‘Boy Meets World’ Stars Call 1 Season 6 Episode ‘Painful’ To Watch

“Boy Meets World” stars have mixed feelings today about a complicated storyline that Will Friedle described as having an “important message, not great execution.”

In the latest “Pod Meets World” episode, podcast hosts Friedle, Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong criticized a 1998 episode titled “Everybody Loves Stuart,” in which a college professor makes an inappropriate move on Fishel’s character Topanga.

The theme of the episode, in their opinion, is, “What happens when people in position of power take advantage of your trust.” The trio, however, were frustrated with the way the storyline plays out.

Professor Stuart is portrayed by Fred Savage, the older brother of “Boy Meet World” star Ben Savage. In it, he is known as the “cool teacher” and makes a pass on Topanga, who is one of his students and is engaged to Ben Savage’s Cory.

“I didn’t like (it),” Friedle said. “Topanga just sits there, quiet through the whole freaking thing, like, never speaks. It’s not about her at all.”

In the episode, Cory becomes furious after Topanga tells him that Stuart hit on her in her dorm room. Cory confronts the professor and pushes him into a screen window in the common room. Because of his actions, he is at risk of being expelled.

The “Pod Meets World” hosts disliked how the storyline turned its focus on Cory instead of Topanga, who was the actual victim.

Fishel agreed with Friedle, saying that being harassed by her professor became less about Topanga and more about, “How is the man in her life going to feel about it, and what’s he going to do about it?”

“Topanga’s agency was completely just taken away, I did not appreciate that at all,” she said.

“How do we get across how important this is without being too heavy handed, and without trying to seem like we’re making light of it?” she added. “I don’t think that goal was achieved. I do think they just decided, let’s lean into the melodrama of it.”

Friedle went on to note that the “one time Topanga opens her mouth, she’s told to be quiet by the dean.”

“She never tells her story to anybody that can help,” he continued, adding that Cory doesn’t even share Topanga’s story. Instead, it’s Mr. Feeny who takes charge.

Strong, who called the episode “painful” to watch, wondered why it was Cory’s responsibility to stand up for Topanga.

“Why is it Cory’s responsibility to take the fall when he does stand up for her?” he asked.

“The concern is not how Topanga feels,” Strong added. “It’s about how the violation of Topanga is reflected through how it violates Cory’s rights … It just made me so uncomfortable.”

Fishel did point out that the show is titled “Boy Meets World,” which centers on Cory’s point of view. However, she believed the episode could have benefited from a scene where Cory asks Topanga, “What do you want to do about this? This happened to you… How can I best support you?”

Fishel said she was also confused by Cory pushing Stuart and how it’s unknown if Topanga asks Cory to confront him.

“We don’t even know whether or not Topanga wants this to happen or is expecting him to say something,” she said, adding that what happens to her character “becomes unimportant.”

As the trio continued to watch the episode, Friedle said, overall, he was “so thrown by this episode.”

“The second Cory walks in, it is now Cory’s taking over the story and it’s about how he’s going to deal with what happened to Topanga,” Friedle said. “They should’ve stayed with the Topanga storyline.”