Montgomery native writes reboot of ‘The Wonder Years’

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - When Saladin Patterson thinks of his wonder years, they revolve around Montgomery.

The good, the bad, the funny, the sad… those days were all in this central Alabama region.

Soon, hopefully, the flavor of that time will be on display across the nation.

“This is going to be a love letter to Montgomery, about Montgomery and the people of Montgomery,” said Patterson, who grew up here and is writing the pilot for a new version of “The Wonder Years” for ABC.

The original show ran six seasons from 1988-1993. It was centered around the Arnolds, a white family in northern “Anywhere, USA.” They never actually said where they were.

Saladin’s version sets the show solidly in Montgomery with a Black family. Like the original, it will start in 1968.

“One of the reasons to explore that time period with a Black middle class family in Montgomery is because the story of the Black middle class really hasn’t been represented in TV and film from that time period,” Patterson said.

Saladin, known for shows like “Frasier,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “The Bernie Mac Show,” will be an executive producer. He’s joined in that role by Lee Daniels, co-creator of “Empire,” Marc Velez and original series star Fred Savage (who played Kevin Arnold).

The story behind the pilot is understandably under wraps, but Patterson did offer some clues.

“I’m really telling a story that’s a mixture of my mom’s and dad’s experiences, who were adults of age during that time,” Patterson said.

Like the original, it will be a half-hour show. The pilot episode will be directed by Savage, who Patterson described as genuine and incredibly nice.

“(Savage) gives insight to the tone, which is something that we want to emulate, but make our own,” Patterson said. “Having him direct the pilot is just going to go a long way in making this show feel authentic. I couldn’t be more excited about that.”

It will be a bit until we know who the cast members are. Once Patterson’s script is ready, it will be up to coronavirus conditions to determine when the shooting will begin. Most TV and film production has stopped for now.

Patterson said there was always in-house support by ABC for the project. 20th Century Fox, which is now a part of Disney, owned the rights to the original “The Wonder Years.”

“I am hoping to be able to actually shoot the pilot in Montgomery,” Patterson said. “That’s a decision that won’t be made for a little while, but it will definitely be a part of the conversation, because we’re doing a period piece and we want it to be as authentic as possible. I’m going to fight really hard for that. We’re definitely going to want to shoot it in the South. So why not Montgomery?”

In a statement from Steven L. Reed, the Montgomery mayor said it was phenomenal to hear “The Wonder Years” would be set here, and that this would be an opportunity to look back on our community during that period of courage and change.

“We’re pleased to see one of our own use his influence in the entertainment industry to set this series in his hometown,” Reed said. “We could not be more proud of him, and are eager for the exposure this will present as we cultivate an even stronger arts and culture scene in our city.”

“The coming of age stories are the ones that draw you in,” Patterson said.

So can we expect any cameos from the original cast?

“You know, I’m going to keep that a little bit close to the vest,” Patterson said with a laugh. “Just know that is certainly something that will be looked at.”

Born in Tuskegee in 1972, Patterson’s childhood in Montgomery was in the decade after “The Wonder Years” is set. He and his mom moved to Montgomery when he was four.

“My dad was a musician in Tuskegee,” Patterson said. The man was with a group called The Jays, part of which would eventually merge with the Mystics to form The Commodores. “He and my mom were classmates with Lionel Richie and a lot of the Commodores.”

Patterson’s parents divorced, and he said his mom was probably considered working class.

“My mom would describe us as poor,” he said. “Looking back, I would say we were working class. She worked for the state of Alabama. She had a good job, but things were hard for a single mom back then. But, you know, she really protected me from feeling poor. That was just from having pride in everything that we had. My mom really, really instilled in me the importance of education. She was a valedictorian of both her high school and college classes in Tuskegee, and had gone to Michigan to get her masters. She was doing things that a lot of women, or Black women, weren’t doing then in terms of education. She passed that on to me.”

They lived down the street from Oak Park, and Patterson said he had a typical childhood. He played outside a lot, played baseball.

