Trivia / Boy Meets World

---

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • The episode "Poetic License: An Ode to Holden Caulfield" reveals Shawn to be a poet, and two of his poems are read aloud (albeit by other characters). Both poems were written by Rider Strong, who plays Shawn, and not for the episode in question. Strong's poem "Top of the World" was thus repurposed within the context of the episode to be a love poem about Angela.
  • Danielle Fishel had been appealing for some time to the producers to allow her to cut her waist-length hair shorter, but they always resisted as Topanga's long hair was something of a trademark for the character. As season 4 began, they finally relented on the condition that Topanga get an Important Haircut. Ironically, Topanga's shown to instantly regret cutting her hair after she does it; Fishel, meanwhile, couldn't have been happier.
• Billing Displacement: Gradually happened over the course of the series, as the new additions to the cast were added to the roster in the order they joined the show^note Except for Matthew Lawerence, who received a "With" credit. By Season 6, this meant that Betsy Randle was billed prior to everyone except Ben Savage and William Daniels, and Lindsay Ridgeway was billed prior to Maitland Ward and Trina McGee, despite their severely reduced roles in the final seasons.

• The Cast Showoff: Lindsay Ridgeway and Rider Strong both get to show off their singing voice in "Better Than the Average Cory" and "Cutting the Cord", respectively. Ridgeway also sang some of the "Loser Freak" song in "Shallow Boy".
• Classically-Trained Extra: William Daniels, a renowned film, theater and dramatic television actor, playing the put-upon sitcom neighbor. He admitted he was initially not interested in the role because he thought it would be mocking teachers. The creators understood his concern and Mr. Feeny instead became a legendary character who had more screen time with the kids than with their own parents, and the most revered teacher in all of television.
• Corpsing: Pay attention when Will Friedle is at his most hilarious, and it's possible to see the rest of the cast doing this; there are times when you can't see the corpsing on screen, but you can hear it over the laugh track. This is also attributed as the reason why Eric & Shawn don't share many scenes in later seasons, as Will Friedle & Rider Strong had a habit of making the other break character - The Tag from "Angela's Men" is one such scene. As a result, the Tough Room trope is largely avoided; whenever a character does something funny the others will usually laugh, though in such a way that we're never quite clear if the characters are laughing or the actors are laughing.
• Creator Backlash:
  • A minor example, but all participants in the opening credits for season 4 speak poorly of it, probably because there's not much to it (it's the four of them just driving in a car with a green-screened background and lots of close-ups and reaction shots). Ironically, it's fondly remembered by viewers, both because of the Surf Rock melody and its omnipresence in syndication.
  • Not for the show itself, but Rider Strong is not proud of the 90s-style curtained hair he wore for most of the show's run. He's very quick to make fun of it though, referring to it as "Muppet hair".
• The Danza: Jason Marsden as... Jason Marsden. An odd example of the trope in that Marsden is an entirely peripheral character (Eric's best friend, back in the years when Eric was still relatively sane). Marsden was obviously only there because he and Will Friedle are best friends in Real Life and, needing a best friend character for Eric, the writers decided to just have Jason do it.
• Dawson Casting:
  • 28-year-old Trina McGee as high school senior Angela Moore. Averted by everyone else in the main cast. At the start of the show the actors were, on average, two years older than their characters but the character's ages were bumped up by two years at some point in show's run. By the end of the series, Danielle Fishel was actually playing older than she was.
  • Parodied in the Kid Gets Acquainted with Universe episode with the Morgan expy being played by a woman who was much older, who was still being played by Morgan's other Darrin, a still-preteen Lindsay Ridgeway.
• Directed by Cast Member: William Russ (Alan Matthews) directed several episodes in seasons 5-7.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • In the third season finale "Brother Brother", Betsy Randle (Amy Matthews) and Lindsay Ridgeway (Morgan) were not told that Will Friedle would be returning with the rest of the cast for season 4 until after the scene where Eric says goodbye to his family.
  • In the final scene of the series finale, the entire cast is struggling mightily to keep it together and failing miserably. Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong are both crying openly and choking up as they deliver their lines, and even William Daniels has trouble keeping it together when he delivers his (and the show's) final line.
• Executive Meddling: Cory, Eric, and Alan were hardcore sports fans who supported all the local Philly teams but Disney, who had just founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, forced the producers to put Ducks memorabilia in Cory's room and even had him wear a Ducks jersey despite the fact that the team was from California, not Philly.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Trina McGee (who, it must be remembered, is a full decade older than her costars), spent much of season 5 pregnant. Notice how, in the iconic "And Then There Was Shawn," she wears possibly the baggiest sweater ever made.
