The reboot’s new twist on the original The Wonder Years led to a successful season 1, allowing big guest stars like Burgess to be featured in season 2. Burgess began his career onstage, appearing in the Broadway musicals Good Vibrations, Jersey Boys, and originating the role of Sebastian the Crab in the musical version of The Little Mermaid. He had his big breakout role in 2015 as Titus Andromedon, Kimmy’s flamboyant, melodramatic, gay roommate in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which earned him Critics’ Choice and Emmy Award nominations. Burgess’s history and talent made him a perfect choice to guest star in The Wonder Years reboot’s season 2 premiere.

Tituss Plays Lonnie In The Wonder Years Reboot

The Wonder Years reboot season 1 ended with Bill and Lillian deciding that Bill would go to New York City to work for Marvin Gaye and take Dean with him, so Lillian wouldn’t have to turn her promotion. While in New York City, Bill and Dean stayed in an apartment next door to a man named Lonnie who sometimes wore dresses. It is then revealed that Lonnie was from the South just like Bill and Dean, but had moved to New York to pursue his dreams as a performer. Once in the city, he found his act as drag queen “Sybil Disobedience,” lip-syncing about politics.

Though Dean and Bill’s New York City experience was only explored in The Wonder Years season 2, episode 1, “One Small Step,” Lonnie was a big part of their story. The father and son returned to Montgomery at the end of the episode, meaning it’s not likely that Burgess will return as Lonnie in season 2. However, Burgess’s guest role has been among the best in The Wonder Years reboot because of his performance and what it represented.

Lonnie’s Character Introduces An Important Storyline To The Wonder Years Reboot

In being centered on a Black family, The Wonder Years reboot season 1 had episodes surrounding colorism, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., workplace microaggressions, the differing treatment of white and Black veterans, and so much more. The Wonder Years reboot season 2 has already shown it will continue to do this by including Lonnie’s character as a Black drag queen in the late 1960s. Seeing Lonnie is the first time Dean sees a man wearing a dress, and Bill is clearly skeptical of Lonnie and people like him, though they become friends when they bond over food and music.

Oftentimes, the LGBTQIA+ experience is absent in period pieces like The Wonder Years reboot because of the idea that they didn’t exist, and if they did, it was never openly. Unless the period piece is about LGBTQIA+ people specifically, like the series Pose with its majority trans cast or films such as Portrait of a Lady on Fire, they tend to be overlooked. The Wonder Years reboot including Lonnie’s character through Burgess’s guest role is important in providing representation for gay men and Black drag queens of the time and is even more poignant today due to the political climate in the United States.