Boy Meets World Turns 30: An Ode to the Perfectly Imperfect, Continuity-Averse TGIF Sitcom — Watch Video
Boy Meets World was a cut above your average TGIF entry — but let’s face it, the Michael Jacobs- and April Kelly-created comedy was pretty bad when it came to continuity.
Lest you think that’s a knock on the show, know this: There’s no bigger Boy Meets World fan than yours truly. It was my first TV love, and remains a favorite to this day. It was never exactly a sophisticated sitcom — need I remind you about Plays With Squirrels? — but it always respected its audience. Even when storylines didn’t add up, the writers strove for emotional sincerity. It’s probably why the show still holds up today (mushroom cuts notwithstanding).
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Even at a young age, Boy Meets World‘s inconsistencies stuck out to me. I especially loved when the show was in on the joke — such was the case when Morgan came down from her bedroom after the “longest timeout ever,” or when a previously disappeared Minkus wandered over from the “other side” of John Adams High, having inadvertently been zapped from canon (or so we thought!) at the end of Season 1.
In honor of the ABC classic’s 30th anniversary (and following a full-series rewatch that also included select episodes of the Disney Channel sequel series Girl Meets World), I’m proud to present the following manifesto — a compendium of all my knowledge about BMW‘s retcons, recasts and oversights. Scroll through to see how many continuity errors you recall (or perhaps overlooked as a child), then hit the comments and tell us what Boy Meets World means to you.
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CORY’S ACADEMIC TRAJECTORY
Cory’s journey begins Friday, Sept. 24, 1993, in Mr. Feeny’s sixth-grade class. This puts Cory, Shawn and Topanga on track to graduate high school in the year 2000. They start seventh grade in Season 2, then manage to squeeze in six school years over the next four calendar years. In the Season 5 finale, they graduate John Adams High as part of the class of 1998.
ERIC’S ACADEMIC TRAJECTORY
Eric begins college at the start of Season 5. Cory, Shawn, Topanga and Angela arrive at Pennbrook a year later, in the fall of 1998, and the final two seasons take us through Cory’s first two years of undergrad. That would make Eric a junior in the seventh and final season — yet Cory’s older brother, along with Jack and Rachel, are all set to graduate in the series’ third-to-last episode.
CORY AND ERIC’S AGE GAP
In Season 1, Eric, 15, is four years older than Cory. However, come Season 5, only two years separate 19-year-old Eric and 17-year-old Cory — a result of Cory being aged up sometime between Seasons 2 and 5.
Now, here’s where things get confusing: For Eric, the show squeezes in four years of college between Seasons 5 and 7, which would make him 23 at the end of the series. But for Cory, time moves naturally in Seasons 6 and 7, which would make him 20 at the end of the series. That means there’s a three-year age gap between brothers when Boy Meets World comes to a close.
WHEN CORY MET TOPANGA
In Season 1, Cory wants nothing to do with Topanga — and there’s no indication that our soon-to-be central couple have a preexisting relationship.
Once Cory pledges his love to Topanga in Season 3, Episode 3, revisionist history sets in, and we’re told that Cory and Topanga have been friends since they were (at least) 6 years old.
Then in Season 4, Episode 17, 16-year-old Cory says that he and Topanga have been together their entire lives. (As for why Cory wanted nothing to do with Topanga in sixth grade? It’s explained that Eric teased 6-year-old Cory for loving Topanga, so he spent the next seven years throwing dirt at her just to prove his big brother wrong. The math still doesn’t add up.)
WHEN CORY MET SHAWN
In Season 3, Episode 11, it’s established that Shawn was born in Ohio, raised in Oklahoma, and in and out of several schools before he turned 12, at which point he presumably landed at Jefferson Elementary and met Cory.
But in Season 5, Episode 3, when Cory and Shawn are 17 going on 18, we’re told that a rift between best buds threatens their “10-year friendship.” The episode culminates in a flashback to the day Cory and Shawn first became friends on a field trip to the Philadelphia Zoo — and they don’t look older than six. Meanwhile, Cory introduces Topanga to Shawn as his “wife,” which means he’s not throwing dirt at his future bride just yet.
MR. FEENY’S TEACHING HISTORY
Mr. Feeny in Season 6, Episode 1 says that he’s taught Cory, Shawn and Topanga since they were in first grade. Not sixth grade, first grade. So much for Shawn’s Oklahoma upbringing!
Decades later, in Girl Meets World, the retcon is retconned: The spinoff reestablishes that Feeny was first Cory’s teacher in sixth grade.
