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The Wonder Years reboot to focus on a Black family in 1960s Alabama

Fred Savage, who starred as Kevin Arnold, will direct the new show.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper
2 min read
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Danica McKellar and Fred Savage starred in the original version of The Wonder Years. McKellar said on Twitter she was excited for the new show.

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A new family is set to get by with a little help from their friends, as the theme song goes. The Wonder Years, the nostalgic 1980s-'90s comedy-drama about a young boy growing up in the 1960s, is coming back with a new look. ABC will reboot the iconic show to focus on a Black family in 1960s Alabama, and Fred Savage, who starred as young Kevin Arnold in the original show, will direct.

The half-hour show will cover the same time period as the original show, which was took place from 1968 to 1973. Filmmaker Lee Daniels will serve as executive producer, with Saladin Patterson as writer and executive producer.

"Fred emailed me last night to share the news!" actress Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper on the show, wrote on Twitter. "I can't wait to see what he and (Lee Daniels) create. I have no doubt it will both honor the original show and do justice to the realities of growing up Black in (the) 1960s."

The original show starred Savage as Kevin Arnold, who ages from 12-17 during the show's six seasons. McKellar played Winnie Cooper, his friend and sometimes love interest. Kevin's family included parents Jack (Dan Lauria) and Norma (Alley Mills), and Kevin's older siblings Karen (Olivia d'Abo) and Wayne (Jason Hervey). The show featured universal growing-up plot lines as well and showed how the family was affected by news events of the '60s, including the Vietnam War. Actor Daniel Stern narrated the show as the voice of the adult Kevin.

No casting or release date information for the reboot is available yet.

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