A “Boy Meets World” Writer Just Shared Some Seriously Fascinating Insight Into The Show’s Most Controversial Moment In One Of Disney’s Banned Episodes

This article mentions depictions of alcohol misuse and domestic violence.

While the ‘90s sitcom Boy Meets World is mostly known for being a family-friendly staple of ABC’s iconic “TGIF” slot with wholesome storylines focusing on meaningful life lessons from the wise Mr. Feeny, some episodes were still considered to be pretty controversial.

The first banned installment was Season 5, episode 22, “Prom-ises, Prom-ises,” which aired on ABC in May 1998. Here, the show’s titular “boy,” Cory Matthews, and his long-term girlfriend, Topanga Lawrence, plan to lose their virginities to each other on the night of their senior prom. Cory even books a hotel room, and the couple attempt to strip off while kissing on a bed before ultimately deciding that they want to wait a bit longer.

Disney also banned Season 5, episode 18, “If You Can’t Be With The One You Love,” which sees Cory and his best friend Shawn Hunter get drunk at a party, pee on a police car, and get arrested while underage. While Cory stops drinking immediately, Shawn carries on and ends up shoving his girlfriend, Angela Moore, into a door while under the influence — this is the wake-up call he needs to give up the booze.

Finally, Season 6, episode 20, “The Truth About Honesty,” was removed by Disney and follows Cory’s exasperation at still being a virgin. Now Cory’s fiancée, Topanga eventually agrees to show him her butt, which he calls “the promised land.” In the same episode, Shawn and Angela excuse themselves to Shawn’s bedroom, where they are filmed making out after agreeing to a no-strings-attached night of passion after splitting up.

And some of the cast have reflected on two of these banned episodes on their rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, which launched in 2022. While they are yet to reach the Season 6 installment, Rider Strong, who played Shawn, remembered being “very upset with the adults on set” when filming “Prom-ises, Prom-ises” because he felt like they were being “irresponsible” by not making any references to safe sex — especially so soon after the AIDS epidemic.

Rider hosts Pod Meets World alongside Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga, and Will Friedle, who played Cory’s older brother, Eric Matthews, and all three stars were open about their grievances with “If You Can’t Be With The One You Love” when they rewatched it for the podcast.

The trio agreed that the episode felt rushed and tried to cram too many serious subject matters into the 22-minute duration, and they were particularly bothered by the scene where Shawn shoves Angela — especially as Shawn doesn’t really face any repercussions for this violence. This moment has long been a contentious issue among viewers of the show, too, with the hosts of popular fan podcast Bruh Meets World pointing out that it is particularly upsetting as Angela, played by Trina McGee, is the only person of color in the show.

And on Monday’s episode of Pod Meets World, the hosts interviewed Gary H. Miller, who wrote the script for this controversial episode. Shockingly, Gary revealed that not only was the shove not in his original script, he actively didn’t like the fact that it was added at the time, and cringes whenever he is reminded of it.

Speaking to Rider, Danielle, and Will, Gary explained that he has always “gravitated” towards more serious storylines during his scriptwriting career, which is how he ended up writing about Cory and Shawn experimenting with alcohol after Cory briefly split from Topanga. He said: “I figured that at Cory’s age, a young boy like that, the feelings he had about Topanga and being separated from her would lead to some experimentation of a kind. Especially since he was considered depressing and everyone was on his case.”

Referencing how Shawn’s half-brother, Jack Hunter, warns Shawn that their father was abusive amid his struggle with alcoholism in the episode, Gary continued: “Jack enlightens Shawn about the genetic predisposition of alcohol and how serious it is, and that [their father] hit Jack’s mother, and that’s what turns Shawn. The girls weren’t even in that scene in my script. So the heat that I might take because Shawn throws Angela up against the wall was never in my script, I wouldn’t put it in my script, and I cringe every time I see it.”

Gary also said that two scenes with Cory’s parents were cut from his original script, including his dad, Alan, telling Cory that he is “depressing” since splitting from Topanga and should “do something about it,” which is what originally led to Cory turning to alcohol. Gary shared: “There’s also another family scene after the cop car shows up where Amy’s worried they’re out late, and Alan says: ‘Don’t worry, we told them to have fun, he’s having fun, let them be,’ and then they get the call.”

Gary then addressed that in the final cut of the episode, it seems as though Shawn becomes addicted to alcohol and then overcomes this addiction in an incredibly short amount of time, sharing: “In the last scene, I have written: ‘Some time later,’ not the next day. All those things about: ‘Why would he be drunk one day, he’s not drunk the next day,’ there’s a passage in time, it’s real hard to show that.”

And circling back to Shawn shoving Angela, Gary confessed: “I couldn’t stand her reaction. If I were writing that scene and you shoved her, you would hear about it right there in the moment. She wouldn’t slink away and cower and say later: ‘I still love you when you don’t drink,’ she’d tell you off in no uncertain terms.”

And Gary asked Rider how he felt about the scene as the actor, and Rider admitted: “I remember it all just felt too much. That scene in particular was like: ‘Oh, we’re going to compress this revelation about his dad and basically make Shawn an angry alcoholic, abusive…’ I guess for me, if you’re going to do that, it just never felt like the consequences were resolved in a way that empowered Angela. It was always like: ‘Oh, Angela getting hurt was a way for Shawn to change and for him to come to a realization,’ as opposed for it to be a moment — if you’re going to hurt somebody, have her stand up for herself a little bit more, or have her effect the change in Shawn as opposed to just kind of being a prop.”

What do you make of the infamous Boy Meets World shove? Let me know in the comments below!

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.

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