‘The Wonder Years’ gets a reboot with a Black family in Alabama. Here’s what to know
An ABC reboot of “The Wonder Years,” the beloved TV show starring Fred Savage, will feature a different perspective of the 1960s.
The rebooted “Wonder Years” will portray a “Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent 1960s,” according to Deadline.
Alabama played a pivotal role during the civil rights movement, including Rosa Parks’ participation in a bus boycott in the 1950s and a march led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
The executive producer of the reboot will be “Empire” co-creator Lee Daniels and the showrunner is Saladin K. Patterson, who is producer of the current series “Dave” and has been producer on “The Big Bang Theory,” “Psych,” and “The Bernie Mac Show,” EW reported. Savage will also be a director and executive producer.
The direction of the reboot is inspired by Patterson’s own experiences growing up in Montgomery, according to Deadline.
ABC has so far only committed to a pilot of the show, Bloomberg reported.
Savage commented on the the possibility of a reboot last year, telling Forbes how three decades after the show premiered, people were still clamoring for more.
“People ask me about a reunion all the time and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude and appreciation that people, all these years later, are not only talking about the show — that it not only still means something to people and they’re sharing it with the next generation — but that they still want to see more and new stuff,” Savage said last year, according to Forbes.
“The Wonder Years” launched the career of Savage, who was nominated for two Emmy awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series following the first two seasons of the show. He was the youngest lead actor to be nominated in the category, according to Hollywood Reporter.
The original show ran from for 113 episodes and won multiple Emmy awards. It focused on Kevin Arnold and his friends and family, with an adult Kevin — voiced by Daniel Stern — providing the narration on what it was like to grow up in the 1960s.
Creators hope for the new “Wonder Years” to be in production for the 2021-22 television season, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