CORY’S ALTERNATIVE FRIENDS
Before Cory and Shawn become joined at the hip, the series attempts to give Cory a tertiary friend. First it’s Nicholas (played by Chauncey Leopardi)… then it’s Ellis (Dejuan Guy)… then it’s Larry (Marty York).
Suffice it to say, there’s no coming between Cory and Shawn — just ask Topanga! By the middle of Season 1, the third seat at their lunch table disappears.
SHAWN’S ALTERNATIVE SIBLINGS
In Season 1, Episode 4, Shawn has a sister named Stacey. Then in Season 3, Episode 17, viewers are introduced to Shawn’s half-brother Eddie (played by Homeland‘s Maury Sterling).
In Season 7, Episode 12, Shawn finds out that Virna is not his biological mother — ergo, Eddie, who’s only seen the one time, isn’t a blood relative. (We can’t speak to what happened to Stacey.)
In conclusion, Shawn’s only sibling is half-brother Jack.
RICH KID JACK
In Season 5, Episode 2, Jack defends himself when Shawn accuses him of relying on his stepfather’s money. Jack insists that he’s financially independent, and eventually takes a job at the Pennbrook student union.
But by the end of Boy Meets World, Jack is reestablished as a spoiled brat. In Season 7, Episode 21, Shawn’s brother panics when his stepdad cuts him off and he’s forced to fend for himself. He joins the Peace Corps with Rachel, but eventually bails. In Girl Meets World, he’s a soulless titan of industry whose work is destroying the planet.
TOPANGA’S SISTER
Like Shawn, Topanga has a sister… for all of one episode. In Season 1, Episode 14, Nebula (full name: Nebula Stop-the-War Lawrence) comes to retrieve Topanga from the Matthews’ house. However, subsequent episodes indicate that Topanga is an only child.
TOPANGA’S FATHER
The Monkees’ Peter Tork originates the role of Jedediah in Season 2, Episode 22. He appears once more, in Season 3, Episode 8.
When Jed returns in Season 6, Episode 22, he’s played by Michael McKean.
A second and final recast follows in Season 7, Episode 2, when Mark Harelik takes over for McKean.
TOPANGA’S MOTHER
In Season 1, Episode 4, Topanga refers to her mother as “Chloe.” In Season 5, Episode 12, Cory refers to his future mother-in-law as “Miriam.”
When she’s finally appears in the flesh, her name is Rhiannon — and in Season 6, Episode 22, she’s played by Annette O’Toole.
A recast follows in Season 7, Episode 2, when Marcia Cross steps in as Rhiannon.
ALAN’S BACKSTORY
In Season 1, Episode 19, Cory for his 12th birthday is gifted Alan’s silver boxing gloves — his prize for placing second in the United States Navy Boxing Championship.
In Season 7, Episode 12, when Eric claims that Dad was a Navy SEAL, Cory corrects him and says that Dad was a cook in the United States Coast Guard.
Later in Season 7, Episode 12, Alan reprimands Shawn and says that he was a Navy SEAL.
So, which is it? Was he Navy or Coast Guard?
AMY’S CAREER
In Season 1, Episode 12, Amy works as a real estate agent.
In Season 2, Episode 2, she works at an art gallery.
In Season 5, Episode 9, she’s reestablished as a stay-at-home mom. In an effort to get herself out of the house, she enrolls in a creative writing class at Pennbrook.
TWO MORGANS
Original cast member Lily Nicksay plays Cory and Eric’s younger sister in Seasons 1 and 2, then vanishes into thin air. But unlike forgotten Family Matters sister Judy, Morgan returns midway through Season 3, now played by Lindsay Ridgeway. “That was the longest timeout I ever had,” she says in her debut.
Twenty-one years later, Disney Channel sequel series Girl Meets World has Nicksay and Ridgeway reprise Morgan in the same scene, appearing side by side in the 2017 series finale.
TWO HARLEYS
You’d have to be a baboon not to notice this recast. After Danny McNaulty suffers a mental breakdown, producers go and cast Kenny Johnston to fill in as John Adams’ resident bully in Season 2, Episode 19 — this despite Johnston bearing no physical resemblance to his predecessor.
The real Harley returns in Season 3, Episode 4, then disappears for another 18 years. In Girl Meets World, a reformed Harley works as a janitor at John Quincy Adams Middle School.
