ABC’s “The Wonder Years” cancelled; featured Black family in 1960s Montgomery
“The Wonder Years” cast: Dule Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Laura Kariuki, Elisha Williams – (ABC/Erika Doss)
“The Wonder Years” reboot has been cancelled by ABC after two seasons, according to Variety, Entertainment Weekly and other publications.
It had featured a Black middle-class family living in 1960s Montgomery, following the original version of the coming-of-age series that debuted in the 198os, which starred Fred Savage as character Kevin Arnold.
Savage and Saladin K. Patterson created the reboot, which followed 12-year-old Dean Williams, played by Elisha “EJ” Williams, and the lessons he learned while growing up in Montgomery. Don Cheadle served as narrator, an older version of Dean.
Dule Hill was the father of the family, and posted this on X, formerly Twitter:
Be cool…. when chapter ends, another begins. Congrats to @S_K_Patterson, this talented cast and our amazing crew on bringing this beautiful story to our TV screens for the last two seasons. Grateful. What’s next? #TheWonderYears ✌🏾@WonderYearsABC https://t.co/YlyDtP6DP4
— Dulé Hill (@DuleHill) September 16, 2023
ABC had announced details of the reboot in 2021. The show filmed scenes in Montgomery and looked for extras from the local area to help give it an authentic feel. In October 2021, the actors came to Montgomery to shoot around the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which featured 1960s cars on the street. Part of Eastdale Mall was transformed to look like a shopping center from that period.
Entertainment Weekly reports that Savage was a director and executive producer for the first season before being fired after a misconduct investigation.
