List of The Wonder Years characters

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This is a list of characters of the television series The Wonder Years .

Contents

Main characters

Kevin Arnold

Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) is the main character. Born on March 18, 1956, Kevin grew up in the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s. Right after he graduated from high school in 1974, he went off to college, got married and has a son born in 1981. [1] The voice of the present-day adult Kevin (the show's voice-over narrator) is supplied by Daniel Stern.

Jack Arnold

John "Jack" Arnold (Dan Lauria) is Kevin's father; a gruff, laconic man and a Korean War veteran; he grew up during the Great Depression, served in the US Marine Corps right after he graduated from college, and is seen in photographs wearing the uniform of a First Lieutenant. He works as a product distribution manager at NORCOM, a large military defense company. Later, he starts his own business, building and selling handcrafted furniture. He was born on November 5, 1927, and the series finale reveals that he dies in 1975 near the end of Kevin's freshman year of college - two years after the time of the show's finale.

Norma Arnold

Norma Arnold (née Gustafson) (Alley Mills) is Kevin's homemaker mother who was born on March 22, 1930. Unlike her husband, Norma is friendly, upbeat, and optimistic. She met Jack as a college freshman. When he graduated, she moved across the country with him and did not finish college. She eventually gets her degree late in the series and begins work at a software startup called Micro Electronics. She worked her way up in the future as board chairwoman at the end of the series.

Karen Arnold

Karen Arnold (Olivia d'Abo) is Kevin's older, rebellious, hippie sister who was born in 1952. Her free-spirited lifestyle clashes with her overbearing father's conservatism, and she depends upon her mother as a mediator. When Karen moves in with her boyfriend Michael (David Schwimmer) during her freshman year of college, she has a falling-out with her father. The pair marry one year later and move to Alaska, where Michael has secured a good job working on the Alaska Pipeline. Karen ultimately accepts some of her parents' viewpoints and has a baby, while her husband learns to support his wife and child.

Wayne Arnold

Wayne Arnold (Jason Hervey) is Kevin's older brother who was born in 1954. Wayne enjoys physically tormenting Kevin and Paul, calling Kevin "butthead" or "scrote". Wayne is usually portrayed as a loser in romantic relationships. For a time he dated a girl named Dolores, which was more casual than serious. In later seasons, Wayne matures. In the final season, he begins a serious relationship with a divorcee named Bonnie but is left heartbroken when she reconciles with her ex-husband. In the series finale, it is revealed that he takes over the family furniture business after Jack dies in 1975.

Paul Pfeiffer

Paul Joshua Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano): is Kevin's long time best friend, a bright and excellent student and allergy sufferer. He is also Jewish and in one episode celebrates his Bar Mitzvah. Although Kevin and Paul are best friends in the series's early seasons, their relationship becomes somewhat strained later. Kevin begins to spend more time with Chuck and Jeff, causing tension with Paul. Paul also attends a private prep school for one season, leaving Kevin alone to start public high school. In another episode Kevin tattles on Paul after Paul loses his virginity. In the final episode it is revealed that Paul eventually attends Harvard and studied law and become a lawyer. He was born on March 14, 1956.

Winnie Cooper

Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar) is Kevin's main love interest and neighbor for the first three seasons (she and her family move across town at the end of Season 3). Their first kiss, and her older brother's death in Vietnam, play an important part in the pilot. In another episode, Winnie's parents separate in grief over the death of their son. In the epilogue of the final episode, it is revealed that Winnie travels overseas to study art history in Paris. Kevin and Winnie write to each other every week for these eight years until she returns; in the concluding moments of the finale, Kevin says that when Winnie returned to the States, Kevin met her accompanied by his wife and first child—despite the hope among Wonder Years fans that Kevin and Winnie would themselves marry, as they seemed destined to do so throughout the series's run. "Like I said," says Kevin at the end, "things never turn out exactly the way you plan them." As suggested in an episode entitled "The Accident" and in the final episode of the series, every important event in Kevin's life has somehow involved Winnie. She was born in either September or October.

Recurring characters

Introduced in Season 1

Introduced in Season 2

Introduced in Season 3

Introduced in Season 4

Introduced in Season 5

Introduced in Season 6

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References

  1. Lee, Felicia R. (January 19, 2006). "A Sitcom 70's Child Grows Up to Be an Alter Ego". New York Times. Retrieved August 11, 2010.