So this is just my "Ode to The Wonder Years" post!!
This is the narrator (Kevin - the main character, but as a grown up) speaking from the very end of the series finale (my thoughts as I watched it are in RED) A video of this is below!
“Once upon a time there was a girl I knew, who lived across the street. Brown hair, brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that ever happened to me that mattered, in some way had to do with her. (My heart was melting) That day Winnie and I promised each other that no matter what, that we'd always be together. It was a promise full of passion and truth and wisdom. It was the kind of promise that can only come from the hearts of the very young. (I was thinking that the producers of the show just might have gotten it right! They would really end up being together forever! I was so excited!) The next day Winnie and I came home. Back to where we'd started. It was the 4th of July in that little suburban town. Somehow though, things were different. Our past was here, but our future was somewhere else. And we both knew, sooner or later, we had to go. It was the last July I ever spent in that town. The next year, after graduation, I was on my way. So was Paul. He went to Harvard, of course. Studied law. He's still allergic to everything. As for my father...well...we patched things up. Hey, we were family. For better or worse. One for all...and all for one. Karen's son was born in that September. I gotta say, I think he looks like me. Poor kid. Mom, she did well: business woman, board chairman, grandmother...cooker of mashed potatoes. The Wayner stayed on in furniture. Wood seemed to suit him. In fact he took over the factory two years later....when dad passed away. (seriously...it's tv people...why did they have to kill the DAD..I want HAPPY endings on TV!) Winnie left the next summer to study art history in Paris. Still we never forgot our promise. (oh I was GIDDY at this point...on the edge of my seat!) We wrote to each other once a week for the next eight years. (my heart was pounding...we were gonna get the happy ending we wanted! together forever!!) I was there to meet her, when she came home, (I could hear their wedding bells!!) with my wife and my first son, eight months old. Like I said, things never turn out exactly the way you planned. (This is where I kicked the TV!!) Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers; 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 other 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.”
The First Kiss
Scene from Final Episode
The Last Kiss
The Finale
Oh Shan...I suppose I can stop rolling my eyes since I'm going to the New Kids On The Block concert in November...aren't you excited for me! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are Too funny! I watched the Wonder Years too, though not religiously! ha! The last finale that I kicked the tv was The Bob Newhart show, when she woke up, and it was all a dream!! ha!ha!
ReplyDeleteWill ya still like me if I told you I have NEVER watched an episode of that show. I couldn't stand the way it was narrated.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I was a lot younger than you when that final episode aired,so my memories aren't quite as vivid, but I do rememeber feeling terribly jipped that Kevin and Winnie didn't stay together forever. I mean seriously, after watching religiously from the beginning to their first kiss to the end and that's what I got?!! And really,they kept writing once a week for eight years- even after he got married? C'mon!! Russ obviously needed to have a talk with him. Thanks for the look back. I watched every minute of your replays.
ReplyDeleteShan, I just had to jump in here and remind you and all of your bloggerettes that not only did you watch the final episode but that you came over to our house and watched it with me. While I wasn't hung up on the romance with Winnie, I and many of my friends identified with the storyline that took place in the 60's. I think my favorite episode was when their friend came back from Vietnam and disappeared from the prom. They found him sitting at the baseball field with all of his clothes off (neatly stacked with his shoes on top of the pile sitting next to him on the ground). When they asked him what was wrong he said that nothing seemed to fit anymore. Sometimes things in life just don't seem to make sense and I think that we can all identify with that feeling that 'nothing seems to fit anymore'. Just thought that I would chime in here. LOL DAD
ReplyDeleteWow...that was depressing to tell you the truth! I watched every episode and though the narration kinda bothered me, I still watched most every night...waiting to see the end where Kevin asked Whinny to marry him and they moved into his parents house years later to start their own family and more 'wonder years'....since none of that happened, and since I had a crappy youth filled with household fights and crying myself to sleep most nights, those video clips just made my stomach turn! Yet I had to watch them all ...you know...just to remember...lol
ReplyDeleteOh my I loved Wonder Years too. Thanks for the reminiscing.
ReplyDeleteI love that you posted this after we just talked about it! Thanks for the reminder. The ending DID suck!
ReplyDeleteI was watching a show last night about famous TV kids. They said that Fred Savage married his childhood girlfriend, who lived on his same block. So in real life he did. Does that help?
ReplyDeleteyes 'one' that helps...lol :)
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog somehow and wanted to say that we have a common bond! haha I am the HUGEST Wonder Years fan ever!! I have all the shows on VHS because I taped them all back in the day when they were on real TV!
ReplyDeleteI wish they would come out with a DVD set!! :( Those shows take me back to my own high school years when my husband and I were dating. They always make me teary eyed!