Kevin’s House from “The Wonder Years”

UPDATE – The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October!  The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets.  Sets can be pre-ordered here.

My good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, recently asked if I wanted to do some stalking of The Wonder Years house with him.  The 1968-set coming-of-age series finally made its way to Netflix in October 2011 (due to music licensing issues, it has never been released on DVD) and Mikey had been indulging in some binge-watching.  He had never stalked the Burbank-area residence where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and his family – Jack (Dan Lauria), Norma (Alley Mills), Karen (Olivia d’Abo) and Wayne (Jason Hervey) –  lived on the show, though, and while I had stalked and blogged about the location before, because it was eons ago (in March 2008), I figured it was most-definitely time for a redux.  So one rainy day (I had literally just had my hair blown out, too!) a couple of weeks ago, the two of us met up to do some Wonder Years stalking.  As soon as I returned home, the Grim Cheaper and I started binge-watching the series, as well (thanks, Mikey! ), and I was shocked at how oddly sad it is – much more so than I remembered.  While still enjoyable, I find myself tearing up at least once during every episode.

Visiting the Arnold abode was like stepping back in time.  As you can see below, virtually no part of the property has been changed in the 25-plus years since the series first debuted.

The one-story, three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,839-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1949, was featured regularly throughout the series six-season run.

Amazingly, the residence was last sold in 1987, which means that the same family who owned it during The Wonder Years years still owns it today!  Love that!

The dwelling was also featured weekly in The Wonder Years opening credits.

For some reason, Mikey and I were both under the mistaken impression that Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) waved to the camera in the opening credits and we each sat down on the curb to reenact the moment while we were there.  It was actually Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) who waved in the opening, though.  Whoops!

You can watch The Wonder Years opening credits by clicking below.  (Bet you can’t not sing along!)

Time also appears to have stood still on the Arnolds'”‘”‘ street.  It was never specifically stated where the series was supposed to have been set, producers instead choosing to keep things vague so that the narrative would be relatable to anyone who grew up in a suburban American town in the late 1960s.  The formula worked, too.  Even though I came of age in the ‘80s, my childhood wasn’t all that different from Kevin’s.  I cannot express how incredibly nostalgic stalking the neighborhood was – due both to the fact that it still looks like a community from a bygone era and because it brought back so many memories of my early years.

I am 99.9% certain that the real life interior of the home appeared in the pilot episode and that a set resembling it was subsequently built for all future filming once the series got picked up.  As you can see below, the kitchen in the pilot episode looks quite a bit different than than the one that appeared in the Season 1 episode titled “The Phone Call.”

Another view of the kitchen from the pilot as compared to a view of the kitchen from the Season 1 episode titled “Swingers” is pictured below.

Stay tuned for Winnie Cooper’s house (pictured below) on Monday!  And I recently stumbled across this amazeballs site, so you know what that means!  There will definitely be more Wonder Years stalking in my future!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, for suggesting this stalk!  You can read his write-up of the day here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kevin Arnold’s house from The Wonder Years is located at 516 University Avenue in Burbank.

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