THE WONDER YEARS REBOOT
The Wonder Years was an award-winning 1980s classic sitcom and is now returning to the screen with a twist.
It’ll be worth tuning into with Fred Savage serving as executing producer and director. Other stars include Dule Hill and Saycon Sengblah as Bill and Lillian Williams, and Laura Kariuki and Elisha “E.J.” Williams as kids Kim and Dean Williams. Like its original, the reboot will reflect the original with adult Dean narrating the show and a 1960s show set. Don Cheadle, who goes through the common tween issues and being Black in the south, navigates vastly different circumstances than the franchise’s white O.G. family.
Elisha “E.J.” Williams plays Dean as a child, the awkward, bright-eyed twelve-year-old lead. He says, “[Fred is] great at putting me in the spotlight to have my own way, to be in my own lane,”
In addition, there is an interesting difference between the reboot and the original show. The initial pilot acknowledges the murder of Robert Kennedy. In contrast the reboot highlights the significant impact of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. While the nuclear family structure presented in each is similar – father, mother, two sons, and a sister – the similarities pretty much end there.
“I want people, when they walk away from the show, to see that it wasn’t all pain and strife, that it was a lot of joy and happiness,” Laura says. “Yes, there’s still racism in the world, but you still have crushes. You still go to school. You still have arguments with your family.
The series airs every Wednesday night at 8:30 pm on ABC.
