I'm just a Winnie, looking for my Kevin.

Was ever there a television show more more poignant than The Wonder Years? When my family moved from Miami to Dallas, this is what got me through it. Nick at Nite played re-runs on weekdays. I showed the episode where Winnie moves away at my goodbye party and all of my little seventh grade girlfriends and I were crying.

Years later, I would cry when I read in People magazine that Fred Savage had gotten married. Yes, I really did believe he and I would end up together.

Every year my sister and I get a "pre-Hanukkah" gift (AKA we get a present before the holiday officially begins). I just got an email from my dad and this year my pre-Hanukkah gift is something I've been wanting for months... The complete series of The Wonder Years on DVD!

So, in honor of the inevitable marathon and cryfest that is sure to take place in my apartment this weekend, I would like to share with you now my top five favorite episodes of TWY.


Episode 19, Birthday Boy

This is the episode where Paul's Bar Mitzvah falls on Kevin's birthday. I like this episode for much more than the obvious reason (the Jewish factor). Kevin sits at the Pfeiffer family dinner table and listens to Grandpa Pfeiffer tell stories about his childhood. Kevin is jealous of all of the attention Paul is getting for this Judaic milestone, and upon asking his parents about their own family history, discovers he's a mutt. He tells Paul that he won't be attending his Bar Mitzvah and stays home pouting while his family gives him a halfassed birthday celebration. He has his mother drive him to the synagogue at the last minute and walks in just as Paul looks up from reading the Torah. They make up at the reception and one of my all-time favorite songs, "Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkle, plays as stills from the party flash across the screen, the last one being Paul and Kevin looking at one another and clapping. I cry every time.


Episode 46, Moving

Like I said, I showed this at my moving party when I was 13. It's also the last episode of TWY that I ever watched in that house, which feels very appropriate. Kevin's father is complaing about the dry rot and talks about selling the house. In an ironic twist, The Cooper family decides to move out of their house across the street as it is filled with memories of their dead son, Brian Cooper, who was killed at Vietnam. Winnie will have to switch schools and will no longer be "The Girl Next Door". Winnie moves the same day that Karen graduates high school, and Kevin stops by to see her off before going to the graduation ceremony. Winnie is hiding in the moving truck and when Kevin says goodbye, she opens her fist to reveal the necklace Kevin gave her. They hug goodbye and Kevin celebrates Karen's success and feels lucky that his own family isn't going through the pain that Winnie's is. At the end of the episode, he climbs onto his bicycle and goes to visit Winnie. I cry every time.


Episode 66, The Accident

Rebelling from her parents marital problems, Winnie starts hanging out with a cool older crowd and sends mixed messages to Kevin. She acts happy to see him but when he tries to talk to her about their own relationship, she runs off to her new friends, who have their licenses by the way. Paul tells Kevin at school that Winnie has been in a car accident and Kevin runs out of school and races over to Winnie's. No one is home so he sits on her front lawn for hours. When the Coopers finally arrive home, Mrs. Cooper tells Kevin that Winnie doesn't want to see him and he should go home. Winnie is sitting in the car all bandaged up and looking very sad. He leaves... but doesn't go all the way home. He climbs up the tree and sits outside of Winnie's window, watching as her mother tucks her into bed and turns off the light. ANOTHER one of my all-time favorite songs, "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger, plays. She then sees Kevin through the window and he whispers "I love you". She sees the movement of his lips and whispers back, "I love you". Oh my God. I cry every time.


TIE BETWEEN Episode 85, Double Double Date AND Episode 93, Broken Hearts and Burgers

Oh God, don't make me choose. Both of these episodes center around the rises and falls of Kevin and Winnie's tumultuous relationship. In DDD, Kevin and Winnie are each taking a different date to the school dance but somehow end up doubling. At the dance, their dates are more interested in each other than them, so they find one another on the dance floor and leave together. They drive to a deserted spot that everyone knows is where you go to fool around, but they end up just kissing one another (on the eye, Kevin missed her mouth). In BHaB, Kevin gets in trouble for flirting with the cute waitress at the burger joint. As he tries to plea for Winnie's forgiveness, flashbacks of their young love play. As she's leaving, he grabs her arm and makes an off the cuff speech, telling her that she's the only girl he's ever really loved and cared about. She interrupts him, saying, "Oh just shut up" and they make out in the parking lot.


Episode 115, Independence Day

Series finale. No need for a play-by-play. Everyone has seen this one. I became really addicted to TWY in 1997, and right around Christmas that year Nick at Nite played the series finale, making a big deal of it with many commercials and taglines like, "Will Winnie and Kevin and up together?" Since I had never seen the finale, I made plans to have a front row seat in our family room that evening. I watched the episode and excused myself upon the rolling credits. I went up to my room, got in bed, and cried into my pillow for hours. It was the first time I ever really understood love.

Honestly, as I'm typing this now I'm tearing up. This show has had such a profound effect on my life. It's reminded me time and time again why I want to be a writer and it's helped to develop my signature style of raw, heartstring-tugging prose. They just don't make them like this anymore.

What's your favorite episode?