MeTV Request: "The Wonder Years"

[JamDeib85]

Dear Whom It May Concern,

I have a proposal for MeTV to negotiate a deal with Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution for the exclusive digital over-the-air distribution of the hit family drama "The Wonder Years." The show comprises 115 uncut, unedited, and half-hour ABC TV episodes.

The Wonder Years was created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black and aired on ABC for 5 seasons and 115 episodes from January 31, 1988 to May 12, 1993. In the series, Daniel Stern played Kevin Arnold, a 30-year-old looking back at his youth growing up in his hometown of Culver City, California between 1968-1973. Kevin lives with his parents: Father Jack (Dan Lauria), a 40-year-old NORCOM executive. In 1972, he left NORCOM after 20 years to start his own Furniture Company; mom Norma (Alley Mills), a typical American '60s Homemaker; and his teenage sister Karen (Olivia d'Abo), who lived in her own world of love beads and social protest, and his brother Wayne (Jason Hervey), who was a bit of a bully to Kevin--and with whom he had almost nothing in common with since they were not related.

At Robert F. Kennedy Junior High School (and later William McKinley Senior High School), Kevin's best friends were Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) and his hoped-for girlfriend, Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), whose brother, Brian, had been drafted into Vietnam in 1968 and was killed soon after.

During the five-year run of "The Wonder Years," Ed Cutlip (Robert Picardo) served as Paul and Kevin's gym coach from 1968-1971; classmates Randy Mitchell (Michael Tricario), Chuck Coleman (Andy Berman) and Ricky Holsenbach (Scott Nemes); and Mr. In 1990, at the end of Season 2 of "The Wonder Years," Kevin's 8th-Grade Math Teacher, Arthur Collins (Steve Gilborn), died at the age of 50 in 1970.

In the case of Life Imitating Art, Steve Gilborn, the Character Actor who portrayed Mr. Collins (and who was in real life a College Professor before becoming an actor), passed away at age 72 on January 2, 2009, in North Cheltham, New York, his hometown of New Rochelle, New York, where Steve was born on July 15, 1936.

A perfect example is Josh Saviano, whose character Paul Pfeiffer became a lawyer in real life. He has been a corporate lawyer in New York since 2016. As noted previously, it was rumored that Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) played Paul Pfeiffer growing up on "The Wonder Years", but as it turns out, that rumor is false--Paul was portrayed by Josh Saviano.

In addition to playing Kevin Arnold on "The Wonder Years," Daniel Stern directed 10 episodes of the show, beginning midway through the show's first season with "Pottery Will Get You Nowhere" and concluding with "The Triangle" in season four. Daniel, a movie actor, continued making films such as "My Blue Heaven" and the first two "Home Alone" movies during the series' run. Theoretically, he would record his off-camera "Wonder Years" dialogue as the grown-up Kevin on either the Set Trailers of such films when he wasn't filming the said films or at his home in Los Angeles via his hometown of Bethesda, Maryland, where he was raised Jewish, a religious belief he still holds.

Likewise, Fred Savage (who played Junior Kevin, the younger version of Kevin Arnold, for 5 years of "The Wonder Years") is also Jewish--mixed Polish, German, and Latvian Jewish by way of Chicago. He was born on July 9, 1975; today, at age 49, Fred Savage follows Daniel Stern into the Director's Chair, after retiring from acting in 2004 and since then directed episodes of such modern-day sitcoms as "2 Broke Girls" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Ben's younger brother, Ben, is best known for the hit Disney sitcom "Boy Meets World."

The distribution rights to "The Wonder Years" are split between 20th Television (a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company) and Warner Bros Domestic Television Distribution, with 20th Century Television owning the DVD and streaming rights. Warner Bros Discovery has owned the syndication rights to "The Wonder Years" since 1997, when reruns began airing on Nick at Nite, where "The Wonder Years" made its Basic Cable Debut (as did reruns of "Doogie Howser, M.D." in Australia in 1995), continuing on Nick at Nite until February 2, 2001. Later, reruns moved to The Paramount Network (Spike TV), ABC Family (now called Freeform), ION Television, and Discovery Family Channel.

MeTV will introduce "The Wonder Years" to its regular lineup on January 12, 2025, at 11 PM/10C with a 5-hour "The Wonder Years Launch Party" marathon featuring 12 of "The Wonder Years"' best episodes. After the marathon, MeTV will air "The Wonder Years" on Weeknights at 8 PM/7C after The Andy Griffith Show. Kevin Arnold and Opie Taylor would be next-door neighbors.

Sincerely,

James

[Worldsmount3]

It's been over 1 year now how is that going