“The Wonder Years” actress Alley Mills is opening up about the reason the hit ABC period show was canceled after six seasons — and she blames a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fred Savage that she called “ridiculous.”
“When we shot the series finale … nobody knew whether or not ‘The Wonder Years’ was going to be renewed,” Mills, who played Norma Arnold, said in a recent interview with Yahoo (watch it below). “And that’s because of a completely ridiculous sexual harassment suit that was going on against Fred Savage — who is, like, the least offensive, most wonderful, sweet human being that ever walked the face of the Earth.”
The lawsuit Mills is referencing was filed in 1993 — the final year “The Wonder Years” was on air — by costume designer Monique Long, who was 31 years old at the time. It alleged then-16-year-old Savage and his co-star Jason Hervey, who was 20-years-old at the time, verbally and physically harassed her.
Long said in the lawsuit that the actors harrassed her to the point of being unable to do her job, and it resulted in her firing.
At the time, ABC and the actors denied the accusations. A rep from ABC declined comment when TheWrap reached out on Friday. Savage and Hervey did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and an email request to Long was not immediately answered.
In her Yahoo interview, Mills expressed frustration because the cast was asked not to speak on the matter: “We had a gag order on us, and I wanted to scream on television, ‘This is ridiculous!'”
“So I just thought [the lawsuit] was a big joke and it was going to blow over,” Mills said, pointing to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
“It’s a little bit like what’s happening now — some innocent people can get caught up in this stuff; it’s very tricky,” she said. “It was so not true. 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 because it was so long ago and it’s gotta be over now.”
The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court, which Mills said she found “incorrigible.”
“I just thought this was a joke. You know, they bought her off, which really made me mad,” she said. “That was incorrigible that the network did that; they should never have paid her off. They wanted to avoid a scandal or something, but it made them look guilty. You know, you don’t pay someone off when there was no crime, you just fire the girl.”
19 Embarrassing Game Show Fails From 'Family Feud' to 'Jeopardy' (Videos)
The first question on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is generally the easiest, but this sleep-deprived college student still couldn't manage to get it right.
Former “American Idol” contestant Kellie Pickler tried to figure out where Budapest is in a November 2007 episode of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” However, after she determined Europe isn’t a country, it all went downhill.
According to this contestant on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" from January 2010, owls squirt ink. Yes, you read that correctly.
"Catch 21" contestant Kimberly was determined not to give her competitor Beau five points because she didn't want him to be 10 points closer to 21. So she gave her fellow contestant Shawn five points, which boosted his score of 16 to a 21. Someone needs a basic math lesson.
According to one contestant on "Jeopardy!," the electronic music duo LMFAO introduced us to "It's a Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)." Erm, nope, that was definitely Jay-Z.
This contestant on “Wheel of Fortune” in May 2012 made it to the bonus round, but failed to guess the magic "thing" before time ran out. Clue: It rhymes with wand.
"Black" was this "Family Feud" contestant's answer to "What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of zombies?" Host Steve Harvey looked even more astounded when she justified her answer by saying, “I don’t know if they’re white.”
In April 2014, Julian from Indiana was on "Wheel of Fortune" and lost the round by mispronouncing the winning phrase ... and then blew the next two rounds, too.
In the fast money round of "Family Feud," two family members need to get 200 points combined by answering a series of survey questions. In this episode from May 2014, the first member scored a whopping 182 points, meaning the second member only needed 18 points to win ... which she failed to get.
Sometimes buzzing in first isn't always the best idea, especially when the question is "Name something a doctor might pull out of a person" and you respond with "gerbil."
You get a car, you get a car, everybody gets a car! “Price Is Right” model Manuela Arbelaez thought she’d lost her job (she didn't) when she accidentally gave away a free car in April 2015. Luckily, the producers thought the goof was hilarious.
We’ll take “You’re All a Bunch of Losers” for $500, Alex. Unfortunately, "Springf" isn't a city in the United States.
If this woman on "Family Feud" could ask the Wizard of Oz one thing to give her husband it would be -- "a really big thing." Could you be more specific?
This wasn't an accident. "Jeopardy!" contestant Viraj Mehta from Stanford Unviersity said that he subtly flipped off the camera during his February 2017 episode on purpose. Luckily for us, it wasn't censored.
We guess he just isn't a Tennessee Williams fan? Missing any "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle with just one letter missing would hurt, but this "A Streetcar Naked Desire" gaffe from March 2017 is just embarrassing.
EMINEM AND JACK WHITE ARE NOT THE SAME, JULIE! #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/eLVyk1TNn2— Hunter Alek Homistek (@HunterAHomistek) January 12, 2018
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up? Yes, both Eminem and Jack White have roots in Detroit, but come on, Em is not the guy who wrote "Seven Nation Army."
“Family Feud Canada” contestant Eve really laid an egg with her “chicken” answer. The survey: “Name Popeye’s favorite food.” Yeah, she said “chicken," not spinach.
This "Wheel of Fortune" contestant took a wild guess with "Chasing Tail" as the answer to this puzzle before immediately starting to laugh at her raunchy answer. Pat Sajak made a wise sealing-his-lips-and-throwing-away-the-key motion in lieu of a comment.
Former NFL player Bruce Smith had an... interesting answer to a question asking what tool Captain Hook might replace his hook with if he were to moonlight as a handyman. "A penis?" was Smith's second guess, which left Steve Harvey dumbfounded for several seconds before informing him, "Your ass is going on YouTube, though."
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Everyone says and does dumb things, but some of us unfortunately do it on national TV
The first question on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" is generally the easiest, but this sleep-deprived college student still couldn't manage to get it right.