Boy Meets World ended over more than two decades ago, but the ABC show that aired from 1993 to 2000 continues to enjoy popularity all these years later, and not just because many of its characters were revisited from 2014 to 2017 in the spinoff Girl Meets World. Over the last year, a lot of the Boy Meets World chatter has been tied to the Pod Meets World podcast, hosted by actors Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle. The hosts have welcomed all sorts of people who worked on or were associated with Boy Meets World as they’ve gone through each episode, but it doesn’t sound like co-creator Michael Jacobs will be stoping by, as he wasn’t too happy hearing their stories about the show’s early days.
To commemorate Pod Meets World recently turning a year old, Strong, Fishel and Friedle sat down with Variety to discuss their time together on the podcast and their experiences on both Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World. On the subject of Jacobs, who co-created both shows with April Kelly, it was noted that while some of the stories involving him that the hosts have recalled with their guests have been complimentary, others haven’t like when Fishel recalled how Jacobs humiliated her on her first day play Topanga Lawrence. Fishel said in the interview that while Jacobs had initially told her, Strong and Friedle early into the podcast’s run that “he was proud of us and loved the show,” they’ve since heard he’s upset,” although from Strong’s perspective, having Jacobs stop by would “be a mistake.” As the Shawn Hunter actor explained:
He’s sort of like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. The way Michael is, he would maintain an omniscience about the show, and how everything was planted. That defeats the whole purpose of us analyzing the show, looking back at it.
Among the other stories that have painted Michael Jacobs in a less-than-stellar light come from Trina McGee, who played Angela Moore. McGee said that among the disrespectful incidents she experienced on Boy Meets World included when Jacobs told her to “turn down the Team Hopkins” while performing a scene, and she also heard that Jacobs was the reason she wasn’t asked back for the Boy Meets World series finale. April Kelly, who left Boy Meets World after the first season, also credited Jacobs for an incident involving one of her scripts. However, on the more positive side of things, Anthony Tyler Quinn, who played Jonathan Turner, said that Jacobs initially wanted him to play Alan Matthews, the father of Cory, Eric and Morgan. Also, according to William Russ, who ended up playing Alan, Jacobs was quite open to Lily Nicksay, the first actress who played Morgan, leaving the show after she realized how unhappy she was.
Regardless of where each Boy Meets World talent stands on Michael Jacobs, with the way things are going right now, there are no plans for him to appear on Pod Meets World, which Rider Strong thinks is for the best. Danielle Fishel, on the other hand, is open to the co-creator appearing in the podcast’s final episode. Fishel also said that despite her not speaking with Jacobs anymore, she still feels like she has a relationship with him. As the actress put it:
The relationship with him in my mind is one where, no matter how truthful or honest the thing is that I’ve said, and regardless of whether or not it is even just, ‘I felt this way,’ I know, instantly, he would try to explain to me how that’s wrong — or why I shouldn’t have felt that way. He’d explain, ‘Here’s the reason I did what I did.’ And it would always be, no matter what, for some benevolent, ‘I was saving you’ reason. And it’s very hard to have a truly real relationship with someone who has a hard time acknowledging their own faults.
Considering that Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle are in the middle of Boy Meets World Season 2 with their rewatch, and various kinds of standalone episodes are interspersed between those commentaries, it’ll be a long time before entertaining the possibility of Michael Jacobs stopping by Pod Meets World’s final episode. For now, though, it’s not like the hosts are lacking for other guests to bring in, and the podcast is incredibly successful, getting more than 17 downloads in its first year.
If you’d like to follow along with Boy Meets World while listening to Pod Meets World, the show can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription. For those of you who’d rather focus on watching current programming, consult our 2023 TV schedule.
