Kevin’s House from “The Wonder Years”

UPDATE – The Wonder Years is coming to DVD for the first time ever in October!  The 26-disc boxed set includes all six seasons of the show, plus a cast reunion segment, over 15 hours of bonus footage, a collectible metal locker, two production booklets packed with behind-the-scenes information, a replica yearbook, and Wonder Years magnets.  Sets can be pre-ordered here.

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My good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, recently asked if I wanted to do some stalking of The Wonder Years house with him.  The 1968-set coming-of-age series finally made its way to Netflix in October 2011 (due to music licensing issues, it has never been released on DVD) and Mikey had been indulging in some binge-watching.  He had never stalked the Burbank-area residence where Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) and his family – Jack (Dan Lauria), Norma (Alley Mills), Karen (Olivia d’Abo) and Wayne (Jason Hervey) –  lived on the show, though, and while I had stalked and blogged about the location before, because it was eons ago (in March 2008), I figured it was most-definitely time for a redux.  So one rainy day (I had literally just had my hair blown out, too!) a couple of weeks ago, the two of us met up to do some Wonder Years stalking.  As soon as I returned home, the Grim Cheaper and I started binge-watching the series, as well (thanks, Mikey! Winking smile), and I was shocked at how oddly sad it is – much more so than I remembered.  While still enjoyable, I find myself tearing up at least once during every episode.

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Visiting the Arnold abode was like stepping back in time.  As you can see below, virtually no part of the property has been changed in the 25-plus years since the series first debuted.

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The one-story, three-bedroom, three-bath, 1,839-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1949, was featured regularly throughout the series six-season run.

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Amazingly, the residence was last sold in 1987, which means that the same family who owned it during The Wonder Years years still owns it today!  Love that!

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The dwelling was also featured weekly in The Wonder Years opening credits.

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For some reason, Mikey and I were both under the mistaken impression that Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) waved to the camera in the opening credits and we each sat down on the curb to reenact the moment while we were there.  It was actually Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) who waved in the opening, though.  Whoops!

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You can watch The Wonder Years opening credits by clicking below.  (Bet you can’t not sing along!)

Time also appears to have stood still on the Arnolds’ street.  It was never specifically stated where the series was supposed to have been set, producers instead choosing to keep things vague so that the narrative would be relatable to anyone who grew up in a suburban American town in the late 1960s.  The formula worked, too.  Even though I came of age in the ‘80s, my childhood wasn’t all that different from Kevin’s.  I cannot express how incredibly nostalgic stalking the neighborhood was – due both to the fact that it still looks like a community from a bygone era and because it brought back so many memories of my early years.

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I am 99.9% certain that the real life interior of the home appeared in the pilot episode and that a set resembling it was subsequently built for all future filming once the series got picked up.  As you can see below, the kitchen in the pilot episode looks quite a bit different than than the one that appeared in the Season 1 episode titled “The Phone Call.”

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Another view of the kitchen from the pilot as compared to a view of the kitchen from the Season 1 episode titled “Swingers” is pictured below.

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Stay tuned for Winnie Cooper’s house (pictured below) on Monday!  And I recently stumbled across this amazeballs site, so you know what that means!  There will definitely be more Wonder Years stalking in my future!

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For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, for suggesting this stalk!  You can read his write-up of the day here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Kevin Arnold’s house from The Wonder Years is located at 516 University Avenue in Burbank.

23 Replies to “Kevin’s House from “The Wonder Years””

  1. I was at the filming of the last shows, they did those in uptown Whittier!! I lived at Painter and Hadley at the time (in Whittier) So sad to see such a great show end but love it on Netflix! PS Uptown Whittier still looks the same!

  2. Excellent job with the pictures I didn’t know where kevin’shouse was,but it’s awesome where it’s located.i love this serie,I appreciate this page,I like these photos,in really is a beautiful neighborhood where to live,it’s. A dream…greetings from Peru my friends..

  3. In ScreenShot1074 (above) of the intro with Winnie (Danica McKellar) sitting on the curb, who’s sitting behind her?

  4. Hi Lindsay! I’m from Monterrey, México and i’m a very big fan of the show too (sorry for my english!)

    I wanna know where is the park (with the baseball camp) that appared on the season 1 chapter 2 (when Kevin starts sweating :D) at the end of the chapter.

    Another thing I would like to know is where the forest where Kevin and Winnie had their first kiss (Harper Woods)

    I appreciate any response, and i’am a big fan of your page! I invite you to visit mine on Facebook. Greetings from Monterrey!

  5. A friend of mine mentioned that The Wonder Years house was located in Downey and they also did some of the filming inside. I told him about how the house was in Burbank and showed him your web site. But do you think that possibly some filming was done at a house in Downey?

  6. I was a big Wonder Years fan. This is a great post. We stayed in Burbank on our last visit to So Cal and this would have been an quick and easy stalk. Time to go back.

  7. I love “The Wonder Years.” The first/only time I visited L.A. (with my brother in 2008), I hopped in my rental car at the Burbank airport, and the first stop we made was the nearby McCambridge Rec Center, which is where Marty’s band, the Pinheads, auditioned in my favorite movie of all time. (If you need me to ID the movie … shame on you!) Anyway, the McCambridge Rec Center is right at the end of University Avenue and is a two-minute walk from Kevin Arnold’s house. So after checking out the rec center, we walked down University to Kevin’s house. The moment is embedded in my memory for a few reasons: 1. We had dressed in layers, back in Connecticut, and the L.A. sun was so warm, so inviting, that we were joyfully stripping off clothes as we walked down University. (We kept things PG!) The change in weather made it obvious we were far from home — and that was a good thing. 2. As you pointed out, that picturesque street is a blast from the past. Before we even reached Kevin’s house, we felt as if we had stepped back into another era. It was such a cool feeling. 3. While we were taking photos, a man across the street talked with us briefly, asking what we were doing. I told him we were taking pics of houses on the street. He made the assumption that I was a location manager — an assumption I didn’t bother to dispute — and said I should take pics of his house. Less than an hour after landing in California, I’d been hit with a stark change in weather, I’d walked through a neighborhood straight out of a movie (or in this case, a TV show) and I’d been mistaken for a movie crewmember. That trifecta made it really clear really quickly that I had finally made it to La-La Land! ☺ P.S. You mentioned you started binge-watching the series again. Did you get to the episode in which Karen and Michael (played by David Schwimmer of “Friends” fame) move into an old house together? (It’s a 1991 episode called “The House That Jack Built.”) You need to find that house! That’s an order!

    1. Haha! That “man across the street” was me. Not kidding. And the 99.9% assumption about the kitchen location is correct. It was shot in the kitchen of the corner house above Winnie’s house. And then they built a set. The real trivia question is: where did they shoot the opening bbq scene. I know.

      1. Hi, Thanks so much for your comment! So was the kitchen location from the house at 537 University (Paul’s house on the series) or from 516 University (Kevin’s house)? And please do tell where the opening BBQ scene was shot. I’d love to know! 🙂

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