You know the voice of the grown-up Kevin Arnold on ABC's "The Wonder Years" (Tuesdays, 7:30 p.m., Ch. 4), but you probably don't know the man behind the voice is actor-director Daniel Stern.
Stern gets no regular screen credit for the narration, and when he auditioned he was known only as "No. 6." His name does appear when he directs an episode of the hit comedy that focuses on Kevin as a 13-year-old in the 1960s. He's directed seven so far."I'd never done voiceover before so I've had to learn as I went along," said Stern. "I like my part. There's a lot of emotions and conflict to be acted out. I think it's good that the narrator is an adult. It wouldn't be as effective if the narrator was Kevin's age. It's a good device that helps pull the stories together."
Stern provides the ironic footnotes for "The Wonder Years," which won an Emmy as best comedy series in 1988 after its premiere that January. Fred Savage stars as 13-year-old Kevin.
The show wouldn't be nearly as funny, nor as poignant, without the acerbic comments from Stern.
He's never appeared in the show. "I almost did once," he said, "but I don't want to do that. I don't want to goof around with it. The show means something to a lot of people. You don't want it to be too in or too jokey."
Only once has his name been listed as narrator. That came when he directed his first episode, called "Pottery Will Get You Nowhere." It was about a year ago, in the second season.
"I did it for my mother," he said. "I think it works out better not to have my name listed."
His brother, David Stern, was the original story consultant for "The Wonder Years," but has since left.
"At the time I was auditioning for the show I got my brother a job as a production assistant on `Born in East L.A.,"' he said. "I played a great sleazy character. I showed David a copy of the pilot script and he wrote a script on speculation. They hired him as a staff writer."
Stern has played sleazy characters in other movie roles. In "Leviathan," he was a diver and crew member whose morals were also at the bottom of the ocean. Despite the numerous underwater sequences, he said he never got his feet wet. Instead of water, they made their way through smoke tinted by colored lights to look like water. Special air vents on their boots blew sand on the floor so that it appeared to be washed about.
Stern mostly acts in feature motion pictures, such as "Diner," "Hannah and Her Sisters," "Blue Thunder," "The Milagro Beanfield War" and "One-Trick Pony." His only television series was "Hometown" on CBS five years ago.
He'd hoped to reprise his character of Shrevie from "Diner" for Barry Levinson's latest movie, "Avalon," but the one-day role had to be filmed on Thanksgiving Day on location in Baltimore. Stern had 10 relatives coming for Thanksgiving dinner and had to turn it down.
"When I was hired to narrate I said I'd like to direct," he said. "I went to the set and met everyone. I observed Steve Miner direct the pilot. He sort of invented the style and directed a lot of the shows the first season.
"I feel comfortable directing. I've been in about 30 movies and the last 15 I've kept my eyes open to the process, as opposed to just sitting in my trailer when I wasn't needed. I took a role in `My Blue Heaven' just to watch Herbert Ross work. I did that with Sidney Lumet and `Daniel' and Woody Allen and `Hannah and Her Sisters' and `Stardust Memories."'
His newest movie is "Coupe De Ville," due in March, about three brothers who take an old car across country.
"They sort of get to know each other on the trip," Stern said. "I was in that car forever. I do all the driving."
Stern lived for 12 years in New York before moving to L.A. He and his wife have three children.