Boy Meets World Season 4 Part 1 Review

Hey, this is Josh Keaton and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to episode seven of Podcaster Meets World brought

to you by the GeekCast Radio Network. I am one

of your hosts, GF Joe and Mike. Joining me as

always, Steve Megatron. Hello, sir. Hello. Hello.

Today we are going to be talking about the first

half of Boy Meets World and we're doing this

a little differently this time around because

normally what I've noticed in our previous episodes

is that Boy Meets World generally has 22 episode

seasons so I figure 11 and 11. Well, Disney Plus

done fucked up with episodes 11 and 12 of season

4 so we are only covering episode 1 through 10

today in part 1. What do you remember from season

4 because I remember nothing. Before actually

watching going back and rewatching it I remember

the episodes like telling me, you know Have you

watched season four? Have you watched season

three? No, I can't name individual episodes.

But if you if you tell me hey You know, do you

remember this episode or have you watched this

episode like because I don't necessarily remember

them without watching them again, but Yeah, I

mean I was I was kind of I remember some of them

very vividly and other ones I remember like kind

of not really paying attention when it aired

the first time. Mm -hmm. I did not remember most

of this. I remembered episode two, Hair Today,

Goon Tomorrow, because that's the infamous episode

where Topanga cuts her hair off and Sean's like,

she's gonna scream. Yep, she's gonna scream.

Words, Topanga. Use your words. Well, am I any

different now? Well, somewhat less predictable,

but no, no, you're right. I'd love you no matter

what you looked like. Good. Glad you learned

something. She's gonna scream now. I don't remember.

So that's the interesting thing about boy meets

world season three and season four. I forgot

about the summer thing. Like, yes, I know we

did just do season three a little while ago here

in the podcast, but I don't think I was watching

back in the day to remember. And I haven't watched

the show in years. I really haven't. I think

I might've watched it when it first hit Disney

channel a couple of years ago. But for me, Boy

Meets World has always been like the first couple

seasons and then seasons five through seven.

So that middle section, the middle high school

type section, I'm like, huh? Yeah. I mean, I

remember these like, yeah, I liked it better

when you had Turner and you had the AV teacher.

I can't remember his name right now, but I know

we just did it. Yeah. Anyways, I liked it better

during those times, like this little awkward

kind of where he's at right now. Yeah. Doesn't,

I mean, it didn't, it was more like goofy. Yeah.

However, I did like that it evolved in other

areas. Oh yeah, it evolved so much in other areas.

Again, why I don't remember half of it is because

a majority of season four deals with Sean. And

his life and and all of that it also deals with

Alan and Amy and Alan doing you know saying he

doesn't like being the grocer and this that and

the other thing and all that half the stuff like

I forgot Sean's mom came back Yeah, I vaguely

remembered it, but I didn't fully grasp it until

rewatching and Still like even then she's forgettable

Like I mean, honestly Yeah cuz like she's not

she doesn't stick around. Of course she doesn't

she ran away the first time why wouldn't she

run away again i always thought that the dad

was more interesting anyway yeah and we have

a really really good dad episode in this season

at least well we have a lot of good episodes

i'm sure but season four episode six janitor

dad when. Verna gives Chet an ultimatum to find

work and he goes and becomes the janitor of the

school and that causes Sean all kinds of emotional

turmoil and everything else, but his dad's just

doing a job and that's one thing this season,

at least this first half of the season shows

you is the differences between the Matthews and

the Hunters. And sometimes they kind, and I'm

not saying this to be, you know, this isn't a

negative piece, but they kind of literally throw

it in your face, but they also tell you, look,

we don't, like the Matthews don't care that the

hunters don't have what they like, they make

a specific point to say that, Hey, look, we can

all be one big, you know, friendly people. And

this half of season, I don't know if the other

half of season four has any special episodes,

but this half of season four has episode seven

singled out. Oh boy, the nineties and Chris Hardwick

and singled out. Yeah, I didn't care for that

episode, but I never watched it when it was on

television. So it didn't resonate with me. Yeah,

I only ever really watched it whenever Jenny

McCarthy was on there at the time and at the

time I mean I didn't know who the hell Hardwick

was in the 90s. I knew he was the MTV game show

host of singled out That's all I knew and you

know X number of years later. There's Nerdist.

