Will Friedl and Ryder Strong have countless Eric Matthews and Sean Hunter moments they can review while revising Boy Meets World for their new podcast, but there’s one aspect of their experience at John Adams High that they wouldn’t want to revisit.
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“Ryder and I are talking about one of the things—about constant kissing. We kissed girls every week and the way it went on was pretty creepy. And there has never been a story that actresses don’t have wonderful storylines. It was just, like, you were there to kiss us that week. It was really disgusting,” Friedl, 45, exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“Besides, it’s not a lot of fun watching you kiss as a teenager,” Strong, 42, chimes in. “It’s not something you really want to look back on.”
The actors and their former partner Danielle Fishel launched their podcast “Pod Meets World” in June. Although 41-year-old Fishel agreed that there were “so many kisses,” in fact, she is preparing for later episodes of the series.
“Scary episodes are not the initial ones. I’m a little worried that when we get to high school and then college, where some of the storylines are Topanga with Cory and, I don’t even remember a bunch of episodes, but I just know that as the series got older and our characters got older circumstances, and plot the lines became a little more unpleasant because of my memories of them than, for example, the more innocent storylines at the beginning,” she explains. “And I know that Will is uncomfortable watching the first episodes. Because he’s so demanding of himself because of his game.”
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— Am I playing? he’s joking. “The first few episodes are cute, quite difficult to watch, but yes, it’s also because none of us really — I did something I shouldn’t have done, and I went ahead without watching the series, but I just clicked on Disney+. to see the titles of some episodes from future seasons, and I didn’t remember 80 percent. So I know things are going to happen that none of us remember, and we’re all going to say, “Oh, wow. It’s not good at all.”
Longtime friends played Eric, Sean and Topang Lawrence, respectively, in the beloved series, which lasted seven seasons from 1993 to 2000.
Ben Savage, who played Corey Matthews, declined to participate in the podcast. Strong, who played his best friend on screen, is looking forward to one episode between them.
“I’m looking forward to having an episode in the first season where Ben and I play old men,” he tells Us. “And we spent a few hours on makeup, and it’s one of those things that we used to cite as actors until the end of the season. “They want you to take the buns.” And then people started making T-shirts with the same inscription. Yeah. So this is one of those moments when, for example, in our experience of creating the show, there were jokes that we thought were funny, but the fans picked up and loved them completely independently of each other. That’s how this strange feedback loop came about.”
The director and Friedl also remember well how Eric broke up with Corinne, played by Alicia Haley from The L Word.
“Little boy! A great episode,” says Strong.
Ryder Strong, Daniel Fishel and Will Friedl.
“She sang every song she read at the table, and it was so amazing. And I just stole this episode,” Friedle recalls. “I can’t wait to see if she’s as good as I remember her, and I’m sure she will be.”
The trio will invite several guest stars to their show, including William Daniels (Mr. Feeney), William Russ (Alan Matthews) and Lee Norris (Stuart Minkus).
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“If I had to choose an actor with whom I would like to stay longer, it would be Minkus,” Fishel admits, and Strong agrees. “Lee is such a good, incredible, such an incredible actor,” he says. “He was much better than the rest of us. We are all like children discovering acting. By that time, Lee was already a professional. And he had such a definite character, and that’s why I’m sad that he left the series after the first season. And it wasn’t his own fault. After we realized that a lot of this seemed to be due to the fact that Urkel was already in the lineup, and they didn’t need too many nerds. It was something like a network directive. And this is very bad. Because Lee was an amazing character. So much fun.”
Alex Dessert is another actor they would like to keep longer in the role of Ali. “I thought it was a real missed opportunity to have another teacher character and kind of give some adults the opportunity to interact more with adults and communicate with people. And he’s such a talent,” Fishel tells Us.
Strong intervenes: “I think he was so exhausted on our show. Yeah.
