There was one episode of Boy Meets World that actor Rider Strong said was “so miserable” to film.
During a recent episode of the “Pod Meets World” podcast, Strong, 44, and his former costars Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle reflected on season 5, episode 18, titled “If You Can’t Be With the One You Love.” The episode centers around Cory (Ben Savage) drinking at a party with Shawn (Strong) to get over his breakup with Topanga (Fishel).
“This was hard for me to watch. I didn’t love this episode,” Strong said of the episode, which was never aired on the Disney Channel due to its more mature themes. “In some ways … it’s admirable to take on something like drinking in a kids’ sitcom, and I kind of love that Boy Meets World didn’t shy away from stuff like that.”
In the episode, Shawn continues to drink after he and Cory agree to stop, Shawn’s half-brother, Jack (Matthew Lawrence), informs him that their father was an alcoholic, but a drunk Shawn shoves his girlfriend, Angela (Trina McGee), into a door. Shawn ends the episode deciding to seek help for his alcoholism.
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“I love that drinking is actually good for Cory at first and fun because I think that that’s way more realistic to how drinking actually does get involved in people’s lives, especially as teenagers,” Strong recalled before criticizing Shawn’s sudden shift in the episode’s second half. “I was just like, ‘What is happening? This is trying to be so hardcore and heavy and serious,’ and it was just too much. It was just too heavy-handed for me. … I was just so uncomfortable and, yeah, I just didn’t think it was good, sorry.”
Strong quipped that he was “half-assing [it] this whole episode,” noting he was “not committed” while filming the episode’s more serious scenes. “Turning on Angela, yelling at Cory, yelling at — that’s the kind of thing that people do after years of drinking,” he said. “Shawn in the first scene is, like, having a good time with Cory and doing handstands and peeing on cop cars and just, like, ‘Woohoo, fun-loving,’ and then in that second half, it’s as if he’s a 45-year-old alcoholic who’s like, ‘I can’t stop, but I gotta keep doing this.’ I don’t think that’s realistic for somebody who’s tried alcohol once.”
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Strong called the show’s portrayal of alcoholism a “disservice to people” who deal with the issue. “To try and cram an entire alcoholic journey and sobriety journey into 22 minutes, that’s not ever what it actually is like,” he noted. “That’s never how it happens in real life. And so, in a weird way, it’s hurting the issue that it’s trying to address.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
