Danielle Fishel, who melted hearts as Topanga on the coming-of-age sitcom Boy Meets World, has some strong words to share about the beloved show’s sequel series, Girl Meets World. During a recent episode of her Pod Meets World podcast, which she shares with her Boy Meets World co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong, Fishel opened up about her frustrations with Girl’s inability to stand on its own and come out from the shadow of the original series.
“I remember being really frustrated after the first season started,” she said, suggesting that Michael Jacobs, the executive producer who created both shows, made Girl Meets World too similar to Boy Meets World. “Before the show came out, Michael [and I] had a whole conversation about the idea that this was not going to be a reboot. It was going to be a whole new show.”
Fishel claims that Jacobs encouraged her to do “a whole blog about how this show was going to be its own thing,” and she did exactly that. “[I wrote] that there were going to be people who were coming from Boy Meets World who were going to be looking for things about this show to make them feel like it’s Boy Meets World,” she said. “And you might get a few of those Easter eggs, but it is not Boy Meets World and you have to give it that grace.”
To Fishel’s dismay, she quickly found that her discussions with Jacobs failed to reach the writers’ room: “We got in there, and every day from morning until night was Michael and the writers trying to shoehorn Boy Meets World things into it,” she said.
In response to Fishel’s comments, Strong said his experience was similar. He appeared in only seven episodes of the follow-up series, but each time he arrived on set, the script called for him to re-enact callbacks from his Boy Meets World days. More often than not, he had no idea what anyone was talking about, and it became clear that the new show was too reliant on the old one for content.
Fishel echoed Strong’s frustration, noting that the promised distance from the original series was a major reason she agreed to return. Still, Fishel admits she would have done the show regardless, but wishes she had a better understanding of its mission before finding her character stuck in a time loop.
Like many teenagers who were glued to their TVs in the ’90s, I’ve probably seen every episode of Boy Meets World. While not perfect, the show felt boundary-pushing and grounded in ways other shows aimed at my age demographic did not. Even then, I found Cory (Ben Savage) to be a hostile and toxic character. Still, while failing to connect with Cory, I identified with his best friend Shawn (Rider Strong). Shawn’s challenges were more familiar and “real,” while Cory often felt like an angry old man trapped in a petulant teenager’s body. I doubt I’m alone in feeling this way.
For more discussions and deep dives into the legacy of the show, check out new episodes of Pod Meets World.