Fred Savage, star of the original “Wonder Years,” has been fired as executive producer and director of the ABC reboot following an investigation into charges of inappropriate behavior, a spokesman for 20th Television confirmed to TheWrap on Friday.
“Recently, we were made aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by Fred Savage, and as is policy, an investigation was launched. Upon its completion, the decision was made to terminate his employment as an executive producer and director of ‘The Wonder Years,’” the rep said in a statement.
While no specifics about the allegations were released, Deadline reports that Savage’s misconduct on “The Wonders Years” set included “verbal outbursts and inappropriate behavior.”
Savage was previously accused of sexual harassment in 2018 by a woman in the costume department on the Fox series “The Grinder.” At the time, he dismissed the charges as “completely without merit and absolutely untrue.” The lawsuit was settled out of court.
Also in 2018, Alley Mills, who played the mom of Savage’s character Kevin, claimed that the 1993 cancellation of the original series came after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against the then 16-year-old actor and his TV brother Jason Hervey, who was 20 at the time.
Mills told Yahoo, it was a “completely ridiculous sexual harassment suit that was going on against Fred Savage” and that the actor was “the least offensive, most wonderful, sweet human being that ever walked the face of the earth.”
The “Wonder Years” reboot debuted on ABC in September 2021. It stars Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams, a boy grows up in Montgomery, Alabama, in the late 1960s. Don Cheadle narrates the series as the adult Dean looking back on his childhood.
