Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World was an
American television sitcom that chronicled the events and everyday life lessons of
Cory Matthews, who grows up from a pre-pubescent boy to a married man. The show aired for seven seasons from
1993 to
2000 on
ABC, where it was one of the headliners of ABC's
TGIF lineup. The series started when Cory was eleven years old and it ended when he was in his early twenties.
The series is currently syndicated weekday afternoons on
ABC Family Channel and late nights/early mornings on the
Disney Channel. Certain episodes have been omitted or edited for Disney Channel broadcasts due to "adult" content, such as alcohol use, language, and some sexual innuendo.
Cory Matthews is the main character of the series; the other characters serve to help Cory with his difficulties in achievement in school, his moral conflicts with
Shawn Hunter, and his trouble understanding his girlfriend.[
1] Cory's best friend, Shawn Hunter, is dissimilar to Cory; he is a social rebel, he has an unsupportive family, and he has success with women, something which Cory envies at times. Cory's mother and father (Amy and Alan Matthews) are hard-working people who try to make a decent living to raise their three children (by the end of the series, there will be a fourth child, Joshua Matthews, born). Their other two children are
Eric Matthews, the handsome, sometimes borderline-psychotic older brother who tries to distance himself from Cory at all possible times; and
Morgan Matthews, the younger sister who uses her looks and innocence to get what she wants, and who has an amazing talent to sing. Cory, with his stubbornness and laziness, struggles with his friend to get through school. To help them, there is Mr.
George Feeny, Cory's mentor and neighbor. He tries as hard as possible to get them through school and he eventually does. Finally, there is
Topanga Lawrence, his first love, and in the later seasons, his fiancé/wife. Topanga and Cory's relationship is the main focus of the latter part of the series and at the end of the series, Topanga, Cory, Shawn, and Eric leave Philadelphia for
New York City.
Boy Meets World contained an uneasy mix of
dramedy and smart humor (especially in the story arc of
Shawn Hunter), deadpan humor (serious characters basically giving out comic lines) and a non-stop straight-out
farce, with the latter beginning to increasingly dominate the show as time went on.
Playfulness
The show was rarely serious.
Fourth wall jokes abound, there is never-ending deadpan humor, and multiple episodes openly
parody then-current movies, including
Scream,
Rounders, and
The Truman Show. Wrestler
Big Van Vader and
Baywatch's
Yasmine Bleeth appear as recurring characters playing themselves; and characters repeatedly mention the show's format,
plot formulas, and continuity errors.
In the final episode, Cory is talking to his little brother and telling him that he is one day going out into the real world and he would make mistakes but he would learn from them and eventually become a good person, he then stops, and says "Boy meets world, I get it now". The quote is related to the title of the show.
The show is particularly notable for breaking the fourth wall, going to the lengths of bringing back the character of Stuart Minkus from the first season as a cameo for the high school graduation episode, who explains his absence by having been in "that part of the school over there (pointing off-camera)." Stuart then calls out, "Oh, hey, Mr. Turner!" The character of Mr. Turner was a teacher who played an important role in several seasons of the show and then disappeared. Similarly, Cory's sister
Morgan unexpectedly returns after an entire season's absence with a wisecracking comment, "That was the longest time-out I've ever had." The character of Morgan was also reprised by a different actress. Another example is the pig, Little Cory. While still in high school, Shawn obtains a piglet and names him Little Cory. The pink colored pig disappears after one episode, only to reappear for a single cameo during the show's college years as a full-grown pig, now dark black.
Similarly, it was one of the only shows in
ABC's TGIF programming block to openly acknowledge its placement there and have characters poke fun at it; when the show was rescheduled from 8:30 to 9:30 because of its increasingly adult subject matter, a boy who Cory is babysitting complains that his "favorite show" has been rescheduled past his bedtime for no good reason, exclaiming, "They're trying to kill it!". Cory enthusiastically agrees. Similarly, when ABC began advertising its airing of
The Beatles Anthology by replacing its shows'
theme songs with
Beatles songs, a move ignored in the scripts of most of its shows, the writers of
Boy Meets World twisted the concept around by instead using a
Monkees song and having that week's episode feature the Monkees as guest stars.
