Topic: I love the Wonder Years

[sirean_syan]

I'd forgotten how much I loved the show until a couple weeks ago when I discovered that reruns were on every night at 10PM (thanks to Odin Sphere's loading times). I had also forgotten how much I watched the show when I was younger and now I'm sorta thinking it was the one "normal" thing I really grew up on and with. By that I mean it's a show about normal people, as opposed to some crazy video game or cartoon.

But yeah, I really do love the show. They need to released DVDs. From what I've read, they've been in the works but are being held back because of legal stuff (or licensing fees) because there was so much good music used... stupid music companies. Don't they realize that allowing these sorts of things only makes their stuff more popular?

[Quemaqua]

I saw it here and there as a kid, but I really remember very little of it.  I just remember often feeling sad when I watched it.  Not depressing sad, but that sort of ambiguous, "This is real life" kind of sad.  I never liked that feeling as a kid.  Perhaps more now.

[idolminds]

I never watched the show. If it wasnt a cartoon I just didnt care.

Strangely, thats still pretty true to this day.

[Raisa]

I used to watch this every day for a long time.  There were very little shows I watched.  I usually just watched cartoons, but this is something I did follow and related with the characters. 

[TheOtherBelmont]

I remember catching it here and there and liking some of it.  I vividly remember the series finale though.

[Cobra951]

I loved that show, and I was not a kid when it first aired.  I didn't know it was being re-run.

[sirean_syan]

Yeah. It's on Ion if you get the channel. Normally, it seems, that the channel caters to the Lifetime crowd with sitcoms and such so it's easy to learn to ignore it normally.

[Ghandi]

Great show. This and Saved by the Bell were the shows I really enjoyed when I was younger.

[ender]

The Wonder Years was my favorite show as a kid. I had so many similiar experiences and similiar relationships as Kevin, Winnie and Paul did. I've been watching it every night, or recording it if I'm not in. As a kid, I never really picked up on how melancholy it really was... I guess because I just related to the youthful experiences going on rather than the reflective narrations going on. However, I think it did have a great impact on my personality and the way I look back at my life and live it today. I really was feeling pretty down recently until I found it on ION and it completely brought me back to a place where things seemed to be going alright again.

[Cobra951]

Well, see, the thing is that my world as a 16-year-old in 1970 was very much like the Fred Savage character's, although he is younger in the show.  So it was definitely nostalgic for me.  The neighborhood was almost like what Spielberg depicted in E.T.  There was a Winnie-alike too, but she was not my girlfriend.  Close, but no cigar.  She was a very good friend's girlfriend, and then another's.  I missed out in between because I was a spineless wimp.  I knew she liked me.  I hesitated way too long.

This near-idyllic existence lasted all of one year.  My mother hated the cape-cod neighborhood, and wanted (and got) something bigger a few miles away.  Totally different character here.  Not nearly as friendly.  I ended up spending most of my free time at the old neighborhood for years.

[ender]

I think anyone that's grown up in a working/middle class suburb or neighborhood can really relate to the show. Thats what struck me when I watched it again, how timeless it really is.

[Quemaqua]

This is a very interesting thread.  Just thought I'd add that.  It's interesting because you don't see people often talk about how TV actually affects them these days, probably because, for the most part, it doesn't.

[ender]

You're right, Que. In fact, I think the only two shows on TV right now that give me something to think about in my life is The Office and King of the Hill. There's something about The Wonder Years that examines some tough issues (drug use, breaking traditions, alchohol, working, getting older, disappointment) but also gives you a kind of well balanced, realistic family that is actually a decent troop of people... instead of a terrible example to cynically laugh at. I think a lot of media these days is so cynical and sarcastic, it's lost its power to appeal to the heart... which to me is important.

[sirean_syan]

It's nice how the show approaches those issues quietly too. It isn't like, "Okay, this is the trying to be cool in middle school episode" that other shows would do. Instead, it seems like things come about more naturally, so they become easier to relate to and don't appear phoney.

What I'm noticing more this time around is the relationship between Kevin and his father. As a kid I just thought jack was there more as a source of jokes and such, but now it's neat to actually see more how the two bond as Kevin grows older and that Jack is a pretty great guy. Actually, that kind of goes for both the parents and I'm probably enjoying seeing them again with a couple more years behind me than anything else in the show.

[ender]

Yeah, I really love the actor that plays Jack... I can really relate to that father/son type of relationship the way it is portrayed in the show. It isn't an easy thing, it's difficult at times but in the end you kind of grow to respect the guy a whole lot.

[HxCeddie]

Man...Winnie Cooper was hot. I wonder what ever happend to her?

[Cobra951]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danica_McKellar

[sirean_syan]

Huh. A BA in math and a book on middle school math for girls... go fig.