Boys Meets World was a great show - and I liked the college years - I think the show could have been better if they let Eric be a real person that was sometimes silly instead of a bumbling idiot- it became cartoonish and super unrealistic .
That was the actors doing to deal with anxiety issues. The show runner gave him free reign to do what he wanted with the character so that he didn’t quit the show.
Yeah, me too, it was a show that knew how to grow with its audience. I loved the college years, Jack, Rachel and Angela were great characters, even if they were added late in the series.
I can tell you exactly when girl meets world died. The episode where Shawn and Angela reunited, and Angela revealed that she was marrying someone else.
Nah that could have been fine if the series didn’t force shawn with Maya’s mom and invalidates their entire relationship as shawn has never really been in love with Angela. Also, her reasoning for coming back was insulting
I disagree here... hear me out. The show is called boy meets world, and while yes high school certainly feels like the whole world... one year in college will prove to you that it certainly is not. That being said having these characters experience college is pretty fantastic, and frankly Angela leaving though very unpopular... man does it hit home when you get as old as me and have had an Angela or two in your life. This is a rare series that keeps on giving the older you get.
I like Angela leaving as it shows not everyone in life will get that happy ending. Sure, they could've kept Anglea for the finale, had her get married to Shawn, but sometimes real life doesn't work out that way.
@@mattallen8136 one wonders if the reasons were what went on behind the scenes? I recently bought seasons 1 and 2 on dvd man I miss this show. The college years were fine I don't think the show was hurt one it was the college years. Though them turning Cory into Eric and making him an idiot I don't like he was the normal one of the two brothers. I love goofy Eric buy had they started the show like that no issues but why start him off as normal?
@@rolandofgilead43the actor was dealing with anxiety issues so as a way to deal with it he made a deal with the show runner that he could experiment with the character.
The series finale was very sad. When Topanga)Danielle Fishel) was crying for real, I started criying.😭I didn’t notice it before, but Rider Strong’s tears were real. I am glad that William Daniels is still alive and that group of people stay in touch with him and spend time with him.❤
@@TheLonelySoulja Yes, it was because it was the end. When finales come, the actors are supposed to pretend cry, but they do it for real most of the time.
It truly is amazing that William Daniels, AKA "Mr. Feeny" is still alive, and going strong as we speak! Unlike some others who are unfortunately seemingly immortal (as in some certain politicians, cough, cough) he's somebody who truly deserves to live a long, happy, life, and hope he lives until he reaches triple digits too!
1st college year yes, but last season (2nd year) sucked. They stretched the wedding of Cory and Topanga out and had nothing else besides that which was good.
That happens to many 90s shows, like Sabrina. The show gains a big following in high school and the move to college just doesn't translate well with audiences for one reason or another.
Shawn’s character remains the most compelling, relatable and well-acted from beginning to end. His story arc is gripping and inspired… almost out of place in the earlier seasons with so much surface, silly sitcom plot points. In 2023, his is the only one that holds up as one that could still be relevant to teens today
Although personally i enjoyed the show from start to finish and never felt it outstayed its welcome, i can totally understand your thoughts on it too. The final two years were quite different to the first 5, but as you covered in the video each season was different in quite noticeable ways and it never felt stagnant. I think i loved this show so much while growing up and still do re-watched because it really did nail the differences over those years of your life. Maybe i'm just making excuses for a show i love, but i feel the somewhat chaotic nature of character progressions and some uneven arcs actually fit so well because thats exactly what it was like growing up. Both in terms of relationships and morals, i found myself all over the place as a teenager, continually redefining what love was and straddling the line between good and bad behaviour. This was a great summary for the show, it was really nice seeing it all condensed and summarised so nicely. I think its about time to do another binge watch 😂
Even if the Graduation episode was the case (I can see why NOW) BUT it definitely jumped the ship in season 7! In Season 6, Cory and company went to college and learned the real world, Eric learned true heartbreak when he lost Rachel to Jack and Alan and Amy had their baby with scary first few days! Also Feeny found love with the college dean (Daniels real life wife). But in Season 7, Rachel and Jack broke up making her a useless character only kept due to wanting another female on show, Eric became insane so much that Alan had no faith in him after two were like glue, Angela and Shawn dated and broke up again. Also no prominent storyline with new Matthews baby hell could have done a babysit storyline with Cory and Topanga learning what having babies would be like, no storyline with Morgan maybe Cory and her could have had a storyline what their lack of sibling relationship is (non existent), honestly once Cory and Topanga got married the writers had nothing left and just tried to get stuff to stick.
