Star Apps: Women of 'The Wonder Years'
In the late '80s, "The Wonder Years" broke ground as a single-camera comedy with no laugh track, but the show endures because of its warm, human storylines. Fans can now rewatch the series in "The Wonder Years: Complete Series" box set, a metal locker that includes bonus DVD features and a yearbook with behind-the-scenes photos signed by the cast. I chatted with Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper), Olivia d'Abo (Karen Arnold), and Alley Mills (Norma Arnold) about why the iconic series still instills wonder.
The Wonder Years cast in 1988.
(Credit: Scoop Marketing)
Alley, since the series was set in the '60s, when you were in high school, did you have to get Olivia and Danica up to speed on the time period?
Alley Mills: I had the great honor of teaching all of it to Olivia. I gathered all these CDs of the music and told her everything. Even though her father was a rock 'n' roll guy, she didn't really know the joy and the hope and the incredible energy behind the movement in the '60s. I think the whole point of the period was this was the beginning of the end of wonder. The series began with the introduction of the Vietnam War into our little TV in the kitchen, and it was at that very time that the whole country began to feel the pain of the war and the ramifications of that whole joyous movement. I think the back of the period was everything about our show, and that was what gave it all the beauty.
Olivia d'Abo: My character was a teenager. She burst into this incredible time where she was experiencing free love and tuning in and tuning out and being very politically proactive in terms of being anti-Vietnam. I was really amazed to learn as much as I could in a very short amount of time. Luckily, I was able to watch it on video. I got a very thorough education, and I spent an entire summer with an acting coach of mine at the time at the Acting Center, and I just studied. It was like going to college for the '60s. I just digested it, jumped right in, and immersed myself in '60s music that Alley was kind enough to loan me. She was a huge anchor for me by the time I met her and got on set, because she was a lot like Karen. It was just great to have that camaraderie to shoot things off with, in terms of being able to say, "Am I off here? Am I in the right zone?"
Danica McKellar: And from my perspective, my character was almost acting independent of the time period, except for the wardrobe. What I thought was the meaning of the show was that it paralleled with a few things going on in the world. Then, what seemed like huge things going on to a couple of kids, who their whole lives revolved around whether or not they're about to have their first kiss. It's very universal things that happen in every time period, which is why I think people can relate to the show even if they didn't experience the '60s. I didn't have to know very much about the '60s. I was interactive with school and interactive with Kevin Arnold and Paul Pfeiffer and dealt with things that are absolutely universal. Did this guy like me or not? Am I popular? My parents in the show separated -- things that happened at any time.
Danica, you mentioned a lot of the universal themes, and Kevin and Winnie taught so many of us about love. What have you learned from their relationship that maybe you've applied to your own?
Danica McKellar: What did I learn about love from Kevin? Well, I remember thinking that when I had my first kiss, I learned that things aren't straightforward. Things aren't black and white. I am remembering in the second episode, called "Swingers," where Kevin and Winnie go back to the same place where they had their first kiss, but they don't kiss. They sit down and swing, and they act like little kids again. I remember just thinking about progress not being straight-lined. We have to swing back and forth a little bit. That's a beautiful and important message that relationships are not straightforward. And that's OK. Love can be very confusing. The show was told from the point of view of Kevin, though. So I also learned that women are fickle and not to be understood, which I thought was a little strange, since to me we make perfect sense.
Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) share an intimate moment.
You speak about these characters with such familiarity. Do you ever miss them?
Olivia d'Abo: We do every day. It's a part of our DNA.
Danica McKellar: Well, every day somebody recognizes one of us on the street, so we get to be that character in some form. We get to see people's looks on their faces, and they say, "Oh my gosh, that show I miss so much. My family watched it together." We get to feel how special the experience was over and over again.
Did playing these characters change you in any way?
Alley Mills: What things resonate and what things stick in the hearts of people always start with writing, and also that we got to be part of it. It was a great gift. It's so rare that writing can touch every walk of life, every economic background, every color, every nationality. It's like any great novel. It's like Shakespeare. Those things last, and we were luckier than anything to be part of that. I am so thrilled that now my grandchildren are always going to be able to see this, because I think the show is always going to just have that human link that makes shows magic.
Is there anything you were surprised to learn about yourselves as actresses from your experiences on the show that you've carried with you?
Alley Mills: Yes, for sure. I had never played a housewife. I was shocked when they cast me as the mom. I was not married. I could not have children. I was Karen in my youth, I was a hippie and in the business. I played single women up until that point. I'd done 10 other series that hadn't lasted like "The Wonder Years," but I was always a rebel character. They told me to put on a shirtwaist and Keds and pearls and keep my smarts to myself. It was a great experience for me. I fell in love with this woman whose priority was her family and not herself. But previously I had always looked down on that. My mother was a feminist and divorced and worked and very smart. She went to Vassar College, and she was always saying, "Be independent and work." But I grew and have so much admiration for that generation of women who carried their family on their backs and who didn't complain but weren't weak either. They just kept their strength inside and put other people first. I ended up not being a feminist. I'm in love with these women and have said so all across the country as Norma for the past whatever it's been now, almost 30 years, and she's the best.
To what do you most attribute the enduring popularity of the show?
