Published: Tuesday, May 15, 1990
Section: COMICS/TV
Page: 3C
By: DANIEL CERONE Los Angeles Times Service
"It's weird. People come up and say, 'Hi Winnie!' They know me, but I don't know them."
The truth is, most people only know 15-year-old Danica McKellar as Winnie Cooper, Kevin Arnold's puppy love affair on The Wonder Years. The show has completely swept bittersweet TV audiences into the post-pubescent liaisons of the two star- crossed lovers. The first kiss. The Valentine's card. The make-out room.
What makes Danica nervous, though, is that some people don't want to know who Winnie really is. They want to believe that Kevin and Winnie's relationship is as authentic and tangible as their own fragile memories of first love.
"So many people are tied up in the relationship," Danica said. "It's kind of freaky."
Fred Savage agrees. "Sometimes when I'm walking down the street, people will yell out, 'Hey Kevin, where's Winnie?' " he said. "It just makes me laugh."
"Right now we're together, so everything is OK," Danica said. "But it can't last too long, or we wouldn't have a story, right?" (Wednesday night at 8 on channels 10 and 25, Kevin learns Winnie is moving away -- or is she?)
The young actress said that at the very least, people want to believe that she and Fred are an item off screen. "Everybody asks that. Everybody wants to know if Fred and I are going out. And they want it to be true. They want it to be real."
Danica exhaled a deep breath, like a teacher repeating information for the students who weren't listening. "We're good friends. That's all."
On the set, Danica and Fred interact like any of the other young actors -- in fact, just like the regular kids that they are. "A lot of times I may be having a conversation with Fred on the set, and similar lines will appear in the script two weeks later because the writers were listening. They pick up on our words and expressions," Danica explained.
The Wonder Years is Danica's first acting job on a regular series, following three years of acting school and a couple of bit TV parts. When Danica was 12, she answered a cattle call for the role of Winnie. The field was ultimately narrowed down to her and another girl -- her younger sister.
"I tried out for the part with my sister, Crystal," Danica said. "We both got a call back the next day. It was down to just the two of us. Finally, they told me that I got the job, but they liked Crystal so much that they wrote a part for her also." She was cast as Becky Slater, Kevin's girlfriend on the show before Winnie. Both sisters live with their parents in Los Angeles. Danica doesn't see future scripts of The Wonder Years until the episode is being shot, so she wasn't able to provide any insight into what is in store for Kevin and Winnie's relationship. But she expects
to be around for the duration of the series, even if it is in a limited role.