When Good Shows Go Bad: Boy Meets World

[TMC]

http://www.wewantinsanity.com/am2/pu...ts_World.shtml

The History:

In 1993 The Wonder Years went off the air, leaving many to wonder what they would do without Fred Savage on their sets. But WAIT... THERE IS ANOTHER... SA... VAGE (insert Randy Savage 'oh yeah' joke here, may he rest in peace)! Michael Jacobs ( Charles in Charge, Dinosaurs) created a series starring Ben Savage, Fred's younger brother, which was sold to ABC and became a part of the already-established TGIF: Thank Goodness It's Friday comedy block. Boy Meets World, the resulting show, ran for seven seasons on Fridays, generally airing at 8:30 PM aside from a stint or two at later times. While never a massive success (it typically ranked between #35 and #70 of the most-watched shows of the year, which is good enough to avoid cancellation but not a TV giant) Boy Meets World none the less was watched by at times tens of millions of people and has since enjoyed a relatively successful run in syndication. Girl Meets World, a sequel series, began airing in 2014.

The Show: Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his family live in Philadelphia. Cory, along with his best friend Shawn hunter (Rider Strong), are generally wise-cracking slackers that their teacher Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) tries to get to understand the world they live in and how it works. Cory's family includes his older brother Eric (Will Friedle), his father Alan (William Russ), his mother Amy (Betsy Randle) and his little sister Morgan (Lily Nicksay and later Lindsay Ridgeway). A constant presence in Cory's life is Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), a girl in his class he eventually falls in love with. The show follows Cory's life, beginning with Middle School and ending in College. Several other cast members came and went over the series run: Jack Hunter (Matthew Lawrence), Shawn's half-brother; Angela Moore (Trina McGee-Davis), Shawn's most-serious girlfriend; Rachel McGuire (Maitland Ward), whom both Jack and Eric had an interest in; Jonathan Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn), a teacher at the high school Cory and the gang attended; Chet Hunter (Blake Clark), Shawn and Jack's father; Frankie 'The Enforcer' Stecchino (Ethan Suplee), a bully and eventual friend to Cory whose dad was professional wrestler Vader (as himself); Joey 'The Rat' Epstein (Blake Soper), Frankie's best friend and fellow bully; Eli Williams (Alex Desert), Mr. Turner's fellow teacher and best friend; and many more that I won't mention as this list is already long.

The Good: A good show makes you laugh, makes you cry, and it makes you cheer. Those are the three basic categories more less, and from there it gets distilled into various forms. Boy Meets World, I feel, manages to hit all three. So lets look at each. As one might expect with a sitcom, the characters thrive by generally wearing their emotions brazenly. Early humor often took the form of Cory and Shawn's open contempt for school as well as their fellow classmates, as well as the resulting sarcasm from the family. From the unlikely bond two characters who hate each other are shown to have when they face palm in unison after assigned to work as lab partners for school, to desperately trying to recover from an awkward situation such as trying to lie to an animal control officer that the pig in front of them is not, in fact a pig, simple and often broad humor was in play. Of course such humor isn't necessarily bad and the show's comedic timing was perfect. At worst the comedy could get too surreal and cartoonish here and there (Eric being the prime example as it's hard to describe him as anything other than 'zany'), but even when it got out there it was still funny, which is generally what's most important.

Looking at tears, the show had its share of fairly emotional moments. The moments were a bit loose at first, with the general idea that Shawn's home was a broken one and Cory sometimes learning some more impact-worthy life lessons, such as what it's like being a teacher. Things really kicked into high gear when Shaun's family life got more focus, including a stretch where he ended up living with Mr. Turner as both of his parents were on the road, and the relationship drama with Cory and Topanga played out fairly well. Death became a factor, with of all things the death of a lunch lady giving the group pause to reflect. Eric and Cory often had their issues, even getting into some not so wacky fights as they grew up, but the genuine moments where the two showed their bond definitely tug at the heartstrings. Even one-episode relationships had an impact as how Cory handles such events seem to leave an impact. By the end basically every character has grown and changed, and some of those changes could really resonate with the ol' tear-ducts.

Naturally the only thing that can usually bring one back from the sad moments are the awesome moments. As message-heavy as the show could get, it still managed some solid speeches and dramatic moments. The general awesome nature of Cory, Topanga, Feeny and basically every character in the show working their best to prevent Shawn from being totally sucked into a cult was pretty great and a usual go-to. The news that Eric finally got into a college after essentially spending a year feeling like a loser was gratifying (and helped make that general plot-line worth it). Even the moment where new guy Grif (Adam Scott) is saved from possibly being assaulted by the football team by Frankie and Joey with the bad ass exchange of, “This is between me and him,” “No, we're between you and him.” Heck even outside the awesome moments just the fact that the show offered a solid interracial relationship between Shawn and Angela without ever focusing on the whole race aspect was pretty impressive (seriously, name how many shows actually did that).

The Bad: Hard as it is to admit the show did have some issues. The first season could arguably be too 'kiddie', with Cory and Shawn more typical 90s slackers, Topanga a strange hippie girl unto the supernatural and the presence of generic geek Stuart Minkus (Lee Norris). Now, I do like Minkus and was glad to see him return on Girl Meets World, but unfortunately he primarily exists in a fairly cliché season that, while entertaining and containing some strong episodes, hadn't really found its voice. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as the show, like the cast and characters, grew, but growing pains were necessary. The first season was their wonder years.

