Young Kevin Arnold and his family entertained us from 1988 to 1993 in the hit show The Wonder Years. Over twenty years later, it’s now available on DVD. In honor of the occasion, mental_floss has collected some trivia about the show you might be interested in.
4. FRED SAVAGE WAS THE OBVIOUS CHOICE FOR KEVIN.
Casting kids is never an easy task. To help them in finding their lead actor, Marlens and Black interviewed five casting directors for recommendations. All five of them suggested Fred Savage, who at that point was best known for his role in The Princess Bride. “By the time we actually settled on a casting director, we had already resolved that we should see Fred,” Marlens told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1988. “Knowing nothing about him, we arranged to screen some unedited footage of a film he was making at the time, Vice Versa … [We saw] a marvelous actor with a natural quality, which essentially means he has no quality at all except being a kid. It sounds funny, but it’s a rare thing to find in a child actor. It’s the same thing we looked for and discovered in Josh Saviano and Danica McKellar.”
9. DANICA MCKELLAR’S TOUGHEST COMPETITION WAS HER SISTER.
When it came down to casting the role of dream girl Winnie Cooper, there were two final contenders: Danica McKellar and her sister, Crystal. “It was practically a tossup,” casting director Mary Buck told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. After choosing Danica for the role, Crystal was hired for the recurring role of Becky Slater, Winnie’s one-time rival for Kevin’s affections.
There’s a lot more, including the changes that had to be made before the series was put on DVD. Read all 28 things at mental_floss.