Home Video Releases
Unlike most long-running popular American television series, The Wonder Years has still not yet been released on DVD as official season box sets, allegedly due to music licensing issues. Because of this, The Wonder Years routinely appears high on the list of TV shows in-demand for a DVD release. Some episodes of the series were included in two official "best-of" DVD sets (The Best of The Wonder Years and The Christmas Wonder Years) without the original music. Anchor Bay also released two volumes (four episodes total) on VHS in 1997.
In a blog update on the Netflix website on March 30, 2011, and a press release issued the next day, Netflix stated that they would be adding The Wonder Years to their instant streaming service. The other three 20th Century Fox series noted as part of the deal were added to the Watch Instantly service by April 2, while The Wonder Years remained unavailable. On October 1, 2011, 114 full-length episodes of the series were added to Netflix streaming. The clip show from the end of Season 4, which was released on DVD, has not been included.
On September 26, 2011 it was announced that Amazon Prime's streaming video service would be adding The Wonder Years, describing the series as "available on digital video for the first time", although Netflix added the series ahead of Amazon's release. All 115 episodes (including the clip show) became available to Prime members starting October 6, 2011.
On both digital streaming services, portions of the soundtrack have been replaced. The show's opening theme, Joe Cocker's rendition of The Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends," has been replaced on Netflix and Amazon with the version of the song that played in UK and other overseas airings. The majority of the show's soundtrack remains unchanged. Songs such as "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix have been replaced by generic sound-alikes with different lyrics.
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