STUART MINKUS
The class nerd (played by Lee Norris) literally goes “poof!” in the Season 1 finale, when Cory and Shawn use all of their brain power to make Minkus disappear. Shortly thereafter, Norris is let go, and Minkus’ absence is not acknowledged for another four years.
He returns for high school graduation at the end of Season 5, at which point it’s suggested that Minkus was always around — just in the “other part of the school, over there.” Then he disappears again.
Sixteen years later, Minkus resurfaces on Girl Meets World, happily married to Shawn’s ex-girlfriend Jennifer. Together, Minkus and Jennifer have a son named Farkle, who is friends with Cory and Topanga’s daughter Riley.
MR. TURNER
Jonathan Turner is more than just the cool English teacher. He’s also Shawn’s legal guardian throughout Season 3. Once Chet comes back into the picture, Mr. Turner gets phased out.
In the Season 4 episode “Cult Fiction,” Mr. Turner gets into a gnarly motorcycle accident, then we never see him again — though he’s briefly mentioned in the Season 5 finale, when Minkus waves to Mr. Turner from down the hall.
Eighteen years later, Mr. Turner resurfaces on Girl Meets World and gets the happy ending he deserves. We learn that he married the nurse who treated him after the accident. Professionally, he’s worked his way up to Superintendent of the New York Board of Education. (Who else would hire Cory to be a teacher?) A reunion with Shawn follows in the series finale.
CORY AND ERIC’S BEDROOM
Cory and Eric share a bedroom in Seasons 1-4, and it’s well-established which side of the room belongs to which brother.
In Seasons 1-3, Eric takes the bed closest to the door. But in Season 4, Episode 2, Cory and Eric inexplicably switch beds. Meanwhile, all of Cory’s Phillies memorabilia remains on the other side of the room.
THE DOOR TO EVERYWHERE
In the Season 2 premiere, the room across from Mr. Turner’s classroom is the men’s bathroom.
In Season 2, Episode 3, the room across from Mr. Turner’s classroom is Principal Feeny’s office.
In Season 4, Episode 6, the room across from Mr. Turner’s classroom is the janitor’s closet.
Basically, it’s whatever the show needs it to be that week.
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
In addition to Minkus and Mr. Turner, the following supporting characters are phased out over time:
* Eric’s best friend Jason (played by TGIF staple Jason Marsden) is last seen in Season 2, Episode 23.
* Griff Hawkins (Adam Scott) — aka the second leader of the bullies — disappears after Season 3, Episode 4.
* Media Arts teacher Eli Williams (Alex Désert) vanishes after the Season 3 finale.
* Joey “The Rat” Epstein (Blake Soper) is M.I.A. after Season 3, Episode 11. He returns for a cameo in the Season 5 finale.
* Frankie “The Enforcer” Stecchino (Ethan Suplee) is last seen at Thanksgiving in Season 4, Episode 10. He returns, along with Joey, in the Season 5 finale.
SAME ACTOR, TWO ROLES
Boy Meets World reuses several guest stars in a myriad of parts — including, but not limited to:
* Krystle Clark, who plays Topanga’s sister Nebula (Season 1, Episode 14) and Eric’s date Valerie (Season 2, Episode 19).
* Mena Suvari, who plays Shawn’s date Laura (Season 2, Episode 16) and club bouncer Hilary (Season 3, Episode 12).
* John O’Hurley, who plays local weatherman Cal Kilbride (Season 3, Episode 16) and We’re Not Making This Up! host Grant Steele (Season 4, Episode 7).
* Julius Carry (pictured), who plays Professor Michaels (Season 5, Episode 3) and Sergeant Moore (Season 7, Episodes 3 and 21).
SAME ACTOR, THREE ROLES
Daniel “Son of Matthew” Jacobs plays a creepy toddler (Season 7, Episode 9), Cory’s brother Joshua* (Season 7, Episode 23) and a customer at Topanga’s café (Girl Meets World Season 3, Episode 21).
*Bonus Joshua nitpick: If Cory’s youngest sibling is born in February 1999, how is he already a toddler in Boy Meets World‘s May 2000 series finale?
SAME ACTOR, FOUR ROLES
No one comes close to appearing as many times as the late Willie Garson. Let’s run down his list of roles…
* In Season 1, Episodes 3 and 11, he appears as Alan’s assistant manager, Leonard Spinelli.
* In Season 4, Episode 6, he resurfaces as wilderness store job applicant Mervyn.
* In Season 7, Episode 7, he plays the minister who officiates Cory and Topanga’s wedding.
* In Girl Meets World Season 1, Episode 6, he plays legal shark Harrison Miller.
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