If you asked the kids of today, they would probably say Topanga Lawrence is the name of some celebrity’s daughter, and “Fee-hee-hee-eeny” is a birdcall. But our generation, the children of the ‘90s, know these as references to the beloved and missed sitcom, “Boy Meets World.” For the years of our childhood, including those afternoons of reruns on ABC Family, we watched best friends Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter get into hijinks, Cory fall in love with longtime classmate Topanga and Eric, Cory’s older brother, just be Eric.
There have been so many times when I have heard friends grieve over the sitcoms we had when we grew up. The kids’ TV shows of today lack that genuineness and sparkle that the ones of our childhood had. Didn’t we all wish that “Boy Meets World” would come back into our lives? For a long time, we resorted to reruns and conversations that started with, “Remember that one time Eric’s name was Plays-With-Squirrels?” But now, the days of mournful reminiscing are over.
Last week, Disney announced a follow-up series for Cory Matthews and company called “Girl Meets World.” The show will follow Cory and Topanga’s teenage daughter, Riley, and her adventures in growing up with her parents, her brother Elliot and her best friend, Maya. Ironically, it seems that Cory is lined up to be the new Mr. Feeny. Personally, I would have thought that would have been Eric. But the important thing is that all our old friends from Philadelphia are back again.
There have been mixed reactions to this new development. Entertainment Weekly’s announcement for the new show was met with positive reaction from the virtual community, but friends on my Facebook newsfeed have expressed doubts. What if it’s not good? Why does it have to be Disney? Will this just be another Disney Channel show that will ruin the whole thing for us?
I think we all just need to keep things in perspective. First of all, Disney has always owned the “Boy Meets World” franchise. It originally ran on ABC, a Disney company, for the entirety of its seven-year run. They did it right the first time. They created a classic show that made us laugh, taught us values and gave us characters that we are still quoting, even though we’re now college students. Though some of us may not like the progression of Disney’s children and young adult television today, this show may be an opportunity for them to turn it around.
Look at the facts: Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel will be reprising their roles of Cory and Topanga, which hopefully means more familiar faces to come (I’m looking at you, Will Friedle!). With this new premise, they’re going back to the classic sitcom, where characters are regular people, not pop stars or super geniuses. And then, there’s us, a generation of “Boy Meets World” fans that would never let anyone mess with its legacy. I think that “Girl Meets World” has a good place to start.
I think we all need to give this a shot. If you never give something a chance, then it will never be good, because you’ve already made up your mind. Personally, I am excited to see where this show goes and to have some familiar faces back on the TV screen. It will be nice to have a throwback to the way TV used to be, when plots didn’t have to be so complex and unrealistic, when a TV show could just be about a boy trying to figure out the world.
When “Girl Meets World” premieres, I will be welcoming our favorite gang of friends from Philadelphia with open arms. Will you?