Boy Meets World

               Last week I mentioned that the reason I started watching the Disney Channel was to see the sequel to Boy Meets World.  Now that I have started watching Girl Meets World I have gone back to the original to again watch what happened in the first place.  Boy Meets World may have ended in 2000, but it is still on TV regularly in reruns and of course there is the DVD option.  I find myself looking forward to each episode because I want to see what happens next even though I know full well what does happen.  This is just one of those shows that is easy to get hooked on despite knowing the entire story from start to finish.  Why this happens, I don’t know, but I’ll keep watching until I figure it out. 

                Boy Meets World follows seven years in the life of Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friends.  Starting in sixth grade and going through the first two years of college (two years of high school get lost somewhere), the storylines follow the ups and downs of the characters’ lives as they try to figure out their way in the world.  The two constants all the way through the series are Cory and his best friend Shawn (Rider Strong).  These two characters definitely live a life of opposites.  Cory comes from a secure home with loving parents and siblings.  Shawn lives in a mobile home that his mother at one point drives off in leaving Shawn and his father behind.  In turn, Shawn’s father leaves his son in the custody of a teacher so he can travel the country searching for his wife.  All this instability gives Shawn a hard edge to his personality which makes him irresistible to girls, but it also gets him, and Cory, into trouble. 

                Topanga (Danielle Fishel) is the next most constant person of the show.  She stars in it all the way through the series, but how many episodes she is in varies throughout the seasons.  At first Topanga is not much in the show at all, but as she becomes Cory’s love interest and often girlfriend, her role becomes stronger.  She makes the unified front that once was only Cory and Shawn into a trio, with her usually being the voice of reason.    

                As the trio gets older, more people join the group.  In the later high school years, Shawn gets a girlfriend, Angela (Trina McGee-Davis), and meets his long-lost brother, Jack (Matthew Lawrence).  Jack becomes friends with Cory’s older brother, Eric (Will Friedle) and they share an apartment with a woman named Rachel (Maitland Ward).  Rachel and Jack end up dating; creating a group of friends that consists of three couples and Eric.  Despite their being an odd man out, the group is pretty unified until the very end of the series where everyone inevitably goes their own way.              

                Leading and directing the characters through all their trials is the wise Mr. Feeny (William Daniels).  An experienced educator, Mr. Feeny starts out as the characters’ teacher.  Then he becomes their principal.  Once everyone moves to college, Mr. Feeny turns into a professor.  Somehow he follows the characters all the way through their education, driving him crazy along the way.  With that craziness, however, comes a great love.  No matter how frustrated Mr. Feeny gets with these students, they know he will always be there for them and will guide them to being the best people they can possibly be.        

                I must say that while I do enjoy this series as a whole, there are some seasons I like better than others.  As per usual, I like the more mature storylines that came about as the cast got older.  Unfortunately as they did this some of the characters changed in ways I don’t particularly like.  This happened most with Eric.  When the series started the character of Eric had intelligence to him.  With each season that lessoned until any intelligent thought from Eric became a rare appearance.  The same thing happened with Jack once he showed up.  With both these characters I much prefer the intelligent versions and wish they would have stayed that way.  In Girl Meets World they did change Jack back and I hope they do the same for Eric.           

                The interesting this is that while Eric was being dumbed down, Shawn was becoming more intelligent and aware of the world.  I really like this version of Shawn so my favorite seasons would probably have to be somewhere in the high school years.  Those are in the middle of the series and have a good mix of everything. 

                 Right now I am watching Boy Meets World at the same time that I am watching Girl Meets World. I’m finding it fun to watch both at once because while I am watching Girl Meets World I can remember where the characters I liked so much were and compare it to where they are now. I must say the writers of Girl Meets World have done a good job of carrying on the Boy Meets World characters (Except for Eric. Please smarten him up!), and I look forward to seeing where they are taken to next.