#584 - 'Winnie Cooper' Danica McKellar on The Wonder Years, Breaking Rib on DWTS & Her 36-Hour Labor
Bobby Bones Presents: The BobbyCast
Nashville Podcast Network
4.8 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
Danica McKellar sits down with Bobby Bones to talk about what life was really like growing up as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, how she handled fame at such a young age, and why she never fully saw herself the way the world did at the time. She also opens up about her experience on Dancing with the Stars, including the injuries she pushed through, the broken rib that made things even harder, and why the show was more physically demanding than most people realize. Plus, Danica shares stories about motherhood, her intense 36-hour labor, and the perspective that came with becoming a parent.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:10.9 | I had no idea. |
| 0:12.4 | I think it was in our fourth or fifth season. |
| 0:15.0 | Somebody on set asked me what it was like to be America's sweetheart. |
| 0:17.8 | And I was like, what? |
| 0:20.9 | You might know her as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, and she's turned that into a career |
| 0:25.0 | that's lasted nearly four decades. |
| 0:27.1 | She's an actress, a producer, a Christmas movie staple, and even a former Dancing |
| 0:32.3 | with the Stars quarter-finalist. |
| 0:34.7 | She also graduated summa cum laude from UCLA in mathematics, and there's a bunch of |
| 0:39.3 | math stuff, I should say, but I don't know, something about a theorem that she helped prove. That's how smart |
| 0:43.9 | she is. She writes books. To me, she will always be Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years. Here she is |
| 0:50.8 | Danica McKellar. Danica's really nice to meet you. You too. |
| 0:54.6 | I would like to start with talking about something that we have in common, which is we were both on Dancing with the Stars. Yes, we were. How did you feel? I did not win. Okay. Well, I usually don't flex, but I did, but I don't care about me. I want to know how you felt about the whole experience. It was, it was, I liken it to childbirth. |
| 1:12.7 | I understand your wife is about to experience that. |
| 1:14.0 | She is. |
| 1:14.8 | It was, it was, I liken it to childbirth. |
| 1:12.6 | I understand your wife is about to experience that. |
| 1:14.0 | She is. |
| 1:14.7 | It was the most physically demanding thing that I'd ever done, except that instead of 36 hours, |
| 1:22.1 | which is my childbirth experience, labor, it was three months. |
... |
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