Season six was one of my favorites! The last season declined a bit, but it still had some great moments. I loved the arc about Cory and Topanga, facing adulthood and looking for housing after their wedding.
The wedding should have been series finale and I think that might have been Michael Jacobs original plan. The problem was ABC executives wanted it during the November sweeps week so he had to move it up and find other storylines to fill the rest of the season.
@@Jmmoffa which all sucked unfortunately. Some of the storylines were just lousy and pointless. Could have done one where they showed Feeny as a newlywed himself, Morgan gets a storyline or two, perhaps Jack has a good storyline or two with Shawn like they did in season 6.
I think the fact that as the series went on, it focused less and less on Cory's relationship with his family, and slowly shifted more towards his dynamic with his friends and developing his own life does make sense, when you think about it. When we start off as kids, unless you grow up in some extreme situation, you likely end up an environment in which your parents and family establish for you. Hence, whey the show focuses on Cory's dynamic with his family in the first season because that's how it's like for all of us. When we're kids, our family plays a key role in who we are in life. But as most of us get older, we tend to move away from spending as much time with our parents, and slowly hanging out with our friends. Making our own choices in life without them, and establishing who we are as we get older. This is also why when kids get into high school, you'll notice most of them don't hang out with their parents as much as they used to growing up. It's just how life is, and I think that was the main reason the show tried to reflect that as seasons went on. Granted, they did it in the most laughably inconsistent way possible, but I've seen other shows do worse. I don't think "Boy Meets World" was a bad series. It was a good one. Granted, it'll always come off as a poor man's version of the "Wonder Years" for me, but that's just my opinion.
They're all good in their own way. The show kept reinventing itself with new characters and new set pieces with constant character development. The Cory/Topanga story never got stale because the show felt different every season.
Exactly! I feel like a lot of people hate the college years but imo season 7 is hilarious as a stand alone season, but it’s a different show, which I think is why people find it hard to like…
@elladunham6518 I loved the college years. It added new cast members which opened the door to more storylines. Think where Eric and Shawn would've been w/o Jack, Rachel and Angela. The Cory/Topanga story would've felt long and drawn out if not for the new cast who enhanced their relationship.
Ya that was really weird. Reminded me of Family Matters with Judy. I liked the meta humor when Morgan came back with a new actress Cory made a joke about how she had been sent to her room for a long time.
@@FunFactFilms 90s Television at the time we didn't have internet and we just forgot about it until content like yours reminds us of it. Thanks for the content Keep up the great work and bringing up these memba berries.
I was an 11 year old boy and related to the show up until maybe season 3..... I think it happened to alot of the male audience. Shawn and Eric became the focal points because they were better looking then Cory and after season 3 its clear the target audience is teenage girls and not boys. Someone pointed out to me that it turned into "Friends" for teenagers after season 3.
thats ok, the show was about Corey.....not any one else. Their parents had some more stronger roles but they didn't get episodes either........it's boy meets word. Not boy gets stuck with the same people his whole life and never learns about real life...things happen, things change. If you were a viewer watching my life as a kid, you would ask...why did it take 35 years for him to meet his half sister and half brother. Where has his other half sister been that he was raised with. it's not believable that his family would just disappear.... my mom was kicked out at 12, I left home at 16. This stuff happens, but it doesn't happen in the disney way, where they just disappear. It's usually so traumatic that it leaves scars, which isn't disney friendly.
