Fans of The Wonder Years shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for a revival. Fred Savage, who starred on the 1980s-era dramedy series as protagonist Kevin Arnold, has vetoed the idea.
“Fred really does not want to do a reboot,” Danica McKellar, who played love interest Winnie Cooper, exclusively told Us Weekly at the Hallmark Television Critics Association party in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, February 9. “And he makes a good point: The show was about a certain time in your life that you can’t go back to and … the bittersweet memory of that is what gave the show its flavor.”
The 44-year-old continued: “So if we went to back to it, we’d kind of be killing the integrity of the original intention of the show. I just don’t think it would work.”
McKellar did clarify that she’s “open” to revival ideas, but she’s still skeptical of bringing the Emmy-winning show back without Savage. “I guess they’re doing Roseanne without Roseanne [Barr], but I don’t know if it would work in this case,” she told Us. “Who would be the narrator?”
The Christmas At Grand Valley actress even shot down the idea of Winnie taking over as narrator. “See, none of these ideas sound like they would work, but I’ve been wrong before,” she added.
That said, McKellar does think the old Wonder Years gang could get together for a crossover with ‘90s-era ABC sitcom Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper. She got the idea after someone suggested that a Winnie-centric reboot could have the name Mrs. Cooper in its title.
“I was like, ‘Oh, Hangin’ with Mrs. Cooper,’ and [we could] have Holly Robinson Peete from Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper join in so we could do, like, a mashup,” she joked.
With reporting by Nicole Pajer