The increasing sense of the show's realism unraveling and the plot becoming increasingly
farcicalâ€"especially with the character of Eric Matthews, who had changed from a relatively serious character into a hyperactive, wisecracking,
idiot savant failure who served as a source of screwball comic reliefâ€"caused many viewers to conclude that the show had
jumped the shark. However, the "post-jump" episodes of the seriesâ€"the ones taking place at Pennbrook and driven by Eric's madcap exploitsâ€"are among the most prized by adult fans of the show, who look on it as a source of nostalgia and self-aware
camp humor.
It is one of the few television shows to take place primarily in the
Philadelphia area, and makes multiple local references. These include Cory's love for the
Phillies and his brother
Eric's attempts to get into
Swarthmore Collegeâ€"finally ending with Cory and most of the cast attending Pennbrook, an institution that appears to be a
pastiche of Swarthmore,
Penn, and other Philly-area colleges.
There are 7 seasons, each with more than 20 episodes.
 |
Main cast from left to right: Rachel, Topanga, Shawn, Jack, Eric, Alan (behind), Morgan (front), Amy, George, Cory. |
Cornelius 'Cory' Matthews (Ben Savage)
Cory is the main character of the series; Cory's best friend is Shawn Hunter, his mother and father are Amy and Alan Matthews, he has three siblings,
Eric Matthews,
Morgan Matthews, and
Joshua Matthews (born very late in series). Mr.
George Feeny is Cory's teacher, mentor, and neighbor. Cory struggled in graduating high school, where he often had trouble with
bullies. Cory married
Topanga Lawrence, his first love, late in the series. Sometimes Cory and Topanga do not get along when Cory is not doing the right thing or not doing things the right way (humorously), complete with deadpan humor and puns. Topanga, Cory and many of his friends left Philadelphia for an internship that Topanga got for a law firm in
New York City. In the last episode, it is revealed that Cory is actually short for his full name: "Cornelius". In the episode when it shows Cory and his friends going to Mr. Feeny's retirement in 2006 Cory is shown wearing glasses and a tie. This should not be taken completely as canon however, since it was an alternate reality.
Cory's personality changes somewhat as he gets older. For the first few years he's a slacker and is just barely a better student than Shawn. The defining difference between the two is that Cory seems to live life on a higher intensity level than Shawn, getting worked up or neurotic about random things whereas Shawn just lays back. If Cory doesn't want to do something school-related he'll make a big production about the fact that he doesn't want to do it and how unnecessary he finds it, whereas Shawn will just not do it, preferring to fall asleep or make paper airplanes. As time goes on, Cory's slacker tendencies diminish as his neuroses increase, and by the end of the series his pessimism and paranoia, mixed along with a fairly strong work ethic and sense of right and wrong, become who he is.
Although Cory is the titular "Boy" of the series, later seasons the show began to revolve around what had become more of an ensemble cast with some episodes not focusing primarily on Cory and some characters of the series, such as Rachel, Jack and Chet, having only an indirect connection to Cory.
Shawn has always been the best friend of Cory Matthews. The two met when Cory fell into an animal pen at a zoo and Shawn came to his rescue. As they grew older, Shawn developed a personality opposite of Cory. Shawn took more risks and had more of a bad boy image. Their personality differences did cause problems between the two a few times, but those problems could never destroy the unbreakable friendship between Cory and Shawn. Later seasons depict the relationship between Cory and Shawn as being so intimate that Topanga is jealous of it. Several innuendos are made as to the subconscious homoerotic nature of their friendship.
In the first season of Boy Meets World, not much is known about Shawn Hunter except that he is Cory's best friend. In season two and thereafter, the show began to focus on Shawn's life as well. In the beginning, Shawn lives with both his parents, Chet and Verna Hunter. One day, Verna runs off with the trailer and Shawn is left under the care of the Matthews family when Chet chases after his wife. When the Matthews find that Chet will not be returning for a while, Jonathan Turner, a teacher at
John Adams High School, offers to be a legal guardian of Shawn. About a year later, Chet comes back and eventually Verna rejoins her family temporarily before taking off again. In a later season, Shawn's half-brother, Jack arrives in town for college. Shawn moves in with him and Eric Matthews, Cory's older brother, which leaves Chet free to take off again. However, on a trip back to town, Chet dies of a heart attack. Towards the final episodes of the series, Shawn discovers that Verna wasn't his biological mother when she sends him a letter after Chet's death. Apparently, Chet was left to take care of Shawn after his biological mother, who was actually a
stripper, died shortly after his birth. Later in the series Shawn falls in love with a girl name Angela. Angela plays hard to get but later she caves in. Until her best friend Topanga breaks up with Cory. Then things get rocky. In the episode when Shawn and his friends go to Mr. Feeny's retirement in 2006, where they did not stop fighting when in college, Shawn has become a freelance writer and has a
goatee (which he has for the rest of the series run as well). Mr. Feeny has all of Shawn's articles from
Rolling Stone. This should not be taken completely as canon however, since it was an alternate reality.
