Fred Savage producing and directing some episodes. Lee Daniels on board as well.
Doesn’t really feel like an appropriate title for a black family in that era.
With Lee Daniels behind this, I’m sure that’s intentional.
Can we put some sarcastic quotes around “Wonder” then? :)
Certainly the idea is interesting, but as with a lot of “reboots” I question what the value of tying it to the original property is when you’re not really going to use any part of it. Still, that’s a minor pet peeve, the project itself has a lot of promise.
Huh, that’s interesting. In one sense the “loving but not always harmonious family is chiefly seen through the eyes of one of the kids, and it’s set twenty years before the night that show is airing on network television… and it’s a Black family” show was done nearly twenty years ago with Everybody Hates Chris. In another sense, when The Wonder Years was on, it was a period piece, but there was only that twenty year gap. There were cars on the road from that era that wouldn’t look too out of place (if they could take Unleaded Gasoline). They called the music oldies music, but there were radio stations dedicated to it. Some grown-ups probably still had wardrobe from that era in their closets. For a new Wonder Years set in the late '60s, early '70s, we’re talking a fifty-ish year gap. That isn’t insurmountable from a production standpoint, but it won’t be easy or cheap. Therefore, the show will be more likely to be cancelled unless it’s somehow a big hit. This will be almost as distant a past as kids in the '80s saw The Journey of Natty Gann. Relatable, but still from the olden days.
In yet another sense, from about the fifth grade to the sixth grade, The Wonder Years was my favorite TV show. I had the biggest crush on Winnie Cooper. Daniel Stern’s constant narration wasn’t annoying at all – I thought it would be cool to have the benefit of an older me’s wisdom. (I know young Kevin Arnold wasn’t actually hearing old Kevin Arnold – he and the family just paused all the time for his monologues.) I am really interested in how this will turn out, even if I’m not in the presumably preteen target audience.
I rewatched Wonder Years a couple of years ago, and it actually held a lot more impact than it did when it first aired. Of course, I wasn’t a preteen then either!
Fuck me, I’m old.
I never liked the Wonder Years, and I would passionately change the channel when I’d see it coming up. I hated the forced saccharine feel good nostalgia trying to tell me what a normal childhood, coming of age, and family should be like. And it would piss me off to see life in general presented as a cozy warm hug of positive learning experiences and fond memories.
I hope this new version shits all over that and presents life as the miserable fucking string of barely tolerable wretched experiences that it really is. And I hope it spits in the face of anybody who would pretend otherwise.
Kevin’s father was like 42 when the show aired.
I have to admit, this is a pretty neat idea. I liked Everybody Hates Chris, but a period piece set in Montgomory, Alabama (where this one is set) is going to be quite a bit different than one set in Brooklyn (Everybody Hates Chris).
My parents were older than that when I was a teenager. I just meant that I had filed Everybody Loves Chris into that vague time category of “more than five years ago, but while I was an adult”. It didn’t seem that long ago until this thread, when it hit home that that category includes things from 20 years ago.
It’s also awkward because the original show is still quite popular*. It would be different if everyone hated the show now, like the Brady Bunch.
(* I don’t like it because I didn’t enjoy that period of the 90s much.)
Me thinks your reaction is bit over the top.
I loved Winnie Cooper and I still do. Danica McKellar turned out to be beautiful, brilliant (a math theorem named after her.) Danica is still making saccharine sweet Hallmark movies, and posting puzzles on twitter. But she also wrote three math books for girls which I bought for my home schooled, grand niece. One of them caught the math bug and likes math almost as much as makeup which is pretty impressive for a 14-year old.
Live isn’t always a shit sandwich.
Oh my point was just when I watched it I was Kevin Arnold’s age and the father seemed impossibly ancient. Then I got to the point where I’m older than Kevin’s dad.
Not sure if trolling or actually believes this.