Danica McKellar Had Her First Kiss With One Her Famous Co-Stars

Because one of Danica McKellar's earliest roles called for her to shoot a kissing scene, she only had a small window of opportunity to experience an unscripted first kiss — and it closed too quickly for that to happen. While taking a trip down memory lane with Christy Carlson Romano in one of the "Even Stevens" star's "Snacks and Reacts" videos, McKellar noted that a lot of child stars' first kisses happen on-camera. One example is her fellow Great American Family actor, Candace Cameron Bure, who told Closer Weekly that hers happened while filming "Full House." Despite also starting her acting career at a young age, Romano said that she managed to avoid this nerve-racking ordeal. However, the "Even Stevens" star and McKellar were both 12 years old when they experienced their wildly dissimilar first smooches.

While McKellar didn't get any say in who her first kiss was with and when it happened, she saw one benefit of the moment being scripted. "You know for sure that it's gonna happen. You don't have to wonder!" she said in commentary for "The Wonder Years" DVD collection (via ABC News). But this wasn't the only reason she didn't mind kissing co-star Fred Savage in the coming-of-age series that made her the first celebrity crush of so many viewers. As it turns out, she had a big crush on him.

For some actors, kissing a co-star can be a downright dreadful experience, sometimes because the parties involved have a strong dislike for one another. This wasn't an issue for Danica McKellar though, who admitted to having some pretty strong feelings for Fred Savage before they shared what was both of their first kisses. "It was that little-kid crush where it's so innocent and so intense. It's not a little thing — you're like, 'I'm in love!'" she told Entertainment Weekly. So, when it came time to shoot a kissing scene with Savage, she was far from disappointed. "I was so excited, jumping out of my skin," she said.

In "The Wonder Years," McKellar and Savage's characters, Winnie Cooper and Kevin Arnold, share their first kiss while "When a Man Loves a Woman" plays. Kevin is comforting Winnie, who has learned that her brother was killed during the Vietnam War, so the mood is supposed to be somber. But in a video for NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers, McKellar admitted that she couldn't resist smiling during the first take. She revealed that they shot six takes of the scene and the final take was used in the show because it includes a tender moment where Kevin strokes Winnie's hair. "After we had our first kiss, the entire crew erupted into applause," McKellar recalled to Entertainment Weekly. "And it was just so humiliating. Like, I'm trying to have a private moment here!"

Danica McKellar told Christy Carlson Romano that she experienced her first real kiss at age 14 with "Growing Pains" actor Jeremy Miller. But the special moment only happened after Miller dumped another famous former child star: Candace Cameron Bure.

Bure and McKellar's shared youthful romantic history with Miller came up when the fellow former Hallmark stars competed against each other on Season 18 of "Dancing With the Stars" in 2014. "I remember a phone call I got from Jeremy Miller saying, 'We're breaking up, because I have a new girlfriend, and her name's Danica,'" Bure recalled on the show (via the Toronto Sun). In a 2023 interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, McKellar revealed that she had no idea Miller had left Bure for her. "It was this whole big drama," she said.

Miller shared his side of the story in a 2015 appearance on "Oprah: Where Are They Now." He admitted that he was dating Bure when he first met McKellar at a Teen Beat event, but said of "The Wonder Years" star, "I was pretty smitten from day one." He was two years younger than McKellar, who didn't feel the same way about him at all. But Miller was determined to win her affection, and eventually he asked her out on a date that was too fabulous to refuse: attending the premiere of the 1989 "Batman" movie. Afterward, they began dating. "That was probably my first real dating relationship," said Miller.