#Mr. Feeny

[warriorprincesstramp]

favourite boy meets world episodes 3/? - Cory's Alternative Friends I don't think I'm weird. I think I'm unique. Jedediah and Chloe say that every time you're not true to yourself, the earth weeps.

[sidekickjoey]

"If I'm really, really quiet, will you stay?"

I wanted to take a moment to give flowers to one of my favorite, quintessential Eric Matthews lines from S5E23 "Things Change" -- and no, it's not the 'duckies' joke (though I do love it).

In a period of the show where the character of Eric changes a lot and eventually turns, to quote Will, 'completely dumb,' I find this scene, and especially this line, so telling of why so many people go on to love and empathize with him even when he makes that final turn into complete silliness in S7.

For all the times Eric is or is at least perceived as not being all that bright, he never once loses or betrays his kind soul. He might make some snide jokes here or there, and early on he had dumb boy moments™ with girls, but when it comes down to it? His gentleness and kindness always wins out.

In this example, Eric sees Mr. Feeny, a person who's honestly been more of a guiding rock for him than his own parents, no longer set on being a teacher and wanting to go away to Wyoming, so he can relax in peace. Eric, knowing all the times he's caused Mr. Feeny chaos, including in his silliness right before this, immediately takes this to mean he is driving Mr. Feeny away or at least contributing to it and goes right to asking if he can make it better by being quiet, if he alone can fix this thing troubling his mentor and make everything go back to normal.

Now, one could read this as naive, or as Eric being too reliant on Mr. Feeny, but it also can be read as incredibly selfless and kind of him to have even offered, given how it'd mean he'd have to change a lot about himself around Mr. Feeny for a long period of time. We see him do this a bunch later on when he moves out (with nowhere to go) to not impede Jack and Rachel's relationship, when he becomes all business-y and strict after Jack comes down on him for being silly at work, and when he almost uproots his life to become Tommy's adoptive dad. He's very quick to push his own wants/comfort aside to make sure he doesn't let down or hurt those around him, and it's moving to watch/think about sometimes. You really start to just feel for him.

That's why he ends up being such a beloved character, even then. You can't help but root for someone who cares that much about others.

[thatseventiesbitch]

Happy Teachers Appreciation Week to all of the millennial teachers (and other educators) who modeled themselves after Mr. Feeny! This is why we do what we do. 🥺

[harognakosh]

[obscureobsidiandraws]

IDEAS FOR A HYPOTHETICAL BOY MEETS WORLD REBOOT

So, recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how I’d have done a Boy Meets World reboot if given the opportunity and enough creative control and freedom.

First, let’s start with the things that would be still kept from the original without getting into too much spoilers:

- Cory and Shawn’s bromance. Duh, it’s the main reason why a big majority of people keep coming back to BMW. It wouldn’t be BMW without it.

- Topanga being a girl that Cory initially thinks it’s weird, but eventually starts to like her, and finally becomes his girlfriend.

- Shawn coming from a less economically stable and more dysfunctional family that lives in a trailer park, and whose parents like to “go away from time to time”, to put it mildly AND kindly. Because of this, he has tons of issues and thinks he won’t get anywhere in life.

- Chet, Shawn's father, being unhappily married to a woman named Virna, whom Shawn believes is his mother, but who actually isn’t, something that Shawn doesn’t find out until much later, with Shawn’s biological mother being a sex worker he has never met.

- Eric being Cory’s older brother, who initially seems like a vain, self-centered teenager, more concerned with being popular and chasing skirts than his grades or his little brother. Don’t worry, he’ll get better after character development.

- Mr. Feeny being both Cory’s teacher and his next door neighbor, initially seeming like an old-fashioned fun-hating teacher who thinks of the Matthews brothers as nothing more than just two of the many troubled students that will come and go. Ofc like with Eric character development would do its magic again, with each character’s arc mirroring the other.

- Also Feeny being able to find love after he realizes it’s never too late to find a significant other, when he initially believed he was too old to do so.

- And don’t worry, ofc Eric would do the Feeny call. Like with Cory and Shawn's bromance, It wouldn’t be Boy Meets World if it wasn’t there.

- Mr. Turner as the younger, seemingly cooler teacher who would take care of Shawn after Chet basically abandons him, and becomes a substitute parental figure for him.

- Shawn having a long lost older half-brother named Jack, who comes from a wealthier background and becomes Eric’s roommate and friend when they start to go to college.

- Angela as a girl whose lost purse is found by Shawn, who while looking for its owner tries to deduce their personality based on what’s inside of it, which causes him to start to fantasize about meeting this girl whose name he doesn’t know and falling in love with her. And then once he finally meets her in person, starting his first serious relationship with her.

- Angela’s father being a sergeant, and her mother having walked out on them when Angela was younger, which caused her a lot of issues too.

Now let’s go with the things that would make it different from the original, starting with the stylistic and aesthetic choices:

- Instead of taking place in the second half of the 90s like the original show, it would take place from the mid-2000s to early 2010s, which was the time when most people who were born when the original Boy Meets World aired for the first time went from middle school to college, just like Cory & friends during the series.

