For most of my young adult, and even adult, life, I can remember watching “Boy Meets World” for hours. Re-runs on television are amazing and I can guarantee that I have seen every episode at least ten times each. Some may say that’s sad or pathetic, but I don’t mind openly telling people that this is one of my favorite television shows and will be for years to come.
The characters in this show taught me so much about life and even about myself. I’ve learned what good relationships look like and what bad ones look like by watching. Cory and Topanga seem to have the best relationship in the entire world, even though they have their ups and downs throughout. That doesn’t stop them from ultimately being together in the end.
I vividly remember the episode when their class goes skiing, and Cory thinks he has feelings for another girl. This other girl kisses him and he doesn’t know what to do when it comes to his relationship with Topanga because he doesn’t want to lose her. I can remember crying when she finds out that he lied to her about what happened and I felt the hurt she felt. I only did this for one reason: I could relate to her character more than I’d ever related to a character.
From a creative writing perspective, this is one of the most important things that can happen to one of your characters. The author wants his or her characters to be relatable to the audience because that sells. The reason people came back to this show over and over for years after it was already off the air was because of the characters and the story lines that continued for a decade.
People will either love or hate the characters and that’s a good thing. Not being sure about a character is a nightmare for the author of a book, or the writers of a television show. Although the actors who portray these characters were the biggest reason the show did so well, the writers had a lot to do with it, too. Good writing stems from the most creative of people. The writers of this show were amazing and the monologues thatthe characters had throughout the show were impeccable. The one monologue that I will always remember is this one, from Cory to his mother after he and Topanga broke up:
“Mom, listen, I haven't been together with Topanga for 22 years, but we have been together for 16. That's a lot longer than most couples have been together. I mean, when we were born, you told me that we used to take walks in our strollers together in the park. When we were two, we were best friends, I mean, I knew everything about this girl. I knew her favorite color. I knew her favorite food. Then we became six, you know, and Eric made fun of me because it wasn't cool to have a best friend that was a girl or to even know a girl, so for the next seven years I threw dirt at her. I like to call those "the lost years." Then when I was 13, Mom, she put me up against my locker and she kissed me. I mean, she gave me my first kiss. She taught me how to dance. She was always talking about these crazy things and I never understood a word she said. All I understood was that she was the girl I sat up every night thinking about, and when I'm with her I feel happy to be alive. Like I can do anything. Even talk to you like this. So that's, that's what I feel is love, Mom — when I'm better because she's here, and now she won't be. So, we're finished.”
This monologue is amazing. As a writer, I want to write something this powerful that will stick with my audience for years.
The problem is, as you all probably know, that Disney is making a spinoff of “Boy Meets World”, entitled “Girl Meets World”. It will be about Cory and Topanga’s preteen/teenage daughter. I love the original show so much that I’m afraid that Disney is going to mess up anything that even looks like it. Maybe I’m biased. Maybe my fears have no ground, but I think they do.
Disney has every right to take the old story and run off with the new one. The problem with that is that I don’t know where they’ll take it. I don’t want to wait each week for the new episode (even though I will, of course). I want to be able to pop in a DVD of one of my favorite shows and watch it for hours on end. I don’t want to get to know new characters because the way the original “Boy Meets
World” ended, it left me with closure. This new show is opening up something that I’m not sure I’m ready for.
I learned so much from this show. Mr. Feeny will always and forever be one of the biggest celebrities of my generation. In the new show, Cory is a teacher and it’s quite obvious that he could, and should, become the new Feeny. Please, pretty please, don’t let me and everyone else down, Disney.
We love our characters from “Boy Meets World” and kudos to the Disney guys for getting the same actors to play Cory and Topanga, but please don’t make them into something they’re not. I’m openly begging. But we shall see how they do when the new show premieres.
