The Wonder Years is an American comedy-drama television series which aired for six seasons on ABC, from January 1988 to May 1993. The storyline focuses on the teenage years of main character Kevin Arnold, during the years 1968-1973, with each TV episode being set twenty years before it aired.
The Wonder Years was considered innovative for its storytelling style of having Kevin's adult self (voiced by Daniel Stern) providing a narration of the events of his childhood from an adult perspective. The show was ranked in the top thirty of the Nielsen ratings for its first four seasons and is generally considered one of the best shows of the 1980s. It was cancelled in 1993 due to increasing production costs and declining ratings. Also, the producers found themselves in a bind due to Kevin's increasing age (turning 16, and later 17) calling for more mature storylines which the network executives felt would be inappropriate for the show's 8 p.m. time slot and out of character with the tone established in the show's earlier seasons.
The Wonder Years has been referred to in several television episodes of The Simpsons.
References
| Picture
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Season
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Episode number
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Episode name
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Reference
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2
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34
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"Three Men and a Comic Book"
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When Bart wants to buy a copy of Radioactive Man #1 and Marge suggests he get a part-time job to pay for it, the scene pauses and Bart's adult voice (provided by Wonder Years narrator Daniel Stern) reflects on the ramifications of his getting a job, in the same style as The Wonder Years.
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| 200px
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5
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100
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"Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"
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The episode opens with home movies showing Homer and Marge as young adults, similar to the opening sequence of The Wonders Years in its first five seasons (showing scenes with Kevin and his friends and family). The music playing in the background is Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends", which is also the same as the opening sequence of The Wonder Years.
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13
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274
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"The Blunder Years"
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The episode's title is an obvious pun on The Wonder Years and a sly hint at the episode's storyline involving a grown-up perspective on Homer's teenage years. The flashback portion of the episode, however, is strongly reminiscent of the 1986 film Stand by Me.
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22
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476
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"Homer the Father"
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While watching the classic TV channel Tube Town, Homer sees an ad for an upcoming showing of The Voiceover Years. The show's title is an obvious reference to The Wonder Years and Daniel Stern's role as narrator. In addition, the teens kissing on the couch resemble Kevin Arnold and his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Winnie Cooper (except that Kevin had brown hair, not blond).
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24
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512
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"Gone Abie Gone"
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When Grampa went missing, Homer read the book The Wander Years: A Guide to Finding the Walking Dad for ideas on how to find him. The book's title is a pun on both The Wonder Years and The Walking Dead.
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External links
[[wikipedia:{{{1}}} ({{{2}}})|{{{1}}}]] at Wikipedia
