BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - He may have been the "Wonder" boy for five years, but Fred Savage abdicated, so he could attend Stanford for four years.

That's not normally what the hot, young star of a hit sitcom like "The Wonder Years," would do. "College was huge only because I lived such a different life when I was a kid," says the 29-year-old Savage.

"And it really taught me how to deal with people on a normal level and how to NOT be an actor; just be a normal guy. I was in a fraternity. I was a total idiot, and it was awesome!"

Savage graduated with an English degree and returned to show business. Absence didn't make Hollywood forget the kid with the puckish grin and the dark curly hair.

" 'The Wonder Years' ended toward the end of my junior year and so my senior year of high school was really my first year of school uninterrupted since the second grade," says Savage. "So I loved the opportunity to go to college.

"I knew I wanted to be in this business, wanted to be an actor, director or producer. If you want to be a director, producer, actor you're essentially a storyteller and what better way to prepare yourself than to read and study and dissect and pore over the greatest stories written?"

What he's managed to pull out this time is "Crumbs," ABC's new comedy premiering Jan. 12. Savage plays the younger of two brothers who returns to his hometown when his loony mother (Jane Curtin) is released from a psychiatric facility.

In the meantime, Savage - who also starred in "Working," and co-starred in films such as "Austin Powers: Goldmember," "The Rules of Attraction" and "Welcome to Mooseport" - has moved into directing.

"Being a nice guy as a director isn't the same thing as being a nice guy as an actor. You have to tell people what you want and be very explicit and focused and very direct. Of course, you don't want to be a megalomaniac."

Savage was 6 when he started acting in his hometown of Glencoe, a suburb of Chicago. He and his friends went to a few auditions at the community theater. But Fred never landed a part. "Then they called me for a Pac-man vitamin commercial. That was the first job I got. Every job and every audition that followed, it was that same enthusiasm and excitement."

Savage has been married for a year and a half to his childhood friend, Jennifer Stone. "We knew each other when we were 8 or 9 years old," he smiles. "We parted ways and she moved out here several years ago and we reconnected. She works in commercial real estate downtown."

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