The Wonder Years (TV Program)

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    How Saycon Sengbloh of ‘The Wonder Years’ Unwinds

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    The “Wonder Years” star takes care of herself with satin pillows, costume dramas and food that connects her to her Liberian roots.When Saycon Sengbloh tried out for the role of Lillian Williams, the matriarch in ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years,” she was also auditioning to be her boss’s mother. The showrunner, Saladin K. Patterson, had decided that if he was going to remake the beloved sitcom — this time looking at the late 1960s through the lens of a Black family in Alabama — he was going to base the show loosely on his own family, starting with his parents, Bill and Lillian.The central character in “The Wonder Years” is a teenager named Dean (Elisha Williams), but the story lines often revolve around Lillian. During the audition, conducted over Zoom, Sengbloh read a scene inspired by Patterson’s childhood in which Lillian tells Dean that the pornographic magazines he found in the basement aren’t his father’s: “Those are mine.”“When Saycon read that,” Patterson said in an interview, “she was just magic on the screen.”Sengbloh, 45, is a Tony-nominated singer, dancer and actress with years of Broadway, film and television credits, but Lillian Williams is her first starring role in a TV series. To shoot “The Wonder Years,” which returns for its second season on June 14, Sengbloh moved back to her hometown, Atlanta, where she made sure she had a fireplace, a bathtub and access to good okra. These are edited excerpts from our interview last month.1Charlotte, N.C.I left New York during the pandemic and moved to Charlotte, N.C. Everybody was like, what are you doing? But a few months later, I booked a television series in Charlotte called “Delilah.” It only had one season, but work begets work and I swear it helped me get “The Wonder Years,” which brought me back home to Atlanta. Being in Charlotte taught me that making choices that feel right will serve me. It’s also a beautiful town with beautiful people and really good barbecue.2Epsom SaltI’m a bathing beauty and an ex-Broadway showgirl, so I like to soak in the bath with Epsom salt. People associate Epsom salt with our grandmothers or our great-grandmothers. That generation knew about the benefits of magnesium. It really helps to fire your nervous system and fire your muscles.3Fine TeaWith all the singing I’ve done in my life, I’ve gotten into the habit of taking time to wake up the voice and care for the voice — and, yes, I said “the voice” in the third person. All the singers drink slippery elm tea, but I got tired of it and I got into a bunch of different teas, like Earl Grey and rooibos tea, which is really popular in South Africa.4FireplacesI am obsessed with cozy fireplace vibes. It’s part of the hygge lifestyle, the art of cozy. I’ve got a gas fireplace in my home in Atlanta. When I have it on, my dog, she knows where to be. I look at her and I say: You make me look rich.5‘Little Soul’Lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of channels on YouTube that have relaxing music accompanied by animated, calming scenes. My favorite is “Little Soul.” I have a lot of busyness going on, so I need to relax — hence the tea, the fireplace, the baths and the lo-fi music.6Le ColonialOne of my favorite restaurants is Le Colonial, which has a location in Atlanta. When you’re there, you feel like you’re on vacation because it has a beautiful view and they have banana trees and plants everywhere.7Vintage TVI love myself a good old vintage drama, honey. When I was living in New York, I probably moved to a new apartment every four or five years. I’d be in the kitchen just packing, watching “Downton Abbey,” “Dangerous Liaisons” or “Emma.”8Okra Soup, or StewMy dad was from Liberia, my mom is American, and my parents got married here in the ’70s. Okra soup is my favorite Liberian food. Like a lot of West African food that’s called soup, it’s actually more like a stew. Whenever I visit my sisters, who were born in Liberia, I try to get some okra soup. Or, here in Atlanta, there’s a spot called Bamba Cuisine that serves the Senegalese version of okra stew called soupou kandja.9Satin PillowsA lot of women have been into satin pillows in the last five or 10 years. It’s supposed to be good for your skin and good for your hair. When you turn your face at night, it feels soft and smooth, not rough.10New WorksWhen I was doing a workshop for a show called “Holler if Ya Hear Me,” Chadwick Boseman was my leading man. He didn’t end up doing the show, and we didn’t last long, but the opportunity to be in a show that’s premiering or originating — watching brilliant directors, writers and creators get a show off the ground and bring it life — is just amazing. More

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      Fred Savage Fired From ‘The Wonder Years’ Over Misconduct Allegations

