Um…Hi? It’s been exactly two years to the day since I last posted here.
“But Nikki, I thought this blog was dead.”
Turns out, it’s only mostly dead. Sometimes there’s nostalgia news that so big and so amazing that I simply don’t have any choice but to write about it here. Even though probably no one is reading anymore. Long form blogging is dead, you know (fuck you, Twitter).
Since starting this here blog in the olden days of 2008, my most popular post by hits has ALWAYS been the Boy Meets World post I did about Cory and Shawn’s relationship, which can be read here.
So you guys know I have an intense fondness for Boy Meets World.
Which is why it’s so exciting that Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter, my favorite angsty boi), Will Friedle (Eric Matthews, my favorite Himbo) and Danielle Fishel (Topanga Lawrence, smart n’ sexy) are hosting a podcast where they rewatch Boy Meets World.
I’ve listened to the first two episode and they are fantastic. Friends in real life, the three hosts have a great rapport and seem to know exactly what the listeners are going to want. There are a million behind the scenes goodies you get, from audition stories, real-life wisdom given to them by Bill Daniels (Feeny himself), to the wardrobe choices, to the process of making a TV show, which is something that’s a mystery to so many people. Plus an adorable two minutes with Rider Strong’s seven year old son who watched the pilot episode with him.
Going forward, they plan on having other cast members and writers on future episodes. William Russ (Alan Matthews), Trina McGee-Davis (Angela), Bill Daniels (Fee-hee-hee-nay) have all been announced.
Boy Meets World is one of those rare shows with staying power, even as the 1990’s get further and further away. I never really watched it when it first aired (I talk about this in my previous BMW post), but I found an really intense comfort in watching it after my first child was born and I was struggling emotionally. It got me through some pretty dark days and it’ll always remain a favorite of mine for that reason. It was such a wonderful mixture of goofball humor, moral lessons that (mostly) avoided being overly preachy, A ton of self-referential humor long before Community ever did it, a beautiful touch of angst (I love you, Shawn Hunter) and a cast with chemistry that was *chef’s kiss.*
Anyway, seriously. Give it a listen. You won’t be sorry.
Are You There Youth? It's Me, Nikki 
My favorite line, “turns out it’s only mostly dead”. LOL! We don’t ever want it to die. As soon as I was notified there was something new, I thought, “Wow, it’s been ages”. Strange, too, because I have been thinking alot about Boy Meets World lately. Not on TV on any channels I get and hard to find full episodes on Youtube. In addition to it being a great show, I think I like it because it makes me feel like I’m back in that time period. Sigh…..
It’s on Disney+ now if you get it!
Pronouncing Friedle: I remember reading in a teen mag (Teen Beat/Tiger Beat/YM/Seventeen/etc.) back in the day (when BMW originally aired) that discussed the pronunciation of Will’s name, and I’d thought they’d said it was Freddle – as in, it would rhyme with peddle – so that’s how I’ve been thinking of it for the last 20-25 years or so. Then just recently, I also have come to realize – now that I’ve actually heard people pronounce it, people whom I’d think would know – that I, too, have been pronouncing his name wrong the entire time. So, even though I know he will not read this, as he doesn’t have social media, my apologies to Mr. Freh-Dell. And now that I know the podcast is being done by the stars of the show, I’m eager to check it out. (I’d only tangentially heard of it before, when I heard Ben was not involved with the project. But knowing the others are doing it, I do think it’ll be my kind of thing.) Thanks for the info, Nikki.
I always pronounced it Freedle, like rhymes with Needle. I was shocked to learn it’s Freh-DELL.
Very interesting who *isn’t* involved (and especially since he was the only one out of those 4 who didn’t say anything about the racism Angela’s actress dealt with on set)
I didn’t know about that at all! What did she go through? I know I can Google, but blog comments are more passionate
They actually discuss Ben’s lack of involvement in the first episode! It seems like he’s just busy and not super interested in revisiting things now. No one really seems upset by it at all. I’m interested in seeing if they bring anything up when Trina McGee Davis comes on. They might leave it alone, because it sounds like things have been worked through already and might not want to rehash anything.