The Wonder Years

Narrated by Don Cheadle, ABC’s winning reboot of the classic sitcom isn’t shy about its historical context and knows how to land a joke

“One thing about being 12 that hasn’t changed over the decades is that it’s around 12 that you figure out what your place is in the world.” So says the narrator (Don Cheadle) in ABC’s The Wonder Years pilot, and it’s essentially a mission statement for the series. But the finer details of that journey can’t help but be informed by the world it’s taking place in, and so the series attempts to balance pointed cultural commentary with a genial coming-of-age narrative — and it largely succeeds thanks to its warm humor and winning cast.

Like the original show, which aired from 1988 to 1993, the new series is set in the late 1960s. The narrative structure hasn’t changed much either. Once again, the show is set entirely in the past but overlaid with voiceover by an older, wiser version of the protagonist — here, 12-year-old Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ” Williams), a Black kid growing up in Montgomery, Alabama.

Dean’s middle-class family consists of professor/musician dad Bill (Dulé Hill), career woman mom Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh) and teenage sister Kim (Laura Kariuki), plus big brother Bruce (not seen in the pilot). Struggling to distinguish himself, Dean tries on a new identity as “The Great Uniter” — the kid capable of bringing together Black students and white students, bullies and nerds at Jefferson Davis Junior High through the sheer force of good intentions.

Cheadle provides just the right touch of gravitas, and Williams is an instantly likable presence. The first episode’s standout is Hill, who somehow calibrates his performance to the precise level of cool where a respected academic, an on-the-rise musician, and a dad firing up the grill might conceivably overlap.

Series creator Saladin K. Patterson, whose long list of credits runs from Frasier to FXX’s Dave, and episode director Fred Savage, who starred in the original series, have the rhythms of a network family sitcom down pat, and the episode rarely goes very long without landing a solid joke.

That the series manages to invoke nostalgia for bygone days while remaining relatively clear-eyed about the challenges of that period, both in adolescence and in American history, is no small feat — and it accomplishes this while delivering the cozy appeal of the best family sitcoms, including the one that gives it its name.

AIRDATE Wednesday, Sept. 22 (ABC)

CAST Don Cheadle, Elisha Williams, Dulé Hill, Saycon Sengbloh, Laura Kariuki, Julian Lerner, Amari O’Neil, Milan Ray

CREATOR-WRITER Saladin K. Patterson

Milan Ray (left) and Elisha Williams play junior high classmates in 1960s Alabama.