This is one of the few “the day the show died” videos I strongly disagree with. Those final seasons were written quite well despite some very noticeable flaws. Dealing with “the world” and trying to adjust to new environments and living conditions is what gave the show more authenticity.
maybe for a child of today, or if you don't know what words mean, or you over use a saying for everything even when it wasn't.....the saying under rated is for people who could have watched but didn't because no one talked about it. That is what under rated means, this wasn't under rated. It was popular and went so far beyond its OG run. went from a elementary to highschool and college. It was not under rated, it was almost OVER rated. And saying anything else is just so uneducated. Is over rated/ underrated todays version of "um, like, and?" peoples lexicons are so small that they have very little descriptive words they can use?
@ravinraven6913 I mean I'd have to agree to an extent. It wasn't underrated. It was extremely popular in the 90s. Pretty much every kid loved it. Even my parents loved it lol I also don't think it was overrated. I think it was very accurately rated. It's widely known as one of the greatest kid sitcoms of all time.
The show declined in quality in the last two seasons but were still good enough with interesting stories that lined that they still qualified as a great show. Corey and Topanga's engagement and wedding and marriage, Shawn and Angela's love story, Shawn and Jack losing their dad, Amy having a difficult birth and the baby almost not making it, even the college stuff like Topanga begin sexually harassed by her professor and Shawn discovering he loves poetry, those stories are so important to the overall lore of the show and the characters, that it feels wrong to say that they shouldn't count in the overall history of the Boy Meets World.
First season in 6th grade was most relatable and Cory seemed most realistic being my age. As the years progressed, he was not like me or any person I knew.
Nice to see them at different ages. Mr. Feeny was a cool constant, like Wilson from home improvement. Interesting about Shawn's deadbeat mom, almost never talked about nowadays.
this whole show is "almost never talked about nowadays" I watched this show growing up and I think it's talked about too much since they "rebooted" it and made Corey even more of a basic Bit and a beta than he already was. If that is how kids think acting is, then we have a generation that thinks insanity is now acting.
@@ravinraven6913 i think many have said that what really killed that show so soon was the fact that it was on the Disney Channel and they didn't talk about Subjects like ABC did i mean there are boy meets world episodes that have never aired on the disney channel what does that tell you?
I would’ve like to have seen more episodes like the brotherly shove episode. Or more Shawn and Eric conversations like when Eric and Shawn discussed Eric’s dilemma of Jack and Rachel dating.
I grew up watching this show, I felt like this show was so relatable to kids my age back then. I married my high school sweetheart in 2003 and still married with 2 kids.
This show is part of my young adulthood. I cherish it along withFull House, Fresh Prince, among others. I knew at some point it had to end but, oh my, how sad I was every time ine of "my shows" came to an end. Thank you for the memories and for better times.
Im literally rewatching this series now! One of my favorites as a kid and I still love it. I’m not a huge fan of the first season, but I don’t think it ever ‘died’ before it was over
somehow I doubt you're "literally" but it is a good show. I think it died a long time before it ended but kept coming back. And its youth grew up with the show which meant it was always gonna have staying power but this "new" stuff...is just batchit insane.
I remember as a kid watching the 1st season, only to turn around and watch the 2nd to be so confused on how it changed 😅. I honestly thought I missed a season 😂
For me Boy meets world died with Mr Turners accident. The shows main focus was values and morals, how sometimes it’s not easy to make the right decision. After Mr Turner is written out of the show, the college years start and Eric becomes a complete idiot. Eric in the beginning years was a cool kid who got the girls. By the end of the show he’s barely able to function as a human being.
