January 31, 1988: "The Wonder Years" Premieres

January 31, 1988: After broadcasting Super Bowl XXII, ABC premieres its heavily-hyped The Wonder Years, which remains set 20 years in the past for its entire run: 1968 to 1973. The opening theme is Joe Cocker's version of The Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends."

Kevin Arnold (played as a boy by Fred Savage, with Daniel Stern as adult Kevin narrating) is 12 years old when the show begins. He is the youngest of 3 children: The oldest, his sister, Karen, was a Hippie (Olivia d'Abo); and the middle child, his brother, Wayne (Jason Hervey), is the opposite, a bully. Their parents are Jack, a furniture salesman (Dan Lauria), and Norma, a housewife (Alley Mills).

It's not clear where the story is set: Kevin has a New York Jets jacket, and a Jets pennant on the wall of his room; but the only hint as to a location is a 1992/1972 mention of "Tri-County Citizens for McGovern." Since Long Island, where I initially suspected the show was set, has only 2 Counties (Nassau and Suffolk), that's out.

Kevin's best friend is nerdy Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano). His other best friend is a girl, Winifred "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar). She was a tomboy, and in the Summer of 1968, she went away. When she came back in time for the new schoolyear, she had begun to develop into a woman, and Kevin noticed. This led to some narration that probably shouldn't have been written.

Unlike ABC's previous nostalgia show, Happy Days, this was no sitcom, settling things in a mere half-hour. While there was lots of humor, there were a considerable amount of serious moments, including the Vietnam combat death of Winnie's brother in the pilot, which hung over her life, and her relationship with Kevin, the rest of the way.

The world seemed to be falling apart around them, yet their suburban existence remained mundane, until the series finale, set on the 4th of July 1973, when it becomes clear that Kevin and Winnie, having just finished their junior year of high school, will not end up together. Winnie became an art historian. Kevin has a wife and a son, but doesn't reveal what he does for a living.

The show was rebooted in 2021, based on a black family in Birmingham, Alabama, also starting in 1968. The pilot is based around the first racially-integrated Little League game in the city, but it is called off when word is received of the assassination of Martin Luther King. (UPDATE: This version of the show lasted 2 years.)

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January 31, 1988 was a Sunday -- Super Sunday. In Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins came from a 10-0 deficit to beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10. Doug Williams became the 1st black quarterback to start, and the 1st to win, a Super Bowl. I have a separate entry for this event.

There were no other football games played that day. Baseball was out of season. Not wanting to lose TV viewers to even the lengthy pregame programming, the NBA scheduled only 1 game for the day, a major rivalry: The Boston Celtics beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 100-85 at the Boston Garden. Larry Bird scored 29 points.

There were only 2 games played in the NHL. Washington emerged victorious in one of these, as well, and it was even more dramatic, because the result was in doubt beyond the intended end: The Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. For 63 minutes, the Flyers' Ron Hextall and the Caps' Pete Peeters (a former Flyer) shut each other's teams out. With 1:33 left in overtime, before the game would have ended in a tie, Kelly Miller scored the winning goal for the Caps.

A winner could not be found in the other game: The Buffalo Sabres and the Winnipeg Jets played to a 4-4 tie at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.