‘The Wonder Years’ Is Getting Rebooted With a Black Family
Television has not yet run out of beloved shows of the ’80s and ’90s to reboot. ABC announced today that they are making a pilot for a new version of The Wonder Years, which originally aired on the network from 1988 to 1993. The entire premise of the show was already about nostalgia, so there may not be a more perfect concept to capture the zeitgeist right now.
The old Wonder Years starred a young Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, and chronicled his ups and downs growing up in suburbia during the late 1960s. Savage will direct the pilot of the new Wonder Years, which will be set during the same time period, with one very notable twist, according to its official description (via USA Today). The show is now about...
...‘How a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama, in the turbulent late 1960s, the same era as the original series, made sure it was 'The Wonder Years' for them, too.’ In addition to Savage, who has built a successful career directing comedies and also will serve as an executive producer, the reboot will include original series co-creator Neal Marlens as a consultant.
Lee Daniels will executive produce the series; The Last O.G.’s Saladin Patterson is the writer and executive producer.
Reframing The Wonder Years to focus on a Black family in the late 1960s could make it one of the more timely updates of a classic show in recent memory. As a kid, I loved The Wonder Years because it was a great show to watch as family — my parents talked about what life was like during the time period on the show, and I could relate to the younger characters, who were all roughly my age. If the new show can capture three generations — the grandparents who lived through that time, the parents who watched the old show, and their kids today — it could be a big hit.
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