Interview with Michael Jacobs, co-creator of Boy Meets World and the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World

In addition to being educational and entertaining at the same time, in addition to appealing to young people, the show is appealing to adults who might have watched Boy Meets World. Have you been building that intentionally? Season 2 seems like every episode has something that I, in my thirties, would enjoy.

It is intentional. This is a continuation of a particular story, but it’s in a different world. The original series was in the 90’s and you would think that this was an extraordinarily advanced time, technologically, but it wasn’t. There were no cell phones yet. You would think that this minor difference shouldn’t make for a different growing up experience, but it has colored everything, because the access that kids have to what let’s call the three main screens – the screen in their pocket, the television screen, and the movie screen – and that inclusive of the screen in their pocket is their computer screen – these are the screens that I think the kids are looking at technologically that are different. The content on them is different. What they have access to is different.

I think that it’s a much different world for kids today, and I think that that’s what we’re exploring, and I think that’s why you do like it. I think that the difference between the characters of Boy Meets World, where they were kids growing up in the 90s, now they’re adults in 2015, so their experience, coupled with the fresh experience that the kids in their lives are facing, really gives us, I think, a more dimensional series. If you’re saying that that’s what you like, I think that’s the reason why you like it, and we’re going to keep going in that direction.

Is it hard to balance a reference that the brown ups might get – like when the show mentioned Lauren or brought Tommy back – so that kids could still understand “okay, that’s still funny” even if they don’t know who Tommy or Lauren might be?

It is, and here’s why: We’re doing an episode called “Girl Meets Cory & Topanga,” and without giving it away, I will tell you that the interface between Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World is strongest in that episode, because of a device we’re using. We had to keep in mind, just what you’re saying: Would the kids understand these stories if they don’t know the characters from the other episodes?

Well, you pulled the addition of Tommy. Tommy was well defined in the episode [“Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels Goes To Washington”] and he was on the air for twenty minutes before even the original audience got that that was Tommy. So, yes. The new audience is brought along with that, and they emotionally understood “oh my gosh, this guy is very important in Eric’s life,” but the original audience had the benefits of knowing who Tommy used to be. We put in the flashback to show Tommy as a child, and the fact that Eric almost adopted Tommy, so that the kids would have some understanding that Eric really does love kids, so it all melded beautifully.

In “Girl Meets Semi-Formal” we added Jack Hunter back into the cast. The interesting thing is that Jack is a bit of a villain [now], and the reason he’s a bit of a villain is because we always showed what Jack was interested in as a kid. He sort of fulfills the road in which he was obviously going to travel, but in today’s world, it would not be interpreted as being a successful businessman. It would be interpreted as somebody that is leaving a footprint on the world that is negative to this world, and only with the inclusion of Eric back in Jack’s life, does Jack say that he has made a wrong turn. I think that the newer audience will see Jack as somebody that made the wrong turn, and that Eric has helped him, but I think that the old audience, having the benefit of knowing who Jack is, fully fleshed out, will laugh and understand “of course this is what happened to Jack.” So, there is a dichotomy, but I do think both audiences get the addition of all of the characters.

I also want to end that by saying that I perceive that the new audience – Cory, Topanga, and all of the rest of the characters are peripheral to Riley and Maya. I think that the audience’s end point now is themselves. I think that the original audience, who watched Boy Meets World, they had an end point of a very confused 11-year-old boy in the pilot, just as this audience had the end point of a very confused 11-year-old girl. So, the series are similar in that regard; the only difference is that the world that the kids are facing is much tougher, much more advanced, much more challenging in this series, and that’s why I think that these lessons color the show, that we really have to have a particular leaning toward helping the kids that are in our audience with a more reality-based program, and that’s what I think that the Emmy nomination was given to us for. I think that we took a chance. I think that it’s paying off. And we’re very appreciative for the recognition.

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