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Boy Meets World aired from September 1993 until September 2000 on ABC.
Life through the eyes of an 11-year old starring Ben Savage, younger brother of Fred Savage of The Wonder Years, and loosly modeled on that hit series. Cory ( Ben Savage), was an inquisitive, brash junior high student beset with the problems of the tween years. Where to turn for advice? His mom Amy( Betsy Randle), and blue-collar dad Alan ( William Russ), were solicitous, but they were grown ups. Supercool older brother Eric ( Will Friedle), ignored him. Cute little sis Morgan ( Lily Nicksay and later Lindsay Ridgeway), had plenty of opinions but was to young to know anything. So Cory and his best pal Shawn ( Rider Strong), explored life's mysteries on their own. The number-one mystery was demanding, acerbic teacher George Feeny ( William Daniels), who either hated Cory or liked him-it was hard to tell. Feeny lived next door to the Matthews, so Cory got to see a lot of him. Topanga ( Danielle Fishel), was the girl of Cory's dreams and Stuart Minkus ( Lee Norris), a bookish friend.
In 1994 Cory and Shawn entered John Adams High School and there to greet them was Mr. Feeny, the new acting principal! Their new homeroom/English teacher was cool Mr. Jonathan Turner ( Anthony Tyler Quinn), who read poetry in class but wore a leather jacket and rode a motorcycle outside. Harley ( Danny McNulty), was Cory's new nemesis, and Joey and Frankie ( Blake Soper, Ethan Suplee), where schoolmates, along with a host of others who were occasionally seen in the school corridors and hanging out at Chubbie's Malt Shoppe.
The relationship between Cory and Topanga grew over time from puppy love to hesitant dating, breakups, and reconciliations. Finally, on their graduation day in 1998, Topanga proposed! Cory wavered, but by the fall they had become engaged. Meanwhile Cory's best buddy Shawn, the product of a failed marriage, faced some pretty heavy concerns of his own. For a time he lived with Mr. Turner, who was appointed his legal guardian. Then his irresponsible, truck-driver father Chet ( Blake Clark), showed up and Shawn lived with him for a season.
Then in 1997 Chet left town again so Shawn moved in with party-guy Eric and roommate Jack ( Matthew Lawrence), who turned out to be Shawn's long lost half-brother. In the fall of 1998, Cory and Topanga enrolled in Pennbrook College, the same college that Cory's older brother Eric had entered ( with great difficulty) the preceding year. For Topanga it was a choice of the heart; she turned down Yale in order to be with Cory. Shawn moved into the dormitory with his pal Cory. Topanga, meanwhile, roomed with Shawn's new girlfriend, an African-American girl named Angela ( Trina McGee-Davis). The series was widely complimented for never mentioning the interracial aspect of Shawn and Angela's relationship.
The 1998-1999 season brought other changes. With Shawn gone, Eric and Jack needed a new roommate: enter Rachel ( Maitland Ward), a red-haired beauty who kept them both in their places. Feeny retired and moved to Wyoming, but not for long. Returning, he met a pretty dean named Bolander ( played by William Daniel's real-life wife Bonnie Bartlett), and began a relationship of his own. They were married that May. Back at the nearly empty Matthewses nest, Cory's mom Amy was pregnant with her fourth child. She delivered the baby, a boy named Joshua prematurly on Valentine's Day 1999.
During the last season, Cory and Topanga were finally married and Shawn faced an identity crisis when Chet died and Shawn discovered that the woman he thought was his mother was not. As the series drew to a close in the spring of 2000, Eric, Jack, and Rachel graduated from College and Angela went to Europe for a year to be near her military father. In the clip-filled series finale, Cory and Topanga moved to New York where Topanga had been offered an internship. Eric and Shawn also decided to move to New York while Rachel and Jack joined the peace corps.But before anyone left town the gang made one last stop to Mr. Feeny's classroom. They bid an emotional farewell to their mentor who offered them one last piece of advice: " Believe in yourselves, dream, try, do good. I love you all. Class dismissed." They then went out and met the brave new world.
