Shark Bytes

guest, it was a tradition with my church youth group in the 1970s to surprise the incoming 7th grade kids by invading their bedroom (with the parents cooperation) and waking them up at dawn during the first week of the new school year. We would film their reaction and show it during our Sunday night youth activity.

During the 6 years in the 1970s, I was part of the church youth group, we never woke up one boy who was sleeping in any attire other than their tighty whiteys. Every single boy I ever saw slept 100% bare chested.

It might sound strange to some today to think a Baptist church in Texas was filming kids in their underwear, but in the 1970s it was just innocent fun and no one ever thought anything was weird or sexual about it.

That is why I always found it strange to see so many boys wearing pajamas on tv, since I never saw it in real life. Girls almost always wore pjs or long shirts.

Ya, I had never thought about it but we guys did sleep in briefs and no shirt in the 70s except on the occasions we dared to sleep naked! Even when we would go on overnight school trips, we slept in the same bed with briefs and no shirts and relatively no hang-ups compared to the young guys of today - hmmm wonder what all of this "enlightenment" of today has really done for us ...

Amy, how do you know what every boy you ever knew slept in?

I loved Wonder Years in the first two seasons. The innocence of youth. The embarrassing moments of junior high that all rang true. The sibling rivalry with his bother. The sister episode (my favorite of all) when she asks him to bring notes to the dean so she can goto the lake and "have fun".

Then there was season 3. It was okay. I loved the student walk-out episode, but overall, it wasn't even close to as magical as season 1 and 2.

Seasons 4 on were awful. Kevin gets a job? Kevin has to shave? Kevin gets a car? Not even remotely original. They should have ended it at the end of 3.

The final episode was where this bad by jumped the shark. They skipped Kevin's whole senior year! No way in the summer of your junior year in High School does anyone go on a cross country trip as did Kevin's friends. That was unrealistic. I guess they had to condense the two summers into one, and it didn't work.

I don't think The Wonder Years ever jumped. But I would say the first 3 seasons were the best.

My only slight criticism would be that I thought Wayne, the older brother was portrayed a little bit over the top. But Kevin and the parents were dead on.

I'd never thought about the sleepwear, but I recently found an old marketing study from 1976 about kid's pajamas. It reported that most (53%) boys 12-17 slept in briefs, bare chests. 77% of boys slept shirtless. I know it was 3 years after the Wonder Years, but things probably hadn't changed that much fashion wise.

I loved this show and it reminds me of how far tv has fallen that a program like The Wonder Years would probably not make it to tv today.

About the only thing I found unrealistic about this program is something someone else has pointed out about some other shows and that is how guys always wear fake looking pajamas on these type of programs.

In the real world during the Wonder Years era, every boy I ever knew slept bare chested usually in just their tighty whiteys. But other than the fake sleepwear depiction, this show was so real it was scary especially the parents

Religion was alluded to in one episode, which was enough to confirm that these were fairly traditional parents. Karen announces she's going to be married, and her well-meaning mom tries to get her to accompany her into some kind of Protestant church for pre-marital counseling, but Karen's not going the traditional route. I can't remember what sort of wedding she finally decided on...

No mention of religion? That's excellent, for there's farrrrr too much of that being forced upon us in the U.S. today. Not everyone needs to have someone else's religious p.o.v.s rammed down their throats. If only more shows would catch on it would be great.

Give me a break, guest. Not every show is about religion, or even needs to mention it, for that matter!!

To me, I feel it was when Kevin's best friend, Paul, stopped wearing glasses for contact lenses. From that point the show never felt the same.

I liked the show OK but there was a depressive element about it - something (or Somebody) missing. Most shows at least have some reference to God or religion. There was no place for either one in Kevin's world.

The show definitely changed at the beginning of season 4. All of the episodes were deep, but the show really lost the comedy part of dramedy. Sure it still had its funny moments, but it just wasn't the same. I guess most of it just had to do with Kevin getting old, and most of the jokes from the early seasons were Kevin's imagination and youthful ignorance. It jumped the shark, but it was still a great show. So I guess this really should be labeled as a drama; the comedy is just a result of his youthfulness. An interesting thought. No matter what, this was one of the best shows ever written. I only wish that it was on DVD already.

Hey, how do you know Kevin and Winnie never got back together years later....he could have divorced his wife, or she could have got hit by a bus...who knows :P

Kevin's dad Jack was a grouch at times, but most of the time he was nice. He was just human. By the way, Jack was a type A personality - he was too wound up and not laid back. He needed to spend some time on a commune and learn to chill out.
The episodes about Karen made me feel the most nostalgic because she reminded me of myself when I was young. She was just trying to pull away and leave home - there was nothing wrong with that.