Dean Quote #143
Michael: Hey, Four Eyes! Can you look to my house and tell me what's on the TV? [laughter]
Adult Dean: Now, no one in school knew how old Michael Simms was. Some people said he had a son at another school. Others said he'd already done a tour in 'Nam. Bullies back then benefited from us not having Google to fact-check.
Coach Long: Shut up, Free Lunch!
Michael: Yo mama on free lunch.
Students: Ooh.
Mrs. Hodges: What's all the fuss back there?
Girl: Somebody said "yo mama."
Mrs. Hodges: Now, that's something that the Black students do that the white students don't. You ought to be like these three. [points to Dean, Cory and Keisa] Their parents send them here to learn.
Brad: Hey, she's not prejudiced.
Adult Dean: But was she? In my memory, she was. But she also gave some of us Black students extra attention if she thought we had potential, which may still have been racist. I don't know.
The Wonder Years Quotes
‘Pilot’ Quotes
Quote from Adult Dean
Adult Dean: Growing up, Mom and Dad gave me "The Police Talk" about how to handle yourself around cops. There was a presidential election that created a racial divide, and there was a flu pandemic that they said would kill a million people around the world. But it was 1968. And that's the state our country was in. Yeah, even the flu part. This was the year I turned 12, the age where you transfer from boy to man. Or as the old folks used to say, "When a boy starts smelling himself." The previous summer's race riots had caused the first wave of "white flight" to the suburbs. As a kid, I didn't understand all that. We had neighborhoods that were just as safe as the ones they were developing outside the city. There were teachers, veterans, shop owners, all united by pride, self-determination, and the right to spank any kid caught outside after the street lights came on.
Quote from Bill
Bill: Shh. Be cool.
Adult Dean: "Be cool" was Daddy's catch-all advice for every situation.
[flashback to Bill throwing a match on the grill:]
Bill: Be cool.
[flashback to Dean gasping as he's electrocuted by a wall socket:]
Bill: Be cool.
[flashback to Bill in the driver's seat with his family as their car is stopped by the police:]
Bill: Be cool.
Quote from Adult Dean
Adult Dean: I didn't understand a lot of what was going on, especially why when people get really upset about something bad, they resort to destroying their own things.
Man: [o.s.] Sick and tired of this!
Adult Dean: But something told me that my friends were probably just as confused as I was.
Man: [o.s.] Why do they keep doing this to us?!
Woman: [o.s.] Nothing but them ol' white folks.
[When Dean arrives at the old school, he finds Cory and Keisa kissing]
Adult Dean: Suddenly, the anger I was seeing on the news made a little more sense, especially because it felt like some things would never change.
[Dean throws a rock at a school window and then puts his glasses back on before riding his bicycle home]
Adult Dean: Everybody in my family plays that day over and over in their minds. But for different reasons. For each of us, it felt like the world around us had changed forever.
[Lillian lets Dean in when he arrives home. In the living room, Dean notices the baseball on the mantle, signed "Dean's game ball 4/4/68"]
Adult Dean: But thankfully, for each of us, the world on the inside hadn't.