There's a whole theory about how his failed attempt at adoption was a trauma he never recovered from. It's after that storyline that Eric seems to have a break from reality. Honestly it's a very tragic interpretation. In reality, the writers just let the actor do his own thing as he was so naturally funny when acting whacky
My biggest gripe with the show honestly.... isnt withe the storylines. Because they were always a bit sappy/life lesson. It's with two character and they're a big part on why i actaully watched the show. It's Corey and Eric. The both were insufferable in completely different ways. Corey couldn't be a human without topanga. Its what his whole character became about. It drove me nuts. Same plot, but with the original characteristics of Corey would have been amazingly funny because he would have not been so persuaded by anything in order to seem sensitive to topanga. Then there's... Eric. Who became such a bumbling idiot that it was like he was in a different show. Nothing of substance was given to him. They also kept shifting the tone wildly from one way with him to another that it really was jarring to see. No organic transition. But again the story was fine enough that if you had him not be silly over the top to dramatic and sad in the next id think it would have went smoother.
The Eric thing was on purpose, Will was having serious anxiety issues and was thinking about quitting the show, so to make him happy the showrunner let him do what he wanted with the character on his off days. It became a coping mechanism for the actor.
Tbh the first half is so rewatchable I liked the more lightheartedness the college years got a bit too serious and dramatic overall or way too goofy but its still a fun watch and Im glad we have it. The new cast were also great additions and created iconic dynamics like Eric and Jack so I cant say the show over stayed and should've ended sooner. I still love elements of thw college years.
Overall the show was decent the only issues i had was.. 1. Cory, lauren, and topanga arc. Cory admits he likes another girl, then they go out he had a great time with lauren there was chemistry. Then out if nowhere he says no contest i can live without lauren. Then why did you even have to think about your decision then if it was so easy. It made no sense . Lauren was likable it wouldve been interesting seeing cory date lauren for awhile then him and topanga rekindle later. 2. Erics character assassination. Will is hilarious he makes it work but eric had potential he was somewhat serious but goofy. Then they made him an idiot. Also insinuated he was crazy ruined the character.
Will was the reason Eric was crazy, he was having serious anxiety issues and was thinking about quitting the show, so to make him happy the show runner let him do what he wanted with the character on his off days. Also with your first point, if they had kept with Lauren it would have dragged the show out longer than the 7 seasons. She was a temporary character to present a moral dilemma for the main character.
Another ABC/Disney show that had an organic ending but they kept it going. If they had ended with the graduation, that would've made Boy Meets World one of the best 90s sitcoms as they went out on a high note.
It was a natural ending point, even if season 5 was pretty bad outside the Lauren storyline. It's like the Simpsons, I have no earthly clue why people still watched it after season 8.
I agree. I also believe as the viewer, we don't always need to look further beyond the veil of what happens next. It was a good ending and it should have left it for the viewer to kinda figure out and guess what happens.
@@shoppertattoo I like Full House a little more then Boy Meets world But I like Girl Meets World More Then Fuller House I like when Harley was like Harley said "I appreciate you baboon." Then said "Hey Johnny Baboon!" There is another actor I really like in the show Tanner Buchanan who played Charlie Gardner who is really good in Cobra Kai I loved Eric as well I thought it was super funny when Eric and Mr. Fenny went at it together. I agree it is not as good as the old but it did have some funny episodes.
I dunno, I thought given what they had to work with being on the Disney Channel, Girl Meets World was a solid spin off series. It wasn’t perfect but I enjoyed it. It was sweet how much they lovingly paid homage to the original show (even when they didn’t need to) because it felt organic.
OMG I am watching this show since discovering the podcast "Pod meets world" with some of the cast (Topanga, Eric, and Shawn) watching every ep and talking about them - and even having other cast as cameo/interviews (Mr Feeny, Corey's dad, etc). I LOVE this show... I found this cuz of Girl Meets World, which I love (though it loses its value in it's later seasons).
Will was the reason the character got like that, they gave him free reign to do things with it because of his anxiety issues and to keep him from quitting the show because of his anxiety.
