I'm a bit late with this, so forgive me, but it's still worth mentioning.
The podcast Just My Show recently interviewed Marion Ross of Happy Days and Dan Lauria of The Wonder Years.
The interviewer is no Jesse Thorn, and he doesn't so much ask questions as just mention items from the interviewees past and ask for comments, but it's still a pleasure to hear these two TV parents talk about their roles.
Fans of Happy Days will no doubt love to hear Ross reminisce about the series, but being a bit younger, I found Lauria's interview much more interesting. I'm the same age as Fred Savage, who played son Kevin Arnold on The Wonder Years, so I was always in the same grade as his character. My parents, coincidentally, attended junior high and high school roughly during the same decades as Kevin, so it was one of very few shows we could watch together. Also, Lauria's Jack Arnold reminded me, more than any other father on TV, of my own dad. As Lauria points out, everything Jack did and suffered through was for his family, which is far more realistic than a bumbling buffoon or a philosopher with a suit and a pipe who always says and does just the right thing.
Also, Lauria isn't afraid to say what he hates about the industry, and why The Wonder Years deserved a much better exit than it received.
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6-25-2007 @ 9:05PM
Bart Smith said...
"My parents, coincidentally, attended junior high and high school roughly during the same decades as Kevin, so it was one of very few shows we could watch together."
That's not really a coincidence. The show was set two decades prior to the years it aired, which is typically the age difference between baby boomers and their children.
I'm also pretty sure it was by design of the producers so that the show would appeal to the widest demographic possible.
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