The Wonder Years finally on DVD!

Mountains on the horizon are always distracting to me. That doesn't necessarily lock a show into one specific location, but it does lock out a bunch of areas.

There are some scenes in the second Austin Powers movie that are clearly from a Hollywood back lot that is supposed to be presenting itself as London. Every time I watch it, I can't help at stare at the mountain terrain behind the city scape - LOL

Daniel Stern is from Maryland in real life - so that might explain how he was selected as the narrator for The Wonder Years.

The quote above about how ABC insisted it be an anonymous location explains a lot. The network wanted the widest audience !

I do laugh a lot about footage from The Goldbergs that's always identified as Philadelphia but clearly uses California locations for shooting.
I think the Live Aid episode this year was actually filmed in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl (the actual stadium in South Philadelphia is no
longer standing, nor would the producers have hauled a film crew across the US just to include the correct background).

Sunny in Philadelphia does use a mixture of footage shot in California and Philadelphia. I can vouch that the "tailgating scene" (prior to the high school reunion) was filmed in the parking lot of my high school at 17th and Girard in Philadelphia. Mac went to my high school and I'm pretty sure it was his idea to film there. He even somehow got the cast to sing a boozy version of my high school's football fight song. When Danny DeVito smashed a beer bottle on to the wall at the front door of my alma mater, my jaw dropped to the ground. I'm not sure if that was authorized footage or it was something they did quickly when no one else was around. I suspect my high school knew about it before hand, but I'm not sure the beer bottle thing was part of the original script.

Strangely, the interior footage of the Sunny in Philly high school reunion episode was clearly NOT my high school, and probably shot in California.

To pull this back to The Wonder Years, Fred Savage has something to do with Sunny... he might have directed some episodes. I know he had a very funny cameo once.

 

I caught reruns in local syndication (early '90s, starting during the last season of the show), on Nick at Nite (late '90s) on ABC Family (sometime in the 2000s) and The Hub (early 2010s) and they all used the Joe Cocker version. It wasn't until the show hit Netflix and Amazon Prime that I heard the faux version.

 

The fake version is only on Netflix and Amazon then?

 

Supposedly it also has been used overseas:

 

Didn't they use Embryonic Journey?

 

The show should've left the original Joe Cocker song intact.

 

The people who own the song wanted too much money for it, I imagine...

 

Or maybe they didn't have the rights for it.

 

This puzzled me. It seems to be a variant on the clip used for "post 305" above. It says its from an ITV broadcast,
the title of the youtube clip suggests it might be from Germany. The clip below is missing the synth fanfare sound that's at the end of the clip linked by "post 305".

It's not Joe Cocker and seems to be pretty much the same faux recording, but it's not the same as the two previous clips - even if the main difference is a mix variation at the end.

Removing the synth from the mix most definitely enhances the illusion that it might be the Joe Cocker version (which its clearly TRYING to be).

 

Yes. That's the song I was thinking of.

It was in the episode but not listed on imdb (or the other link someone provided).

I swear what I saw was missing "In My Life".... I read imdb looking for the name of the instrumental
you listed (I was pretty sure it was that album, but couldn't remember the track title) and was surprised
to see the Judy Collins credit and went back to the episode looking to see if I blinked and missed it.

I think they just reused the Aaron Neville song (a second time!) during the moment where "In My Life"
would have made sense. I felt robbed, even went looking for a youtube clip to see if I could find it.

This is what imdb said was in the episode. I think Embroyonic Journey should have been listed
between the first and second song.


For What It's Worth
Written by Stephen Stills
Performed by Buffalo Springfield
Young Girl
Written by Jerry Fuller
Performed by Gary Puckett and The Union Gap
Tell It Like It Is
Written by George Davis Jr. and Lee Diamond
Performed by Aaron Neville
In My Life
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Performed by Judy Collins

 

I watched this show when it originally aired and we got the Joe Cocker version.

 

Yeah, there's no sourcing on that Wikipedia claim, so I find it iffy at best.

 

I paid careful attention last night to the two more episodes I watched on Netflix.

The opening segment was NOTJoe Cocker, but it was NOT "post 305" above.
The synth at the end is missing. I'd describe that synth as s a little fanfare - and I don't believe any portion of the Joe Cocker original has anything similar

My thought is what I saw on Netflix was probably identical to "post 334" above.

