Hacker Cinema
The Wonder Years
1988 · TV series · 24 min episodes · 6 seasons
Created by Neal Marlens, Carol Black
The story of Kevin Arnold facing the trials and tribulations of youth while growing up during the 1960s and 70s. Told through narration from an adult Kevin, Kevin faces the difficulties of maintaining relationships and friendships on his enthralling journey into adulthood.
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13 comments on Hacker News
Yeah thats also how I do it.
I have a cool 16 DVD/Bluray ripping rig. Even have scripts that convert ripped images into MKV's with all audio and subtitles, art, etc. Uploads into my Jellyfin.
And yes, I do buy VHS, DVDs, and Blurays. I have probably 3000 movies in physical format, and 10000 audio CDs. I also rip old VHS, which you usually cant find any torrents of. Again, I specialize in rare stuff you cant buy retail or find.
There's also illegal shows, like the old WKRP in Cincinnati. They licensed for TV only multiple songs. Pink Floyd and other artists refuse to license now. Nobody can legally sell them, even if you have the money. Piracy is the only way for the complete show.
There's also a lot more shows that languished in licening hell for decades, or theyre still unobtainable at any price. Some you can get redacted versions, but the originals are illegal no matter what. And as an (well, illegal, but I DGAF) archivist, having shows intentionally lost due to pervasive greed is just... more wrong.
The Wonder Years - finally published in 2021, LOTS of cuts made
China Beach - published in 2013 after clearing hundreds of songs. 17 segments were cut due to licensing fuckery
Northern Exposure - multiple songs redacted on republishing
Pee-wee's Playhouse - multiple songs redacted on republishing
Beavis and Butt-Head - DVD was a hackjob with dozens of songs changed/parodied.
Cold Case - too much licensed content, cant republish
Third Watch - too much licensed content, cant republish
The Drew Carey Show - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Malcolm in the Middle - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Little Monsters (1989) - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Heavy Metal (1981) - tons of rights issues, cant republish
Kids Incorporated / Class of 1999 2 - tons of rights issues, cant republish
Growing up in the 70s and 80s in Germany, I've been brainwashed by US movies and sitcoms, 90% of the things I've watched was from the US - Magnum P.I, Simon & Simon, The Fall Guy, Kojak, A-Team, Golden Girls, Mary Taylor Moore, Lou Grant, MacGyver, Knight Rider, Night Court, Family Ties, Miami Vice, The Wonder Years, Facts of Life, Love Boat, and on and on and on.
I know the US better than many parts of Germany.
Earl Boen, the late actor who voiced LeChuck in this game, would be recognised by many from his profilic career across the past several decades of television, movies and video games.
He was in everything from The Wonder Years and Seinfeld to the Terminator movies. Game-wise, his resume included entries from series like Baldurs Gate, Krondor, Zork, Star Trek, Metal Gear Solid, and as the narrator of World of Warcraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Boen
I thought so too coming from the same generation. But there was a moment, few years back, where I stopped worrying about it.
My kids made me watch Sex Education on Netflix. My initial reaction was just irritation. There is so much content that uses sex, shock and awe to capture attention. And once achieved, there is no further message delivered. My initial reaction was here we go again with this crap. It also took me straight back to my days as a kid, waiting eagerly with the neighborhood gang for episodes of the Wonder Years. It was innocent. It was beautiful. It was dealing with day to day stuff kids dealt with. At least that's what I thought kids needed to see. And was I annoyed at what they were getting instead.
But as Sex Education progressed, and it pulled me in quick, I was just blown away, by how the writers were handling so many complicated subjects. Not with the usual cynicism (think fight club or the wire) but with humor, imagination and loads of innocence and beauty. It was just so heartwarming. I was looking forward to the new seasons as much as my kids were :) And I cant imagine it being produced in the 90s.
And it showed me, as complicated as the world is getting, there is so much more possible today. And beauty isn't dead. It just looks different.