Topanga is Cory's main love interest. Her character underwent dramatic changes during the course of the series. When she was initially introduced in the first season, she was an ultra-
left-wing hippie, and displayed a "robot-like" demeanor. Once the characters entered high school, she became more emotional and demonstrative, and her beliefs became less radical. Much was made of the fact that Topanga was attractive, popular, and academically successful, though an episode in the final season centered around Topanga's expanding figure.
Also starting in high school, her on-again/off-again relationship with Cory became one of the major elements of the show. In later seasons, it was explained that Cory and Topanga first met as toddlers and became best friends, only to be driven apart as they grew older and Eric pressured Cory to think of girls as "icky." However, this seems to contradict first season episodes which show that Cory knows almost nothing about Topanga.
Although Topanga was admitted to
Yale University, she decided to attend Pennbrook College with Cory and their friends and proposed to Cory at their high school graduation. They married before their sophomore year (during the final season). At the end of the series, she and Cory move to New York with Eric and Shawn.
The brother of Cory, Morgan, and Joshua Matthews, Eric began the show as a suave, popular young man who constantly dated. He was originally portrayed as the stereotypical older brother to model other famous older brothers such as Mike Seaver from
Growing Pains. It's hard to tell when exactly Eric's character changed from preppy older brother to "crazy moronic brother," but it was perhaps during the fourth season when Eric takes a year off from school when he doesn't get into a college of his choice which caused him to become different.
Eric also often plays off his hero and mentor, Mr. Feeny. Though Eric and Feeny are not originally seen as having a close relationship, the two develop a bond, that at least in Eric's mind, is one of love. This culminates at the end of the fifth season when Eric sings a rousing rendition of "To Sir, With Love" at Cory's High School Graduation. Eric also coins the "Feeny call" and even makes a talking doll for Feeny that does the call so Feeny will not miss him when he moves to New York.
Eric is actually highly intelligent, and Feeny mentions that Eric can get passing grades in his sleep (in fact, he once did.) He compares this to Cory, who though lacking Eric's natural intelligence makes up for it by being hard-working when he wants to be, and thus succeeds. Eric, on the other hand, is too lazy and immature to be anything but a ridiculous goof-off to the annoyance of both Feeny and his family.
Alan is the husband of Amy Matthews and the father of Eric, Cory, Morgan, and Joshua Matthews. Alan, as the father of the Matthews children, has provided guidance to his children, but has also at times lacked the supportiveness that he should show. At times during the later years of the show, Alan failed to have faith in Eric when it came to jobs and overall successfulness in life.
He began his career as a supermarket manager, eventually winning a prized "Grocie" award. Eventually, he became disillusioned with his standard 9-5 job that he had worked for so many years, and quit without warning his family. A brief period of family distress followed, with Amy (his wife) proclaiming that she would in turn "make a large decision that affects the entire family without consulting with him first." Accordingly, she purchased a wilderness store that was up for sale, which Alan took over and renamed "Matthews & Sons".
Amy is the wife of Alan Matthews and the mother of Eric, Cory, Morgan, and Joshua Matthews. During the earlier years of the show, Amy was a real estate agent and eventually became an art gallery worker toward the end of the show.
Morgan is the daughter of Alan and Amy Matthews, the younger sister of Eric and Cory and the older sister of Joshua Matthews. She inexplicably disappeared partway through the show's second season and reappeared a season later in the episode "A Kiss is More than a Kiss" played by a different actress.
