'Wonder Years' Star Suggests Alternate Ending to Divisive Finale
To this day, one of the most divisive television endings of all time may be the finale of The Wonder Years. In the beloved coming-of-age series, which aired for six season on ABC from 1988 through 1993, on again, off again childhood sweethearts Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper famously did not end up together, but went their separate ways.
However, actress Danica McKellar, who played Winnie, recently floated an idea of how it may have eventually worked out for the couple.
During an appearance on the Pod Meets World podcast this week, hosted by Boy Meets World stars Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle, McKellar was asked whether it was "always the plan" to split Kevin and Winnie up.
"Not according to my fans!" the 49-year-old exclaimed. "The fans still get upset with me. Yeah, like, 'How come you didn't, you and Kevin didn't end up together?' Like, oh my gosh, oh my god, are we still talking about this?"
"The Wonder Years was, I think also, because it wasn't like a three-camera show and it wasn't as like—everything didn't work out in the end. It often didn't work out," she reasoned. "I think it was trying to show something that more people can realistically, I guess, relate to, because most of our lives don't go the way we wanted them to or thought they were going to. And so in that same way, Kevin and Winnie did not end up together."
In the epilogue to the series, narrator Daniel Stern explained that after high school, Winnie went to study art history in Paris. And while the pair wrote letters to each other for the next eight years, it was revealed that when she returned, Kevin met her at the airport with his new wife and eight-month-old son.
"I like to say, though, look—all we know is what happened—that the narrator said happened," McKellar continued. "Which is that Winnie went off to the Sorbonne and got her degree in art or whatever, and he had a baby with his wife, and ... they were the first to greet me off the plane and all the rest of it."
"Well that's only the beginning of the story. Personally, I am divorced and remarried, and a lot of people are," she added. "And maybe Kevin and Winnie ended up together after all."
Given that Kevin was, quite honestly, kind of a jerk for most of the series, it wouldn't be a complete shock if he ended up leaving his family for his first love. So maybe, in the grand scheme of things, the original ending is best left untouched.