Summary"The Wonder Years" was a hit comedy series starring Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold the main character, a boy facing rites of passage on his way to adulthood. Kevin lives with his brother Wayne (Jason Hervey), his sister Karen (Olivia d'Abo), his father Jack (Dan Lauria), and his mother Norma (Alley Mills). Kevin grows up with his on-and-off girlfrie... Read More
Created By:Carol Black, Neal Marlens
The Wonder Years
6 Seasons
Season 1 Premiere:
Jan 31, 1988
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
82
User score
Universal Acclaim
8.8
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
82
78% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
22% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Feb 14, 2014
100
The Wonder Years is full of wonderment -- and grace, and charm, and wit, and insight, and poignancy and humor. The Wonder Years, in a word, is wonderful. [15 March 1988, p.1]
Jul 12, 2013
100
The most wonderful show this year. ... The writing is only one of the miracles taking place in "The Wonder Years." What is so great about the show, and so different, is the conception of the kid and the acting by Fred Savage. [25 Dec 1988]
Apr 30, 2013
90
The cast is fine and Steve Miner directs with sensitivity. There's real poignancy in the last scene between Savage and McKellar. It's a refreshingly gutsy half-hour, a look back at how things were -- and weren't. [31 Jan 1988, p.C-13]
Apr 30, 2013
80
Viewers are in for a pleasant surprise. Narrator Kevin Arnold looks back at his seventh-grade adventures with a nice combination of rosy-hued tenderness and contemporary perspective. His adventures with the class bullies, the lunchroom proctor, and his first love are familiar bits of literary nostalgia, done with a certain amount of halting charm and psychological authenticity. The jarring, but valid, note is the intrusion of the Vietnam war into the lives of the youngsters. [29 Jan 1988, p.22]
Apr 30, 2013
60
It is beguiling and original, yet awkwardly executed. [28 Jan 1988, p.D-6]
Apr 30, 2013
60
A pleasant but routine sitcom that uses that decade of significant social change as a hook...The Wonder Years handles its period details - clothing, hairstyles - well. The look of the '60s is rendered with an authentic, evocative feel. Like virtually every sitcom, it has its banal moments, and here and there the gags fizzle. [30 Jan 1988, p.11]
User score
Universal Acclaim
8.8
92% Positive
66 Ratings
66 Ratings
4% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
4% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Jan 17, 2026
10
I was never alive in the late 1960s or early 1970s, but this show particularly makes me feel right at home, and feel nostalgia for an era I was never alive in. Seeing Kevin grow older is a particularly heartwarming experience. As a political nerd, the Vietnam protest and McGovern episdoes were some of my favorites. Very much worth a watch.
