Key Takeaways
- Danielle Fishel said working on Girl Meets World became “really frustrating” because the sequel kept forcing in callbacks instead of building its own identity.
- Fishel said creator Michael Jacobs initially pitched a whole new show, but she and Rider Strong felt the finished series remained trapped in Boy Meets World’s “self-imposed shadow.”
- She also argued that airing the sequel on Disney Channel from 2014 to 2017 targeted younger viewers while making it harder to reach adults who grew up with the original ABC sitcom.
Danielle Fishel says Girl Meets World was supposed to stand on its own. Instead, the actress says the Disney Channel sequel spent too much time looking backward—and that made returning as Topanga Lawrence “really frustrating.”
Fishel revisited the series during a recent episode of Pod Meets World, the rewatch podcast she hosts with former Boy Meets World co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong. According to Fishel, creator Michael Jacobs initially sold her on the idea that Girl Meets World would not simply recycle what had worked on the original ABC sitcom.
“Before the show came out, Michael [and I] 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 distinction mattered enough that Jacobs encouraged her to publicly explain it to fans before the sequel premiered. She wrote that viewers looking for callbacks to Boy Meets World might get the occasional Easter egg, but should allow Girl Meets World to become its own thing.
Once production began, however, she said the show took a different direction. “We got in there, and every day from morning until night was Michael and the writers trying to shoehorn Boy Meets World things into it,” Fishel recalled.
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.
At one point, he recalled being asked to recreate Shawn’s snoring bit and thinking, “Do we have to?”
For Fishel, the issue wasn’t simply nostalgia. She said part of the reason she agreed to return was that she believed Girl Meets World would have enough room to build its own identity. She stressed that she still would have taken the job, but said she would have preferred a clearer picture of what the series intended to be.
Strong argued that the finished product became less of a continuation and more of “a reflection of Boy Meets World”—a distinction Fishel agreed with.
“I feel like a reflection is what should have been the goal, and what ended up happening is it was in the shadow of [the original],” Fishel said. “That was a self-imposed shadow, and every time there was an opportunity for the new show to step out into the sun, the shadow would come back.”
The network shift created another problem. Boy Meets World aired on ABC from 1993 to 2000, while Girl Meets World ran on Disney Channel from 2014 to 2017. Fishel believes that move made it harder to reach the adults who had grown up with Cory, Topanga, Shawn and Eric.
“They were catering to the wrong audience,” she said, arguing that longtime fans were less likely to seek out a cable series aimed primarily at younger viewers.
The comments arrive as the Boy Meets World cast continues reassessing its history in public. Strong has recently spoken about finally embracing his 1990s fame after years of distancing himself from it, while Fishel, Strong and Friedle have also discussed their ongoing estrangement from Ben Savage.
