2 l September
19 - 25, 2021
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
BY JAY BOBBIN
A new version of “The Wonder Years”
premieres Wednesday on ABC.
New characters live
‘The Wonder Years’
in ABC reboot
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As a widely beloved, much-honored series
gets a reboot, others live “The Wonder Years.”
Though the original show’s “Kevin
Arnold” still is on board – since his portrayer,
Fred Savage, is an executive producer now –
Dean Williams is the central character, played
by Elisha “EJ” Williams, in the new ABC
version that premieres Wednesday, Sept. 22.
The program still charts a youngster’s coming
of age in the late 1960s with his adult self
as narrator (Don Cheadle’s voice this time),
but the formerly suburban setting has been
changed to Montgomery, Ala.
“When you think of this time period in
Black America, you don’t really think of
middle-class Black people,” fellow executive
producer Lee Daniels reasons. “You think
‘impoverished’; you think of what the media
portrayed us to be. This really sits with me
and Saladin (K. Patterson, also an executive
producer, who developed the new ‘Wonder
Years’) because we are around the same age.
This is our story, a story that hasn’t been told
to America.”
As the 12-year-old whose eyes that time
is reflected through, star Williiams notes his
mission is “giant, just trying to figure out
how (people) maneuver, as well as just trying
to learn what they learned in that time.
Obviously, as history goes on, you’re going
to learn about what happened in those days.
Now that I’m playing a character who lived
in those times, it’s more of an, ‘OK, well,
what is going on?’ than an, ‘OK, I remember
our teacher telling us about it.’ ”
Dulé Hill (who also worked with Patterson
on “Psych”), Saycon Sengbloh and Laura
Kariuki play Dean’s family (in the slots Dan
Lauria, Alley Mills and Olivia d’Abo first
had), while Milan Ray portrays Keisa, who is
to Dean who the original iteration’s Winnie
(Danica McKellar) was to the long-admiring
Kevin. Cheadle succeeds Daniel Stern as the
comedy-drama’s literal voice.
As suggested by his involvement in the new
show, 1988-93 “Wonder Years” star Savage
(often a TV director now) is comfortable
with the changes to the initial concept, which
earned the Primetime Emmy Award for
outstanding comedy series for its first season.
“There’s a lot of elements of this show that
feel very comfortable and familiar, to me and
to an audience as well,” Savage says. “We’re
maintaining a similar tone, a similar blend
of comedy and truth, the same idea of a
narrator looking back on his youth with the
wisdom of age ... but there are things that are
incredibly unique about this show. The fact
that it’s a brand-new family and brand-new
characters allows us to maintain some of the
things we loved about the original, while also
telling a wholly unique and new story.”
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