Thom Holbrook, Mr. Poobala here. Normally I write all these articles myself. But seeing as my wife is a die hard Boy Meets World fan it seemed only right to let her write this page (always defer to the expert). She is a bona fide expert on all things 80s sitcommy. I should know. I just brazenly declared her so with no verifiable proof! So it must be true. So now I hand you off to Mrs. Poobala, Mandy Holbrook:

   I will try my best, but my apologies as my husband is the TV guru. I am just a nerdy girl who grew up in a time when the best sitcoms hit the TV- the 80's and 90's of course!

   Like any girl of my generation I of course loved my TGIF shows, and from 1993-2000 the awesomeness that is Boy Meets World happened. If you were a girl who had a television- you watched this show and, of course, you were either on Team Corey- the lead of the show played by Ben Savage, or Team Shawn- Corey's best friend played by Rider Strong. Or you could've been part of the "older girl demographic" and been Team Eric who is Corey's oldest brother played by Will Friedle. I was captain of Team Shawn, he was a dreamboat. ((sigh)) The thing with Shawn was he was the Fonz. He was the bad boy with a good heart. And Corey was his best friend till the end. Corey was the straight man like Ritchie from Happy Days. Yeah, he got into mischief, but that was usually because Shawn got him in a pickle. And then there was Topanga, played by Danielle Fishel. She was in the same class as Corey. They started off as friends on and off again. As the characters grew so did their relationship.

   Cut to 2014. Enter Girl Meets World. Okay I freaked out when I heard this show was in the works. And whenever it started airing, heck yea I was there watching it! I love Corey and Topanga and now they have two kids! Topanga and Corey are still just as relatable. Just now they're the adults of the show. I can still find myself linking to Topanga. She is written with a distinct "voice" but even if you aren't a mom you can relate. Corey is now a teacher and one of his students is his daughter. This brings a lot of antics and most of the show is based off what happens in the classroom between Corey and his daughter.

   Their daughter Riley, played by Rowan Blanchard, is written as a similar type to her father: the good hearted, straight as an arrow girl. Her best friend is Maya who is written very similarly to Shawn. She comes from a hard family, is a bit of a trouble maker and tends to get Riley involved with her mischief. She is played by, Sabrina Carpenter. They are best friends and just as Shawn was considered by the Matthews family as an "honorary" son, Topanga and Corey consider Maya an honorary daughter. Final member of the family is younger brother Auggie who is four years old and there for adorable laughs.

   The show is just getting its legs, but it has great potential. I hope the writing continues to be smart and pushes with real issues kids today are facing. This is something that Boy Meets World did time and time again, and it worked. Boy Meets World was magic, Girl Meets World has that same potential. It’s namereally had to be Girl Meets World, but with the heart this show has, it could just as easily be called Oh, The Places You Will Go.

   Hello. Thom again. Just wanted to throw in a couple more points. In the original Boy Meets World an important character was Corey and Shawn’s teacher Mr. Feeny who was played by the car from Knight Rider. Wait... not quite... he was played by William Daniels... who was also the car on Knight Rider. As Mandy says, in Girl Meets World Corey moves into the teacher role. That said, Mr. Feeny is not forgotten. In the very first episode as Riley and Maya are waiting to get on the subway, Mr. Feeny can be seen on a poster in the background promoting education. At the very end as Corey helps his daughter and fully establishes himself as the adult, he looks at the sign and Mr. Feeny appears in front of it to tell him, “Well done, Mr. Matthews,” and then vanishes. The first season also saw appearances by Corey’s parents, his older brother Eric, his younger brother Joshua, Stuart Minkus (who was BMW resident geek and is revealed to be the father of GMW resident geek, Farkle), and, of course, Corey’s best friend Shawn. Had to make sure I got the whole roll call in there.

Other Boy Meets World Crossover Links
Boy Meets World and Sabrina The Teenage Witch

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