It's because, before TV on DVD became a major thing in the mid-00s, TV shows would get limited licenses rather than perpetual licenses as a way to keep costs down. Most episodes would air once or twice (its premiere, and a summer re-run), and if a show hit its 100th episode (at which point it became feasible to license it for syndication), the studio would renegotiate music licenses (and some popular shows never entered syndication because of a failure to renegotiate these licenses, while others, like The Wonder Years, entered syndication with radically altered soundtracks).
Once TV shows started to release on DVD in a big way, and then digitally a few years later, it became immediately obvious that shows would need longer music licenses, and so the issue has been solved for newer works.
For some reason your comment reminded me of something I read about the Simpsons. Every single episode, no matter what, they're always a family in the end. I think what is missing is more television programing that aimed to be an aspiration to others in their community. The Jeffersons, Andy Griffith, even to include The Wonder Years.
Perhaps has another commenter noted, the writers would first have to understand that dynamic, and to do so would be a major shift at the moment.
> McKellar, who once played Becky Slater on the hit TV show “The Wonder Years,” graduated from Yale University, earned her law degree from Harvard Law School and practiced law for nearly a decade before starting at Mithril. She joined her former Yale classmate Royan at the firm in 2012 as its general counsel and served as a managing director.
I knew that name was familiar.
This lost me when it lumped the Wonder Years in with other sitcoms.
Yes light hearted, but it wasn't lol comedy, and it didn't have a laughter track.
Or is my memory completely failing me?
There was extreme media censorship (GUKPPiW 1946-1990), but directed almost exclusively towards dissident political statements and praise of western prosperity. You were still allowed to show foreign wealth as long as you showed for example how easily Polish creativity fleeced westerners out of it. Labelling everything as a comedy also helped, still for example 'Alternatywy 4'(same director as the clips below) spend 3 years being edited/censored. Those were prime time TV shows broadcast couple of years before fall of the Iron Curtain, maybe even slightly contributing to the growing unrest and eventual Polish exit from the Eastern Bloc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5MXX_n0pfQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThD7AmKQkjg
https://youtu.be/_nmGi757fyo?t=5m1s
TV was not allowed to show anything celebrating western lifestyle. We didnt get Miami Vice, Wonder Years, MacGyver, A Team or Dynasty until ~5 years after kicking Russians out of our country. Instead foreign tv shows we had were 'Escrava Isaura' and some old chestnuts from the fifties like Zorro. Cinema was a lot better, scifi movies had little trouble with censorship, we got 'New Hope' in 1979, 'Empire Strikes Back' in 1982, 'Terminator' in 1985. Toho Kaiju movies came out same year as in the west. Of course you could get censored for something entirely not in the movie. 1984 'NeverEnding Story' was delayed into 1987 because of directors earlier work 'Das Boot'.
rotate it regularly... if you're talking tape drives, re-wind them and always store upright... too much has been lost to poorly storing magnetic and film media.
Fortunately digital conversion is pretty damned good and easy enough to back up... if only "The Wonder Years" hadn't downmixed the music and vocals into their master copies... :-(
I put on Netflix on the background (iPod). Play tv series. Currently watching Top Gear and The Wonder Years.
And most regrettably, I stopped hanging out with certain people because I felt like they would be a drag on my newfound social ambition.
So did I. And I've been haunted ever since by a TV show that perfectly captured my experience. It was "The Square Dance" episode of "The Wonder Years", when Kevin wouldn't hang out with the girl he wanted to because of what other people would think.
The closing voiceover:
"The funny thing is, it's hard to remember the names of the kids you spent so much time trying to impress. But you don't forget someone like Margaret Farquhar. Professor of Biology. Mother of six. Friend to bats."
Danica McKeller (Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years (great show)) wrote a math book for girls. She's a hot movie star that's doing something.
Read more: http://www.tvsquad.com/2006/07/14/winnie-cooper-hottest-math-geek-ever/