@@andrewft31 - I've never heard that he wanted to quit. And considering that he came back for the remake, I'm a little skeptical about that. But, I seriously doubt they let him do whatever he want even if it put the show at risk after they appeared more than willing to replace characters in the past... Topanga, Morgan...for example. Plus they could have just made him disappear after college. Noone was watching for Eric.
I think what killed the show was making a spin-off show girl meets world, they could've rebooted the show still adding the new characters like Riley and Maya, all the actors are still alive to this day (Sept 13 2024) including Mr feeny, they should've rebooted the show IMO
Another home run of a episode, suggestions for future when (Insert Show) died episodes: Dragon Ball Z Sliders The Facts of Life Dallas Dukes of Hazzard Star Trek: The Next Generation
What I didn’t like about the show is how they sped up their ages. I think the show should have just stayed in high school and graduated instead of skipping the college. The whole, forcing them to get married young was a boring move.
Their was never a moment that this show "died." Just Eric Matthew's character "dying" in the sense that through season 1-5, Eric's character was pretty much everything that Shawn was but under a loving well stabled home unlike Shawn's. And us viewers were rooting to see Eric finally thrive and succeed in finding out who he is and excel at being who he is. Finding his place in the world. But when he lost Tommy to foster parents that lived across the country, that's when they apparently just decided that Eric will become a goofball. That's truly the only thing that sticks out as a "sore thumb" for this series. Though Eric was quite entertaining with memorable moments as the goof. For My own sanity to make it all make sense, I took his character moving forward after that moment of Eric finally giving up what was essentially "the American success dream" that his parents and Feeny kept trying to instill in him that always winded up becoming failures and loss. Eric decided to give up the seriousness and "joke" he started to see as the world was in his eyes. He decided moving forward he is just going to be happy no matter what. Become the jokester that the world seemed to take him as in his mind. Due to what life kept throwing at him despite him always trying to grow up and succeed the way Feeny and his parents wanted him to. Despite his attempts and good will nature, he just kept being met with ultimate failure and loss of something that he would start working hard for. So that's why his personality became what we fondly like to call him--"Mr. Squirrels."
@@lexkanyima2195 he always had a strange/weird side to him since the beginning. But it went full on moment he cut his haircut. Which happened right after Tommy left. Another way to signal his drastic change from that heartbreaking moment for him.
Personally, I consider either In Space, Wildforce, or Beast Morphers to being the natural endpoint of Power Rangers, back when Power Rangers was actually a kids series until Dino Fury came along.
@@adrianzjackson7342 Well, I don’t plan on ever watching Dino or Cosmic Fury due to featuring certain content not suitable for kids media, or “woke” as some people have been referring to it as. Since even though the 2017 Power Rangers movie also featured similar content as Dino Fury, at least the film was aimed for an older audience compared to the series that has always been aimed for kids. Since now with Dino Fury, Power Rangers has been robbed of its identity of being a kids series.
IMO, season 5. The Lauren storyline was the last great story the show had to tell. Eric was beyond stupid, Cory was non sensical, the show was either hyper serious or comically divorced from reality. The fact it last another few years is what I call the Happy Days effect. A show that's just successful enough to stay on the air but it's quality is just in the toilet.
i agree wit this video 100 percent..i always told all my friends that watched this show that after they graduate the show goes way down hill and dies...when they go to college it just wasnt the same show
I felt bad for him. He got dumber as time went on. And in Girl Meets World he was hard to stomach. EXCEPT for the one where he ran for mayor. That one got me 😭
I'm waiting for the day Msmojo makes a video counting down the top 10 (or so) characters in sitcoms that got goofier/idiotic/silly/stupider/crazier as their respective shows went on. Eric Matthews would be on that list. Also, Joey Tribbiani.
Will Friedle was having anxiety issues and was thinking about quitting the show so to make him happy Jacobs let him do what he wanted with the character on days he was feeling off, it helped Will manage his anxiety while on set.
