Tim from Springfield said:
Tim from Springfield said:
Need I say more about how the last episode of "The Wonder Years" briefly described the post-1973 future of the main characters (Kevin and Winnie not marrying, Jack Arnold passing away 2 years later in 1975, Winnie studying art in Paris for 8 years and coming home around '82 to greet Kevin at the airport--with his wife and son). A big letdown at the end . . .
And then it left unanswered questions about some of the remaining characters, e.g.: How did Jack pass away?; Would Norma still have been alive in 1993, when TWY ended in "real time" (which I presume so)?; Who did Kevin marry?
On the Wonder Years board on the Sitcoms Online website (
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=132), there was a thread devoted to how fans thought TWY SHOULD have ended. I contributed two ideas (using the nickname "Leatherneck" on there) to how I THINK TWY should have ended, the first follows below:
IDEA #2--MY ALTERNATE TWY ENDING
"--Show a brief glimpse into Kevin/Winnie/Paul's senior year in 1974, and a brief graduation clip.
--I would eliminate the mention of Jack passing away in 1975; instead, he would suffer a near-fatal heart attack, however, in '74 instead shortly after Kevin graduates HS--but survives (similar to the one the writers of "Family Ties" had Steven Keaton suffer--where the doctors almost lost him on the operating table). However, afterward Jack is mellowed greatly and becomes very mild-mannered and less likely to easily get agitated as we saw on the series (particularly with becoming a grandpa); he would also make the decision to transfer most of the responsibility for managing the furniture factory to Wayne (and instead decide to work more with the manufacture of the furniture).
--After Jack's heart attack, Kevin decides to attend two years at the local junior college and still remain at home until 1976, when he transfers to a university. Despite walking out from the furniture factory job in the last episode, I would mention that during his college years that he returns to work part-time during summers and school vacations to Arnold's Furniture. Kevin graduates from college with a B.A. in history education in 1978, and moves several hours away from his hometown to become a junior high history teacher. By spring 1983, he has received his Master's in educational administration, while still enjoying his career as a successful junior high social studies instructor.
--After a few years off (and acquiring additional responsibilities at Arnold's Furniture after Jack's heart attack), Wayne decides to return to school around 1975, attending night classes (with a Business/Management emphasis) at the local junior college while still working full-time, then a Bachelor's in Business Administration by 1980. Despite breaking up New Year's Eve 1972, he and Bonnie would actually continue to maintain a friendship instead--but around 1975 they resume their relationship and get married in June of 1977. They would have two additional children (a boy and a girl) in addition to Bonnie's son. In the meantime, Wayne and Kevin's relationship as brothers becomes closer.
--Meanwhile, in Alaska Michael and Karen separate in 1975 and divorce shortly afterward. Karen and her child returns home, living with Jack and Norma for a few months while she looks for a job and an apartment. She becomes determined to successfully make it as a full-time, working mother, and works with Norma at her business for a few years. Ironically, because of issues such as her divorce with Michael, Jack's heart attack in '74, and a closer relationship with her parents, Karen abandons the "hippie" lifestyle, commits her life to Christ (after attending a Billy Graham crusade), and by 1980, is a full-fledged conservative and enthusiastic supporter of Ronald Reagan and the conservative movement.
--Paul still goes to Harvard and becomes a lawyer.
--I would still have Winnie study art in Paris for 8 years (with her and Kevin writing almost daily), but have her come home to visit for a month each year. But both her and Kevin mutually agree to remain only friends and marry other people (as the finale indicated despite their previous agreement to always remain together). Winnie returns home, unmarried, in June 1982.
