Deciding something was “made for you” is an exercise in just how much crap you can filled with. Blame it on whatever you want but what characters I relate to isn’t necessarily based on “looks like me” because I’ve related more to characters that don’t over ones that, by current definitions, do. And while I often say I don’t need to relate to the aspirational hero, especially superheroes, when it comes to sitcoms (short for “situation comedies”) I don’t have to relate to them either so far as I can follow and connect to their story. However, comedy is one genre where relating is definitely an asset.
Take for example Boy Meets World, the ABC sitcom that was part of their former “TGIF” sitcom lineup. (If memory serves, this TGIF played on “Thank God It’s Friday” but was more like “Thank God It’s Funny”.) The show follows the life of Cory Matthews as he learns about life and his place in it, growing up next to his history teacher who turned out in my opinion to be a better mentor than his father. I just didn’t connect with Cory. He was more confident than I was and his character growth came from learning humility, honesty, and responsibility. That wasn’t my path growing up so I couldn’t relate to him or most of the cast. I liked the show and did watch a bunch of episodes but I didn’t really feel like Cory was a reflection of my own life, which is something I think the show benefits from.
The sequel series however I had better luck with. Produced for the Disney Channel by the same co-creator, Michael Jacobs, Girl Meets World follows the daughter of Cory and Topanga (wow, spell check totally accepted that) as she does her own learning about life and her place in it. This time Cory is the teacher, combining Mr. Feeny and Cory’s own father into him. Topanga is a loving mother, Cory a loving father, and that’s something there sometimes feels to be less and less of in sitcoms. Daughter Reilly is someone I could relate to. She was shy, trying to figure out who she was, and a bit confused about both. Even her best friend, Maya, was an artist, which as a cartoonist (no matter what the art world tells you) I can relate to and I had friends like her. I think her brother Auggie even got more to do than Cory’s sister in the original. Even the theme song is cooler.
In this pilot episode, Reilly and Maya are about to start the new year. Reilly is trying to be more like Maya by riding the subway to school and joining in her protest of homework, but everybody has a little to learn here. We also seem Farkle Minkus, son of Cory and Topanga’s old classmate Stuart Minkus, and Reilly’s new love interest. Enjoy.
Mr. Feeny makes another cameo later in the series. In fact, if you’re a fan of the first show later seasons bring Shaun back, who ends up involved with Maya’s mother. Stuart Minkus also makes a cameo. However, while love is shown to the original and this show follows some of the same formula (even doing another episode with a teacher wanting to use graphic novels in English class…I question both teacher’s chosen comic but that’s personal taste), it’s the characters that stand out as being different. Reilly is the opposite of her father growing up but in some ways her journey mirrors his and Topanga’s. Maya isn’t the bad girl like Shaun was the bad boy but there are good reasons for both to be who they were at the start of their respective series and who they became at the end. To me Girl Meets World actually feels like an improvement on Boy Meets World and I wish I started watching it sooner. This is one of those shows I only really caught on to during my various hospital stays and I’m missing far too many episode.
With Disney Channel releasing some of their originals on YouTube maybe I’ll finally get a chance to see the full series. As of this writing only this pilot is there, and it’s one of the episodes I missed out on originally. It’s a great show and hopefully someday I get to see the whole thing. If you liked the original, or even if you didn’t, give it a watch.
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