Conception The series was conceived by writers
Neal Marlens and
Carol Black, both of
Growing Pains fame. They set out to create a family show that would appeal to the
baby-boomer generation by setting the series in the late '60s, a time of radical change in America's history. They also wanted the series to tie this setting in to the life of a normal boy growing up during the period. After writing the script for the pilot episode, Marlens and Black began pitching the series to television networks. None of them were interested, except for
ABC, with whom Marlens and Black reached an agreement. Marlens had originally wanted the setting to be
Huntington, Long Island, where he grew up. Elements were also taken from Black's childhood from the
White Oak section of
Silver Spring, Maryland. ABC, however, insisted that the location remain nonspecific (the colloquial "Anytown, USA"), but several items refer to the setting as Southern California, from car license plates, to the lack of snow and winter weather, to Jack working for a major defense contractor (many located in Southern California at the time), to Wayne's driver's license listing
Culver City, California.
Writing When they started writing the series, Marlens and Black took a script for a future film with which they had been toying, which featured an off-screen narrator. Black explained, "We liked the concept that you could play with what people think and what they're saying, or how they would like to see themselves as opposed to how the audience is seeing them." They based the show, in part, on their own childhood growing up in the suburbs. Black recalled that "we naturally [took] elements of our experience and [threw] them into the pot. The basic setup, the neighborhood, the era – that's the time and place where we grew up."
Casting The search for the main lead of the show did not take long. Marlens and Black went to five casting directors and interviewed them for recommendations. All five of them recommended Fred Savage, who at the time was famous for his roles as the grandson in
The Princess Bride and as Charlie Seymour/Marshall Seymour in
Vice Versa. Marlens and Black, having never heard of Savage, decided to see the rough cut of
Vice Versa. Said Marlens, "[We saw] a marvelous actor with a natural quality – which essentially means he has no quality at all except being a kid. It sounds funny, but it's a rare thing to find in a child actor." Marlens and Black took this approach when casting the other kids for the show, looking for natural ability rather than professionalism. According to Marlens, they saw 300 to 400 kids before narrowing it down to 70. "My wife and I made the final choice ... each of whom had to be approved by the network." For the choice of Savage's character's main love interest, the choice came down to actress Danica McKellar and her sister,
Crystal McKellar. With just days to go before shooting, the producers eventually selected Danica to play Winnie Cooper. However, Mary Buck, the head of casting, noted, "it was practically a tossup". Crystal McKellar was liked so much by the producers that they eventually created the character of Becky Slater so that they could have her on the show. Danica later reflected on the experience, "I auditioned, like everyone else. They had read lots of girls but hadn't found their 'Winnie' yet, and I was thrilled to be chosen."
Filming At the end of the first season, Marlens and Black departed from the show. Although they never gave a reason for their sudden departure, it may have been due to Black's pregnancy. She hinted at it in an interview in April 1988, saying "We have secret plans to leave Los Angeles before our kids reach the age of cognizance." Many exterior shots were filmed in Burbank, California.
Title sequence Three different versions of the opening were made, each set to the
Joe Cocker rendition of "
With a Little Help from My Friends".
First version (pilot) This first version of the opening was very basic: Nothing but a black screen was shown, after the title logo, with each cast member's name appearing in the center one by one. Much like the Arye Gross narration, this version of the opening was only used once when the pilot first aired after
Super Bowl XXII.
Second version (seasons one through five) This opening consists of home-movie footage from the pilot, after the title logo is shown, ending with the "created by" credit. In season five, more footage is added to show how much the cast has aged.
Third version (season six) The opening was overhauled completely in this version. It consisted of stock footage and images of various moments throughout 1960s and early 1970s culture (i.e.
John Lennon and
Yoko Ono's
Bed-in, the
Kent State shootings,
the Moon Landing, and an
antiwar protest), and was set to a new edit of Cocker's rendition of the song (starting with the chorus, versus the opening of the song, as was the case in seasons one through five). The final image in this version is of Kevin, Paul, Winnie, and presumably some of their classmates in a group photograph edited to look like it belonged in the time period.
