Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter), Danielle Fishel (Topanga Lawrence), and Will Friedle (Eric Matthews), hosted a new episode of their podcast, Pod Meets World, and talked about their experiences filming the series. The episode, titled “David Trainer Meets World,” welcomed David Trainer, a director and supervising producer on Boy Meets World, as a guest. One of the major topics addressed was the difficult atmosphere created by showrunner Michael Jacobs. In particular, Fishel spoke about getting cast in the show and replacing the first actress for Topanga. After her first day on the job, the cast and writers had a notes session, but Jacobs told her that they had to meet afterward to go over her notes. She recalled him saying, in front of everyone, “if I made everyone sit here through all of the notes I have for you we would all be here for hours and no one would ever get to go home.” Fishel recalled holding in tears throughout the meeting, and when she finally met with Jacobs to hear his extensive notes, he said something along the lines of, “All I know is, if you don’t come back tomorrow doing this entirely differently, you are also not going to be here.” As Fishel was telling this story, Friedle politely interrupted to say, “I can see that this still affects you,” with Fishel responding, “oh yeah, I’m sweating profusely.” As it turns out, Trainer, who worked with Jacobs on a few different projects, didn’t know about this incident, but he was livid. He told the cast, “It’s like, to hear this, you’re sweating, I’m pissed, and it’s enough to make me want to sign off on this podcast…This is disgusting.” The conversation gave Trainer the opportunity to discuss his own experiences working with Jacobs, and he said that many days driving to work, he “wanted to stop and throw up, because of how unpleasant it was to do…Don’t get me started, that’s all I have to say.” Fishel went on to describe staying up until early in the morning with her mother to go over every line and get it right. Her former cast members asked if she chose to stay up until late to perfect the lines or out of fear, to which Fishel responded that she wanted to get them right. Eventually, they all agreed that “getting it right means making Michael happy.” Pointing out how Jacobs threatened to fire Fishel and the manipulation of power he used against a child, Strong sarcastically said, “while you are 12, it’s time to learn that lesson.” Trainer added that Jacobs knew he could only use this type of emotional manipulation on the young cast since they hadn’t come into their own yet. Fishel made sure to note that she always “felt safe” with Trainer. After telling her story, Strong, Friedle, and Trainer all agreed that working on the show meant always trying to earn Jacobs’ approval and fit his vision. Strong described how Jacobs’ process greatly limited the cast’s creativity, saying, “As an actor, the worst thing you can do to approach material is think that there’s a preexisting perfection that you need to reach up for.” While the cast still loves Boy Meets World and their time on it, they acknowledge that some aspects were difficult and toxic. Psychological and emotional abuse occurring on movie and TV sets is being recognized a lot more lately with the cast’s experiences adding to the conversation. INSIDER, who also reported on what the cast shared, reached out to Jacobs but hasn’t yet gotten a response. Next, From Boy Meets World to Black-ish and Back, These Are the 42 Best Shows to Watch As a Family
