The 25 best episodes of 'The Wonder Years'

The numerous moments of endearment are something to love about The Wonder Years. In Season 5, the wedding of the Arnold's daughter Karen (Olivia d'Abo) to Michael (David Schwimmer) is a far departure from the traditional nuptials of the time. However, her parents Norma (Alley Mills) and Jack (Dan Lauria) eventually embrace the hippie wedding and also accept the fact that Karen is moving on with her life — which also includes living in Alaska after the wedding — as an adult. But, still as her parents' little girl.

Karen is often considered the forgotten member of the Arnold family. However, when the week's storyline involves the Arnold's only daughter, it's usually a memorable one. Such as the penultimate episode of the third season: Karen's 18th birthday. While the episode features another standoff between Karen and her father, it's ultimately about a parent letting go of his adult child, who's ready to strike out on her own. Yet, home and her family, will always be waiting to welcome Karen back.

The sixth and final season of The Wonder Years might be the weakest, yet there are a few notable moments. A poker game among high school friends isn't anything original, but the dialogue at the table makes the episode stand out within the series. Chuck (Andy Berman) thinks girlfriend Alice (Lindsay Sloane) is pregnant, Randy is worried about his grades and Kevin and Paul sense they are growing apart as friends. It's one of the more realistic episodes, highlighting some of the problems teenage friends deal with, and how they attempt to handle it all.

While Kevin's heart was always with Winnie, there were other girls who caught his fancy — and vice versa. One being the attractive Madeline Adams (Julie Condra), who in this episode works on a French class project with Kevin. While at Madeline's house, Kevin leaves an engraved bracelet Winnie gave him there. With a date with Winnie the next night, Kevin opts to buy a new bracelet, and have it engraved so he won't have to deal with Madeline again. However, Kevin's poor penmanship results in the engraving reading KEVIN AMOLD. It's one of the funniest moments in series history, mostly because of Daniel Stern's brilliant narration as adult Kevin. In the end, however, Madeline comes through with the original bracelet — saving Kevin and Winnie's date.

The trek for Kevin and his ninth-grade friends to crash an all-girl slumber party became a mission. It ultimately became an obsession after such obstacles as Paul's allergies and Doug Porter's injury got in the way of their goal. It's an example of friendship and loyalty, leaving no man behind. It's subtly endearing moments like this that make The Wonder Years a special show.

The opener of the final season sees Kevin steal a rival high school's mascot. However, what's memorable about the episode is the sub-plot involving the return of Wayne's friend "Wart" (Scott Menville) from Vietnam. The war changed Wart, who is called a "murderer" by an anti-war protester. In one of the series' most powerful scenes, Kevin and Wayne (Jason Hervey) find Wart sitting alone outside, wearing only his underwear, agonizing about how he's going to "fit" back in at home.

As we'll see from this list, Season 3 is arguably the best among all six of the show's run. One of the more notable episodes is when Kevin goes against his mother's wishes and plays sandlot, tackle football with friends, a sign that he believes he's ready to break from the shadow of Norma's wing. When Kevin gets hurt playing, and tries to hide it from his mom, a defining moment in the series unfolds. As Norma tells Kevin to bandage his football wound himself if he thinks mother doesn't always know best. And again, she still does.

The Electric Shoes were a terrible garage band. But trying one's hand at adolescent rock stardom is a rite of passage in many cases — especially on a show that delivered some of the best classic rock and pop on a weekly basis. After befriending new-kid-in-town Larry Beaman, Kevin learns to play guitar and the band is born. However, its run is short-lived after the cops break up their debut gig — Amy Ermin's birthday party — for being too loud.

Growing up, most of our world as kids is within the confines of a few blocks in the neighborhood. So, it was a shock to Kevin's system when he finds out in the third-season finale that girlfriend Winnie and her family are moving four miles across town. Worse, she'll be going to a new school in the fall. That will put their relationship to the test as Kevin's world just got a little bit bigger. The episode also ended with Karen's high school graduation.

The back-and-forth of Kevin and Winnie's relationship could be maddening at times during the run of the series. Then again, that's what young love is about, especially with Winnie off at a new school and Kevin still pining for her. In this case, Winnie's evasiveness is particularly unnerving to Kevin after she seemed interested in rekindling their relationship. It's later learned that Winnie was in a car accident, which leads to one of the more heartwarming moments in the show's history (with Bob Seger's "We've Got Tonight" overlaid), when Kevin appears at Winnie's window as she lies battered in bed.  

This is the first of a two-part storyline, and better than the second portion ("Denial"). Kevin thinks a joint field trip with his Kennedy Junior High School and Winnie's Lincoln Junior High will be a chance for the two to hang out. However, Winnie is content with her new friends, and Kevin later finds out that Winnie has a boyfriend. Even though Madeline tries to get with Kevin, he's rattled over the fact that Winnie has apparently moved on when it comes to them as a couple. 

Family trips became a staple for the Arnolds throughout the run of the series. The Season 3 opener to Ocean City (site of Jack and Norma's honeymoon) was a tip of the cap to nostalgia for the couple. In true TV sitcom fashion, the trip was a mess, from Paul's allergic reaction to Jack's constant whining about expenses. Kevin, however, enjoyed a brief summer romance with the older Teri (played by Holly Sampson, who later in her professional life dabbled in the adult film industry). Another relatable episode in terms of life experience — combining both the good and the bad.

One of the more poignant moments involving Wayne, who struggles with his future after high school. Believing college is no longer an option, Wayne signs up for the Army, along with Wart, despite Jack's objection since the Vietnam War is still going on. In the end, Wayne's psoriasis keeps him from passing the physical. It's a bittersweet moment that still resonates within The Wonder Years' lore.