- It would be animated instead of live-action. Why? Because I want to. Joking aside, I think animation would allow the show to introduce some elements in a much more natural way.

- It won’t have a laugh track like the original did, unless it’s an episode or gag that pays homage or parodies sitcoms from a previous decade. This one is kind of a given, because laugh tracks have gone out of school in recent years, but I still felt it would be necessary to mention it jic.

- And here comes the element that won’t be the biggest departure from the original, but probably the most puzzling one. It would have musical numbers. As in characters dancing and singing. At the beginning it won’t be a lot, as a reflection of Cory’s and Shawn’s attitude towards the idea of singing, but as they start to become more and more comfortable, there would be more. Some would be diegetic, others won’t.

And now to the plot and characters-related differences with the original. Buckle up people, because it will be a lot.

- First a significant change in Cory’s family dynamic. Instead of the show starting with Cory living in the typical nuclear family, it would start with Cory living in the suburbs with his mother Amy, a widow who works a white collar job, and Eric. Then Amy would start to date an employee in the store where she usually buys groceries, who would be Alan, who’d be only slightly younger than Amy and a widower with two kids too: a son with the same age as Cory’s who’s also Cory’s classmate, and a younger daughter who would be Morgan (but I’m seriously thinking about renaming her Megan). Amy and Alan would eventually get married, with a lot of the comedy and the drama from the first seasons coming from Cory trying to adapt to the new situation.

(Amy’s previous husband and Eric and Cory’s biological father would be dead, just like Alan’s previous wife)

- One in regards to Cory’s physical appearance: He would still have curly hair, but he would be a redhead with his nose and cheeks full of freckles.

- Instead of the show starting when Cory and his friends are in their last year of elementary school, the show would start the last summer before Cory’s first year of junior high, and follow him up until college like the original show (yk, if it doesn’t get canned by then). Also Feeny won’t be able to magically be their teacher from preschool to college. Instead he would be their History Teacher in high school, and in later seasons, eventually the principal of the high school Cory and his friends attend. And he would retire after Cory’s classroom graduates.

- There would be a long character arc about Cory trying to find his passion and eventually finding his passion in the most unexpected places. Initially he would try to join the school basketball team In high school Cory would initially try to join the basketball team, partially because he likes the sport, partially because his father was a star player in high school. (Sidenote: there would also be a recurring gag of Eric being a god awful basketball player) He’s initially rejected because he’s too short, but after he grows up and finally hits puberty, becoming as tall as Shawn, he would still be considered a mediocre player at best, and eventually Cory would have to accept the fact he’s not that good. Meanwhile, he would also join the school newspaper and the audiovisuals club because of a growing interest in journalism, until he realizes he wants to become a professional journalist.

- Talking about the audiovisuals club, extracurricular activities would play a much bigger role. While Cory joins the audiovisuals club Shawn is forced to join the theater club. There would be a little conflict because both clubs have so few members that, because of budgetary restrictions, they’re threatened to be shut down. To save both, Cory and Shawn come up with the idea of combining them, that way making one club with enough members. Also thanks to being in those clubs  they start to befriend classmates they initially thought of as nerds and weirdos.

- Topanga would be raised by a single mother instead of a married couple, never knowing who her father is. Although she initially seems okay with it, then when she’s older she tries to find out which one of her mother’s three ex-boyfriends is her father. This is partially to pay homage to the fact that in the original BMW Topanga’s father was played by three different actors at different points of the show, and partially to make a bunch of break the fourth wall jokes about ripping off Mamma Mia’s premise. And don’t worry, Nebula won’t be retconned out of existence this time.

- Jack’s backstory would be changed a little. When his mother finally left Chet, instead of taking her son with her, Jack would actually be left behind in the trailer park with Chet and his newborn half-brother (Shawn’s birth would actually be the last straw that finally made Jack’s mother decide to leave for good). So Jack would spend a good part of his childhood in the trailer park taking care of Shawn, until he became old enough to successfully run away to live with his mother, being Shawn now the one left behind.

- And behold my Jeric shippers, because Jack and Eric would be both canonically bisexual AND end up together. Besides Jack Eric would also have another main male love interest, who’d be Mitchell Davis (yes, that Mitchell Davis), who would’ve known Eric since they were kids but who now goes to another school, the same as Jack’s. He would also live in the same trailer park as Shawn does.

- Lauren won’t be the girl Cory cheated on Topanga with, but instead the first girl he dates after Topanga leaves for the first time. Because despite liking Lauren, Cory concludes he’s dating her to forget Topanga, in other words, for the wrong reasons, so he breaks up with her. Besides, Lauren would go to the same school as Jack and Mitchell (everything’s connected).