As someone who's seen the series 5 times all the way through this year alone thanks to Disney+ and Freeform showing episodes daily, the show is more solid than a brick wall. This show is well written and funny to the bone. Perspective is key here. I don't care for Game Of Thrones but that show is popular to the max. Not everything is for everyone. Let's remember that
This was the show that defined my childhood. I still watch it all the way through every year. I do wish I could change some of the things you complained about. Especially Shawn and Angela. And Eric becoming an idiot.
i loved eric being an idiot, it brought true depth to corey...and angela and shawn shouldn't have gotten together. It was just a thing for disney to show they weren't racist.
I knew that there was something missing from that show...a six foot tall, red headed pale skinned something...heh, heh...But Disney won't let this something come back...because this something does things that are NAAAAAAAAUGHTY......MAITLAND WARD!! MAITLAND WAAAARD! SHE DOES POOOOOOOOOOOOOORN!!!!!! AHHAHAHAAHA! SHE'S ALSO AN EXOBISTIONIST!! HAHAHAHA! (if Rachel was a solider in the USEALS and made 29 kills, oh she can come back, since sexuality is NAAAAAAAAUGHTY at Disney.Murder is fine, though.
Graduating high school doesn’t make you a grownup. I feel like the college years were goofy and needed for development. They could have did more but it was still fun while also covering serious topics. One of which was the professor who SA Topagnga. I thought angela amd shawn love was more interesting and wish they didnt have her move to Germany. Girls meets world could have been so much more honestly. I would have love to see Cory be more of a guiding hand but they made him a pushover and an idiot and didnt put shawn and angela together.
Teen shows always seem to die during the college era. Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy, Dawson’s Creek, Saved By the Bell. It’s almost a curse at this point to take your cast to college. Maybe bc not every high school graduate goes. It’s no wonder why One Tree Hill skipped those years all together but then again that show died after the cast graduated. After that it was mostly let’s put one of the main leads in mortal danger. I mean at one point Hailey and her son were being chased through a cornfield by an ax wielding nanny meanwhile Brooke was again being stalked by a spurned lover for the 100th time.
This is definitely one of my favorites shows ive seen every episode... and to think i only started watching this show cause Ben Savage was the little brother of Fred Savage and i was a fan of The Wonder Years... i gave boy meets world a try n i was hooked
They weren't aged up 2 years for Season 2. They were in 7th Grade for that season, after being in 6th Grade for Season 1. There are schools out there that are Grade 7-12. They were aged up for Season 4 (going from 8th Grade aka 13/14 yo in Season 3 to Sophomores aka 15/16 yo in Season 4), and seemingly again for Season 5 (where they skipped Junior Year and went straight to being Seniors).
@@lexkanyima2195 They were 11-12 (6th Grade) in Season 1 and 12-13 in Season 2 (the show outright says they're in 7th Grade). They weren't really rushed up to being teenagers, they started skipping years after that. Cory and Topanga both turn 16 in Season 4, so they've only skipped 1 year at that point (either between seasons 2 and 3 or 3 and 4). And then they're seniors (so, 17) at the beginning of Season 5.
Ya I know that was a bit harsh. That's more of a summary statement after having sat through three seasons of their drama and then have them not end up together.
I have rewatched this over the years and I do like the show, but it seems like the last 2 seasons are just Cory yelling and arguing and acting like a stubborn child. I always have to shut the show off when getting to the last couple of seasons. It wears very thin, very quickly.
That last season for me was a total letdown because they turned Eric into a total buffoon character, Cory and Topanga became a boring married couple, Shawn fell in love with Angela and more or less became a Cory 2.0, Jack had no direction really, and Rachel was more or less just....there. The only highlight through the entire course of the show was Mr. Feeny played by William Daniels, who was just a brilliant actor from his St. Elsewhere years as well.
Not a take I agree with…this show was one of the few that knew exactly when it was time to end and it ended at its height of popularity in the demographic is was selling to (if you factor in that TGIF on the whole was declining…really Boy Meets World was one of the only shows keeping that time slot alive…)