Danica McKellar: I think it's because this was the first show that really honored the strength and the emotions that kids have at such a young age. Most TV shows up until that point were all about parents, and the kids were there, too. This is the first show that has that narration, where you got inside the mind and heart of the small child, and we all, when we're little, have huge emotions, and the world doesn't really honor them in the same way that they honor adult feelings, because "they're just kids." You're not in control of your own lives yet. You can't make your own decisions. And, "Oh, it's puppy love. Oh, it's this. Oh, it's that. Come on, buck up or whatever." Well, we all have memories of those painful early years and elation of those early years, and the show honored them and made them say, "Yes, this is valid, this is real, this happened." So we all get to go back and say, "Oh, yes, I am validated. As a child, I had these strong feelings, and now I see that it mattered." I don't think any other show had done that before. We got to be a part of something that was groundbreaking and gave a new perspective for people on their own childhood. I think that's why, for kids watching it, it mattered. For adults watching it, it mattered because we've all been there.
Alley Mills: In half an hour, a story was told that would make you laugh and, at the end, make you cry. This is another reason the show was so successful, like a little morality tale almost, every single week that transcended barriers and could affect everybody. My grandchildren like things that change every 15 seconds -- boom, boom, boom, boom on their little iPads -- but they love the show. That moved me.
Olivia d'Abo: I think that's a really interesting point. Knowing that they would love the show as everybody else does, it can kind of rewire their mind a little bit to have the kind of concentration to get through an actual scene and be moved by it, which is very rare. In the modern world, that's the thing that I think is really exciting and poignant and positive about it being released to this new generation of kids.
Why do you think that there hasn't been a show that's captured our feelings post-September 11 in the same way that your show captured our feelings around Vietnam?
Olivia d'Abo: I think we're probably a little bit of a ways out before we can tap into that in hindsight and have a really clear view of translating it appropriately. I think people are still quite sensitive about it.
Alley Mills: In the same way that when Vietnam started and that war for the first time came into the American public's living room -- it's just the end of an innocent period. I think the fact that our country was invaded for the first time in your time is a very important issue, and I think how it's affected your generation would be a great show, and I don't know why they haven't done it. I think the jury may still be out in terms of how it has affected you, because I feel as a grown-up now that there's a cynicism in my grandchildren's generation that I don't like. One of them is 17, and I am worried about how removed we are from the effects of that kind of act. Because everybody remembers that day the same way that I remember the JFK assassination and I remember Vietnam -- both the invasion and people seeing they're lifted out and the people left behind. I think it's a crucial thing about this country, and that we're now not too safe, and I think the ramifications of that on your generation would be a great show. I am not in love with a lot of television right now, to be totally honest with you. That's why I'm so happy that this DVD is coming out.
The Wonder Years cast today.
How has the passage of time colored your perspective on the show?
Alley Mills: Well, I would say that yes, there's no question that with the time passage from the end of the show until now, we're in a different world than we were 20 years ago, and we were in the different world when the show started. I personally am very worried about the world. I worry about my grandchildren. My heart is heavy for what they are facing. I wish I felt like it was a better world. When I look at the media, the thing that I miss about the period of time that "The Wonder Years" was lucky enough to land in was we could actually have a little morality play for half an hour on network television. It wasn't sentimental, and it wasn't sappy, and it wasn't stupid. It was smart but deep. It was funny but moving. You learned something every week about human nature and human life, which was really rare. The longer we get away from it, the more it packs its punch, and I just really hope that a whole new generation of kids will be encouraged to watch it with their parents.
Olivia d'Abo: I think "nostalgic" comes to mind. Notably, there was very little that was left out. I think that we got all the great aspects, the positive and the negative aspects that happened during the duration of that time from the '60s into the '70s and what transpired with the country. It's a history lesson to me as an actress. I can sit there and put the show on and teach my 18-year-old, "Look, this is the way America used to be, and this is something to be very, very proud of. Just look at this world with electricity and what was going on politically and what was going on socially and how the genesis of so many things that were born out of that time were documented brilliantly on the show." I am very, very proud of that.
With the incredible legacy of the show, have any fans ever approached any of you on Facebook or Twitter with weird questions or comments?
Olivia d'Abo: I personally have never had a bad experience. What's really nice is you just pick this new generation of young women who were 18 or going into college who are just discovering the show, and I think that they really connect with Karen's sensibility and her sense of justice and civil rights. I see that component in young women today, especially women in college or younger, where they don't filter things as much as they used to. They don't feel like they necessarily have to have a steady boyfriend. They're really more career-oriented again and wanting to seek out their empowerment. My experiences with fans on the Internet or on Twitter have been that, and I just implore them to continue that wonderful spirit that they're running with, because it's a positive thing. An empowered young woman is only going to make the world a better place.
Alley Mills: It's funny. I find the fans of "The Wonder Years" very, very different than, say, soap fans, because I'm now on a soap opera. Those fans can be really bizarre. People that love "The Wonder Years" just tend to be really cool people. That's been my experience, and I don't Twitter because I'm an older person, but I did the other day. We had this huge Twitter day, and Olivia did it, and Danica did it, and everybody was incredibly respectful there -- and those were the hardcore, Twitter, hang-in-there "Wonder Years" fans from forever.