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      The former child star of the original television series was dropped as director of a reboot after allegations of “inappropriate conduct,” 20th Television said.Fred Savage, the former child star of the television comedy “The Wonder Years,” has been fired as an executive producer and director of a reboot of the show after allegations of “inappropriate conduct,” the studio behind the new series said in a statement on Saturday.“Recently, we were made aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by Fred Savage, and as is policy, an investigation was launched,” the statement from 20th Television said. “Upon its completion, the decision was made to terminate his employment as an executive producer and director of ‘The Wonder Years.’”The studio did not provide additional details or immediately respond to follow-up questions on Saturday. Representatives for Mr. Savage did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Deadline reported the news of his firing on Friday.Mr. Savage, 45, was a child when the original “The Wonder Years” premiered in 1988 on ABC, kick-starting his career with his portrayal of the suburban, sunny middle schooler Kevin Arnold. The television comedy — a nostalgic look back at 1968 from the vantage of 1988 — was acclaimed at the time and brought Mr. Savage two Emmy Award nominations. The show aired until 1993.A new version of the show premiered in 2021 on ABC, this time focusing on a Black family in Montgomery, Ala., in the 1960s, with Don Cheadle serving as the narrator.Mr. Savage told The Hollywood Reporter in January that he had reservations about rebooting the show. But when the idea of centering it on a Black family was presented to him, he was on board.“I had to kind of get over myself a bit and realize that we were telling a new story,” he said.Mr. Savage has faced accusations of misconduct in the past.In 2018, Alley Mills, who played Mr. Savage’s television mother, Norma, in “The Wonder Years,” said in an interview with Yahoo that a costume designer for the show filed a sexual harassment suit in 1993 against Mr. Savage, then 16, and Jason Hervey, then 20 and an actor on the show who played the older brother, Wayne, claiming the actors had verbally and physically harassed her.“It was so not true,” Ms. Mills said at the time, adding that the lawsuit had been a major factor in the show’s cancellation that year. “It was my dresser, and I don’t care if she’s listening — I probably shouldn’t be telling this, but I don’t care.”Representatives for Mr. Savage and Mr. Hervey had denied those claims, the The Los Angeles Times reported.That same year, Mr. Savage was also accused of creating a hostile work environment and being verbally abusive in a lawsuit filed by a costume designer on his Fox television series, “The Grinder.” Mr. Savage denied the allegations, and the suit was later dismissed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. More

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      Do You Skip Intro?

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      Elyssa Dudley and Listen and follow Still ProcessingApple Podcasts | Spotify | StitcherWesley worries the “skip intro” button is killing the TV theme song. When we skip, we’re denying “the possibility of having this connection with a show that becomes bigger and more meaningful than the show itself.”He takes his concern to his friend Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, music critic and MacArthur “genius grant” winner. Together, they explore their childhood memories of “Good Times,” “The Wonder Years” and “The Jeffersons.” Then, producer Hans Buetow unearths a rendition of a theme song that blows their minds — and they vow never to hit “skip intro” on it.Can you help us identify this choir?On today’s episode, Wesley and Hanif are played this video of a choir singing the “Good Times” theme song. Now, we need your help: Can you identify the choir?We have confirmed that the singers are backstage at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif., but who are they? We’d love to find out and get in touch with them.If you have any ideas or information about the choir, please email us at stillprocessing@nytimes.com.Theme songs as beautiful wallpaperHanif shares a story about how a photographer visiting his home was struck by the blue wallpaper in his front entryway. Before the pandemic, Hanif would travel more frequently, so coming home and crossing his entryway was “a real beautiful experience,” he says. But now, he’s so consumed by errands — setting down groceries, making sure his dog doesn’t run out — that he’d forgotten about his wallpaper.“The theme song acts as almost the wallpaper,” Hanif says. “When I do notice it, if it’s something that I can pause and notice and I enjoy it, I’m thrilled. But otherwise, it’s kind of like a border between me and something that I have to do, or something that I feel like I am driven to do. But it is nice to notice it when it comes along if it’s wonderful enough.”Hosted by: Jenna Wortham and Wesley MorrisProduced by: Elyssa Dudley and Hans BuetowEdited by: Sara Sarasohn and Sasha WeissEngineered by: Marion LozanoExecutive Producer, Shows: Wendy DorrAssistant Managing Editor: Sam Dolnick More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘The Big Leap’ and ‘The Wonder Years’

