Since the invention of television series on DVD, fans of The Wonder Years have frustratingly never been able to get their hands on a box set; short of buying bootleg copies from shady shade people from the internet who copied the episodes off of VHS tapes — not that I would know anything about that. The reason for this being that the vast soundtrack which defined the series has been too expensive to license for reproduction. Even the series streaming on Netflix is absent of almost all of the original music, including Joe Cocker’s iconic theme song.
From the press release on TV Shows on DVD:
“The Wonder Years has long been the most requested TV show yet to be released on DVD, and we’re thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to bring this iconic show to its many fans,” says Jeffrey Peisch, the Senior Vice President, Entertainment Programming & Marketing for StarVista Entertainment/Time Life. “As we’ve done with many other classic TV shows, the series will be treated with the care and attention it fully deserves after all these years, with deluxe packaging, robust extras and a lot more. We’re really big fans of the series, too.”
As it did for China Beach, StarVista Entertainment/Time Life is painstakingly securing the rights for virtually every song in The Wonder Years. From Cocker’s theme song, to hundreds of other memorable and classic soul, rock and pop songs, including classics from The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and many others, StarVista /Time Life recognizes the necessity to release the series as it was initially broadcast, un-edited and untouched from original broadcast masters.
You heard it right: Deluxe packaging, extras, and original music. *breathes into a paper bag* I don’t care if it costs eight hundred dollars; that set is mine.
