Fred Savage Fired From ‘Wonder Years’ Amid Inappropriate Conduct Allegations
Fred Savage has found himself in the middle of quite the scandal on the set of The Wonder Years. The former star of the original version of the show has been the subject of allegations involving “inappropriate conduct” while serving as an executive producer and director on the reboot of the series.
20th Television released a statement on the whole situation: “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.”
There have been at least three separate occasions where Savage found himself on the wrong side of similar allegations. While filming the original run of the show back in 1993, both Savage and his costar Jason Harvey were accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit made by the costume designer. Instead of working things out, they decided to settle out of court. Alley Mills, another star of the show, spoke on the whole situation back in 2018 with Yahoo!, saying: “I just thought this was a joke. You know, they bought her off, which really made me mad. They wanted to avoid a scandal or something, but it made them look guilty. You know, you don’t pay someone off when there was no crime, you just fire the girl.”
Then, while working on the show The Grinder, he was the subject of yet another allegation. Strangely, the accusations were leveled by a costume designer yet again. This costume designer claimed that Savage would constantly berate her on set, and even went as far as to be physically aggressive. In that particular case, Fox didn’t find any evidence of misconduct, and once again, the situation was settled out of court.
The new version of The Wonder Years, created by Saladin K. Patterson, focuses on a middle-class African-American family experiencing life during roughly the same time period as the original Savage-led Wonder Years. And the first season of the new show has been fairly well-received. But this could definitely jeopardize any chance there was of a second season. Even the Saved By The Bell reboot went south.