A Review from Variety
Boy Meets World
((Fri. (24), 8:30-9 p.m., ABC-TV))
By TONY SCOTT
Filmed at Walt Disney Studios, Burbank, by Michael Jacobs Prods. Inc. and Touchstone TV. Executive producer, Michael Jacobs; co-executive producer, April Kelly; producer, Arlene Grayson; director, John Tracy.
Cast: Ben Savage, William Daniels, William Russ, Betsy Randle, Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Lily Nicksay, Chauncey Leopardi, Cynthia Mace, Krystin Moore.
Ben Savage, younger brother of Fred Savage, steps up to bat as 11-year-old Cory Matthews, brash boy with pleasant parents (Betsy Randle, William Russ). Cory's got problems with his sixth-grade teacher, Mr. Feeny (William Daniels), who the undaunted Cory suspects hates him. Program, directed shrewdly by John Tracy, trails Cory through his difficulties coping with life; it's sure to please 11-year-olds trying to cope with life as well as their parents.
Cory's hurt when older brother Eric (Will Friedle in a stock role), breaks a tradition with Cory and decides to go to a ballgame with a girl; more, Cory has trouble trying to understand the intricacies of love in "Romeo and Juliet," which Mr. Feeny is teaching the kids. Cory also has a little sister, Morgan (Lily Nicksay), who's cute without being tedious.
Relationship between Cory and Mr. Feeny, something like a more mature Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson, is a strong springboard for the series. Feeny, who lives next door to the Matthewses, is on to children's tricks; he outsmarts the smart Cory when the boy speaks back to him by keeping him after school.
Savage is just fine as the sharp boy with lots of ideas, and Daniels is excellent in what might have been a routine role. Writers Michael Jacobs and April Kelly have even included a message in the format -- the value of love, something Cory presumably learns.
A Review from USA TODAY
TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH
SMALL WORLD
A new " T.G.I.F." series? Must be a new smart-alecky kid on the block. And so there is, as Boy Meets World ( **1/2, ABC, tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT) revisits a familiar universe of Nintendo kids, grin-and-bear-it parents , and at least one authority figure to reckon with-here, William Daniels as a sixth-grade teacher who gets the last word.
This one's a notch better than some, with Ben Savage ( Fred's younger brother) only slightly overdoing it as Cory Matthews, the brat of his pack, boasting with his buds about how late they made it through last night's late-TV monologue.
A curly-top mischief maker with an admired older brother and adorable younger sister, he may not " understand the emotional content of Full House," as he complains while studying Romeo and Juliet. But he sure knows the drill.
Daniels helps bring the show some dignity-no Mr. Wilson meets Dennis slapstick here. When he gets the goods on Cory, he quips: " Confused Mr. Matthews? As it should be."
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
TV Review
'WORLD' IS FLAT
LAME JOKES TURN THE TALENTED BEN SAVAGE INTO A DULL 'BOY'
By Ken Tucker
Ben Savage, younger brother of The Wonder Years' Fred and eerie little star of last season's Wild Palms, displays a slick professionalism in boy meets world (ABC, Fridays, 8:30-9 p.m.). In this trite show about the family and school life of an average 11-year-old, Savage's crack timing only makes his glib punch lines seem that much more unconvincing. Wasted in the cast are St. Elsewhere's William Daniels, as Savage's prickly teacher, and William Russ, so strong in the short-lived Middle Ages, as Savage's bland dad. C-
An Article From USA TODAY
Published: October 15, 1993
Ben Savage, in his own ' World'
Fred's brother settles into series
By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
Ben Savage knew he wanted to be an actor when he was 5 years old.
That's when he made his professional debut,sitting in a swimming pool and smiling for an Osco Drug commercial.
Today he's 13 , starring in his own ABC sitcom, Boy Meets World ( 8:30 p.m. ET/PT), following in the footsteps of his older brother, Fred, who also had his own ABC show, The Wonder Years.