--Although it appeared likely that Kevin would never see Cara again after summer 1972, they meet again in the fall of 1976 in a chance meeting after Kevin transfers to a university. By then Cara is working for UPS, while saving money to start nursing school--which she begins in spring 1977. She had to make a delivery to the university library, and is waiting at the reference desk for a library staff member to sign for the package at the very moment Kevin walks by. Kevin and Cara both recognize each other and briefly visit. Kevin asks her for a date, and Cara, who had long since broken up with her boyfriend (from the time of the summer '72 lake visit), accepts with some reservations (reluctancy on her part about reentering the dating world while she is working and preparing for nursing school). But romance soon blossoms, and Kevin and Cara are eventually married (at the Lake) in June 1979 (one year after Kevin's college graduation). Less than two years later in May 1981, their first child, a boy (John Wayne Arnold--"Jack II") was born--just in time for Cara to complete nursing school one month later (with a near-perfect GPA) and become an RN at a local hospital in the lake area (where Kevin is also teaching history at a local school--which happens to be Cara's HS alma mater).
--Tragedy strikes the Arnold family in early June 1983. On the same day of Kevin's last day of school for the 1982-83 school year, while returning home late that night from a long hospital nursing shift, Cara is involved in a tragic automobile accident (perpetrated by a drunk driver who drove into her lane). Cara is transported to the hospital, and Kevin and the rest of the Arnold family is notified. Despite valiant efforts to save her, Cara dies of her massive injuries the following morning, leaving Kevin a widower and a single parent of a two-year old son. Immediately after Cara's funeral, a distraught Kevin decided it was best to move from the lake area, and he sells his home there and resigns his teaching position after Jack and Norma ask Kevin and "Jack II" to move back home with them for the summer or "as long as Kevin feels he needs to stay."
--During the tragic summer of 1983, Kevin learns about a new junior high history teaching offer--at RFK Junior High. He returns to his junior high alma mater in September 1983. Mr. DiPerna is still at RFK in '83--finally having been promoted to principal. Despite the very frosty student-vice principal relationship during his junior high years, DiPerna, upon his retirement from a long career in education after the 1983-84 school year, recommends that Kevin consider the vice-principal post at RFK starting the following year (while the current vice-principal gets promoted). After consideration, Kevin accepts this new position.
--When Kevin becomes RFK Junior High's vice-principal after Principal DiPerna's retirement in June 1984, RFK becomes a grades 6-8 junior high rather than the 7-9 facility as depicted on TWY.
--Kevin uses the trauma of the circumstances surrounding Cara's death to establish the RFK and McKinley HS chapters of Students Against Drunk Driving (for which he becomes faculty adviser) while also becoming an advocate of the DARE program.
--Winnie pledges her full support and friendship to Kevin and "Jack II" during the trauma and adjustment following Cara's death. She eventually becomes "like a mother" to Kevin's young son, and by summer 1984, romance blossoms between Kevin and Winnie again. They would marry in June 1985, and have their own child (a girl, Brianne Gwendolyn) in April 1986. But Kevin (with Winnie, Jack II, and the new Arnold daughter at his side) would visit Cara's graveside at least once monthly.
--This MAJOR event provides the impetus for Kevin's reminiscing about his junior high/high school years in "The Wonder Years" (which in my alternate "reel time" is comparable to him writing a book about those years): June 1986, one night after RFK's 8th grade graduation, a massive boiler fire destroys the RFK Junior High building, leaving the facility a total loss (except, miraculously, for the math classroom that was once occupied by Mr. Collins until his 1970 death--as if Collins' ghost protected that classroom). This relocates the displaced RFK students to the school district's other junior high buildings for the entire 1986-87 school year (and ironically, the junior high district boundaries are temporarily redrawn to place the Cooper's pre-summer 1970 home in Kevin's neighborhood to Lincoln Junior High, and the Arnold and Pfieffer homes to a completely different junior high school). The displaced RFK vice-principal, Kevin, is temporarily reassigned to teaching an additional section of history at Lincoln for '86-87, while helping oversee the reconstruction of the new RFK building. The new RFK Junior High opens for the 1987-88 school year, one year before Kevin is promoted to principal in fall 1988.
--Sadly, Jack Arnold Sr. would pass away in July 1987, four months shy of his 60th birthday. Norma decides to put the family home up for sale the following year."
I think I prefer my second "alternate universe" over the first that I posted a moment ago.