The show's main issue it could suffer from was plots that were essentially already done. As life lessons were a key part of the show basically every episode had a teachable moment, but sadly the same lesson or even the same lesson with the same basic plot could occur. The fairly well done gender reversal plot where Shawn pretended to be a girl named Veronica for a week definitely offered some solid insight into the difference between genders, but then same thing basically happened with Eric and Jack (two older characters I might add) years later, right down to the drag plot. A major plot element for both Eric and Shawn became going on road trips with Cory, generally trips of self-discovery, and both even contemplate at one point continuing after Cory taps out (in one instance because he ran out of pants). Probably most annoyingly Cory and Topanga broke up three times, and the third time felt a bit forced (her parents were splitting up and it freaked her out). Speaking of...

Season 7 was kind of uneven. While it's easy enough to call it the worst season, bear in mind this is the worst of a generally pretty good show. The Mankind guest appearance I referenced was pretty damn surreal if not downright absurd, even if it was awesome. The revival of the drag concept I referenced above also popped up in the episode, and the show seemed rather nervous about the idea of having Cory and Topanga sleep together as a married couple (which still felt a bit realistic for them but not going to lie, still found it odd). The generally stupid plot of Cory being told by a health quiz that he should already be dead (which is really more the kind of thing a surreal show like The IT Crowd should do) also came up, and about five episodes or so from the end of the whole damn series Eric seemingly becomes a psychic. Not saying some of these plots aren't funny or anything but they really go out there a bit. Then there's the infamous The War and Seven the Hard Way two-part episode, which sees a prank war between two groups of the seven main characters threaten to tear them apart. The story in general is okay, but two major problems (for me at least) pop up, which are tied together: the prank that goes too far feels kind of more PG than it should have been (a sexy photo of Rachel was posted everywhere which really wasn't that revealing, though yeah, humiliating for sure), and before that Shawn and Cory were nearly beset by a bear. Kind of disproportionate?

The Blame: The show did have a rotating batch of executive producers, and the exact nature of Michael Jacobs' control over the show was a bit up in the air. Aside from a couple of mandates from ABC (studio executives are supposedly to blame for the third break-up, designed to stall the wedding until November Sweeps) it could just be more a case of writers running out of ideas or ending up taking the humor a bit too far out of the established box. Again, the show's problems don't really hurt it too much, just kind of help establish the idea that a show tends to reach a high around the middle of its run and is probably at its weakest at the beginning and end respectively. - See more at: http://www.wewantinsanity.com/am2/pu....I2STYxG2.dpuf

[MacLeaper]

I don't think Boy Meets World ever went bad- I love this show from start to end. Great show! And its spin-off is wonderful too.

[Blackout]

Originally Posted by MacLeaper

I don't think Boy Meets World ever went bad- I love this show from start to end. Great show! And its spin-off is wonderful too.

I agree overall but I do admit seasons 5, 6 and 7 were clearly not as good as the first 4 were.


GMW is great so far.

[FuriosityShell]

Originally Posted by Blackout

I agree overall but I do admit seasons 5, 6 and 7 were clearly not as good as the first 4 were.


GMW is great so far.

I agree with everything you just said. Despite some episodes that I personally deem bad (No Guts No Cory, As Time Goes By, A Very Topanga Christmas) the show was good through out its whole run with seasons 1-4 being the best.

I like GMW as well, despite its cheesiness and it being limited by the Disney Channel.

[tlc38tlc38]

Originally Posted by FuriosityShell

I agree with everything you just said. Despite some episodes that I personally deem bad (No Guts No Cory, As Time Goes By, A Very Topanga Christmas) the show was good through out its whole run with seasons 1-4 being the best.

I like GMW as well, despite its cheesiness and it being limited by the Disney Channel.

"A Very Topanga Christmas" is actually one of my favorite episodes.

I liked the entire series but my favorite seasons were 1-4 with season 3 being my absolute favorite.

[Blackout]

the finale is going to air tomorrow on ABC Family at 6 pm guys


I've never seen it before (that i remember) so I can't wait.

[fol_fan1989]

Originally Posted by MacLeaper

I don't think Boy Meets World ever went bad- I love this show from start to end. Great show! And its spin-off is wonderful too.

I agree completely.

[Mace Dolex]

I drifted away from the show maybe around its 3rd season, got tired of it and its last years started to get all lovey dove sappy.

[Blackout]

Originally Posted by Mace Dolex

I drifted away from the show maybe around its 3rd season, got tired of it and its last years started to get all lovey dove sappy.

you missed the episode where Cory and Shawn get drunk!! that one is awesome.


and the graduation episode.




and Cory and Topanga losing their virginity

[FuriosityShell]

Originally Posted by tlc38tlc38

"A Very Topanga Christmas" is actually one of my favorite episodes.

I liked the entire series but my favorite seasons were 1-4 with season 3 being my absolute favorite.

I really didn't like it because Topanga stayed with the Matthews' and tried to change all of their traditions, and when Cory finally called her out on it, he was made to look like the bad guy. But everyone has an opinion. I like season 3 as well, though season 4 is my favorite.

Fun fact about A Very Topanga Christmas: Did you know that jokes about Jack not really knowing about Topanga and him and Topanga ending up married in the alternate universe were references to the fact that Danielle Fishel and Matthew Lawrence were dating in real-life?