- A seemingly very trivial detail: As a trademark favorite food Cory would love pizza so much that the place where he hangs out with his friends after school wouldn’t be Chubbie’s (although it would still exist in this universe, but it would more of a general place where John Adams High students hang out instead of just Cory’s group of friends), but instead a pizza place. Also this last one is a little bit anecdotal, but Cory wouldn’t mind pineapple pizza while Shawn would hate it by principle.

(this is getting quite lengthy, so I’d do a part II. There’s still a lot of ideas I have that I want to share with the BMW fandom)

Edit: Part II is already out. Go check it out

[benschiff]

rate my professor reviews for mr. feeny this is 100% real

[imsorryandthankyou]

Boy Meets World: Seven the Hard Way, but it's Shawn who runs away because he has feelings for Cory. Cory follows him to a gay bar, where they talk about their feelings.

[disneyllect]

[miss-chanandlershalamadingdong]

I'm watching Boy Meets World cause why not lol. Eric just got into Pennbrook and he's thanking Mr. Feeny and Feeny says

"Well, it's what I do"

And I just started bawling!!

Mr. Feeny is the best!

I love this show!

[the-mnp-club]

[ya-kiri]

Just a random thought. I don't think there's been a TV teacher that has left as much of an impact and resonated with multiple generations of youths than Mr. George Feeny. This man's wisdom and caring heart is second to none.

[degrassi-fandom-confessions]

Mr. Feeny would beat Raditch ass

[sidekickjoey]

Rewatching the Eric & Mr. Feeny scene in 4x13 "B and B's B 'N B" where Mr. Feeny asks why he & his flame always say no to each other's proposals and Eric replies, "If you truly loved each other, you'd risk anything for that love, even the lives you made and found comfortable."

Thinking about the wasted potential of Eric bringing Jack in after the dance in Girl Meets World, urging him to quit his evil job and do something better that allows him to be around more, and replying with a callback to this same dialogue (replacing 'each other' with 'family and friends') when Jack asks him why/how he should do something as major as that when at the top of his career.

[degrassians]

fyeahhboymeetsworld:

thanks for the suggestion killermanny!

[obscureobsidiandraws]

IDEAS FOR A HYPOTHETICAL BOY MEETS WORLD REBOOT (Part II of Lord Knows How Many)

(I already made a part I, go check that one out)

- We’d get to know more of Feeny’s backstory, including several episodes where Cory dreams he can travel back in time and meets Feeny when he is the same age as him, with the first one being a Christmas special. One of the things we’d learn is that Mr. Turner and him are actually quite similar, both coming from wealthy families and choosing to work as educators in the public education system, with both of them even going to the same prestigious all-boys private school when they were teens (not at the same time ofc), and Feeny even similarly optimistic when he started in JAH just like Turner, but after decades of experience he has became more jaded.

- And talking about Mr. Turner. For everyone who ever wanted Mr. Turner adopted Shawn back in the original Boy Meets World so they could be father and son legally, don’t worry. But not only would Jonathan adopt Shawn. Mr. Turner would also have as a will they won’t they love interest the new school counselor, who started to work in John Adams High the same year as him, and who would marry Turner AND adopt Shawn alongside him. She’d actually be the one who proposes to do both, and she’d admit later that, had Jonathan said no about adopting Shawn but yes to the marriage, she wouldn’t have married Turner.

- Mr. Turner would also encourage Shawn to start training in martial arts, because he thinks it’s a good way for Shawn to learn to have better self-discipline. Although Feeny definitely agrees with the goal, he disagrees with the method to achieve it.

- And now that we’re talking about the teachers, we would get to know much more of the faculty of John Adams High besides Feeny and Turner (and Eli Williams, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten him). Although they might be some incompetent ones, most of them would be good hard-working teachers who are, like Feeny, jaded and overwhelmed by the many issues of their jobs. 

- Not so much the character that John Adams High would have for a principal in the first seasons, who would be portrayed as an absolute buffoon unable to do his job but able to get on Feeny’s nerves even more than the students, making him constantly question why a man with such little to no idea about education got the job, and to get the school in trouble on multiple occasions because of his incompetence. Eventually he’d get fired and Feeny would become the new principal to the faculty’s relief, but not so much to the majority of the student body.

- And speaking of focusing more on the adult secondary cast, we’d have some episodes and subplots dedicated to Amy’s workplace, which would be a law firm where she’s a paralegal. The first one would be one where Cory gets to magically see a single day in her mother’s life when Eric and him are not around. There would be two cliques, one where Cory’s mother is, which would consist of other paralegals like her or the lawyers that tend to work in the less flashy cases, while the other would consist of the other lawyers, who tend to work in the most mediatic cases and would look down upon the paralegals.

- There would be an episode where Shawn meets Virna again after Chet has died, in which Shawn confronts her about choosing to send him a letter to tell him she wasn’t his mother, instead of telling him personally, and another one afterwards where Shawn finally finds out what happened to his biological mother.

Keep tuned in for more posts where I write down my ideas in regards to my hypothetical reboot, specially for new characters I’d introduced and the music I’d used for the show.

[shawn-meets-world]