The Wonder Years begins as Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and his best friend Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) are on the brink of adolescence. It’s the late 1960s, and things are changing everywhere. In the grown-up world, values and norms are being challenged left and right, the Space Race is in full swing, and the Vietnam War is starting to take its toll. For the kids, their perceptions of the opposite sex are completely and permanently altered, and they are forced to adapt to a ruthlessly indifferent social structure. Between the backdrop and the mostly likeable cast of characters, this makes for flexible, varied, and compelling comedy-drama.
This first season of The Wonder Years quickly acclimates the viewer to the maelstrom of hormonal confusion and fear that drives nearly everything Kevin does. The opening scene of the pilot episode gives us one taste of what Kevin’s childhood was like: football in the streets, casual glances at neighborhood girls, and admiring the cool guy who spends his days smoking and working on his El Camino. But everything changes on the first day of the seventh grade. Kevin’s neighbor Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar) shows up to the bus stop, and she looks... different, somehow.
Thus begins Kevin Arnold’s journey from boy to man. Kevin’s home life gets some exposition, too. From his dutiful, stay-at-home mom Norma (Alley Mills) to his jaded, workaholic father Jack (Dan Lauria) to his dumb lunk of a brother Wayne (Jason Hervey) and his spiteful hippie sister Karen (Olivia d’Abo), we get to know all of them in one way or another.
One of the things I admire the most about The Wonder Years is how honest it is. Over the course of these six episodes, you get a taste of what kinds of conflicts might erupt in the years to come. The repercussions of the Vietnam War, the reasons behind Jack Arnold's aloofness, Karen's hippie nature clashing with her conservative family, the kids discovering the gory details of sex, and everything in between.
If I had to highlight one episode this season, it would be the finale "Dance With Me," an unconventional first school dance story that pulls no punches. Kevin discovers the shallowness of his crush when she gives him the "friends" treatment in order to renege on his invitation in favor of Saved by the Bell’s Zack Morris. His mom, claiming that anything can happen at a dance, sets up the expectation for a happy ending. And in the end, Kevin does not get one. What a wonderfully honest story.
There are some requisite special features in this release, but they do no more than round the bases and call it a day. You've got your cast and crew interviews with co-creators Neil Marlens and Carol Black, Fred Savage, Danica McKellar, and Josh Saviano, as well as some highlights from a cast reunion that took place in May. And of course, you have a featurette on how the show got started. There's nothing surprising, but it's reasonably compelling.
The Wonder Years: Season One is a fine but incredibly brief introduction to one of the better coming-of-age dramedy shows to hit the small screen. It isn’t pricey at all, but you still might feel like you got less than what you paid for; this first season is only six episodes long. And at an average running time of somewhere between 22 and 24 minutes an episode, you don’t get to spend very much time with the likes of Kevin Arnold, his dysfunctional family, and America’s favorite girl next door.
