No time to relax.

Someone tell the set department to calm down.

 There isn't a lot of time to get caps of Norma's scenes because they are so short.

I like this probably-polyester top.  It would be a pretty wicked dress if they included a shot of her standing!

CUT! Cut! Why is Wayne in the show?!  Maybe he could be adopted? 

Early set kitchen - remodeled & wallpapered later in the season.

Glad they dressed Norma with some dignity, despite her being shown as a slave to her moody teenage daughter.  Won't she just run away to the Haight already?!  Give Norma a break, girl.

Pastels.

Tone on tone on tone on tone on tone on tone on tone.  

TV Land Climate.

The show debuted twenty years after the fictional Arnold family's sitcom-esque life events took place.  Place - this is presumably California, and that California became Wondrous enough in 1968 to our culture to warrant a nicely done television show.  

(pretty kickass run-on sentence, yes? ha ha!)

A debut after the nation just collectively drank its way through the Super Bowl? I bet that cost a fortune to put together, but the producers had to catch us at just the right time when our guard was down as a nation. This is the TV climate that wore America down the previous year.  Small wonder that Roseanne, (the anti-Wonder Years Mom) was a flying success, too!

Americans are weird.  Can I get a witness?

Knife-wielding Norma.

Will she read The Feminine Mystique in the series, at some point?  

NO?  Ok.  

I guess everyone just wants a Mom to love.

Dude: Darling, don't worry, I'll go on to star in My Big Fat Greek Wedding!

Enter the pink cardigan.

How to dress your family.

Simple headband, fruit and flowers shirt. 

Tone on tone on tone.  Hard to go wrong.

Funeral Garb. And Jell-O.

Here she is, dressed for funeral for the kid down the street that got, um, written out in the first episode.  What says grief like all black and a pretty dish of green Jell-O?

I may try to revisit this episode.  Those screengrabs are totes horbs.

Early set kitchen.

No doubt she is saying "Kevin" in her blue and green floral print button-up.

The sweater.

The sweater to be held responsible for this blog.

I figured out how I could maybe recreate this sweater. 

It looks like that awful bobbly late 1980s acrylic yarn, though. Ick.

Screengrabs.  "Fashion."  Wonder Years Mom.

RFK Junior High

In a fictionalized version of 1968.

What does TMZ stand for?

According to TMZ, Alley Mills seems to be doing alright.


Here is her entry in Wikipedia, to save you a click.


What are your impressions?


Stay tuned for lots of screengrabs from the show via iPad alongside occasional precious commentary.


Hurray!

Early set doorway.

Very much a 'mom' look for '68.  Tidy.  Striped.

Subscribe via RSS if you need this in your daily life.  Couldn't we all use Alley Mills' reassuring gaze?

Screengrabs. "Fashion." Wonder Years Mom.

The Wonder Years recently surfaced on Netflix. I found the mother, Norma Arnold, to be one of the more underserved characters. I'm not a fan of the show, but hear me out.

For one, Alley Mills is just so  pretty.  (And much more lovely & earthy than, say, Betty Draper (AMC's Mad Men.))

Alley's part is unsung particularly early on, as she is mostly just a source of one line: "Kevin."

Kevin, the annoying twit at the center of every damn episode. Complete with the twerpy eyebrow raise that probably won him the show.  That's not my area of expertise.  Me and Kev are about the same age, so kudos for some great child-acting, Fred Savage. Seriously, thanks for Party Down. (Bobbi & Constance are my favorites!)

Anyway, I think there is more to Kevin's Mom's character.  Here, I champion the underdog and accept this project.  What might we discover? What does her house say about her? Did the writers ever, actually do her justice? Who are her friends?

What questions does the show leave us with, assuming I can survive viewing this much Wonder Years?

Most of all, let's check out what fun the wardrobe staff had dressing her, stylizing this nearly-invisible character played by an utterly lovely actress.

All content is work safe, with probably some F-bombs here or there - so I guess, not actually work safe.

Enjoy!
Suzy Dragnet