Let’s not sit here and pretend that nearly everyone who grew up in the ’90s doesn’t love Boy Meets World. The story of Cory Matthews and his never ending battle of words with Mr. Feeny was a defining series for many, and that’s why, while we’re interested to see what Michael Jacobs and April Kelly have cooking for their sequel series, Girl Meets World, we’re also very skeptical and protective of the beloved sitcom. As we think back on the famed series, there are many thing we know we’re hoping to see in Girl Meets World (mainly a Rider Strong cameo, which we already know is happening), but upon investigation, we’ve determined there are three elements in particular the new series must have to be worthy of its namesake:
AWESOME MENTOR MOMENTS:
George Feeny was a figure unlike any other to many of our young minds. He was intelligent, quick-witted, funny, wise, interesting, but above all else, he was caring. Even if it meant being hard on his students (as we see above), he would do whatever it took to make sure his class learned something that would affect their lives in the future, even if that future was years away. Remember, in the pilot, this is the guy that tricked Cory into thinking he was stood up on a dinner date just so he could teach his young pupil a lesson about love.
Now, in Girl Meets World, Cory himself has taken over the Feeny role, and the question is, how much will he be inspired by his old mentor? Only time will tell, but we hope it tells us soon.
FRIENDSHIP-MARRIAGE:
This particular compilation sums it all up nicely. Cory and Shawn were the coolest married couple in existence (next to Cory and Topanga, but we’ll put the longest TV relationship to the side for a moment), and what made it so was the fantastic chemistry they shared. Even at their worst (underpants, anybody), these two best buds always stood by one another and loved each other, and when the road got really tough – Shawn did join a cult that one time – their bond remained thicker than blood.
In the new series, Riley’s pushed into craziness by her best friend, Maya. It’s hard to tell at this point how much the bond between the two tweens will play into the series, but with any luck, it will be just as wonderful to watch as the famed buddy duo of Cory and Shawn in the ’90s.
OUT-THERE HUMOR:
Before there was Community, before there was Arrested Development, heck, before there was Malcolm in the Middle, there was Boy Meets World. As the series progressed and the writers needed to find new challenges to put their characters through, the humor became more and more insane. The clip above was toward the end of the series, the final season to be exact, in an episode titled “Seven the Hard Way.†The moment is a flash-forward to a world where the gang never gets back together after a battle that goes way too far. Also, there was that one episode where the show went meta and we visited the set of “Kid Gets Acquainted with Universe.†Yeah, that happened.
With any luck (and a few episodes of set-up) this will be the kind of subversive humor we’ll hopefully see from the new Disney Channel series, and if that happens, we could be looking at the next great children’s program.
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Girl Meets World has a lot to live up to, and if you don’t want to wait until 9:45pm tonight (TGIF!) to watch the premiere (and if you have a cable or satellite subscription) you can watch it right now on Disney’s website and mobile app.
What are some of your favorite Boy Meets World moments? Let us know in the comments below.
GREAT article, and you also did a really good job with incorporating those Youtube clips to support your point. You make good points – those elements did help the show stand out. Overall, though, whatever elements are included or removed, I think the basis for a good show is just good writing. Even if it’s not about a friendship-marriage or out-there humor, the show just needs good writing.
And sadly, that is exactly what it lacks. It’s crazy because I’ve seen every episode of GMW so far and I haven’t laughed once. But just watching those decade-old clips from BMW had me literally laughing out loud – and I am not swayed or moved boy corny humor. Things actually have to be funny for me to laugh. And those clips still got giggles from me. They’ve done an abysmal job with GMW. Abysmal. There is no depth whatsoever. It’s focused entirely on being visually colorful and bright instead of having any type of story line. It is exactly like every other Disney show: Extra-goofy rich fashionable girl and her cool sidekick who acts like a tomboy but dresses like the richest fashonista in town, with a big bright colorful room, colorful wardrobe, in a colorful school with colorful classmates. There’s the dork and the hot guy, and the rest is just slapstick humor and storylines that progress at sonic speed, with no attention to detail whatsoever. GMW attempts to teach lessons, but it comes off as corny and contrived instead of sincere and deep. They take 20 seconds to say a piece about whatever the “deep” topic is and then it’s right back to slapstick jokes and color saturation. The girls are 13 but dress like 18 year olds. Everything is totally rushed through the the point where there’s no real story line. Just like every Disney show, ever.
The problem isn’t that we’re older people looking for nostalgia and finding a kid’s show, either. It’s okay that it’s a kid’s show, BMW was a kid’s show. What’s not okay is that the writing is some of the worst ever produced, and it’s a generic “look at this neat girl and all her neat stuff” Disney show. ABC should have been the one to do the remake, so at least they could fill the 25 minutes with actual storylines and not just nonsense. Even if the storylines are cheesy, that’s okay – as long as they have one. The old show was pretty cheesy too but there was actual writing to make the show at least make sense and develop the characters. Not so with GMW.