Throughout the series, George tries his best to guide young Cory, Shawn, and their friends as they encounter problems in their lives on their road to adulthood. An extremely kind and serene man, he first appears on the show as their school teacher, also as their neighbor; principal, and eventually toward the later years, their college professor (teaching such diverse courses as archeology, English literature, and quantum physics). The mercurial nature of Feeny's job became an in-joke in the series, with characters such as Cory mentioning more than once that Feeny seems to be the only teacher he's ever had. Feeny is also known for his deadpan humor. Later on in the show, George Feeny becomes the mentor of Eric Matthews, and "Feenay", as Eric refers to. George Feeny is a Boston native and likes to garden.
Mr. Feeny was once married to a woman named Lillian, who died before the series began. He later marries Dean Lila Bolander (played by William Daniels' real-life wife
Bonnie Bartlett).
Mr. Turner was the teacher of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga starting in the second season. His new age approach to teaching often clashed with Mr. Feeny's more traditional methods, and the students found that they could more easily identify with the hip, Harley-riding Mr. Turner. In the third season, Shawn found residence with Mr. Turner when his dad went on a cross-country search for Shawn's mother Verna. Mr. Turner remained on the show until midway through the fourth season, he was put in a hospital after a motorcycle accident. As a homage to the beloved character, the show made a reference to him in the graduation episode when Stuart Minkus returns for a cameo and calls out to an off-screen Mr. Turner. Mr. Turner was also responsible for introducing the character of Eli Williams. He also has a departed son.
Eli Williams was another teacher to Cory, Shawn, and Topanga. He joined the show in season three when his best friend and former college roommate Jonathan Turner got him a job at the school, teaching media arts. Like Turner, Williams is hip, cool, and can relate easily to the young students. However, being a former journalist at a television station in Philadelphia, he sometimes finds teaching and reaching out to students to be difficult chore, something that Turner helps him out with. Stories in the third season were written to focus on the friendship between Turner and Williams and the single bachelor life of dating, partying and socializing that they experience outside of their teaching, showing the life of young adults post-college. Williams had a starring role for some of the third season before he disappeared with no explanation. He never was seen of or heard of after the third season.
Angela Shinaynay Moore (Trina McGee)
Angela Moore was the sweetheart of Shawn Hunter in Seasons 5 - 7. Her first appearance, uncredited, was in Season 5, and she became a regular cast member in Season 6. Angela is a smart, beautiful African-American, and is passionate about causes and people. She is very classy and enjoys things for their artistic value. This balances well with Shawn's creative spirit. Although she broke up with Shawn during one or two episodes, and once for a longer period in the shows Pennbrook stage, they resolved their issues of angst and became true and devoted lovers, until Angela left for Europe with her father in the series' penultimate episode. In real life, Trina was pregnant during the filming of her role as Angela. Interestingly, there was never a mention of Angela's race over the course of her relationship with Shawn, except for the mentioning of a paper she did about "maintaining black identity when you have three very white friends", and commenting several times how she "has to get some black friends". In one of the episodes where she and Shawn break up, she is seen dating a black man, perhaps an allusion to the fact that she is always sensitive to the fact that she is the only African-American in her group of friends.
The half-brother of Shawn, Jack is the opposite of Shawn. He has money, works out, and has experienced relatively little difficulty in his life. Jack, along with Eric, pined for Rachel after she moved in with the two, eventually winning this battle. Although he claims to have six percent body fat, he was once referred to as "Jumbo Jack," much to the delight of Eric.
Rachel dated Jack for a relatively short period of time. Prior to moving in with Jack and Eric, she lived down the hall with her Texas boyfriend. She also roomed with Topanga and Angela for awhile. Rachel eventually joins the
Peace Corps, taking Jack with her.
Joshua is the fourth child of Alan and Amy Matthews, and the younger brother of Eric, Cory, and Morgan. He was born during the TV series' sixth season, but looked three or four by the series finale. His mother gave him the middle name Gabriel because it means "he whom God protects".
Shawn's father Chet was an on-again, off-again father figure, frequently leaving town for months or even years at a time. He was a jack-of-all-trades, holding a wide variety of (usually low-paying) jobs over the course of the series. Shawn originally idolized his father and thought he was responsible for his father's frequent departures. In time, though, he grew angry and resentful at the way his father treated him, almost as if he didn't matter. However, despite his apparent unconcern for his son's well-being, it is hinted strongly that Chet wanted the best for Shawn, and stayed away because he didn't think he was good enough for him.
During his first major departure, Chet left Shawn in the care of Alan and Amy Matthews, but this ended quickly and Shawn went to live with Jonathan Turner instead. He moved back in with his father when Chet returned to town, but at Chet's insistence, moved in with his half-brother Jack and Eric Matthews. When Shawn went to Pennbrook, Chet went to Jack's stepfather to ask for money to pay for Shawn's tuition. Chet returned to Philadelphia briefly, prompting a conflict with Shawn, who had finally lost patience with his father's inability to stay around. Chet had a heart attack soon after, and he and Shawn were barely able to begin reconciling when Chet died.
Chet appeared as a ghost in three episodes, "Road Trip" in
Season 6, as well as "Family Trees" and "Brave New World (Part 2 - Series Finale)" in
Season 7. His spirit acts as a counselor for Shawn in the hard times portrayed in these episodes.
Two episodes which involve Chet ("We'll Have A Good Time Then..." and "I'm Gonna Be Like You, Dad") are named for lines from the
Harry Chapin song
Cat's in the Cradle, which is fitting given the nature of the father-son relationship.
The reluctant bully, Frankie Stechino was much more than some muscle for the tormentors of John Adams High. He provided insight into the heart and mind of school bully with his poetry about samurai warriors and flowers blooming. His father, was the professional wrestler
Vader.
Boy Meets World was filmed almost exclusively on-stage. There were occasionally scenes filmed in outdoor settings, but these were few and far between.
The House - Full Run
The House was primarily a four-room setup consisting of the Matthews' living room, kitchen, Cory and Eric's bedroom, and the backyard that they shared with George Feeny. There were also occasional scenes in Cory and Eric's bathroom and their parents' bedroom. The house was the main setting for the show, as most of the episodes spent at least some time here.
Mr. Feeny's Classroom - Full Run
While the classroom and school changed between seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 5 and 6, a classroom was always present in the show. Jonathan Turner also had a classroom from season 2 to 4, but this changed when his character disappeared from the show and the setting of John Adams High was changed significantly.
Mr. Feeny also had an office from seasons 2 to 5, with one scene in season 4 using it as Dean Bolander's office. Dean Bolander also taught a class in what would become Mr. Feeny's Pennbrook classroom.
John Adams Main Floor - Seasons 2/3/4
This was another multiple-room setting, containing Mr. Turner's classroom and the main hall. The door on the right that led offstage has been used as the entrance to Mr. Feeny's office, both boys' and girls' bathrooms, the janitor's closet, or the counselor's office.
John Adams Senior Floor - Season 5
This set began the trend of many expensive, short use sets. This was the set adapted from the Main Floor set, and appeared to be almost the same as that set except for the reversal of many items. Mr. Feeny's classroom was connected to the stage right side of the main hall.
The First Apartment - Seasons 2/3/4
Jonathan Turner's apartment was introduced in season 2, but became a main setting for the show in season 3 after Shawn moved in with Jonathan. This set would later be adapted to become the college apartment.
The Second Apartment - Seasons 5/6/7
In the beginning of Season 5, Eric left home to attend Pennbrook University and rented an apartment with Jack Hunter, who had recently moved to town also to attend Pennbrook. At Chet Hunter's insistence, Shawn moved in with them, but the Apartment would see a number of different occupants over the years.
*
First lineup: Jack, Eric, and Shawn.
*
Second lineup: Jack, Eric, and Rachel. At the beginning of Season 6, a few months before Shawn planned to move out of the apartment and into a dorm with Cory, Eric and Jack kicked him out to make room for Rachel. Shawn, upon seeing Rachel, took this in stride.
*
Third lineup: Jack and Rachel. After Chet Hunter's death, Jack and Rachel began dating, and Eric moved out a few episodes later.
*
Fourth lineup: Topanga, Angela, and Rachel. Eventually Eric decided to return to the apartment, but at the same time Rachel invited Angela and Topanga to move in. His chivalrous nature winning out over logic, Jack begrudgingly left. He and Eric returned to fight the girls for the apartment a few episodes later, but lost.
