Did The Wonder Years Really Star Marilyn Manson? The True Story, Explained

Urban legends involving television shows have a tendency to pop up regularly, and they tend to be about family-friendly series. For those who believe that someone actually got their arm broken while playing "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" and that an episode of "Spongebob Squarepants" featuring Squidward Tentacles' (Rodger Bumpass) suicide actually exists, there's also an undying rumor about that wholesome late-'60s-set sitcom "The Wonder Years." What do those whispers suggest? That the kid who played the geeky Paul Pfeiffer, best friend to Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage, who faced misconduct allegations on the set of the sitcom's reboot), grew up to be shock rocker Marilyn Manson.

It's a story that's obviously and verifiably untrue. Manson's birth name is Brian Warner, and Paul was played by Josh Saviano, who is credited this way in the show's onscreen credits and has additional verified acting gigs under the same name. Saviano went on to have a career that's actually quite similar to the one Paul picks on the show, while Manson never tried acting on for size until he became famous in the 1990s.

Though Marilyn Manson has never weighed in on the rumors, Paul Saviano has — and he definitely seems to be amused by the story.

What really happened to Josh Saviano? He graduated from law school and is now an attorney. He launched his own firm in 2015, which specializes in celebrity brand consultancy. Interestingly, this mirrors Paul Pfeiffer's chosen career; as Kevin Arnold tells us in the sitcom's final episode, Paul, too, becomes a lawyer.

Saviano has been aware of the Marilyn Manson rumors since he was a college student, telling Yahoo!News' The Yo Show in 2013 that Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper on the sitcom (and was once a guest star on "The Big Bang Theory") told him about it. "I had no idea who [Marilyn Manson] was at the time. So I'd spoke to one of my friends at school who did know who he was. It became a progressively more entertaining storyline amongst me and my friends," he said. The former actor also admitted that he and his friends considered kiboshing the rumor by having him appear with Manson onstage, but he decided against it.

While speaking with Yahoo!, Saviano noted that there have been other rumors floated about, including that he grew up to be Lady Gaga or Patrick Carney, who drums for rock band The Black Keys — all obviously equally untrue stories. But it hasn't kept him away from the entertainment industry; outside of helping his clients develop public personas, he also stepped back into the limelight to play Don Taft on "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" for three episodes. And even though what happened to Manson and Saviano might seem like a unique rumor, Snopes notes that this has been a popular type of urban legend for some time, and they aren't the only victims of it.

As Snopes reports, music fans have been claiming that other former child stars have transformed into glamorous or controversial rock stars in their adult years for decades.

In the 1970s, it was said that the kid who played Eddie Haskell on "Leave it to Beaver" had grown up to become snake-handling rocker Alice Cooper. In reality, Ken Osmond became a highway trooper who did some acting on the side. "Smashing Pumpkins" frontman Billy Corgan has been falsely identified as Jamie Lawson from "Small Wonder" – a part played by Jerry Supiran. And Madonna's secret identity? Well, she was believed to be Tabitha Stephens from "Bewitched," who was, in reality, played by one of the show's few currently surviving cast members, Erin Murphy.

In more recent times, Marilyn Manson has also been falsely identified as teen actor Rob Stone, who played Kevin Owens on "Mr. Belvedere." It goes to show that sometimes when a good story gets going, it's awfully hard to stop it.