As Kevin Sorbo would say, “Disappointed.”
We really need Shawn and Eric to be a part of the show. Nothing will be the same without them. We also need cameos by Mr.Feeny (as many as possible) and Cory’s parents. I am looking forward to girl meets world but will be extremely disappointed without Shawn and Eric!!!
My sister and I grew up watching BMW!! We were definitely excite to hear of a sequel. My daughter has seen some of the old episodes and she enjoyed them. I believe I was more excited to watch the pilot than she was. I’m excited to see what the season holds.
Fourth thing: Big Van Vader.
I really enjoyed BMW, but I h.ave reservations about a sequel. The complexity of the characters, and the ensuing moral dilemmas do not need to be whitewashed by Disney. We have enough iCarly-type shows.
It’s the first episode of season one. Don’t expect the same BMW content until a season or two. It’s a great start for a show for this generation that is badly needed.
The Pilot had problems to find the balance between humor and seriousness. It was more like forced “fun” and felt way too preachy. And the goddamn pauses after every kitschy “life-lesson”. I really hope they will get it right in time. I loved BoyMeetsWorld as a child, so it would be cool if GirlMeetsWorlld can spark the same feelings for this generation (with the right sense for the current Zeitgeist, of course).
Too many favorites! But one that my cousin and I are always referencing is the Esquimo episode.”soup or bowl? Topanga, we can’t have one without the other!?”We are warm and you are cold!” The end with Shawn’s sign was amazing 🙂
I loved the show when I was a kid, but I am an adult now with no kids. People may not understand if I start watching and then talking about a show starring 2 little girls. That being said, I hope the show does right by its fans and respects the spirit of its predecessor. Also, please give Z a hug. He or she clearly has some issues that have nothing to do with a 20 year old TV show. I think Chris Hardwick could totally make a cameo as the cool substitute teacher.
First off I got to say is, be thankful none of the kids on kid shows, not just GMW and BMW, are like the kids you saw in Project X.
Anyways, this is just bad news. Now all the disrespectful fans will be back in full force BULLYING everyone that’s not watching it or getting into it as they are! And there’s so many problems with the original show. People including the makers of this show too think it was all full of morals well how about this:
Cory and Shawn bullied Minkus and Topanga a lot in season 1 and made them feel like losers all the time ESPECIALLY to Minkus, who fans hate for some dumb reason. And Cory and Shawn never apologized ONCE. Fans of the show talk about morals and good life lessons, how about RESPECT for Minkus?!?
Cory STALKED Topanga around Disney World to get her back. What sane girl accept someone’s stalking?? That’s not a good life lesson!
What about Topanga giving up good opportunities in her life all for a boy? She disrespected her parents, disobeyed them and RAN AWAY to go be with Cory. What kind of life lesson does that teach to kids? That if you run away to be with some guy and give up a good school like Yale all to be with him is GOOD?? It’s not!!
They’re not even married and she let him see her butt. Where’s the morals in that??
And Cory was OBSESSED with sex. What girl would like it if they know that someone’s wanting to marry someone just so they can get on their honeymoon to take away someone’s virginity?? BAD MORALS!!
What’s even worse is that in the episode it was HE AND SHAWN who exposed a PRIVATE picture of Rachel for everyone on campus to see and fans hate on RACHEL for it, never blaming the two boys who should have common sense and self control to NOT expose someone like that.
In that same episode, Cory wanted to see a picture of Angela naked! This doesn’t even affect Topanga! You’re married to your husband you apparently love and yet you don’t even confront him or get angry that he wanted a sexy picture of Angela who’s NOT his wife?!? The audience found that scene really funny too!
Alan and Amy go off calling some zombie movie Cory wanted to watch being trash yet he makes Cory watch the animal channel where animals either kill each other or are shown having sex (either one is disgusting to Cory at the end of one episode)? That’s hypocritical! And the one flaw of Alan I saw next to him not liking the fact that his wife never got her figure back after being pregnant. His “get a job” line. Good advice but NOT FUNNY.
Where’s the “good morals” in this show when Eric was telling everyone how he planned to poison his sister for his dad’s birthday? The audience LAUGHED.
Shawn was terrible himself. Being a ladies man and hurting girls until he started to really like Angela. But what’s really annoying is him being mopey. In real life no one accepts this at all. They don’t like being around people that are going to mope all the time like as if they’re Elliot Rodger or something. In the fifth season he complains about Cory being upset about his break up and yet HE’S the one getting all depressing constantly in season 6 and later 7.