*
Fifth lineup: Jack, Eric, and Shawn (again). After Cory and Topanga were married in Season 7, Topanga moved out, and Shawn move in with Angela and Rachel. Rachel would later move out to assume the title as a Resident Aid for one of Pennbrook's dorms, leaving Angela and Shawn. After the episode, "Pickett Fences", Cory called Shawn and Angela's living arrangment 'playing house' compared to he and Topanga's dorm. Towards the end of the episode, Shawn realizes that Cory was right and they agree that Angela will move out and live with Rachel in the dorm, and the three original occupants moved back to the apartment. They would remain until the end of the series.
The Trailer - Seasons 2/3/4/5/6
Shawn and Chet Hunter lived in the trailer until Shawn moved into the apartment in Season 5, and Chet's death in Season 6. This set was used sparingly.
Chubbie's Diner - Seasons 2/3/4/5
Chubbie's became a mainstay for the BMW cast, and was used often for scenes. It was another multi-room set, with a game room on stage right, and restaurant and bar on stage left, although the game room was used infrequently. Eventually the diner became a pirate-themed restaurant towards the end of season 5 and was never seen again.
The Dorm - Seasons 6/7
The dorm room that Shawn and Cory lived in during Season 6 connected to the dorm hall. The room was used throughout the series, housing some occupants that did not live in the apartment. The dorm hall was seen very rarely, only in a few episodes in Season 6, and was also connected to the co-ed bathroom which was seen in only two scenes in Episode 4, Season 6.
The Student Union - Seasons 6/7
This replaced the John Adams hallway as the main school setting. It was the largest main set in the show by far, with a café on stage right, couches and a coffee table stage center, a pool table behind it, miscellaneous items in back stage right, and a patio stage left. All of these areas were used at least once during the show's run.
The Married Couples' Dorm - Season 7
This set was where Cory and Topanga lived after returning from their honeymoon. It is initially dirty and run-down, but Cory does a lot of work to renovate it (fresh paint, furniture, etc). The set has three sections: the dorm hallway, a living room/kitchen area, and a bedroom. It was a central focus of three episodes in season 7, and was used consistently throughout the remainder of the show.
*In Episode 1-04, "Cory's Alternative Friends", Shawn says he has a sister named Stacy, but she is never seen or mentioned again.
*The third season episode "The Pink Flamingo Kid" depicts Shawn's half-brother Eddie, who lives in the same trailer park as Shawn. He is subsequently never seen nor mentioned again. Later in the fifth season,
Matthew Lawrence is introduced as Shawn's half-brother, Jack.
*In the Season 1 episode "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not", Nebula ("Nebbie") Stop-The-War Lawrence is introduced as Topanga's sister, but is never seen or mentioned again.
*In the first season, Topanga's mother's name is said to be Chloe on multiple occasions. When Topanga's mother makes an appearance later in the show's run, her name has been changed to Rhiannon.
*Topanga's parents are played by three different sets of actors. Her mother initially is played by
Annette O'Toole, and later on she is played by
Marcia Cross. In an early episode, Topanga's father is played by
Peter Tork from
The Monkees, but later played by
Michael McKean.
*The actor who plays Angela's father in Seasons 6 and 7 was cast in Season 5 as a philosophy teacher at Pennbrook when Shawn attends college classes while still in high school.
*Amy Matthews' profession changes from real estate agent to art gallery worker without any explanation.
*In the pilot episode, Cory has three best friends. However, the two other best friends eventually were discontinued. By the middle of the first season, Shawn was Cory's one and only best friend.
*In season 2, Mr. Feeny calls Frankie's father Leslie; however, in season 3, Amy refers to him as Francis.
*Toward the end of the series, many references are made to Cory and Topanga's relationship as young children. For example, in one episode in a flashback to when Cory and Shawn meet for the first time, a young Cory refers to Topanga as "the wife." Cory often mentions that he has loved Topanga his entire life, yet in the season one episode "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not," Topanga meets Eric for the first time and develops a crush on him. Had Cory and Topanga been friends since birth, it is unlikely that she would not have met Cory's brother by the time she reached the 6th grade. Many other early episodes show Cory as not being in love with Topanga at all. His only strong feelings towards her seem to be unease at how weird she is, although there is some hinting at the two having feelings for each other.
*In addition, the door next to the payphone in the hallway where Cory and Shawns' lockers are located has been a source of confusion. In the beginning of the second season it was a boy's bathroom, and then for one episode it was the guidance counselor's office, then back to the bathroom, and then became Mr. Feeny's office for the remainder of the series.
