Tight Clothes and No Internet! Twelve-Year-Old Elisha ‘EJ’ Williams, Star of THE WONDER YEARS, Ponders The Past

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Before talk turned to nostalgia with 12-year-old Elisha “EJ” Williams, the star of the new version of THE WONDER YEARS, he noticed that he was being interviewed by a Canadian. “I see your (Zoom identification) says Canada on it, I actually lived there for three years,” Williams said. “We lived on Vancouver Island, in the city of Port Alberni. I moved there when I was three, turning four. One of the biggest memories I have is going to school. It was definitely different, but it was unique, and that’s the thing I love. And the food – I actually tried a poutine for the first time, and those are delicious, so good.” As fun as it is to hear a 12-year-old “looking back,” there will be a lot more looking back with the debut of THE WONDER YEARS, Wednesday, Sept. 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET on CTV. Inspired by the award-winning series of the same name that aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s, THE WONDER YEARS is a coming-of-age story set in the late 1960s, centred on a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Ala., and told through the point of view of an imaginative pre-teen named Dean (played by Williams). The late ’60s were a long time ago – Williams’ parents weren’t even born yet! Nonetheless, through this role, he has received a crash course on what life was like five and a half decades ago. Here’s what Williams had to say about some of those specifics: Q: Can you imagine a world without cell phones? WILLIAMS: “To be honest, I’d cry. I’d probably start crying. But that just gives you more time to go outside. You know, you have to look on the bright side, while still shedding that one tear that comes down your face. There’s pros and cons.” Q: At least you’d be shedding that tear outside. WILLIAMS: “Yes, for sure.” Q: Can you imagine a world with no internet? WILLIAMS: “If there was no internet, I’d weep. You see, there’s a difference (laughs) … there are definitely things that I honestly think people can’t live without. But then, there are still things that you have to learn, just in case things go out. Like, I do very well with a … how do you say it, thesaurus? … and dictionaries … thankfully I know how to use them. So it’s not like I don’t have an option if things go out … wait, encyclopedia! I’m sorry, that’s what it is. Thesaurus is the other one.” Q: Are you a big video game person? Can you imagine a world without those? WILLIAMS: “I am a big video game person, and a big sports person, and a big Fortnite person. Fortnite is great. But actually, yes, I can imagine a world without video games. I love them, and as much as I would miss them if they weren’t here, I definitely could live without them.” Q: The clothes in the ‘60s generally were so much tighter than now. Have you noticed that? WILLIAMS: “Tight is an understatement. When we were first doing the fitting, they put this tight shirt on me, and I thought I was suffocating. It was hilarious. And the clothes can be itchy. But the unique part about it is that I’m getting used to it. Now that I have to deal with it for hopefully the next few years, we can easily adjust. Hopefully we can get through it.” Q: One thing THE WONDER YEARS teaches us is, don’t get too cocky, because future generations are always going to look back and think that some things were weird. WILLIAMS: “For sure, for sure! In some ways, I feel like people in the future are going to look at us as weirdos, just like this generation sometimes looks back at other people as weirdos. But that’s the thing about this world, as things progress, other things get older, and it’s all a part of developing. So who knows? People might think that the hoverboards we have nowadays are a joke, because they might have hoverboards that actually do fly!” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv