Former child star of television comedy “The Wonder Years” Fred Savage has been sacked as executive producer and director of the series reboot over allegations of “inappropriate behavior”, the studio behind the new series said in a statement. Saturday.
“We have recently become aware of allegations of improper conduct by Fred Savage and a policy investigation has been initiated,” 20th Television said in a statement. “After its completion, the decision was made to terminate her employment as executive producer and director of ‘The Wonder Years’.”
The studio did not provide additional details or immediately respond to questions that followed on Saturday. Mr. Savage’s representatives did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Deadline He announced on Friday that he had been fired.
Mr. Savage, 45, was a boy when the original “The Wonder Years” premiered on ABC in 1988 and began his career playing suburban, sunny middle schooler Kevin Arnold. A nostalgic take from 1988 to 1968, the television comedy was critically acclaimed at the time and earned Mr. Savage two Emmy Award nominations. The show aired until 1993.
A new version of the show aired on ABC in 2021, this time around. It focuses on a Black family in the 1960s in Montgomery, Ala.Don Cheadle serves as the narrator.
Mr. Savage said Hollywood Reporter He said he had reservations about restarting the show in January. But when he was presented with the idea of centering a Black family, he was on board.
“I needed to get over myself a little bit and realize we were telling a new story,” he said.
Mr. Savage has faced charges of misconduct in the past.
Alley Mills, who played Norma, Mr. Savage’s televised mother, on “The Wonder Years” in 2018, said in an interview: yahoo Alleged that a costume designer for the show filed a sexual harassment suit in 1993 against Mr Savage, then 16, and Jason Hervey, who was then 20, and an actor who played his older brother Wayne on the show, alleging that the actors verbally and physically abused him. it did. he is.
“That just wasn’t quite right,” Mills said, adding that the lawsuit was a major factor in canceling the show that year. “She was my dresser, and I don’t care if she listens – I probably shouldn’t say that, but I don’t care.”
Representatives of Mr Savage and Mr Hervey denied these allegations. Los Angeles Times reported.
That same year, Mr. Savage was also charged with creating a hostile work environment and verbally abusive in a lawsuit filed by a costume designer on the Fox television series “The Grinder.” Mr Savage denied the allegations and the case was later dismissed. Hollywood Reporter.