Netflix Brings Back “The Wonder Years,” My Childhood

Carmen’s Team Pick:

I used to watch “The Wonder Years” as a young girl. When I tried to reminisce about it I didn’t even remember Kevin Arnold’s name. Just what he looked like and the opening credits.

Netflix recently added three shows of interest to its lineup of instant watch-ers: “The Cosby Show,” “That 70’s Show,” and, most importantly, “The Wonder Years.” I found this out eating Ramen noodles on the couch with my dog, and I logged in and finished 2 seasons in my first marathon. It was still full of, well, wonder. Only now watching it is even more poignant and universal, because I remember being twelve and being just like Kevin Arnold. I was home. I was eating Ramen on the couch but really I was in my room, late at night, a 10-year-old watching it until I fell asleep. The glowing screen and those opening credits.

A disclaimer: they have altered the theme song on Netflix.

Episodes I Remembered And/Or Wish I Had Remembered:

+ Season 1, Episode 5: “The Phone Call” – Kevin tries to call a girl in his class and has fantastic delusions about what might happen. For anyone who drafts and redrafts text messages a minimum of five times.
+ Season 2, Episode 8: “Hiroshima, Mon Frere” – Kevin tells Wayne how he really feels about him in that one second and begins to appreciate their relationship more.
+ Season 4, Episode 11: “Heartbreak” – Kevin and Winnie see each other when their schools do a joint field trip to a museum. For anyone who has ever wished it would all fall together at exactly the right time.
+ Season 6, Episode 22: “Independence Day” – Kevin delivers a closing monologue that reminds anyone, ever, in any place, of what it means to come from home.

What are your favorite episodes? Do you even like “The Wonder Years?” Do you wanna watch it with me in bed? I have 48 packages of Ramen. No joke.

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Carmen

Carmen spent six years at Autostraddle, ultimately serving as Straddleverse Director, Feminism Editor and Social Media Co-Director. She is now the Consulting Digital Editor at Ms. and writes regularly for DAME, the Women’s Media Center, the National Women’s History Museum and other prominent feminist platforms; her work has also been published in print and online by outlets like BuzzFeed, Bitch, Bust, CityLab, ElixHER, Feministing, Feminist Formations, GirlBoss, GrokNation, MEL, Mic and SIGNS, and she is a co-founder of Argot Magazine. You can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr or in the drive-thru line at the nearest In-N-Out.

Carmen has written 919 articles for us.

22 Comments

  1. When I was a kid, I thought The Wonder Years was actually an old show from the ’60s. I guess the whole concept of adult-Kevin narrating the events of his childhood, which had obviously happened in the past, was lost on me as an 8-year-old.

  2. FINALLY! so. excited. If i had to choose a favorite episode it would be too hard. Just seeing Paul’s first day of junior high school outfit in the 1st episode was enough to make me realize how I need to watch every episode back to back-immediately. Realistically, I don’t have the time to make this happen, but I wish I did. Set aside some of those ramen packets for me…

  3. I think the theme song is what was holding up this show from being released in any digital format…which is why we never saw it on DVD ever…damn publishers and their hold on music!

  6. carmen i am SO EXCITED about this development! i was a really thoughtful child, in that i thought about everything way too much, so i really appreciated the retrospection of the wonder years. i mean, there’s just so much to be nostalgic and analytical about when you’re nine years old, you know?

      • Remember that movie where Mallory Keaton was the lead singer of a band and they get a job playing at a club at the beach for the summer and she has an affair with Liam Neeson? I loved that movie as a kid and was strangely drawn to all the girls in the rock band. You’d think I was gay or something.

  7. That is great news. I love being able to re-watch shows I wasn’t able to fully appreciate as a child.

  9. omg I was obsessed with Winnie and I was younger, I thought she was so pretty. 7 years old going crazy over girls….no wonder I turned out to be gay.

    • Aw, that reminded me of my tiny 7-yr-old self having a crush on Winnie. I also was totally obsessed with Alyssa Milano on Who’s the Boss, though in her teens she was probably twice my age at the time, ha.

  10. If anyone doesn’t have netflix but has cable look for Wonder Years on the HUB channel, often placed in the guide around Cartoon Network/Boom, Nick, etc.

    So great be able to re-watch this series in the light night hours.

  11. I distinctly remember staying up late so many nights to watch this show, even though I hardly remember any of the episodes! Although I do remember liking how Winnie took care of Kevin when he was home from school sick…how I would have loved for her to make me some soup! Even, ramen ;) This show mirrored the dilemmas of my entire generation…and spawned my future love for the movie “Little Monsters”…haha, gotta love those Savage kids!

  12. i remember this show making me cry all the time. i also remember my dad tearing up once or twice.

  13. Carmen it’s me I’m coming over later because I just realized the true extent of my childhood crush on Winnie.

    • tbqh that sounds perfect but you gotta start on season 2 episode 13 with me, that’s where i’m at.

      #LESBROS

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