer generation by setting the series in the late '60s, a time of radical change in America's history. They also wanted the series to tie this setting in to the life of a normal boy growing up during the period. After writing the script for the pilot episode, Marlens and Black began pitching the series to television networks. None of them were interested, except for ABC, with whom Marlens and Black reached an agreement.[22]

Marlens had originally wanted the setting to be Huntington, Long Island, where he grew up. Elements were also taken from Black's childhood from the White Oak section of Silver Spring, Maryland.[23] ABC, however, insisted that the location remain nonspecific (the colloquial "Anytown, USA").[24][25][26][27]

When they started writing the series, Marlens and Black took a script for a future film with which they had been toying, which featured an off-screen narrator. Black explained, "We liked the concept that you could play with what people think and what they're saying, or how they would like to see themselves as opposed to how the audience is seeing them."[28] They based the show, in part, on their own childhood growing up in the suburbs. Black recalled that "we naturally [took] elements of our experience and [threw] them into the pot. The basic setup, the neighborhood, the era – that's the time and place where we grew up."[28] The show's title was a satirical nod to a famous 1970s Wonder Bread ad campaign promoting the highly processed white bread as perfect for "The Wonder Years", ages 1 through 12.[29]

Fred Savage in 1990

The search for the main lead of the show did not take long. Marlens and Black went to five casting directors and interviewed them for recommendations. All five of them recommended Fred Savage, who at the time was famous for his roles as the grandson in The Princess Bride and as Charlie/Marshall in Vice Versa. Marlens and Black, having never heard of Savage, decided to see the rough cut of Vice Versa. Said Marlens, "[We saw] a marvelous actor with a natural quality – which essentially means he has no quality at all except being a kid. It sounds funny, but it's a rare thing to find in a child actor." Marlens and Black took this approach when casting the other kids for the show, looking for natural ability rather than professionalism. According to Marlens, they saw 300 to 400 kids before narrowing it down to 70. "My wife and I made the final choice ... each of whom had to be approved by the network."[30]

For the choice of Savage's character's main love interest, the choice came down to actress Danica McKellar and her sister, Crystal McKellar. With just days to go before shooting, the producers eventually selected Danica to play Winnie Cooper. However, Mary Buck, the head of casting, noted, "it was practically a tossup". Crystal McKellar was liked so much by the producers that they eventually created the character of Becky Slater so that they could have her on the show.[31] Danica later reflected on the experience, "I auditioned, like everyone else. They had read lots of girls but hadn't found their 'Winnie' yet, and I was thrilled to be chosen."[32]

At the end of the first season, Marlens and Black departed from the show. Although they never gave a reason for their sudden departure, it may have been due to Black's pregnancy. She hinted at it in an interview in April 1988, saying "We have secret plans to leave Los Angeles before our kids reach the age of cognizance."[28] One challenge for the cast and crew was filming around a child actor, meaning that the show had to obey child labor laws. Savage at the time explained, "You have to get at least three hours of school in every day. So whenever I'm on a break, I go to school. It's really intense because I have to get a lot done in short periods. And it's hard because if they need you back on the set, they pull you away every 20 minutes. If you're writing an essay and suddenly get inspired, you've got to stop and go back to work."[33] Many exterior shots were filmed in Burbank, California.[34]

Three different versions of the opening were made, each set to the Joe Cocker rendition of "With a Little Help from My Friends".

This first version of the opening was very basic: Nothing but a black screen was shown, after the title logo, with each cast member's name appearing in the center one by one. Much like the Arye Gross narration, this version of the opening was only used once when the pilot first aired after Super Bowl XXII.

This opening consists of home-movie footage from the pilot, after the title logo is shown, ending with the "Created by" credit. In season five, more footage is added to show how much the cast has aged.

The opening was overhauled completely in this version. It consisted of stock footage and images of various moments throughout 1960s and early 1970s culture (i.e. John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed-in, the Kent State shootings, the Moon Landing, and an antiwar protest), and was set to a new edit of Cocker's rendition of the song (starting with the chorus, versus the opening of the song, as was the case in seasons one through five). The final image in this version is of Kevin, Paul, Winnie, and presumably some of their classmates in a group photograph edited to look like it belonged in the time period.

The official soundtrack released in 1988 by Atlantic/WEA contains a total of 13 tracks, featuring Joe Cocker's cover of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", which is the show's theme song.[35]

After the series' original run was over, Laserlight Digital released a five-disc compilation box set under the title Music from 'The Wonder Years in 1994. This same company later released the first two DVDs for the series, The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years. The disc included 40 oldies favorites and five original songs (each is repeated twice in the set) written exclusively for the series by W. G. Snuffy Walden.

