The classic sitcom The Wonder Years ended its six season run in 1993, and since then, many of the show’s former stars have stayed in the spotlight with various TV projects. Fred Savage, who played ’70s kid Kevin Arnold on the ABC coming of age dramedy, has grown into a respected television director (Modern Family, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) while his TV mom Alley Mills is a Bold and the Beautiful regular. Danica McKellar became a TV movie staple, music video vixen (just ask Avril Lavigne), and she even competed on Dancing with the Stars.
More than 20 years after the show signed off, the complete Wonder Years series is being released on DVD — and that means the cast recently reunited to film DVD extras. Savage even posted a selfie on Twitter that showed him hamming it up with Mills, McKellar and co-stars Olivia d’Abo, Jason Hervey, and Josh Saviano. And it got us feeling all warm and fuzzy and nostalgic for those characters we left back in the mid-1970s.
The Wonder Years finale episode, “Independence Day,” was set on July 4, 1973, so a reunion in real time (it’s been 21 years) would bring us to 1994. Which got us to thinking, if the cast really did reunite, what would the gang be doing in the era of grunge, the Whitewater scandal, and O. J. Simpson’s murder trial?
Kevin Arnold
A quickie math calculation based on the finale episode monologue reveals that Kev’s first son (with a wife who’s not Winnie Cooper) was born around 1981. That would give him a 12-year-old in 1993. Ah, how we’d love to see Kevin living through his son’s own wonder years. Here’s an idea: Fred Savage could make like his real life brother, Boy Meets World/Girl Meets World star Ben Savage, and star in a reboot about Kevin’s life raising a tween.
Paul Pfeiffer
The series final informed us that Kevin’s BFF Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) went to Harvard and studied law. (In real life, Saviano went to Yale and is a lawyer.) Suffice it to say, the character didn’t grow up to be Marilyn Manson, and we’re hoping Paul would be happily married to an equally brainy female doctor who can help him with all of those pesky allergy issues.
Karen Arnold
The hippie big sister (played by Olivia d’Abo) married Ross from Friends-er, we mean Michael, played by future Friends star David Schwimmer — and their first son was born in September of 1973, which means she’d have a 21-year- old in 1994. While her kid’s probably into Cobain and Soundgarden, we’re thinking a 40-something Karen is probably still a bit of a rebel herself.
Wayne Arnold
Future furniture guru Wayne (Jason Hervey), who took over his father’s business when he passed away in 1975, would own a chain of stores by now. He’s twice divorced, paying out a ton in alimony, and yes, he’s still a butthead.
Norma Arnold
The former SAHM graduated college, then went on to be a businesswoman and board chairman, but 20 years later matriarch Norma Arnold (Alley Mills) would be a doting grandma. (She has at least two grandkids that we know of.) We also think that since she lost her husband Jack (played by Dan Lauria) at such a young age, Norma likely remarried and is now enjoying her golden years with a new love.
Winnie Cooper
She studied art history in Paris, and two decades later we predict Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar) would still be traveling the world — and still single. Because let’s face it, she never did make the best choices when it came to boys, and we’re thinking Kevin will always be the one that got away.
The Wonder Years box set is slated to be released later this year.
