When people ask what my favorite television show is, I do not hesitate to answer--it's The Wonder Years. It has been ever since I first started watching the show when it originally aired on TV in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
For those unfamiliar, The Wonder Years follows the coming-of-age story of Kevin Arnold as he maneuvers adolescence between 1968 and 1973, some of the most tumultuous and socially turbulent years in American history. Told through one long flashback, the adult Kevin narrates his memories of growing up during those years, recalling the most important events and feelings of his formative years. Throughout the process, Kevin falls in and out of love with his neighbor, Winnie Cooper, while relying on the support and of his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer. He struggles to establish his identity and assert himself within the framework of his post-war, suburban family life, often butting heads with his dad, Jack, and older brother, Wayne. His older sister, Karen, represented much of the social upheaval occurring at the time as she fell in with the hippie crowd, protested the Vietnam War, and generally challenged the constraints of the patriarchal society. I connected with the show on multiple levels. The Wonder Years spoke to my burgeoning interest in 20th century American history while also reflecting my own stage of development--I was approximately the same age as adolescent Kevin and aged right along with him. Despite the twenty year difference, many of my own coming-of-age experiences mirrored those he faced, and I wanted to be Kevin Arnold--I even had a little prepubescent crush on Winnie Cooper for a while. I often found gym class awkward and degrading, much the same as Kevin, and I knew how it felt to skirt the edges of junior and senior high school cliques, never really fitting into a certain one but not entirely outcast from any but the jocks. I also understood needing best friends to help navigate the awkwardness and tricky situations that define what it means to be a teenager. It's a funny thing, growing up and going through high school. I always considered those years as the most challenging, not really fitting in anywhere or knowing myself until I graduated and moved on to college. While much of that remains true and though I would not like to go back and relive my teenage years, I realize now more than ever (largely because of this Countdown to 40 project) so much of my sense of self formed during those years. And perhaps that's another reason why The Wonder Years has stuck with me all this time, for as the final lines of the series finale perfectly convey: "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."
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I am a self-proclaimed pop culture geek and list enthusiast who is celebrating the big four-zero by counting down the most important, influential, and favorite music, movies, television shows, books, and video games of my life so far. Categories
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