Jack started out being a nice older brother but he got too conceited and self-absorbed.
Fans of this show and GMW act like the characters were perfect but they were fake as hell!
One other problem was Morgan. People complain about that one bratty character on other kid shows while ignoring Morgan because it’s Boy Meets World. But she was a stuck up BRAT!! And if there was morals in this show, Amy WOULD NOT give her daughter the thumbs up and let her dress sexy for a date!
And how was it ever funny that Cory called Shawn trailer trash and Eric outright made fun of him for being poor?!? This is a message show about morals and the audience laughs when Eric makes fun of Shawn!!
The huge problem with Boy Meets World, and I regret saying this, is Mr. Feeny. The show should’ve been about HIM. He was the heart of this show and the one guiding everybody – or he COULD’VE been if he wasn’t so obsessed with the main cast. The main cast shouldn’t have even been the same people! If we saw Mr. Feeny be apart of EVERYONE of his students’ lives for seven years, each episode with him helping everyone with their problems, this show would’ve talked about EVERYTHING. Sexual assaults, rape, murder, bullying, suicide, school shootings, abuse from your partner, harassment maybe even in the workplace. Having him as the star of the show would’ve made this show A MILLION TIMES better. No main characters that are fake as hell. George Feeny was the ONLY character in the entire show that didn’t have a flaw besides only being focused on the main characters for seven years but the writers BLEW IT.
Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World says everything about parents today and our education system. Parents and our teachers don’t have the strongest influence and that’s wrong! Both these shows are going to teach the past and present generations there is no such thing as self-control, to have no respect for people if their preferences are different from yours and to have a black and white view of everything in the world.
If I can say anything good about Girl Meets World, it may be too much of a serious show to be funny but I hope Cory isn’t way too close to his daughter at school and gives her her space, that he’s not sex-obsessed now, that Topanga actually can help her when Cory can’t, in which he shouldn’t be able to, that they cover stuff Boy Meets World failed to do. The most important one being RESPECT for what other people like and teaching parents to teach kids to have SELF-CONTROL instead of relying on TV to be the parent!
So you have seen every episode… But hate the show. You sound like a person with an agenda.
He copies and pastes that same essay on every article on every website that talks about this show.
I loved the pilot. I felt it had the spirit of the original show, and I totally believed that Riley is the daughter of Cory and Topanga (but especially Cory). It was the right combination of humor and heart, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next!
A Will Friedle cameo would be nice
I saw the pilot. It was awful. They have reduced Cory to a bumbling idiot, and his daughter and her friend are unlikeable. When my 12 year-old niece asks to change the channel, you know your show is in trouble.
You are a twat.
Another Boy Meets World fan that can’t handle his show being flawed so he does what his show told him to do and bully others.
How can you have changed the channel before the show airs? It was only available online.
My all time favorite scene is when Cory is about to get married and he won’t talk about it with Shawn and they both start crying.:)
I just want to know when Chris Hardwick is reprise is role for the spin off.
Boy Meets World is probably my favorite show of all time. I’m really excited for Girl Meets World, especially with the promise that they wouldn’t be doing it if they couldn’t produce the same quality BMW had. I know it’s a new show for a new generation but I still have my worry. BMW had some hard hitting episodes, with great lessons. Like the one in Season 3 or 4 where a girls dad was abusing her. I fear because it’s on Disney channel and not a sister channel like ABC, we won’t get those types of episodes or the more risque humor.
Unfortunately the pilot was pretty much iCarly with BMW references…
But I’m going to give it a few episodes to get to speed.
You’ve never even watched iCarly. Ooh brunette girl with blonde best friend. That’s automatically iCarly.
I’ve seen every episode of iCarly, and Nefferson has probably seen many too. That’s how he came to the assessment that the show is just like iCarly. It is just like it, only worse. Obviously you have no idea what Nefferson has watched, and you are ruining whatever point you’re trying to make by pretending you do.
How does this article not mention needing another cameo by Chris Hardwick?
The Shipmate guy? Thats a weird reference.
How did you even get to Nerdist without knowing who Chris Hardwick is?
The joke is that Tad knows exactly who Hardwick is. Shipmates, an extremely obscure show that no one watched, gave it away.
He’s done a thing or two other than Shipmates.
I don’t think Disney can do subversive humor (at least in their sit coms). Heck, they can’t even do slap-stick very well. Hopefully, Girl Meets will find its legs.
My favorite episode was when Fred Savage (Wonder Years) did a guest spot on Boy Meets World. I am a big fan of both shows so seeing the Brothers Savage act together was a treat!