• Hostility on the Set: Trina McGee revealed in 2020 that she had issues with Will Friedle and two other cast members (believed to be Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel), claiming she had been called a "bitter bitch" and "Aunt Jemima", and treated like a stranger even after 60 episodes. She did clarify that Rider Strong and the show's crew were lovely to her.
  • Friedle, who made the Aunt Jemima remark, apologized at the time, and again years later after it was brought up publicly, and the two resolved the issue.
  • Fishel, who was going through a divorce when McGee guest starred on Girl Meets World, apologized both privately and publicly, and the two have also resolved their issues.
• In Memoriam: The first two episodes of Season Three, "My Best Friend's Girl" and "The Double Lie", dedicated that entire season to the memory of Arlene Grayson, the series' producer for its first two seasons.
• Line-of-Sight Name: According to Word of God this is how Topanga got her name. One of the writers was on his car phone and drove past a sign for Topanga, California while they were trying to think of a name for the character.
• Missing Episode: Disney Channel skipped some episodes with more mature subject matter, such as "If You Can't Be with the One You Love" and "Prom-ises Prom-ises". "The Honeymooners" was also skipped due to Cory and Topanga's lengthy near-sex scene at the beginning. Despite this, the couple rushing to their honeymoon suite to the loud cheers of the studio audience at the end of the previous episode remained intact.
  • Actually, The Honeymooners aired on the Disney Channel alongside the other syndicated episodes. The third missing episode was "The Truth About Honesty", an episode that discussed premarital sex and even involved Shawn and Angela nearly going through with having it.
• One-Take Wonder: The final scene of the final episode was completed in one take, because the cast was too distraught for another one. Several of the cast members (Rider Strong and Danielle Fishel in particular) are shown to be struggling mightily just to get through the first take.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Morgan's original actress Lily Nicksay was swapped out for Lindsay Ridgeway between the second and third seasons. The latter doesn't show up until midway through the third, delivering the classic line "That was the longest time-out I ever had." Surprisingly, despite the show's tendency to play with the fourth wall, the change in actress is never acknowledged - the scene would have played out exactly the same if it were Lily Nicksay coming down the stairs.
  • Harley was also replaced for a single episode. The character was then Put on a Bus, but the original actor returned for one more episode the next season.
  • Topanga's parents also went through several sets of very different actors (three for her father and two for her mother). The contrast is pretty evident when Jedidiah goes from being Peter Tork to Michael McKean.
• The Other Marty:
  • Originally, Harry Barandes played Eric in the pilot but he was the same height as Ben Savage so Will Friedle was cast and his parts were reshot. Matt McCoy had also played Alan Matthews in the original pilot, but was replaced in reshoots by William Russ.
  • Marla Sokoloff was originally cast as Topanga in "Cory's Alternative Friends" with Danielle Fishel set to play the role of Becky. The parts were switched and the rest is history.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: It's a commonly circulated bit of trivia that Joe Turkel, known for Paths of Glory, The Shining, and Blade Runner, played the creepy janitor in "And Then There Was Shawn" in an uncredited final role. The director of the episode says this isn't true and the part was played by a random unknown found by the casting agency.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Husband-and-wife team William Daniels (Mr. Feeny) and Bonnie Bartlett (Lila Bolander, the Dean of Pennbrook who ends up marrying him).
  • Similarly Topanga's parents were played by the husband-and-wife Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole for one episode, although their characters' situation is reversed from the above in that the episode portrays their marriage's disintegration.
  • Ben Savage's brother Fred Savage appears in the episode "Everybody Loves Stuart" as a creepy lecherous college teacher. The elder Savage also directed two later episodes, "Family Trees" and "Angela's Ashes".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The reason that Eric and Shawn didn't have many scenes together, even while roommates, was because Rider Strong had a tendency to start Corpsing during scenes with Will Friedle.
• Recycled Script: The show wasn't that shy about it, sometimes teaching the same lesson in different ways.
  • The plot of "A character crossdresses to hit on a guy." is used in both "Chick Like Me" and "What A Drag". Though in the former it was for a school project and in the latter Jack and Eric did it to avoid getting pounded by a guy they almost got arrested.
  • Both Eric and Shawn go on road trips of self-discovery (Eric when he doesn't make it into college, Shawn after his father passes away) with Cory along for the ride. Eventually they get to the point where Cory is ready to go home, but they're afraid to. They end differently though - Eric realises that he has to return to real life, whilst Shawn learns of how proudly Chet spoke of Shawn from another patron at a truck stop and opts to continue on his journey alone, although Chet's spirit appears sat next to Shawn in the final scene of the episode.
  • Cory and Shawn both have nightmare episodes about them killing all their friends so that Cory and Topanga can be together.
