The original run of *The Wonder Years* ended in 1993.
ABC broadcast the series finale, “Independence Day,” on May 12, 1993. The episode concludes the six-season story of Kevin Arnold as he finishes high school and looks ahead to adulthood. Its reflective ending reveals important updates about Kevin, Winnie Cooper, Paul Pfeiffer, and Kevin's family, while adult Kevin narrates how their lives develop after the main story ends.
The series had premiered on January 31, 1988, immediately after Super Bowl XXII. Over its original run, it produced 115 episodes and followed Kevin's life from 1968 through the early 1970s. The show's fictional timeline and broadcast timeline are easy to confuse: the story ends around 1973, but the television program itself ended 20 years later, in 1993.
The finale was shaped partly by production and network pressures, including rising costs, declining ratings, and concerns about handling more mature teenage storylines in the show's time slot. Those factors contributed to the decision to finish the original series after six seasons.