Back in the ’90s, Boy Meets World was one of the best coming-of-age sitcoms on television. It was a lighthearted look at adolescence and explored the trials and tribulations of being a kid, a teenager, and a young adult.
However, every once in a while, Boy Meets World departed from its regularly scheduled feel-good programming in order to discuss hard-hitting issues. Now, more than 20 years after it went off air, actor Rider Strong is calling out showrunners for their mishandling of sex in a banned episode .
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The ’90s was the decade that perfected the TV sitcom.
With so many incredible offerings to choose from, like Friends , Frasier, and Seinfeld, it’s almost impossible to argue otherwise. And among those proverbial giants, there were also countless other unsung heroes.
One of which was a coming-of-age after-school special called ‘Boy Meets World’.
Boy Meets World showcased the hilarious high school hijinx of Cory Mathews, his best friend Shawn Hunter, as well as his future wife-to-be — the one and only Topanga Lawrence.
Dispersed between the comedy were plenty of heartfelt life lessons, bestowed by Cory’s teacher and neighbor — Mr. Feeny.
Mr. Feeny was a staunch conservative-minded character with genuine care and admiration for his students. And he helped guide them through countless adolescent hiccups.
While ‘Boy Meets World’ was lighthearted in nature, there were moments that dealt with serious issues.
For example, in the episode titled “If You Can’t Be With The One You Love,” Shawn and Cory steal a bottle of liquor, wind up wasted, and pee on a police car.
Later on, Shawn discovers that he enjoys the taste of alcohol a little too much.
Cory, Topanga, and Shawn’s girlfriend Angela confronts him about his drinking — which results in Shawn pushing Angela into a wall in a drunken rage.
In Season 5’s “Prom-ises, Prom-ises,” Cory and Topanga embarked on a plan to have sex for the first time.
Cory and Topanga arrive at their hotel room, briefly get physical, and then decide at the last possible minute that they want to wait just a little longer before crossing the gap.
Both of these episodes wound up being banned by Disney, and were the recent topic of discussion on the newly minted, ‘Pod Meets World’ podcast.
Pod Meets World is hosted by Rider Strong (Shawn), Danielle Fishel (Topanga), and Will Friedle (Eric). In each episode, the trio dissects a different episode from the highly lauded series.
Recently, a fan of the podcast asked, “What do you guys know about the episodes banned from Disney Channel?”
This question elicited a rather strong response, specifically from Rider Strong. The “Prom-ises, Prom-ises” episode, in particular, apparently left a very bad taste in his mouth.
Rider said that he was “Very upset with the adults on set” and accused them of going about things in a very irresponsible way.
“I remember really not liking the prom episode while we were taping it,” Rider said on the podcast. “I remember being very upset that entire week.”
Rider was angry that the show made zero references to the topic of safe sex.
The young star was so perturbed that he decided to bring his concerns directly to showrunner, Michael Jacobs — who apparently paid him no mind and blew him off.
The whole thing seemed largely hypocritical, according to Rider.
“The fact that we would not bring up Cory and Topanga using condoms or having a discussion about birth control at all, and yet the entire episode was about will they or will they not.”
“Maybe you generationally don’t understand that, but we were growing up in the era of AIDS,” Rider explained.
“This is something that we have to talk about . When you are discussing losing your virginity, you discuss how you’re going to do it and how to be safe about it,” he said.
Mad as he was, Rider remained professional and let it go. Until another incident just three weeks later reignited his fury.
“Three episodes later we were doing an episode where we made a joke about sharing razors , where Cory and Topanga talk about sharing razors in college,” he went on.
“And I remember during a notes session, Michael Jacobs saying: ‘Y’know, I recently read that hepatitis can be spread through razors, are we being irresponsible?'”
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is where now we’re going to talk about hepatitis but, for whatever reason, the notion of discussing safe sex was off the table even though the entire episode was about having sex.'”
Rider voiced similar disapproval to the whole topic of Cory and Topanga keeping their virginity intact, and expressed how in his opinion, it sent the wrong message.
“I remember rolling my eyes about all the Cory and Topanga virgin stuff ,” he explained. “It just felt so precious, outdated, and just weird to be talking about.”
Although Disney pulled the banned episodes when it acquired the show originally, you can now watch them on their streaming platform, Disney +.
If you’d like to gain more insight into Boy Meets World , be sure to check out the Pod Meets World podcast, streaming across all platforms.