  • Whole storylines have been recycled: "Shawn gets his first serious girlfriend" was done twice, once in season three and again in season five; "Cory and Topanga break up" was done three times, in seasons three, five, and seven.
  • In "Eric Hollywood", this is lampshaded, with Kid Gets Acquainted With Universe star Ben Sandwich screaming "How can I learn so much every week and still be so stupid?!" at the writers. Then they lampshade that at the end of the episode, when Will Friedle, playing "himself", flips out at Ben Savage for changing a punchline. He storms off, and then enter Rider Strong as Shawn, telling Cory "I blew up another mailbox" (a reference to a first-season episode, "The Fugitive").
• Recycled Set:
  • With just a light remodel Mr. Turner's apartment from seasons 2 and 3 becomes Jack and Eric's apartment for season 5-7.
  • For a little while Mr Turner and Mr Feeny had the same classroom, just flipped around with a few different props. Likewise, the school hallway from seasons 2-4 is almost exactly the same as the Senior hallway from season 5 but shot from a different angle. These examples would be justified, in that the school's interior would adhere to a strict uniform design.
  • The hallway set from Seasons 2-4 had a door situated on the opposite side of the common area from the classroom (which was usually Mr. Turner's, but occasionally it was Feeny's or Williams's), but what room that door led to depended on where the episode needed the characters to go. It was usually the boy's restroom, but sometimes it would be the girl's room, and sometimes it would be an office or other classroom. Different floors don't explain this, as it would necessitate the school being at least six floors tall, when most are two or three at best, not to mention that it's always the same floor as Cory, Shawn and Topanga's lockers.
  • Possibly lampshaded by Shawn after he and Cory wake up in Turner's class with Feeny in the room.
  Cory: " Shawn... Shawn, it's both of them"
  Shawn: "Oh no, now I don't know what class I slept through."
  • Restaurants tend to be reused as well. The restaurant in "You Can Go Home Again" is basically reused in "Road Trip". Chubbie's (the local hangout) is used for pretty much anywhere groups of teens hang out. This is lampshaded in "Things Change", as the restaurant is changed into a pirate-themed family restaurant in the course of one scene.
  • In "If You Can't Be With the One You Love," the Matthews' family home is used for another student's house when the gang attends a party there. The change consists of different furniture, a change in lighting and fabric hung over the Matthews family photos.
• Romance on the Set: Pod Meets World has revealed that Will Friedle did briefly date Nikki Cox after she played his girlfriend as a recurring actress for the first few episodes of Season 1. In a reverse example (of Actor Allusion casting because they were already dating), Jennifer Love Hewitt has a cameo in the episode "And Then There Was Shawn" as Eric's (dream) Love Interest because she and Will were dating in Real Life.
• Similarly Named Works: The first Christmas episode in Season One was called "Santa's Little Helper" while the last Christmas episode in Season Six was called "Santa's Little Helpers".
• Throw It In!:
  • The crazier Eric got, the more Will Friedle started to improvise and mix things up. Most of the time, it worked as Eric is the ONLY funny thing in some of the more serious episodes and in a lot of ways was the funniest character in the show.
  • Most obvious is his stirring rendition of Ooh, Child in "Angela's Ashes." Trina McGee doesn't even try to keep it together and you can hear the rest of the cast snickering over the laugh track.
  • The foodfight from "Hogs and Kisses" is something that obviously got out of hand waay too quickly, but was too funny to tell the actors to stop.
  • In "The Provider", a singed and smoking Eric shows up at Cory's door to ask for his lucky penny back (don't ask, just watch the episode). Rather than take it with his hand he makes Cory put it in his mouth and then walks over to the (non-ringing) telephone and says "Hello?" Ben Savage immediately loses it.
  • Another one, from the episode "Angela's Men": The tag seems to be a typical scene wrapping up the episode's events, but it soon becomes clear none of the actors were able to make it through the scene without breaking, so instead it turns into a blooper reel showing all their attempts. Again, Will Friedle was largely responsible.
• What Could Have Been: Anthony Tyler Quinn originally auditioned for Alan Matthews, being turned down because he was too young. He ended up being cast as Jonathan Turner
  • Jason Marsden auditioned for the role of Eric, but lost to Will Friedle. Marsden would end up appearing on Boy Meets World as Eric's friend Jason.
  • According to Will Friedle, after season 4 ended a spin-off starring Eric living in Los Angeles was very close to happening at ABC but fell apart with Eric returning from his road trip at start of season five instead.
• You Look Familiar: Julius Carry previously played a college professor in "Fraternity Row." This is especially jarring in that he spent most of his interactions in that episode with Shawn.

---