Danielle Fishel said that “Girl Meets World” was initially supposed to live as a standalone series, but it could not escape “Boy Meets World’s” shadow.
The actress got her start as Topanga on the original series, which ran on ABC from 1993 to 2000 for seven seasons. She shared on her podcast, “Pod Meets World,” that when she was asked to join the Disney Channel reboot, she was under the impression that it would be a whole new show.
“I remember being really frustrated after the first season started because before the show came out, Michael [Jacobs and I], we had a whole conversation about the idea that this was not going to be a reboot,” she said. “It was going to be a whole new show.”
Fishel said that she had so much confidence that the show would be its own thing that she even wrote a Tumblr post assuring fans looking for callbacks to “Boy Meets World” that they might get the occasional Easter egg, but should allow “Girl Meets World” to become its own thing.
Both Fishel and Ben Savage, who starred as her onscreen love Cory Matthews in the original series, joined the Disney Channel reboot alongside fresh faces at the time Sabrina Carpenter and Rowan Blanchard.
Fishel remembered that there were moments on set where the showrunners and directors would play a clip from the original series to show Blanchard and Carpenter, so they would understand the reference.
“We got in there and every day from morning until night was Michael and the writers trying to shoe horn ‘Boy Meets World’ things into it,” she said. “And yet, at the time, Michael was the one who was encouraging me to write the blog.”
Rider Strong, who returned as Shawn Hunter in several episodes, said he felt the same disconnect when he stepped back onto the set. He remembered being asked to recreate moments from “Boy Meets World” that he barely remembered filming in the first place.
“They’re like, ‘Remember when you and Ben [Savage] did this?’ And I’d be like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’” Strong said.
“I think a continuation of ‘Boy Meets World’ would have been better. What it is, is like a reflection of ‘Boy Meets World,’” he added. “It’s trying to reflect some of the themes and characters from ‘Boy Meets World’ and reference them but not actually continue them.”
“What ended up happening is it was in the shadow of [‘Boy Meets World]’,” Fishel said in agreement. “And that was a self imposed shadow … Every time there was an opportunity for the new show to step out into the sun, the shadow would come back.”
Fishel hosts the “Boy Meets World” rewatch podcast alongside her former co-stars Will Friedle and Strong.
