The 'West Wing' co-stars reunite on Wednesday's episode.
Charlie Young and Josh Lyman, together again! Dulé Hill reunites with his The West Wing co-star, Bradley Whitford, on the latest episode of The Wonder Years, and only ET exclusively debuts a sneak peek from their mini-reunion.
On Wednesday's episode, titled "Bill's New Friend," Whitford plays Alan Van Der Kamp, Dean's (EJ Williams) music teacher, who surprises Bill (Hill) with his extensive knowledge of the jazz music scene.
In ET's exclusive clip, Bill enters Alan's band room with a bone to pick about his son's grade in his music class. The issue stirs up some confusion for Alan, who tells Bill he gave Dean an "A."
Apparently, the "A" is the problem.
"Yes, and I think we both can agree he doesn't deserve that," Bill tells him, "and his grade should be lowered."
"OK, this is a first," an amused Alan replies.
"I don't mean any disrespect. I just want Dean to be challenged more," Bill explains. "I have higher expectations for him. I'm actually a professional musician myself!"
Of course, Alan already knew that, conveying that he's actually seen him perform "a dozen times." The disclosure surprises Bill and any hint of tension between the two quickly dissipates as the two begin to bond over their love of jazz.
When it becomes clear Bill has met his musical match, he expresses his astonishment that Alan knows as much about jazz (if not more) than he does. "I'm just surprised that you do!" Bill exclaims.
"Because I'm so... tall?" Alan quips, prompting Bill to chuckle and respond: "Yeah, something like that."
Their Wonder Years team-up comes three years after they reunited with several of their West Wing castmates in fall 2020 for a special theatrical staging of the series' season 3 episode, "Hartsfield's Landing."
"It really warmed my heart from the time I walked onto this set and I got to the trailers, and I saw Allison [Janney] and I saw Rob [Lowe] and I saw Martin [Sheen]. It really blew my mind a little bit. It was hard for my mind to even connect that, 'Wait a second, we're actually here to shoot The West Wing. We're getting together to actually... You're Sam, you're Susan, you're Toby. This is crazy!'" Hill told ET in October 2020. "I appreciated the blessing to be able to revisit it one more time, to be here, to tell this story one more time, to get people to engage in democracy."
He acknowledged at the time he "did not" think he would be revisiting his West Wing character years after the show signed off in 2006. "When the show ended, I really thought that that was the end of the show. I had no idea that 15 years later the show would still be as popular, if not even more popular than it was at that time," Hill said, at the time. "It's an amazing experience. It's a humbling experience and I'm really thankful to be able to be a part of revisiting these characters and telling this story once again, at this time."
The Wonder Years airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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