"Boy Meets World" debuted 20 years ago today

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-but-love.html

"It was a silly show," says Kevin Fallon "It never did particularly well in the ratings. It wasn’t particularly well reviewed. But those who watched loved it. Twenty years later, they still do. A lot."
Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/tv-tattle#7uXHCzvAw57u8qew.99

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http://www.timesherald.com/arts-and-...oy-meets-world

By , The Times Herald

Posted: 11/14/13, 9:02 PM EST |
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I was born in 1989. That means that, despite what a group of exceptionally nostalgic and vocal group on the Internet would have you believe, I was much more of an Aughts child than I was a ’90s kid even though I was alive through the entire decade. Sure, as a youngster, I watched Nickelodeon — but instead of “Ren and Stimpy” and “Clarissa Explains it All,” I watched “Hey Arnold!” and “Kenan and Kel.” Like any other self-respecting alt-rocker, I listened to my fair share of Nirvana in junior high. Only that was in 2003, not 1993.

One piece of ’90s living that I did experience as it unfolded, though, was ABC’s TGIF lineup. I vividly remembering sitting in my parents’ bedroom with my brother on Friday nights starting at 8 p.m. to take in all the goodness that Friday night TV had to offer. I recall misbehaving one week and losing my TGIF privileges; when I was growing up, there was no worse punishment that could be dished out than to take away TGIF privileges.

Throughout the years, the shows rotated pretty frequently. The first lineup that I remember watching included “Family Matters,” “Step by Step” and “Full House” being joined by a rotation of shows like “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper,” “Sister, Sister” and, occasionally, “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”
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Eventually, the old guard of shows got canceled or moved to a different night and were replaced by “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,” “Teen Angel” and a host of other shows that even I, as an 8-year-old, knew were just abysmal, abysmal programming. (Seriously, who thought making a TV show about a teenager who dies after eating a bad hamburger and comes back to basically haunt his friend was a good idea?)

However, starting in 1993, a new show joined the Friday night lineup and became the lone anchor that held the night together and became the show that any self-respecting third-grader simply could not miss. That show, which debuted 20 years ago this broadcast season — and was just released in a special complete series DVD boxed set last week — was “Boy Meets World.”

While other shows on the TGIF lineup were about zany family circumstances or insane premises, “Boy Meets World” was about life and was about growing up, shown through the eyes of Cory Matthews, an average-looking kid who wasn’t particularly cool and wasn’t particularly smart, something that the overwhelming majority of viewers could relate with.

Sure, it had its fair show of completely wacky moments, but at its core the show was about the journey of going from an awkward sixth grader who wanted nothing more than to be accepted by the cool kids, go on dates and get his first kiss, to becoming an adult with responsibilities and the obstacles that defined that journey.

Because it dealt with life and not contrived circumstances, “Boy Meets World” occasionally dealt in topics far heavier than expected out of shows that target pre-teens.

The show’s resident bad boy with a heart of gold and Cory’s best friend Shawn Hunter came from a broken home; his mom left and his dad followed suit in an attempt to bring his wife home. The parents of Cory’s girlfriend/wife Topanga got divorced due to her father’s infidelity, shaking Topanga’s beliefs to the core and causing a rift in Cory’s relationship with her.

Even the moments of apparent silliness, like when Cory and his brother Eric visited a fictionalized version of Pottstown, Pa. with simple folk who enjoyed gawking at the world’s largest yogurt cup while eating soup and pie, it was more about Eric trying to find out who he was as a person after not get accepted into college while all of his friends did.

When Shawn gets a pet pig that he names Little Cory, it was not about the hijinks of a pig in Philadelphia, it was about Shawn working through his own feelings of abandonment and his need to feel some kind of familial affection.

Although the show was canceled more than a decade ago, the adventures of Cory Matthews, his best friend Shawn and his best gal Topanga have lived on in the memories of those who watched and a whole new generation of viewers were able to discover the show through reruns that air almost daily on a diverse collection of networks ranging from ABC Family to MTV. Last year, it was announced that a spin-off was planned involving the daughter of Cory and Topanga.

While it remains to be seen whether “Girl Meets World” will resonate with audiences the way that its predecessor did, even if it doesn’t, Cory, Shawn and Topanga will still be there to guide another group of adolescents running down this road that we call life — and those kids will know that they have friends who will always stand by them.

When this boy, or girl, meets world.