ABC has never been one to shy away from nostalgia, and audiences will get a big dose of it in the Fall TV season. As a way to promote the upcoming premiere of The Wonder Years reboot with Dulé Hill, the network is bringing some OG Wonder Years stars back for guest spots across a small variety of its original comedies, including The Conners.
While The Wonder Years 2.0 will make its debut on Wednesday, September 22, ABC is setting up its midweek throwback for October 13, as not to disrupt other season premieres with the guest spots. First up that evening will be The Goldbergs, which will feature a guest appearance from the always excellent Dan Lauria. As Wonder Years fans will no doubt agree, Lauria is second to none at delivering performances that made his character Jack Arnold appear to be the most put-upon and eternally defeated character on TV. (Not unlike a grown-up Charlie Brown.) Considering The Goldbergs is set in the '80s, which is when TWY first debuted, it should be interesting to see how Lauria is utilized within that episode.
Following that evening's installment of the reimagined Wonder Years, ABC's The Conners will welcome Fred Savage back to Lanford, presumably still as Darlene's therapist Dr. Harding. Judging how things went with Ben at the end of Season 3, I'm guessing it'll take more than a couple of episodes to resolve all that, so she'll probably need another therapist visit that viewers can bear witness too. Landing Savage as a Season 3 guest star was a perfect fit for The Conners, which also stocked its cast with Married with Children's Katey Sagal and Murphy Brown's Candice Bergen (among other sitcom vets), with Seinfeld's Jason Alexander joining the ensemble in a recurring capacity in Season 4.
However it goes, that Conners ep will be followed up by a new episode of Topher Grace's Home Economics, with Danica McKellar set to guest star. As girl-next-door Winnie Cooper, McKellar won the hearts of tons of younger Wonder Years fans during those golden years, but what will she be up to on Home Economics? As it went with Dan Lauria, no character details were given, so we obviously don't know just yet, but perhaps she'll play into the publishing company or the parent of a child that gets mixed up with one of Tom and Marina's kids.
Interestingly enough, even before making his on-screen debut for The Conners, Fred Savage had already worked on six prior episodes as a director, with the sixth episode being his first. No telling whether or not he'll be helming the episode he appears in but he'll almost definitely be behind the camera for a few Season 4 installments. (Fun fact: Savage also directed two episodes of The Goldbergs.)
So remember to mark your calendars for Wednesday, October 13, for that evening's episodes of The Goldbergs, The Wonder Years, The Conners and Home Economics, with the comedy block kicking off on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET.