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      A new comedy series on Fox follows a group of people auditioning for a TV dance competition . And a reboot of “The Wonder Years” debuts on ABC.Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Sept. 20-26. Details and times are subject to change.MondayTHE BIG LEAP 9 p.m. on Fox. Monday night will bring the premiere episodes of two new shows that Mike Hale, the New York Times television critic, included in his list of 31 television shows to watch this fall. First up is Fox’s “The Big Leap,” a scripted comedy from Liz Heldens (“Friday Night Lights,” “The Passage”) about a group of people auditioning for a TV dance competition. Next, at 10 p.m., NBC will debut ORDINARY JOE, a drama that follows a man (James Wolk) who is faced with a life-changing decision. We see him live three parallel lives that result from his choice. In one, he’s a doctor. In another, he’s a police officer. In the third, he’s a rock star.TuesdayFrom left, Warren Stevens, Leslie Nielsen, Richard Anderson and Jack Kelly in “Forbidden Planet.”MGMFORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) 6:15 p.m. on TCM. When this science-fiction classic debuted in 1956, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer screened it at the Globe (now the Lunt-Fontanne Theater) on Broadway. That audiences viewed “Forbidden Planet” at a venue which shared its name with the Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare debuted many of his plays is fitting: The film shares more than a little DNA with “The Tempest.” It stars Leslie Nielsen as the commander of a spacecraft sent to investigate a colony of scientists left on a far-off planet years before. There, he finds that Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and Altaira, the doctor’s daughter (Anne Francis), are the only survivors of the colony. As the film goes on, he (and the audience) begin to learn why. The Times critic Bosley Crowther wrote that the movie offers audiences “the gaudiest layout of gadgets this side of a Florida hotel.” It would have more competition these days, of course, thanks to the decades of gaudy sci-fi films that have come out since — and which “Forbidden Planet” helped inspire.UP (2009) 5 p.m. on Freeform. The actor Ed Asner died late last month at 91. Whether you associate him with “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” on which he played a crotchety journalist, or with Pixar’s “Up” may depend on your date of birth. For some, he’ll forever be associated with Carl Fredricksen, the widower from “Up” who attaches about one hundred birthday parties’ worth of balloons to his house, then sets off for South America without realizing that there’s a young stowaway on his vessel. For another do-it-yourself tribute tied to an August celebrity death, leave “Up” on for the kids and go to the next room to hear the Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, who died in late August at 80, in Martin Scorsese’ THE DEPARTED (2006), which airs at 7 p.m. on Paramount Network and opens with the Stones’s “Gimme Shelter.”WednesdayElisha Williams in “The Wonder Years.”Erika Doss/ABCTHE WONDER YEARS 8:30 p.m. on ABC. The Times television critic Mike Hale included this ABC reboot in his list of 31 television shows to watch this fall. The show is based on the coming-of-age series of the same name, which starred Fred Savage and ran for six seasons beginning in 1988. Like the original, the new version opens in the late 1960s and centers on a boy (Elisha Williams) and his family. This time, though, that family is Black and living in Montgomery, Ala., which has been transformed by the Civil Rights Movement. Don Cheadle narrates.ThursdayKENNY ROGERS: ALL IN FOR THE GAMBLER 9 p.m. CBS. This tribute concert for the country star Kenny Rogers was recorded before Rogers’s death last year. It includes performances from Dolly Parton, Chris Stapleton, Lady A, Lionel Richie, Reba McEntire and more artists, who play songs and tell anecdotes about their own connection with Rogers and his music.FridayTHE SHOW (2021) 9 p.m. on Showtime. Every Super Bowl halftime show requires a dizzying amount of planning and preparation, but the Weeknd’s performance this year called for a special kind of choreography: dancing around pandemic-era limitations. This documentary covers the planning and execution of that performance.SaturdayIn “Promising Young Woman,” Carey Mulligan plays a woman set on avenging the sexual assault of her college best friend.Focus FeaturesPROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (2020) 8 p.m. on HBO. Emerald Fennell won an Academy Award for her screenplay for this dark revenge thriller. Perhaps more important, she prompted a lot of discussion about sexual assault and accountability through the story of Cassandra (Carey Mulligan), a woman set on avenging the sexual assault of her college best friend years before. Cassandra’s trajectory is briefly altered after she reconnects with a former classmate (Bo Burnham) — but then ramps up to an intense finale. In her review for The Times, Jeannette Catsoulis praised Mulligan’s performance but found the movie itself to be less effective. “Mulligan lends depth and sensitivity to a character that’s little more than a vengeful doll,” Catsoulis wrote. “Supporting performances from Laverne Cox, as Cassandra’s sardonic boss, and Alison Brie, as a former school friend, add snap and texture to a movie that’s too tentative to sell the damage at its core.”SundayTHE TONY AWARDS PRESENT: BROADWAY’S BACK! 9 p.m. on CBS. The Tony Awards are on Sunday night. You’ll need an internet connection to watch most of it: The live ceremony is being shown exclusively on the streaming service Paramount+ beginning at 7 p.m. At 9 p.m., both CBS and Paramount+ will show a special, “Broadway’s Back!,” in which three key awards will be presented: best play, best revival of a play and best musical. The special will also include performances of Broadway classics and songs from a few of the musicals that are up for the best musical awards, including the night’s most-nominated show, “Jagged Little Pill.” More