There's this there's that there's whatever I

love the juxtaposition of 16 candles and 400

pound men Episode 9 where we have Topanga's Sweet

16 birthday party and Vader, Frankie's dad going

up against Jake the Snake Roberts because Vader

is in the World Wrestling Federation. Cause guess

what folks back in those days, it was called

the WWF. I thought this episode was interesting

because it has Corey making decisions between

friends and girlfriend and, and, and all of that.

And it had, you know, He wants to do the right

thing for both. He just can't. And it's that

traditional, let me run this way for 20 minutes.

Let me run that way for 20 minutes and juggling

multiple things. I remember those days. I couldn't

do it then and I refuse to do it now. I'm too

old and too lazy. But again, season four is,

I feel at least these first 10 episodes are all

about growth, are all about everybody can be

who they are without it being a put down to anyone

else like I mentioned earlier with janitor dad

nothing wrong with being a janitor it's hard

work you know you you know they even go on to

do an episode about the lunch lady the lunch

lady passing away and I thought that was really

cool and interesting and that'll come back way

way way down the road when we get your girl meets

world Mm -hmm. Do you have a favorite episode

of these ten? I like the particular episode where

Alan quits his job. Mm -hmm. I ain't washing

no more lettuce. Yeah. He's like, I'm done. And

then they, you know, go, like he makes this big

-o decision. Mm -hmm. And... He didn't get it.

No, I got it. I walked in, I said to Pete, Pete,

we gotta talk. He said, Alan, nothing to talk

about. How's $5 ,000? $5 ,000? Come inside. Sit

in the nice chair. Amy, I think I could have

gotten even more. Well, then sit in the nice

chair and use the nice phone. Call Pete and ask

for it. Well, actually, I don't think calling

Pete would make much sense. Why not? Because

I don't work there anymore, Amy. I quit. Would

you pass the potatoes? Dad, you quit your job?

We're gonna be poor. We're not gonna be poor.

Ellen, how could you quit your job without even

discussing it with me? We're discussing it now.

Oh. So no decision was actually made? Uh, no,

a decision was made. Now it's time for the very

important discussion that follows the making

of the decision. If we had discussed this before

a decision was made, I might have gently pointed

out that we have children to feed and bills to

pay. Bye -bye, Carr. Amy, I would never put this

family at risk. We have a little money saved

up, and one day I hope to go into business for

myself. That way, Eric could come work for me.

Hey! You hear that? I'm gonna be responsible

for the well -being of this family. Bye -bye,

House. You see, Amy, nothing to worry about.

I made a good decision. Fine. Fine. I made one,

too. What? What decision did you make? Well,

that if you're allowed to make a unilateral decision

about something which affects this entire family,

then so am I. Well, what decision are you going

to make? I don't know yet. But one day, I will

make a decision which affects this entire family

because you did. And our relationship is an equal

partnership, isn't it? Yes. But don't you worry,

because I'll talk it over with you afterwards.

Job and tells them, and Cory is just freaking

out the whole time. You know, like, we're going

to be living on the street. And then, like, Alan's

not worried about it whatsoever. And Sean's trying

to school him on how to be poor. See that's totally

I look at the Matthews and I look at that family

and okay. It's a family of three Yes, Eric is

supposedly supposed to be gone graduated high

school and college and whatever and they also

do make a big deal out of that kind of what what

his they don't really focus on Eric's journey,

but they I Think season four the beginning here

is where they start using Eric as just comedy

relief. Yeah Yeah, there's a couple of those

episodes for sure in here in the in these first

10 It was and I kind of miss I kind of miss smart

Eric Yeah Because I felt like once they turned

him like dumb It not that it wasn't enjoyable

at certain points, but there were certain points.

