PETALING JAYA, May 9 — Former child actor Fred Savage has been fired from The Wonder Years reboot, following an investigation into claims of “inappropriate conduct”.
Savage was an executive producer and director for the series produced by 20th Television, a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios.
According to Dateline, full details of the exact nature of the misconduct are unclear, but allegedly include verbal outbursts and inappropriate behaviour.
“Recently, we were made aware of allegations of inappropriate conduct by Fred Savage, and as is policy, an investigation was launched.
“Upon its completion, the decision was made to terminate his employment as an executive producer and director of The Wonder Years,” a 20th Television spokesman told Deadline..
Savage, now 45, is most well-known for his roles as a child star in the late 80s.
His most notable character was Kevin Arnold in the original The Wonder Years, which charted the life and times of a young teenager growing up in a 1960s American suburb.
As an adult, Savage launched a prolific directing career in television, with credits on shows such as Boy Meets World, Hannah Montana, That’s So Raven, as well as playing producer for sitcoms including It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
The Wonder Years reboot, which debuted last year, focuses on a Black middle-class family during the late 1960s — Savage directed eight episodes of the first season.
This is not the first time that Savage has been dogged by allegations of misconduct.
In 1993, costume designer Monique Long filed a lawsuit against Savage (then 16) and his co-star Jason Hervey (then 20), claiming that the pair had verbally and physically harassed her on the set of The Wonder Years.
The lawsuit was dropped following an out-of-court settlement.
Speaking to Yahoo! in 2018, actress Alley Mills (who played the matriarch of the family) dismissed the claims as “completely ridiculous” and blamed the lawsuit for the cancellation of the show.
“My only response to Ms. Mills’s slander is that it proves exactly why women in the industry are forced to remain silent about sexual harassment,” Long told Yahoo!
Another costume designer filed a lawsuit against Savage in 2018 for allegedly harassing female crew members on the set of comedy-series The Grinder during its filming in 2015.
Variety reported that the plaintiff, Younjoo Hwang, claimed that Savage created an “extremely hostile work environment” with “aggressive behaviour, intimidation, and constant use of profanities aimed at female employees”.
Savage denied these allegations, producer 20th Century Fox said an investigation into the matter found no evidence of wrongdoing by Savage.
This lawsuit was also later settled out of court.