In 2014, Time Life released a new soundtrack for the show that accompanies deluxe versions of its complete series DVD set. The CD is not available for purchase separately from the DVD box set, however.

The Time Life DVD releases feature around 96% of the original music soundtrack, including Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help From My Friends" at the opening. Fourteen songs were replaced, in most instances featuring generic studio replacement music in place of the original song, while on a few occasions, the original soundtrack song was replaced with another version of the same song. None of the necessary music replacements resulted in footage from the episodes being removed.

• In the episode "The Phone Call", the "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" was replaced with a song called "Star Crossed Lovers", which has been used in many other TV shows and movies, including The Brady Bunch.
• In "Dance With Me", Joe Cocker's cover of "The Letter" was replaced with the original version by The Box Tops, while the Herman's Hermits version of "There's a Kind of Hush" was replaced with a rerecording by the Craggy Blue Project.
• The episode "Heart of Darkness" had two replacements: "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors was replaced with "Children of the Night", while Richie Havens' cover of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" was replaced by "Train to Nowhere".
• In the episode "Whose Woods Are These?", the Blood, Sweat & Tears recording entitled "Variations on a Theme" by Erik Satie (1st and 2nd Movements, adapted from Satie's "Three Gymnopédies") was replaced with "Le Suenne Fite".
• The episode "How I Am Spending My Summer Vacation" replaced the Doors' "Light My Fire" with "Love's on Fire", while the episode "Summer Song" replaced Blood, Sweat and Tears' "Spinning Wheel" with a rerecording by former BS&T frontman David Clayton Thomas.
• In "Family Car", The Stills-Young Band's "Long May You Run" was replaced with "Keep Your Motor Running".
• In "Wayne on Wheels", "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" was again replaced by "Star Crossed Lovers".
• In the episode "The Treehouse", Doris Day's "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" was replaced with "Call the Whole Thing Off".
• In the episode "Little Debbie", "Tammy" by Liberace was replaced with a song called "Sammy".
• "Clip Show" contains the scene from "Heart of Darkness" in which "Here Comes the Sun" is replaced with "Train to Nowhere".
• The episode "Kevin Delivers" dropped Blood, Sweat and Tears' "You've Made Me So Very Happy" with a re-recording by David Clayton Thomas.
• In the episode "Alice in Autoland", Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" was replaced with a re-recording by him.
• In the final episode "Independence Day", the Ennio Morricone song "Brothers" from the 1986 motion picture The Mission, which was played over the pivotal barn scene featuring Kevin and Winnie's last kiss, was replaced with the generic tune "Pastorale" (for this instance alone, the same replacement was used in the 1998 The Best of The Wonder Years DVD release).

Also, not a music change per se, but the Daniel Stern redub of the pilot is used, with the standard opening sequence.

Other than the above music changes, all other music is intact.

The UK DVD release from Fabulous Films was intended to have no replaced music, but reviews on online retailers and fan websites show that this is not the case.[36]

The Wonder Years wrapped its sixth and final season in May 1993. Its cancellation was partially blamed on conflict between producers and executives at ABC. As Kevin matured, the producers wanted the storylines to mature, as well. The executives at ABC, though, felt uncomfortable with more explicit content given the time slot, saying, "We felt it was inappropriate to present Kevin's awakening because of the setting in the 1970s, the gentle tone of the series, and most importantly, the 8 pm time period." Bob Brush noted, "When Kevin became 16 and 17, there were really things he needed to get to that we couldn't do at 8 pm, especially with the kind of venerable cachet that the show had obtained with its audience. We would get notes from the network saying, "You could do this on any show besides The Wonder Years." Other reasons for the show's cancellation were escalating costs and declining ratings. The cast's salary increases, coupled with location shooting (which was due to the producers wanting to reflect Kevin obtaining his driver's license), led to Brush claiming that they were spending $1.2 million an episode. The final episode aired on May 12, 1993. Bob Brush noted that the finale was not what he would have wanted it to be, but because the cast and crew were unsure at the time of filming if the sixth season would be the last, he was forced to have the ending be open-ended until the recording of Daniel Stern's narration.[37] Fans were somewhat disappointed with the ending, in particular the revelation that Kevin and Winnie do not end up as a couple. Brush acknowledged this disappointment, saying, "Some viewers [were] surprised that nothing works out the way your fondest wish would be," and explained, "The message I wanted in there is that that's part of the beauty of life. It's fine to say, 'I'd like everything to be just the way it was when I was 15 and I was happy,' but it seemed more nurturing to me to say that we leave these things behind and we go on to forge new lives for ourselves."[38]

