The hit television show The Wonder Years isn’t just about a middle aged man reminiscing about his childhood and what it was like for him growing up in the sixties. It’s really much deeper than that. The Wonder Years is actually about a specific time period in America, after the Vietnam war and the Great Depression. This television show expressed the traumatic experiences that America went through effected that generation. The Wonder Years let the world zoom in on that exact struggle by letting us in on how Kevin’s dad reacted to these major events, because Kevin’s dad fought in the war and lived through the Great Depression. But more importantly, The Wonder Years showed us all how America changed and bounced back from these hard years. The Wonder Years showed us this by letting us all feel a part of Kevin life with all his family and friends for six glorious seasons and 115 heartfelt episodes.
Kevin and his friends go to school like everyone else and they experience dating troubles, fights with friends, school problems and every other drama that would happen to a kid going through the seventh to eleventh grade. And thats what made this show so great and such a staple in the childhood of so many kids growing up. This is one of the first shows that wasn’t afraid of truly being out there and talking about the touchy subjects that most television shows shied away from at that time. Kevin even had his first kiss on film and touches a girls breast for the first time, these kind of things hooked America and got the show promoted to the prime time slot of premiering right after the Super Bowl.
The Wonder Years gave us all 6 great years, winning award after award like the Top TV Sereis Award, Best Family Television Series, Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Comedy Series and even Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
The last episode was released on May 12th, 1993. Aren’t you a little bit curious where these actors ended up and how they look now? Some actors got recognized on this show and it jumpstarted their careers into stardom. While other child actors just did a brief stint on The Wonder Years and decided to quit acting soon after the show wrapped up. The Wonder Years was ranked high on the Rolling Stones’ best television list and ranked even higher in the hearts of most Americans.
[post_page_title] Dan Lauria as John “Jack” Arnlod- Then[/post_page_title]
John “Jack” Arnold is Kevin’s father. He was a veteran of the Korean war and grew up during the Great Depression. He even served in the US Marin Corps as a First Lieutenant. This history turned him into a gruff and sometimes overbearing father. He works at a corporation called NORCOM in middle management dealing with military defense, which he absolutely hates. He later decides to start his own company selling furniture instead. In the last episode of the season it is revealed that he dies in Kevin’s first year of college.
