'The Grinder' Star Fred Savage on His TV Return

Since graduating from the television academy that was The Wonder Years, former child star Fred Savage has enjoyed a successful career as an actor and director. But the erstwhile Kevin Arnold — who returns to series television this week with the launch of the new Fox sitcom, The Grinder — revealed to Yahoo TV that he almost embarked on a very different career path after high school. “I thought I wanted to be a lawyer,” Savage tells Yahoo TV. “My cousin had a law firm so I lived with him and worked there for a summer.”

That summer gig may not have turned into a full time job, but Savage says he drew on the experience for the role he plays on The Grinder: fledgling lawyer Stewart Sanderson, who is perpetually living in the shadow of his older brother Dean (Rob Lowe) — famous around the world for playing an attorney on TV. “It [showed me] what law really is,” says Savage of his summer internship. “[It] isn’t big courtroom speeches and last second reprieves. It’s not like that.” Maybe not. But can you blame us for finding the TV version of law a lot more entertaining? Particularly when the lawyers look like Rob Lowe…

The Grinder premieres Sept. 29 at 8:30 p.m. on Fox