I was horrified at the percentage of music missing from the episode entitled "Dance With Me" (season 1, episode 6). The show on netflix disagreed with 4 out of the 9 songs listed on imdb for that episode. That's pretty far from "96 %"

Imdb says that they used "The Letter" by The Box Tops, but I'm not sure that's accurate. I saw an imitation version
of the Joe Cocker cover of the same title. That wasn't too offensive. Wikipedia suggests that the original episode
used the Joe Cocker version, and the DVD used the Box Tops. Netflix had neither.

In the same episode, the following were replaced with absolute joke songs that were there to fill space and
didn't even pretend to be the titles that were on the original show.

The Girl From Ipanema (missing, replaced by anonymous latin music)

Louie Louie (missing, replaced by something that was completely unrecognizable)

There's A Kind of Hush (the absolute strangest replacement I've seen so far... absolutely no trace of the Lou Reed composition)


I suspect the DVD box uses alternate choices because what I saw on Netflix doesn't agree with what wikipedia says.

 

The "96%" number refers to the DVD set, not the Netflix versions, which are a whole different animal...

 

Apparently, the complete series box set of The Wonder Years released by Fabulous Films in the UK retains every single music cue from the original television broadcasts. The bonus features and packaging looks quite similar to the Star Vista/TimeLife complete series editions which leads me to believe the UK edition is fully authorized and official. Gotta love those European copyright laws!

Fabulous Films | The Wonder Years The Complete Series: Deluxe Edition

I wish this DVD set wasn't region 2 encoded. As something of a completist/The Wonder Years fanatic, I might be tempted to double dip.

 

On the episode I watched last night one of the characters mentioned a prior vacation in "Ocean City"

My mind jumped to "Ocean City, NJ" , but I suspect the reference was supposed to be "Ocean City, MD"... given that someone from Silver Spring was more like to go to Ocean City MD for a vacation than someone from Long Island would visit a beach town in NJ (or MD).

 

Well, in one instance - it looks like the Netflix version is more accurate than the DVD...

According to wikipedia, this is what is on the "96 %" DVD set

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' song "Here Comes the Sun" was replaced by "Train to Nowhere"

I watched that episode ("Heart of Darkness")on Netflix last night and I was very much prepared to see a bastardized episode missing "Riders On The Storm" - but much to my surprise - I quickly learned that it was NOT replaced in the Netflix version. The Richie Havens cover of "Here Comes The Sun" was missing (boo! hiss!) but I'm not sure I can confirm if the replacement is what is listed on wikipedia ("Train to Nowhere" ???)

I did notice that the "bad kid" who enticed Kevin and his buddy into the drainage tunnel was an actor I'm familiar with in a lot of other things (Breckin Meyer)... but much younger on the TV show (compared to where I've seen him). Meyer looked a lot older in the movies "Rat Race", "Road Trip" , "Garfield"and "Josie and the Pussycats" (where he was part of the faux boy band called "Du Jour")

One comment about the show... Savage is a much better actor than many of the others, and I'm not sure the show would have been watchable at all without Stern's narration (which helps pull you away from the not very competent child actors).

I can't imagine the show without the actress who played Winnie, but I've noticed I like her a lot more on the show when she's at a distance and not talking...

 

What version of the song did the show use? Does anyone know?

 

The Joe Cocker studio recording.

 

This site says that 96% of the songs in the show were cleared to use and the site lists those songs and the substitute song(s) they used instead for the DVD release.

The Wonder Years (TV Show) > TWY on DVD »

General Information

The long wait is finally over.

In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia "The Wonder Years" is available on DVD. The series was released "as it was initially broadcast, un-edited and untouched from original broadcast masters". A release of individual season sets has begun in Brazil and Spain as well.

A release in Germany was under consideration. However, excessive costs for the dubbed German language version seem to prevent a release at this point.

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TVShowsonDVD.com, Starvista Entertainment/Time Life confirmed that the following few songs could not be cleared for the DVD release and have been replaced with similar music (no cuts have been made):

• Love Theme from the movie "Romeo and Juliet" -- Nino Rota (Episode 5/1.05 "The Phone Call"). Replaced by "Lovers Theme/The Star-Crossed Lovers".
• Riders on the Storm -- The Doors (Episode 7/2.01 "Heart of Darkness"). Replaced by "Children of the Night".
• Here Comes the Sun -- Richie Havens (Episode 7/2.01 "Heart of Darkness"). Replaced by "Train to Nowhere".
• Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie (1st and 2nd Movements - Adapted from "Trois Gymnopedies") -- Blood, Sweat & Tears (Episode 22/2.16 "Whose Woods Are These?"). Replaced by "Le Seunne Fite".
• Light My Fire -- The Doors (Episode 23/2.17 "How I'm Spending My Summer Vacation"). Replaced by "Love's on Fire".
• Spinning Wheel -- Blood, Sweat & Tears (Episode 24/3.01 "Summer Song"). Repaced by David Clayton-Thomas version.
• Love Theme from the movie "Romeo and Juliet" -- Nino Rota (Episode 26/3.03 "Wayne on Wheels"). Replaced by "Romeo & Juliet with Narration/Lovers Theme".
• Long May You Run -- Neil Young (Episode 30/3.07 "Family Car"). Replaced by "Keep Your Motor Running".
• Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) (Episode 38/3.15 "Tree House"). Replaced by "Let's Call The Whole Thing Off".
• Tammy -- Liberace (Episode 52/4.06 "Little Debbie"). Replaced by "Sammy".
• Here Comes the Sun -- Richie Havens (Episode 69/4.23 "Wonder Years (Clip Show)"). Replaced by "Train to Nowhere".
• You've Made Me So Very Happy -- Blood, Sweat & Tears (Episode 101/6.08 "Kevin Delivers"). Repaced by David Clayton-Thomas version.
• Let's Stay Together -- Al Green (Episode 105/6.12 "Alice in Autoland"). Repaced with sound-alike version.
• "Brothers" from the movie "The Mission" -- Ennio Morricone (Instrumental) (Episode 115/6.22 "Independence Day"). Replaced by "Pastorale".

Moreover, for this release, over 23 hours of bonus features were produced. Sadly, the video has not been remastered.

The DVDs are region 1 encoded and only contain the English language version (unfortunately only with Closed Captioning in English but no regular subtitles that would be usable outside the US/Canada).

Complete Series Set with all Bonus Features (2014/2015)

In October 2014, Starvista Entertainment/Time Life released the complete series on DVD. Initially, the DVD box set was exclusively available from timelife.com. However, in October 2015 the set was released to general retail. Fans worldwide can now order these sets via online stores (e.g. amazon.com).

 

Thank you so much.

 

As anyone who reads my posts knows I'm a huge fan of anything '50s and 60s and the Wonder Years disgusted me. It's supposed to be, what, 1969 or so and every other guy has a mullet? The girls have teased hair? If you're going to make a period piece at least get the look right:

Look like a goddamn cheap bunch of cosplayers.

And the daughter spouting off every cliched Hippie phrase every five minutes. I realllyyy doubt any kid in 1969 was spouting off "groovy" and whatnot every other damn word.

 

Whoa. I was 9 years old in 1969 and NO ONE had a mullet like that back then. In fact, the only characters with accurate hairstyles in that photo are the parents ... and, maybe, Winnie. I seem to recall that "Wonder Years" fell victim to the same trend as "Happy Days" -- the hairstyles and clothes were initially period-accurate, but as soon as those two shows gained mass acceptance, everyone started looking much more contemporary, particularly with regard to the hairstyles.

In "Wonder Years," Paul was the biggest offender. He suddenly started looking like a kid in the 1990s, albeit with old-style glasses.

By the time of the final season of "Happy Days," it seemed that there was no attention at all paid to wardrobe and hairstyles -- everyone showed up for work with full-blown '70s hairstyles and outfits. Joanie and Chachi were clearly the worst, always looking like they just came back from the disco, but the entire cast looked like they were auditioning for an episode of "Charlie's Angels."

 

It makes one wonder why they even bothered setting these shows in the past? That's why I respect Mad Men. It was set from 1960-1970 but it always did as much research as it could to stay as period accurate as possible. It never fell victim to decade cliches. The Wonder Years? I'll put it this way: I love 1960s stuff and I still wouldn't want to live back then. The Baby Boomers' - no offense - glorifying 1969 like it was some gilded year - annoys me.

 

It's always been a nitpick of mine for the show as well, but never stopped me from enjoying it. Costumes and hair/makeup back then simply weren't given the same level of attention that they are today, especially on (network) TV shows.