Though young Kevin loved to sport that New York Jets jacket, we learn during the series that he's not a very good athlete. In this episode, he tries out for the Kennedy Junior High baseball team, and keeps making the cut, though he shouldn't be, because he thinks the coach's friendship was his dad is the reason. In the end, Kevin doesn't make the team, but belts one final home run (with the famous Bobby Thomson homer call from 1951 in the background) — that in the lore of The Wonder Years has been debated for its reality, due to the narration of the adult Kevin.

This might be the most underrated episode in the history of the series. When Norma loses some receipts for the family's tax filings, a cloud of uneasiness hovers over the episode while waiting for Jack's reaction. However, the coinciding tense situation involving the Apollo 13 space mission proves there are more pressing issues in life, especially for Norma, who calls upon a higher power to help the astronauts in limbo. Meanwhile, Kevin is having a hard time with a school assignment to write his own obituary. 

Jack Arnold starts out as a grumpy and short-tempered guy, mostly because of where he worked. In the third episode of the series, we got a glimpse into Jack's work life when Kevin spent the day at his dad's employer -— NORCOM, a military defense corporation -— to get a feel for his father's job. What Kevin experiences explains a lot about his father's demeanor when he comes home from work and often takes solace in a telescope located in the backyard. 

When Kevin and Winnie are invited to a make-out party, things don't got the way the Arnold boy had hoped. When Winnie does not want to kiss him at the party, Kevin becomes confused about the status of their junior-high relationship. In the end, Winnie saved the kiss for when the two were alone on the bridge. A more special moment, and an example that young love and grade-school relationships can be just as intense and complex as the ones we have as adults.

Just when we want to hate on Jack Arnold more than usual, he surprises viewers with a look into his life that makes us admire the man. When Kevin became bullish on McKinley High's star basketball player Bobby Riddle (Jim Caviezel), and was neglecting his studies, much to Jack's chagrin, he was surprised Jack didn't gloat when Bobby and McKinley were bounced from the state playoffs. Instead, Jack saw a little of himself in Bobby, a kid who was unable to live up to the pressure of being a "hero." Kevin and Jack's late-night diner scene is one of the most cherished moments between the two.

Winnie wasn't the only object of Kevin's affection. Becky Slater (played by Danica McKellar's real-life sister Crystal) was one recurring character we loved to hate. She could be bossy and demanding, but was into Kevin, who in turn used Becky to make Winnie jealous. Once Becky found out about that and their relationship ended, she attempted to back Kevin's life hell about telling classmates all the things he said about them behind their backs. 

There weren't many episodes in which Karen fully interacted with her siblings — particularly Kevin. However, this is one where Kevin and Karen share a bit of bonding while his older sister skips school to spend time at the hippie hangout "the hill." It turns out Karen is actually using Kevin as cover with her school, but to Kevin, their time together means much more. In the end, Karen opts not to run away to San Francisco with friends, despite her often distant relationship with the family.

The two-part series finale is a tale of two episodes. Make sense? The first ("Summer") drags on and sees Kevin upset that resort lifeguard Winnie has no time for him after he takes a job there as a waiter. He gets more peeved when he catches Winnie kissing a male co-worker. Actually, most of the final episode is questionable. But, stuck in a barn after being fired from their jobs, Kevin and Winnie reconcile and share a moment. Once back home, they attend a Fourth of July parade where adult Kevin's narration details the future of each main character. Their fates and the poignance of those final moments, along with Daniel Stern's last few words of narration, more than salvages the episode and sends the series off with a lasting legacy. 

Miss Haycock (Andrea Walters) was a substitute music teacher tasked with getting the vocally-challenged eighth-grade glee club ready to perform "Stout-hearted Men" for the Spring Sing concert. Looking to please their optimistic teacher and armed with the secret, angelic voice of Warren Butcher (Jeffrey Baum), the boys trudge on with hope. Until the day of the concert, when Warren's voice changes and the rendition is a disaster, leaving Miss Haycock to leave the stage in embarrassment and never to be heard from again. It's one of those moments that never really has an effect on a kid's life, but becomes a story we can't stop telling.

One of the more memorable recurring characters was Kevin's math teacher Mr. Collins (Steven Gilborn). He was stern but fair, and saw promise in Kevin as a student when the boy himself did not often feel the same way. When Kevin feels betrayed after Collins cancels a tutoring session to prepare for his mid-term exam, he purposefully botches the test. Feeling bad about his actions, Kevin returns to school on Monday to find out that Mr. Collins had died from heart failure. Collins also apparently "misplaced" Kevin's test, forcing him to retake it. Kevin does, and when he hands it in to Mr. Diperna says: "You don't have to grade it. It's an A" — a final homage to a fallen mentor.

The truth about Kevin Arnold is that he thought he was a lot cooler than he was in reality. He was relatable in the sense of trying to navigate the trials and tribulations of childhood and adolescence, a struggle which spans generations. Yet, it was rather heartbreaking to watch Kevin fail to publicly admit his friendship for awkward gym-class, square-dancing partner Margaret Farquar (Lindsay Fisher). It's one of the most honest episodes in the series' history. Yet, as time went on and the years passed, she proved to be someone Kevin likely never forgot.

It's not often that the very first episode of a long-running, beloved television series is the best of the bunch. Well, here's one example that worked. Moments after Washington trounced Denver in Super Bowl XXII on Jan. 31, 1988, the world was introduced to the Arnold family, Winnie and Paul. In less than one-half hour, we experienced the humor and emotion that audiences came to love about the series. In the wake of learning about the death of Brian Cooper in Vietnam, and after his sister undergoes a makeover, the distraught Winnie and protagonist Kevin share a kiss in Harpers Woods while "When a Man Loves a Woman" plays in the background. Quite the introduction.