54THE WONDER YEARS

Aired: ABC, 1988-1993

Created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black, this sweet, intelligent confection of a half-hour comedy functioned as a looking glass into a late '60s suburban childhood. "In a sense, the series is one long flashback," Marlens told The Miami Herald at the time. ABC thought highly enough of the pilot to air it after the Super Bowl. That episode revolved around a first kiss between adolescents Kevin and Winnie, who learns that her brother has been killed in Vietnam. The show's use of voiceover narration by Daniel Stern (whose performance in the 1982 Barry Levinson movie Diner still resonated) grounded the series in an adult's wry, wistful sensibility. "It is an adult whom we'll never see," Black said, "talking about his childhood."