The Miami Herald
Published: Wednesday, July 29, 1992
Section: TVL
Page: 7E
By: HAL BOEDEKER Herald Television Critic
* The Wonder Years, 8-9 tonight, ABC, Channels 10, 25
LOS ANGELES -- The future doesn't exactly look wonderful for The Wonder Years.
ABC has picked up just 13 episodes of the Emmy-winning comedy for the coming season. Audience interest has waned as the show has aged, ABC Entertainment President Robert Iger said during the TV critics' summer tour. But he didn't rule out additional episodes, or even renewal, if the series rebounds.
Tonight, viewers get two reminders of The Wonder Years' undeniable charm and what the medium will lose when the series does end. The network will repeat the pilot, which presents main character Kevin Arnold as a 12-year-old and which originally aired March 15, 1988. One of the finest episodes, a 1990 show about Kevin learning to respect his math teacher, airs afterward.
The Wonder Years has been remarkable. It soared past mere nostalgia with its clear-eyed look at coming of age in the '60s and '70s. It was one "dramedy" -- the once-ballyhooed mixture of drama and comedy -- that clicked.
As played by Fred Savage, Kevin has been more real and likable than TV's brood of precocious kiddies. (Savage will introduce the pilot tonight.)
In the crucial upcoming 13 episodes, viewers will see a more rebellious Kevin who frequently breaks with his parents. Establishing Kevin as a young adult is the main goal this season, said executive producer Bob Brush.
"The show was originally intended to talk to adults looking back at their childhood," Brush said. But the series also picked up a huge audience of teenagers, and he believes The Wonder Years lost its appeal among older teens in recent years.
"I'm hoping this year the themes will be a little harder, and Kevin Arnold is going to be a little more of a person who seems interesting to today's kids," Brush said.
As a 16-year-old junior in 1972, Kevin will be together with Winnie (Danica McKellar) at the beginning of the year. He'll become more politically aware, thanks to the Nixon- McGovern presidential race. He will visit the Point, where teens go to make out.
Kevin and best friend Paul (Josh Saviano) will look at the world differently. "Kevin wants to get out there and take risks," Brush said. "Paul has a sense of the big picture and responsibility. He has all those values that Kevin is trying to run away from."
The series has no plans for Kevin to lose his virginity, as Paul did last season, Brush said.
Kevin's brother, Wayne (Jason Hervey), will live in the basement and go to work with their father, Jack (Dan Lauria), at Norcom Enterprises.
In the most welcome change, the series will cut back on narration by Daniel Stern, who speaks the role of Kevin as an adult. "My feeling is maybe we have been listening to the narrator a little too much over the past year and a half, and maybe It's time to let the kid speak for himself," Brush said.
"What the show started out with was a very cute little muffin with great big eyes looking out at the world, and not having any way to understand it," he said. "I think the wonder always, at that point, came from the outside. And now it's a lot about wondering about what's inside."
Savage calls Kevin "the universal teenager." Adults constantly tell him that they lived the storylines, too. "I can relate to everything he's gone through, from his first kiss to getting his driver's license," Savage said.
Savage, who recently turned 16, drove on the show before receiving his license. A permit required that a licensed driver be in the car during the shooting.
"When I was driving the car with Paul or the buddies, what you didn't see was a Teamster crouched underneath the backseat," he said.
Brush joked: "He was lying down, saying, 'Oh, my God.' "
On Sept. 21, Turner Program Services begins syndicating Wonder Years reruns to 135 stations. During Ted Turner's portion of the critics' tour, he called the series "a sweet little show."
ABC has assured Brush that when The Wonder Years ends, it will receive a proper sendoff. "I don't think that anybody believed when this show started that it would ever go this long," Brush said. "I suppose the outside limit on this would probably be when Kevin graduates from senior high school, which would be two years from now."
Neal Marlens and Carol Black, who created the show and are working on the new Laurie Hill sitcom for ABC, had their own suggestion. "They could all get dressed up, go out to disco and the film should just run out," Black said.