Editing The Wonder Years (section)

==Production==

===Conception===
The series was conceived by writers [[Neal Marlens]] and [[Carol Black (writer)|Carol Black]], both of ''[[Growing Pains]]'' fame. They set out to create a family show that would appeal to the [[Baby boomers|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 [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]], with whom Marlens and Black reached an agreement.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://the-wonder-years.com/?i=documentary|title=The Wonder Years - Documentary|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

Marlens had originally wanted the setting to be [[Huntington, New York|Huntington, Long Island]], where he grew up. Elements were also taken from Black's childhood from the [[White Oak, Maryland|White Oak]] section of [[Silver Spring, Maryland]].<ref name=Setting>{{cite web|url=http://www.justupthepike.com/2009/03/wonder-years-were-set-in-white-oak-sort.html|title=just up the pike: the wonder years were set in white oak, sort of|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/01/nyregion/can-sitcom-make-it-with-li-setting.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm |title=Can Sitcom Make It With L.I. Setting? |date=December 1, 1996 |first=Carol |last=Strickland |access-date=2011-11-29 |quote=Mr. Marlens wanted to set the series, based on his childhood in the suburbs, on Long Island. ... "Everybody felt 'Wonder Years' was set in their home street." |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-wonder-years-celebrates-25-years-where-are-they-now/|title=The Wonder Years|website=[[CBS News]]|date=April 10, 2013 |access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peter-reynders.de/WY/Wonder17.htm|title=The Wonder Years|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/theater/lindenhurst-native-dan-lauria-stars-in-a-christmas-story-at-madison-square-garden-1.6554418|title=Lindenhurst native Dan Lauria stars in 'A Christmas Story' at Madison Square Garden|work=Newsday|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

===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."<ref name="The Philadelphia Inquirer">{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/1988-04-05/news/26253529_1_teen-idols-kids-boomers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428001747/http://articles.philly.com/1988-04-05/news/26253529_1_teen-idols-kids-boomers|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 28, 2014|title=Twelvesomething|work=philly-archives|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> 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&nbsp;– that's the time and place where we grew up."<ref name="The Philadelphia Inquirer"/>  The show's title was a satirical nod to a famous 1970s [[Wonder Bread]] ad campaign promoting white bread as perfect for "The Wonder Years", ages 1 through 12.<ref name="LA Times 1988">{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-08-ca-1019-story.html|title='Wonder Years' Pays Its Respects to '60s Suburbia|work=Los Angeles Times|date=April 4, 1988|access-date=March 4, 2021}}</ref>

===Casting===
[[File:Fred Savage in 1990.PNG|thumb|right|150px|alt=Fred Savage at the Governor's Ball held immediately after the 1990 Emmy Awards 9/16/90 - Permission granted to copy, publish, broadcast or post but please credit "photo by Alan Light" if you can|Fred Savage in 1990]]
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 (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' and as Charlie Seymour/Marshall Seymour in ''[[Vice Versa (1988 film)|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&nbsp;– 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."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://articles.philly.com/1988-12-18/living/26228101_1_unraveling-mystery-child-actor-danica-mckellar|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130204070135/http://articles.philly.com/1988-12-18/living/26228101_1_unraveling-mystery-child-actor-danica-mckellar|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 4, 2013|title=One Boy's 'Wonder Years' At Age 12, Fred Savage Is Already An Acting Pro As He Portrays A 1960s Child.|work=philly-archives|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-04-23-vw-336-story.html|title=NAMES IN THE NEWS : Sisters Rivals on 'Wonder Years'|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=April 23, 1990 |access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://the-wonder-years.com/?i=interview.danicamckellar|title=The Wonder Years - Interview with Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper)|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

===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."<ref name="The Philadelphia Inquirer"/> One challenge for the cast and crew was filming around a child actor, meaning that the show had to obey child labor laws. Savage at the time explained, "You have to get at least three hours of school in every day. So whenever I'm on a break, I go to school. It's really intense because I have to get a lot done in short periods. And it's hard because if they need you back on the set, they pull you away every 20 minutes. If you're writing an essay and suddenly get inspired, you've got to stop and go back to work."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.peter-reynders.de/WY/wonder40.htm|title=Talking with Fred Savage: My parents never push me.|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> Many exterior shots were filmed in Burbank, California.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/scene-it-before-the-wonder-years-neighborhood/|title=Scene It Before: The Wonder Years Neighborhood - Los Angeles Magazine|date=January 7, 2016}}</ref>

===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 [[anti-war protest|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===
{{Main|The Wonder Years: Music from the Emmy Award-Winning Show & Its Era}}
The official soundtrack released in 1988 by [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]]/[[Warner Music Group|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.<ref>{{cite web|author=The Wonder Years (1988-93 Television Series) |url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000002IOQ/ |title=The Wonder Years OST |website=Amazon |date=March 28, 1989 |access-date=2013-03-26}}</ref>

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|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 (Box Tops song)|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 "[[Gymnopédie|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 (song)|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 (song)|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 (Al Green song)|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 (1986 film)|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.<ref name="wonder-years.tv"/>

===Cancellation===
''The Wonder Years'' wrapped its sixth and final season in May 1993. Its cancellation was partially blamed on conflict between producers and executives at ABC. As Kevin matured, the producers wanted the storylines to mature, as well. The executives at ABC, though, felt uncomfortable with more explicit content given the time slot, saying, "We felt it was inappropriate to present Kevin's awakening because of the setting in the 1970s, the gentle tone of the series, and most importantly, the 8 pm time period." [[Bob Brush]] noted, "When Kevin became 16 and 17, there were really things he needed to get to that we couldn't do at 8 pm, especially with the kind of venerable cachet that the show had obtained with its audience. We would get notes from the network saying, "You could do this on any show besides ''The Wonder Years''." Other reasons for the show's cancellation were escalating costs and declining ratings. The cast's salary increases, coupled with location shooting (which was due to the producers wanting to reflect Kevin obtaining his driver's license), led to Brush claiming that they were spending $1.2 million an episode. The final episode aired on May 12, 1993. Bob Brush noted that the finale was not what he would have wanted it to be, but because the cast and crew were unsure at the time of filming if the sixth season would be the last, he was forced to have the ending be open-ended until the recording of Daniel Stern's narration.<ref name="youtube.com">Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/LHdJcznU1SE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150904123338/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdJcznU1SE Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdJcznU1SE|title=TVography ~ The Wonder Years ~ Comedy Coming of Age|date=August 22, 2013|work=YouTube|access-date=March 22, 2015}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-12-ca-34310-story.html|title=Reeling in the Bittersweet 'Wonder Years': With Rising Costs, Aging Cast, Series Comes to a Close|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=May 12, 1993 |access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

====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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-03-18-ca-12378-story.html|title='Wonder Years' Stars Accused of Sexual Harassment: Television: Fred Savage and Jason Hervey are named by former costume designer. Show's spokesmen deny charges.|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=March 18, 1993 |access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Fred-Savage-s-Post-Wonder-Years-He-s-all-2983854.php|title=Fred Savage's Post-'Wonder Years' / He's all grown up, a Stanford student and a bad guy on TV|work=SFGate|date=May 5, 1996|access-date=March 22, 2015}}</ref>

In January 2018, Alley Mills said that a sexual harassment lawsuit against Savage and Hervey was a significant factor in the show's cancellation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/alley-mills-says-harassment-claim-ended-the-wonder-years.html|title=Alley Mills Says The Wonder Years Canceled Over Sexual-Harassment Lawsuit|first=Halle|last=Kiefer|date=January 28, 2018}}</ref>