But don't look for another acting Savage. Sister Kala " tried it for a few years," says Ben. " But she didn't like it. She didn't like going on auditions."
Ben doesn't mind. The applause makes it all worth-while, he says.
" Sometimes it can be kind of annoying. You have to give up a lot-you can't try out for the basketball team because you might miss an audition.
" But when the audience comes in and applauds and laughs at your jokes-that's what I like."
On Boy, Ben plays an 11-year-old middle child who develops his own theories about life, relationships and growing up and often duels with his tough teacher, played by William Daniels ( whom kids might know as the voice of the KITT car on Knight Rider).
" I love this character," says Ben, " because he's the ultimate troublemaker."
Ben was interviewed in his trailer on the Disney lot, with Mom sitting nearby. She works hard to make sure that Ben lives as normal a life as possible.
He spent part of the summer at camp, and now works half-days on Boy episodes and then returns to school. When at Disney, he also works with a tutor.
Fred Savage-currently a senior in high school-helps his brother with lines at home. Ben appeared with Fred on an episode of Wonder Years ( he played Cupid on a Valentine's Day show) and worked with him in the film Little Monsters.
If Boy is renewed, Ben would like to invite Fred on the show for a guest spot.
When off the set and out of school, Ben likes to play sports-tennis in particular, is his passion-but he also likes going to movies, malls and amusement parks with his pals. ( He loves the Colossus roller coaster at the Magic Mountain amusement park near Los Angeles.)
How is he different from his character?
" He has a lot more guts than I do. He's never afraid to say what's on his mind. I keep it to myself."
Boy isn't Ben's first TV show. He played one of Robert Mitchum's kids in the short-lived A Family for Joe program and was in Oliver Stone's Wild Palms miniseries last spring.
" That was my favorite part ever," says Ben. " I usually get to play happy kids. This guy was a psycho killer. Now that was fun!"
An Article From USA TODAY from September 1994.
' Boy' meets whirl of changes
ABC show wants to make the grade with older crowd.
By Jefferson Graham
USA TODAY
Last year when ABC's Boy Meets World premiered, Cory ( Ben Savage) was 11 years old.
But through the magic of television , when World begins its second season Sept. 23, Cory will be 13, in the seventh grade at a new school with a new teacher and principal.
Such are the changes in store for the second season of Boy, where producers are hoping to expand the kids-and-teens base and bring in more adult viewers.
" We had a good, strong audience base," says executive producer Michael Jacobs. " But we felt we were tilting a bit to kids. We want to make sure the show is viable to all ages. I don't want Boy Meets World classified as just a kids show."
Airing as part of ABC's T.G.I.F. package on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT, Boy Meets World regularly won its time slot last season.
In the new season, Cory's tough teacher and next door neighbor, Mr. Feeny ( William Daniels) gets a new job as acting principal at Cory's new school. And Cory gets a new, younger, less authoritarian teacher ( Anthony Tyler Quinn).
" Instead of a culteral elitist like Mr. Feeny, this guy is in his 20's and more street-smart," says Jacobs, who also was the executive producer of ABC's Dinosaurs, which concluded its 3 1/2 season run last month.
" It's a dangerous climate for kids today , and it's not the same climate as when Mr. Feeny was growing up," he adds. " We thought we should have that voice in the show." ( Producers also hope the new teacher appeals to yound adult viewers.)
By leaving grade school and attending the same high school as his brother, Cory will be introduced to "a society he never dreamed of in grade school," says Jacobs.
" He'll get a new teacher and principal and deal with raging hormones and his older brother who doesn't want his younger brother around him."
Boy meets a new world.