Music The official soundtrack released in 1988 by
Atlantic/
WEA contains a total of 13 tracks, featuring Joe Cocker's cover of
The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends", which is the show's theme song. After the series' original run was over, Laserlight Digital released a five-disc compilation box set under the title
Music from The Wonder Years in 1994. This same company later released the first two DVDs for the series,
The Best of The Wonder Years and
The Christmas Wonder Years. The disc included 40 oldies favorites and five original songs (each is repeated twice in the set) written exclusively for the series by
W. G. Snuffy Walden. In 2014,
Time Life released a new soundtrack for the show that accompanies deluxe versions of its complete series DVD set. The CD is not available for purchase separately from the DVD box set, however.
DVD music replacements The Time Life DVD releases feature around 96% of the original music soundtrack, including Joe Cocker's cover of "With a Little Help From My Friends" at the opening. Fourteen songs were replaced, in most instances featuring generic studio replacement music in place of the original song, while on a few occasions, the original soundtrack song was replaced with another version of the same song. None of the necessary music replacements resulted in footage from the episodes being removed. • In the episode "The Phone Call", the "
Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" was replaced with a song called "Star Crossed Lovers", which has been used in many other TV shows and movies, including
The Brady Bunch. • In "Dance With Me", Joe Cocker's cover of "
The Letter" was replaced with the original version by
The Box Tops, while the
Herman's Hermits version of "
There's a Kind of Hush" was replaced with a rerecording by the Craggy Blue Project. • The episode "Heart of Darkness" had two replacements: "
Riders on the Storm" by
The Doors was replaced with "Children of the Night", while
Richie Havens' cover of The Beatles' "
Here Comes the Sun" was replaced by "Train to Nowhere". • In the episode "Whose Woods Are These?", the
Blood, Sweat & Tears recording entitled "Variations on a Theme" by
Erik Satie (1st and 2nd Movements, adapted from Satie's "
Three Gymnopédies") was replaced with "Le Suenne Fite". • The episode "How I Am Spending My Summer Vacation" replaced the Doors' "
Light My Fire" with "Love's on Fire", while the episode "Summer Song" replaced Blood, Sweat and Tears' "
Spinning Wheel" with a rerecording by former BS&T frontman
David Clayton Thomas. • In "Family Car", The Stills-Young Band's "
Long May You Run" was replaced with "Keep Your Motor Running". • In "Wayne on Wheels", "Love Theme from
Romeo and Juliet" was again replaced by "Star Crossed Lovers". • In the episode "The Treehouse",
Doris Day's "
Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" was replaced with "Call the Whole Thing Off". • In the episode "Little Debbie", "
Tammy" by
Liberace was replaced with a song called "Sammy". • "Clip Show" contains the scene from "Heart of Darkness" in which "Here Comes the Sun" is replaced with "Train to Nowhere". • The episode "Kevin Delivers" dropped Blood, Sweat and Tears' "
You've Made Me So Very Happy" with a re-recording by David Clayton Thomas. • In the episode "Alice in Autoland",
Al Green's "
Let's Stay Together" was replaced with a re-recording by him. • In the final episode "Independence Day", the
Ennio Morricone song "Brothers" from the 1986 motion picture
The Mission, which was played over the pivotal barn scene featuring Kevin and Winnie's last kiss, was replaced with the generic tune "Pastorale" (for this instance alone, the same replacement was used in the 1998
The Best of The Wonder Years DVD release). Also, not a music change per se, but the Daniel Stern redub of the pilot is used, with the standard opening sequence. Other than the above music changes, all other music is intact. The UK DVD release from Fabulous Films was intended to have no replaced music, but reviews on online retailers and fan websites show that this is not the case. Fans were somewhat disappointed with the ending, in particular the revelation that Kevin and Winnie do not end up as a couple. Brush acknowledged this disappointment, saying, "Some viewers [were] surprised that nothing works out the way your fondest wish would be," and explained, "The message I wanted in there is that that's part of the beauty of life. It's fine to say, 'I'd like everything to be just the way it was when I was 15 and I was happy,' but it seemed more nurturing to me to say that we leave these things behind and we go on to forge new lives for ourselves."
Lawsuit As the show was in the process of wrapping its final season, a costume designer on the show named Monique Long filed a sexual harassment charge against stars Fred Savage and Jason Hervey. The suit brought forward unwanted publicity to the show. In the end, the case was settled out of court with Savage stating that he was "completely exonerated" and adding that it was a "terrible experience". In January 2018, Alley Mills said that a sexual harassment lawsuit against Savage and Hervey was a significant factor in the show's cancellation. ==Release==