“I was still the first generation after desegregation,” he said. “My generation was the first generation of Black kids who did not know segregation, but was still affected by it. It had only been 10 years that the schools had been desegregated.”

Patterson said he also had white friends growing up.

“I was bussed from a Black neighborhood to a white school in Dalraida for elementary school,” Patterson said. “That was my first introduction to having white friends.”

He also experienced racism.

“Don’t want to sugarcoat that. It was the odd sort of experience that a lot of people of color have growing up in the South,” Patterson said. “There was racism. There was definitely the residual effects and signs of racism. I remember driving through neighborhoods and learning that I wouldn’t be allowed to live there.”

At the same time, he saw the best of people. “I had white friends whose families accepted me and treated me as equal,” Patterson said. “I definitely experienced the part of the South that’s made up of good-hearted Christian people as well.”

Patterson said his mom made sure he had access to everything he was going to need to succeed, though they couldn’t afford a lot.

“One of the biggest Christmas gifts I ever got was I think when I was 11 or 12 and she got me a Commodore 64 computer set,” Patterson said. “That directly led to my interest in computers, which led to me going to MIT. It was things like that where seeds were planted by my mom, and the rest of my family as well. My entire family on both sides all went to Tuskegee University. Education was important to both sides of my family.”

While the show has been described in the media as a reboot of the original “The Wonder Years,” that’s not exactly the case.

In describing this new show, Patterson leaned on another franchise from his childhood, “Star Wars.”

“We now have the Star Wars universe, and there’s like the main Star Wars story that we all grew up on. And then they made other movies in that same universe, but with different characters that coexist but don’t necessarily interact or overlap with each other,” Patterson said. “That’s kind of more like the model of what we’re doing.”

So, imagine a “The Wonder Years” universe where the original show and characters still exist in 1968. The original series didn’t mention a city or state, but it’s been reported that producer Neal Marlens had wanted to set it in his hometown of Huntingdon, Long Island. So that’s as good a place as any to imagine the original cast still existing.

Now imagine a little over a 1,000 miles away from the originals, we’re meeting a new family down South in Montgomery.

The two families coexist, but separately. With the exception of an Easter egg Patterson is planning for down the road, he said the new Montgomery family won’t have any direct connection to the original series.

“This will be a totally new family. Totally new characters. A different city. A different environment,” Patterson said. “But still thematically related to the concept of that time in our country’s history being looked as wonder years of sorts for the middle class and the middle class dream. How people were wrestling with what the American dream was and then what the reality of society was at the same time.”

When pitching a new “The Wonder Years” to ABC, the biggest question they had to answer was “Why now?”

“One of the reasons for doing this now is that there are so many similarities between what was going on in our country and the world,” Patterson said.

1968 had racism, partisan politics, war, issues with police treatment of minorities, and gender issues. Sound familiar?

“In an ideal world, I want this show to resonate with truth,” Patterson said. “The truth isn’t something that always makes you feel good. Sometimes we have to face some harsh truth.”

Then there’s also the fact that in 1968, there was a major flu pandemic that’s estimated to have killed between one and four million people worldwide.

“It’s kind of uncanny the similarities between what’s going on in 1968 and what’s going on now,” Patterson said. “That’s also something we want to shine a light on with this show. As bad as it seems right now in terms of social unrest, violence, racial discord, political partisanship. As bad as it feels right now, we can still look at the late ’60s with a sense of wonder.”

Because it will open in 1968, there is at least one major event that’s likely to influence the show - Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination on April 4 of that year.

“Even though it is after the Selma March, the Bus Boycott and things like that, we’re still at an interesting crux because the affects of those things are still playing out,” Patterson said. “That’s the stuff that we definitely want to tackle, even if it won’t be like showing the specific incidents that happened before ’68. We’ll be dealing with the aftermath of them.”

At the same time, it’s a comedic story about average people, all striving for their piece of the American dream.

“Similar things were going on then that are going on now, and yet people look back on that time with wonder. There’s a strong possibility that 20 years from now, my kids will look back on this time - a time that felt so crazy and upside down - they will look back on this as the wonder years.”