Boy Meets World was picked up by the
Disney Channel in 2000 after the show's cancellation. The show still airs on The
Disney Channel today, after 6 years, however, it is currently shown at 2:00 AM ET. Additionaly, in mid 2004, the show was added to the
ABC Family Channel line-up at 5:00 PM and 5:30 PM ET. The show still currently airs on
ABC Family at 2:00 PM and 2:30 PM ET. The show also airs on a few local stations across the US.
The
Disney Channel has banned 3 episodes from ever being aired on their network. These episodes include "If You Can't Be With the One You Love" (After losing Topanga, Cory resorts to drinking to solve his problems), "PROMises, PROMises" (Cory and Topanga want to have sex after the prom), and "The Truth About Honesty" (An honest game causes trouble at Rachel and Jack's dinner party). These episodes were not aired by the
Disney Channel because they thought they were not appropriate for their target audience (children) to be viewing. These episodes were not shown in syndication at all and weren't seen since the
ABC original airings until 2004, when the
ABC Family Channel aired all 3 episodes. In addition,
The Disney Channel makes many edits for content when airing the show, especially in the later seasons, when sexual jokes became more frequent. These edits and banned episodes, however, only occur in the United States; in Canada there are no edits and all episodes are shown on the
Family Channel. However, with a timeslot of 2 a.m. est. it is very unlikely that many children will see the episodes on the east coast.
Season Releases| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information | | Season 1 | 22 | August 24 2004 | Audio Commentary with cast and crew on 4 episodes, bonus episode from Season 4. |
| Season 2 | 23 | November 23 2004 | Audio Commentary with cast and picture and picture video commentary with cast and crew. |
| Season 3 | 22 | August 23 2005 | "World According to Boy" Trivia Game. |
*The first three seasons of Boy Meets World are currently available on DVD from Buena Vista Home Entertainment
*The fourth season was originally scheduled to be released on January 10, 2006 but was cancelled at the last minute due to poor DVD sales.[
2]
Boy Meets World had 5 Themes over 7 years. The final Theme remained for the 5th - 7th Seasons while the visuals changed from Seasons 5 to 6 to include Angela (moved from guest star to regular cast in Season 5) and Rachel (added as regular castmember in Season 6).Theme music for the 5th - 7th Season entitled "When This Boy Meets World" and was written by
Phil Rosenthal.
ABC Family was the first network since
ABC to show all the accurate introductions for all seven seasons. For the syndicated and
Disney Channel broadcasts the season 4 theme was used for the first three seasons; for the rest of the show's run the original opening themes were kept intact.
Not only was
Boy Meets World often compared to
The Wonder Years (partially because Fred & Ben Savage are brothers and serve as the main characters for their respective shows), several actors have appeared on both shows:
*
Fred Savage (Kevin Arnold) guest starred in the season 6 episode "Everybody Loves Stuart" and directed two season 7 episodes.
*
Dan Lauria (Jack Arnold) guest starred as a County Judge in a season 4 episode "Wheels".
*
Steven Gilborn (Mr. Collins) guest starred as a quiz show host in the season 4 episode "Quiz Show"
*Ben Savage guest starred in Season 3, Episode 14 of
The Wonder Years, as a seventh grader who acts as
cupid.
*
Lee Norris as Stuart Minkus (
1993-
1994,
1998)
*
Ethan Suplee as Francis Albert 'Frankie' Stechino (
1994-
1998)
*
Blake Soper as Joey 'Joey the Rat' Epstein (
1994-
1996)
*
Danny McNulty as Harvey 'Harley' Keiner (
1994-
1995)
*
Adam Scott as Griffin Hawkins (
1995-
1997)
*
Jason Marsden as Jason Marsden (
1993-
1995)
*
Bob Larkin as Janitor Bud (
1994-
1997)
*
Bonnie Bartlett as Dean Bolander (
1998-
1999)
*
List of television series that include time travel*
TV Tome: Boy Meets World*
Disney Channel: Boy Meets World*
ABC Family: Boy Meets World*
Theme Song Lyrics*
Boy Meets World: Season 1 DVD Review*
Boy Meets World: Season 2 DVD Review*
Boy Meets World: Season 3 DVD Review*
'Which Boy Meets World character are you?' quiz*
Danielle Fishel Appreciation Website (over 1,500 images from Boy Meets World)
