MAN CAVE: The Wonder Years is streaming on Netflix!

Do you think the Savage brothers bicker about who had the better coming-of-age sitcom growing up? Sucks to be Ben! Boy Meets World was solid (and maybe funnier) but cheesy laugh tracks can't compete with the awkward adolescent nostalgia that comes from The Wonder Years. Not to mention my first crush, Winnie Cooper.

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MAN CAVE: The Wonder Years is streaming on Netflix!

POSTED: Monday, October 17, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Man Cave

Man Cave is a testosterone-laden Monday feature that highlights the weekend haps of a pop culture-loving Philly dude.

Do you think the Savage brothers bicker about who had the better coming-of-age sitcom growing up? Sucks to be Ben! Boy Meets World was solid (and maybe funnier) but cheesy laugh tracks can't compete with the awkward adolescent nostalgia that comes from The Wonder Years. Not to mention my first crush, Winnie Cooper.

While TWY is not available on DVD — presumably due to soundtrack licensing issues (remember all those classic hits they used!) — Netflix has found a way to stream it instantly. I'm not asking any questions, I'm just spending my entire weekends marathoning the shit out of it, whole seasons at a time. This weekend I notched off the first two seasons, and boy are my eyes red with nostalgic man tears. Wayne was my horrible older brother made over, Paul was my nerdy best friend and Winnie the reason I started talking to girls in '88.

Season one (spoilers!) finds the gang about to start high school during the summer of 68. And Kevin and the Winnie actually kiss in Harper's Woods in this very first episode, which is part of the reason their ensuing high school career has a sexual tension you could cut with a plastic spork.

Throughout this short first season (six episodes) we are introduced to all the regulars: Coach Cutlip attempts to draw the female reproductive system, which ends up looking like a cow's head. Dad takes Kevin to his office to give him an idea of why he is the way he is every day after work. And Kevin actually gets his first hormone-fueled crush on a girl other than Winnie.

Season two is seventeen episodes that blend together into a pastiche of classic moments: Kevin develops a crush on his English teacher. Wayne accidentally kills Kevin's science class' hamster. Kev goes steady with Becky Slater in an ill-fated attempt to make Winnie jealous. And Dustin Diamond (Screech) stars in an episode about Kevin sticking up for the worst basketball players in the school.

There's a certain age group that this show has more potency for than others (i.e. those of us who watched it while we were young). But even if The Wonder Years was already off the air in your day, it'll still get you in the gut. Kevin Arnold said it best, "Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of other houses, a yard like a lot of other yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back, with wonder."

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net) (@slackerDIYtoday)

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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