Known as Kevin Arnold from the Wonder Years before jumping behind the camera to produce and direct, actor Fred Savage has a new comedy series coming to NBC’s Wednesday night line up, Best Friends Forever.
The shows stars actress Lennon Parham and her best friend played by Jessica St. Clair, a recently divorced thirty something who moves back in with Parham in a comedy that has decided to ditch the crude one liners that seems to be on overload across the small screen these days.
As the director, Savage has decided to return to the yesteryears, opting for the old formula with the same amount of laughs, playing on the human connection instead. “I think the best comedy reflects your real experiences, the more people can identify with it, the better. Comedy, in general, on television has become kind of mean spirited,” he shared with Reuters. “For us, we really wanted to make this a show about love, about the love of two friends and the love of this couple and the fact that everyone loves each other so much … We really tried to make this a show about people not being nasty to each other, not putting each other down.”
While Savage does continue to act here and there, most recently in the TV series Generator Rex and the TV movie Being Bin Laden, working behind the camera seems to be where he is most comfortable. “Directing was something I wanted to do since I was 13-years-old. It was always my interest. It wasn’t a decision away from something more than it was toward a dream I always had.”
Adding, “Fame was never a big part of my experience. I didn’t hang out with celebrities or live a celebrity lifestyle. Fame can come and fame can go. When it was never a part of your life to begin with, you don’t miss it. For me, it was always about the work … I just liked being on set and working. Fame shouldn’t be an end result. That’s a dangerous game to play and never part of the equation for me and still isn’t.”