As the show was in the process of wrapping its final season, a costume designer on the show named Monique Long filed a sexual harassment charge against stars Fred Savage and Jason Hervey.[39] The suit brought forward unwanted publicity to the show. In the end, the case was settled out of court with Savage stating that he was "completely exonerated" and adding that it was a "terrible experience".[40]

In January 2018, Alley Mills said that a sexual harassment lawsuit against Savage and Hervey was a significant factor in the show's cancellation.[41]

Reruns of the show aired in syndication between September 1992 and September 1997. Nick at Nite then reran the show from October 13, 1997 to January 21, 2001.[42] It also reran on The New TNN (January 22, 2001 to September 28, 2001), ABC Family (November 12, 2001 to October 2, 2004), Ion Television (April 2, 2007 to October 4, 2007), and The Hub (October 11, 2010 to August 31, 2012).

In Canada, the show aired on CTS Ontario from September 2010 until September 2, 2011. In Australia, the show aired on Network Ten between 1989 and 1995, then from March 31, 2012, on ABC1. In the Philippines, the show aired on GMA Network.

In Spain, the series initially aired Mondays 9:30 pm on TVE2 (now La2) as part of the Monday-night comedy block, which also featured Murphy Brown. The series was later promoted to main channel TVE1, where it aired Fridays 9:00 pm. Years later, in the late '90s, commercial station Antena 3TV recovered the series and aired it first in its 2:00 pm comedy hour, later relocating it to a 5:30 pm slot as part of the youth macroshow La Merienda.

Initially, the first four episodes were released on two VHS cassettes by Anchor Bay in 1997, with most of the music intact (a select few songs, however, were re-recordings).[43] In the coming years, fees for licensing music prevented further episodes from being released on VHS. The two volumes that were released on VHS were later released on DVD in 2000. Four episodes of the series were also included in two official "best-of" DVD sets (The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years), without much of the original music.[44][45]

For many years, full seasons of The Wonder Years remained unreleased on DVD due to music licensing issues.[46] Because of this issue, The Wonder Years routinely appeared on the list of TV shows in high demand for a DVD release.[44][47][48]

In a blog update on the Netflix website on March 30, 2011,[49] and a press release issued the next day,[50] Netflix stated that they would be adding The Wonder Years to their instant streaming service. The other three 20th Century Fox series noted as part of the deal were added to the Watch Instantly service by April 2, 2011[51][52][53] while The Wonder Years remained unavailable. On October 1, 2011,[54] 114 full-length episodes of the series were added to Netflix. The clip show from the end of Season 4, which was released on DVD, was not included.[55]

On September 26, 2011, Amazon Prime's streaming video service announced it would be adding The Wonder Years, describing the series as "available on digital video for the first time",[56] although Netflix added the series ahead of Amazon's release. All 115 episodes (including the clip show) became available to Prime members starting October 6, 2011.[57]

On both digital streaming services, portions of the soundtrack have been replaced. The show's opening theme has been replaced on Netflix[58] and Amazon with the version of the song that played in the UK and other overseas airings. The majority of the show's soundtrack remains unchanged. Songs such as "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix have been replaced by generic sound-alikes with different lyrics.

On February 11, 2014, StarVista/Time Life announced the upcoming DVD release of the complete series in the second half of the year, noting that it was "painstakingly securing the rights for virtually every song."[59] On June 11, packaging details for complete set were revealed. The packaging consists of a miniature school locker featuring a replica yearbook with signatures from cast members, behind-the-scenes photos, and classic show memorabilia. Also included are two notebooks similar to those carried by the two lead characters, each featuring detailed episode information, production photos, all 115 episodes, and over 15 hours of bonus features on 26 DVDs. Customized Wonder Years magnets are also included. On September 30, 2014, the complete series was released to those who ordered the set through mail order from Time Life/Star Vista. A box set for the first four seasons was also released. October 10, 2014, though, was considered the official release date.[60]

On October 7, 2014, Star Vista released season one on DVD in Region 1 for the first time.[61] Season two was released on February 3, 2015. Season three was released on May 26, 2015. Season four was released on January 12, 2016. Season five was released on May 24, 2016. Season six was released on September 27, 2016.

On October 6, 2015, Star Vista released The Wonder Years- The Complete Series: Collectors Box Set and The Wonder Years- The Complete Series DVD collections in a wide general retail release.[62]

On May 9, 2016, Fabulous Films released The Wonder Years - The Deluxe Edition on 26 DVDs in the UK. It was intended to be the first release to contain every episode in its original transmission presentation, although in the end this did not happen.[36] The set includes over 23 hours of bonus material.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 10.00/10 based on 9 reviews.[66] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[67]

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]