The Wonder Years on DVD: costly music licensing Jun24 '07

Photo of The Wonder Years

How come The Wonder Years is not out on DVD yet?

The nostalgic, coming-of-age series that aired from 1988-1993, featuring the familiar narration of Daniel Stern has yet to be released in any digital format.

This is beyond disappointing for millions of fans, who wish to reclaim a part of their lives with the television show that was as profound as life itself.

The Wonder Years was my adolescence - in so many words.

The reason is the music licensing. The Wonder Years borrowed some 300 uncut, undistributed songs for it's vast array of episodes - songs that will never see the light of day under current digital rights regulations.

Back then, music licensing was as may have been as foreign as an iPod, so the creators of The Wonder Years didn't hold back. They freely selected any music that "fit the mood," and the mood is what the show was all about.

The only way this series will be released (any time soon) in a digital format is without the music.

This is sad news for fans, who are only hoping for a completely intact series to have in their own collection. You can't just remove or replace the music, and have the show be as effective as it was. The music is what resonated across adults and children alike. Every age could probably find a part of themselves in The Wonder Years.

It makes me wonder why the creators didn't realize this as they were doing it. I mean, it wasn't that long ago. They had to have had at least some notion that the music licensing would come back to haunt them.

The creators must be kicking themselves now, because not only have they possibly eliminated a source of revenue, they did a complete disservice to the fans of the show. By not allowing fans to once again see the episodes as they were presented is just wrong.

But then again, without the music that was used, the show wouldn't have been as great as it was.

So I digress.

Sources and other information

The majority of information for this post was collected from articles on the web. But let me tell you, even with Google, it wasn't easy finding information. I had to do a Google News archive search to find articles from years ago.
The most informative article was this one from the Denver Post, from July 2006, titled "Pricey nostalgia." This is where I got most of my information.
The web site TVShowsOnDVD was also helpful, with this news release also from last July, linking to the same Denver Post article.
To be fair, there has already been two DVD releases of The Wonder Years (The Best of the Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years: The Holiday Episodes), but both are incomplete collections with different music.
Beverly Hills, 90210 is in the same boat as The Wonder Years. The "official" DVD release finally came from FOX in November 2006, but as you probably guessed, with entirely different music.
FOX is also behind the potential release of The Wonder Years.
It's hard to believe The Wonder Years started airing almost 20 years ago.

Categories: DVD , Legal , Music , Television

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I completely agree with everything you mentioned. The Wonder Years, in my opinion, is the most enjoyable & fulfilling show ever produced. The s ... Read more.

I was shocked when I started searching for it also. I didn't realize the music problem. I found a link for a set: ... Read more.

Shon, that link looks good. It does say unedited, so perhaps they converted the TV shows to DVD, and kept the original music. Alth ... Read more.

Yes, it is unfortunate about the liscensing, but I disagree with you when you say that the show writers did the fans a disservice by including the ... Read more.

@Jonpaul - You're right. If the creators exercised a little foresight, they may have avoided the current DRM battles, but at the same time ... Read more.

I realize there are different forms of licensing but if they can still play reruns on cable with the correct music they should be able to get it do ... Read more.

I was wondering if anyone has purchased the dvd collection from the tvaddicts.com link. I was thinking of buying them but was wondering if there w ... Read more.

The creators did not borrow. They licensed the music and paid for it from the beginning. The terms of their license simply did not allow for redist ... Read more.

The Wonder Years was and is an excellent show. I have taped the series for my own enjoyment and accidently recorded a few commercials by mistake. I ... Read more.

Be very careful about purchasing advertised full sets of the show!!! I ordered some from a web site last year, TVDVDPlanet, to give as a Christmas ... Read more.

Sad issue this is and the worse part is we never get any kind of updates as far as progress on this issue. We get a post or story from a fan every ... Read more.

this is terribly, terribly sad. i too found a ton of these boxed sets online but im not buying them. i cant believe they didnt have the foresight t ... Read more.

i purcahsed the series from tvaddicts.com and was over charged and my item NEVER came. i am disputing the charges with VISA. i also ordered it fr ... Read more.

I'm not alone. I love the series too. Can't believe they just can come to an understanding with all the artists. Heck I'd pay big bucks for a compl ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from a suburb of Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.