THE WONDER YEARS Is Getting Rebooted By Lee Daniels, Fred Savage, and Saladin K. Patterson

I grew up watching and enjoying the classic ‘80s and ‘90s series The Wonder Years. It was one of my favorite shows! I’ve actually been enjoying it all over again now that it’s on Hulu.

Well, the series is going to be rebooted. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later as everything is being rebooted or remade these days. This new version of the show is coming from Dave executive producer Saladin K. Patterson, Empire co-creator Lee Daniels, the original series’ star Fred Savage, and 20th Century Fox TV.

Patterson is writing the series, and this version of the show is going to be inspired by his experiences growing up in Montgomery, Alabama. “The new incarnation of The Wonder Years chronicles how a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama in the turbulent late 1960’s — the same era as the original series — made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too.”

Savage is set to direct the pilot episode if the pilot script is approved for production by ABC. The greenlight will also trigger the opening of a mini writer’s room in preparation for a possible series pickup. The co-creator of the original series, Neal Marlens, is also being brought on board the project as a consultant.

Created by Marlens and Carole Black, the original The Wonder Years ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988-1993. The coming-of-age dramedy took place from 1968-1973 and was narrated by Daniel Stern as an adult version of Kevin Arnold, played by Savage, a teenager in a suburban middle-class family, who recalled growing up during the turbulent social times.

The series was also awarded a Peabody Award in 1989 for “pushing the boundaries of the sitcom format and using new modes of storytelling.” In the course of its run, the series won 22 Emmy Awards out of 76 nominations.

While I don’t really care for reboots or remakes, I loved The Wonder Years so much, and getting a completely new story from that same era following a different family, in a different area of the country, is kind of cool. I hope it can capture that same magic that the original series did. With some of the original talent on board developing the series, and with the additional talent that they’ve brought on, they might be able to do it!

Source: Deadline