A Review from Entertainment Weekly
Published on May 15, 1998
TV Review
Boy Meets World
By Ken Tucker
Teletubbies, teleschmubbies — the real controversy in children's television ought to be the way ABC and CBS have screwed up Friday nights for kids. For years, the Alphabet provided a haven of pretty good programming with its so-called ''TGIF'' schedule, which at various points included Full House (showbiz birthplace of the Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley), Family Matters (the show that brought us Jaleel White's blessedly unique comic creation, Steve Urkel), Boy Meets World (since 1993, a cozy place for Fred Savage's cute brother Ben to grow up into a strikingly goofy adolescent), and Step by Step (the early-retirement home for Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy, as well as budding teen idol Sasha Mitchell, whose career was derailed when he pled no contest to a real-life spousal-abuse charge).
Doesn't sound like much of a golden age, does it? Yet that two-hour block of sitcoms did have its charms. It offered good clean fun for the kiddies, paid off in the ratings, and in 1996, introduced the best TGIF show ever, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, starring the charming-and-gee-she-can-act-too Melissa Joan Hart, formerly of Nickelodeon's beloved Clarissa Explains It All.
It was only a matter of time before the heavy hand of network competition ruined almost everything. First, CBS got the idea of starting its own Friday youth slate and did it by snatching Family Matters and Step by Step from ABC. To fill out its two hours, CBS added a couple of new shows, Meego, a dreadful showcase for Bronson Pinchot's antics as an alien, and The Gregory Hines Show, a warm, comparatively quiet series created around the well-known dancer/actor playing a single dad.
CBS' strategy quickly flopped. The network apparently didn't notice that Matters and Step were past their prime, already fading in the ratings for ABC; plus, Meego was a stinker, and the genteel tone of Gregory Hines' show was out of place among the other raucous fare. Meanwhile, ABC plugged its TGIF holes with You Wish, an abysmal botch about a young genie, and Teen Angel, a perfectly good show whose title character — a dead boy who descends from heaven to pal around with his high school chums — was played by the engaging, quick ad-libber Mike Damus.
But ABC's schedule fared only a bit better than CBS' — these goony networks were fighting for the same audience in a game of divide-and-not-conquer. CBS yanked Meego (yay); ABC pulled Teen Angel (boo — that show coulda been a contender). So what are children who used to build their lonely little Friday nights around TGIF now compelled to watch? Well, CBS has offered them junky blooper-style shows like Bill Cosby's updating of Kids Say the Darndest Things and a new Candid Camera, cohosted by Allen Funt's wooden son Peter and — whoops! there she is again — Suzanne Somers.
ABC, once the class act on this night, is now kids' biggest insulter: For months now, the network has filled its two hours by programming one new episode of Sabrina and a rerun of it, plus a new Boy Meets World and an old Boy. The network is sending out a clear message: Ahh, those li'l ankle-biters will watch anything. I'm waiting for a new yellow-background ad campaign: ''TV Is Arrogant.''
Their network's callousness aside, though, both Sabrina and Boy Meets World have turned into interesting little shows. No place except the teen magazines seems to have noticed that Boy has yielded a talented heartthrob in Rider Strong (excellent showbiz name, kid), who plays Ben Savage's pal Shawn. Shawn and Savage's Cory play off each other like an old odd-couple comedy team, arguing and ragging on each other — nothing jaded adults haven't seen, but well-done amusement for a kid audience.
As for Sabrina, its season finale this week finds the girl with Salem, the talking cat, torn between two guys — good old familiar Harvey (Nate Richert) and a new fellow in town, Dash (Donald Faison), who, like Sabrina, is half witch, half human. (He's also African-American, something that's never mentioned; a casual, funny, interracial romance is one of ABC's few concessions to progressivism on this night.)
While real teenagers watch Dawson's Creek or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and identify madly with angst and insecurity, children yearning to become teenagers watch Sabrina and fantasize — about a light, frothy adolescence, in which a life lived with two understanding witch aunts (Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick) is a breeze, a lark, a choice between two good-lookin' guys. Plus, if you were Sabrina, you could conjure up an evening of better entertainment than anything TV now offers you on Friday nights. B-
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