30 Days of OTP: Day Two, Childhood OTP (Before You Knew What Shipping Was)
Winnie Cooper & Kevin Arnold, The Wonder Years
I not quite 13 in early 1988 when the Pilot episode of this show aired. I knew who Fred Savage was, he'd been in a few films (The Princess Bride, The Boy Who Could Fly) and I already had a crush on him, but this show brought him into my living room every week. The actors were my age, so even though the show was set about 20 years earlier than my present time and the issues they experienced were different than my own, the young love thing sucked me right in from the beginning. Kevin and Winnie were next door neighbors, childhood sweethearts, kids who share their first kiss when her brother dies in Vietnam....and now, as an adult, looking back, I can understand that they were going to grow up and not be together, but the 13 year old girl in me? She never got over it. The ending of the series, and the revelation that Winnie and Kevin always remained important in each other's lives, but they didn't end up married and living happily ever after never sat right with me. I assume it will always bother me.
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