It's like, okay, this is just a bit far Yeah,

see it's like it's not that interesting Yeah,

you gave So in season two and season three they

gave Eric all this growth they gave Eric all

this responsibility with Tommy with this that

the other thing and everything else and. And

then by season four it's like well he's aimless

he has no no direction he doesn't know what he

wants to do and a lot of us at that age didn't

know what we wanted to do if we weren't going

to college or if we didn't get into college or

whatever. But it's like now. They want to basically

make him the comedy relief until eventually Jack

will show up at some point once they actually

do get, you know, Eric does have a turnaround

and he does in the future. But anyway, with these

episodes, with these 10 here, my point in saying

all this is you have Eric, Corey, and Morgan.

You have Amy and Alan. So you have a family of

five. Living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in

let's just say it's the 90s. I mean, it could

only be the 90s because it couldn't be the 80s.

You know, I don't see them. Middle class maybe,

but they're not poor, but they're not like even

though Sean is actively poor. Like he, he, his

life is extremely hard. I mean, they live in

a trailer park for crap sake. And I can kind

of understand and see why he would say that Corey

and his family are rich. And they go on to make

all these remarks at times about, Oh, where did

you sleep last night in my bed? Oh, you slept

indoors. Great. You have a trailer, Sean. It's

not exactly a, you know, seven bedroom house

or whatever for a family of five, but I don't

know. Am I wrong in thinking that they tried

to nail that too far? I don't think you're wrong

in thinking that. I think that they did kind

of try and drag that out as long as they could.

I feel like every twist and turn, they did try

to make Sean feel like, oh, I'm poor, you know,

not that that's not relatable because a lot of

people struggle. You know, it's. It's a real

thing and you know the broken home thing that

that he's got going on is totally real too but

I feel like that they At times we're trying way

too hard To make it stand out. Yeah, they were

trying way too hard to show the Again another

thing in this in this part of this season four

that they started was, you know, they start talking

about Robert Frost's or you know I wrote the

road not taken you know two roads in a wood diverge

you know i should take the one less traveled

by and all that. And they've made that kind of

the motif for these ten episodes of. Cori's on

one road Sean is on the other road but it doesn't

matter cuz they're best friends what i do like

is that we do see Sean's home not so broken.

I mean. His dad's there finally and they actually

have. Words about when his dad was gone for the

year that he was looking for his mom His mom

is there finally so that they are kind of together.

They're not you know, we're not together together,

but yeah, I mean they're not the most modern

of families, but they're there I Yeah, I don't

know because again for me like I didn't have

I didn't have the teenage years where, yes, my

parents got divorced when I was two years old

in 1982. But by the time I was 10, 11, 12, 13,

14, 15, 16, you know, from 10 to 13, I was living

with my mom. I would see my dad every once in

a while, every chance he could kind of thing.

But by the time I was 14, 15 and 16, I Ended

up living with my dad for a while that didn't

work and I and I've said this before and this

is gonna come up because As long as these issues

are going on with Shawn it reminds me of things

that are going on in my life what where it's

like Was I poor? Not as poor as Shawn was but

I wasn't rich either. I mean somebody who goes

through the system of being a ward of the state

Not exactly a rich kid kind of thing. And so

I can kind of empathize and sympathize with Sean.

But again, like I've said, I did not remember

I did not remember his mom and dad kind of coming

back and having this whole trying to be a family

together. I'm glad it's here. I think it's great.

I think it's a, you know, it's a character growth

of where Sean will eventually end up down the

road when he's an adult. because that shaped

him and he doesn't ever want whatever, you know,

he doesn't want what happened to him to happen

to anyone else in his life kind of thing, obviously.

And there was a lot of things to, to unpack with

this. It's not, I mean, there are still some

buddy buddy things. There are still some funny

moments. I mean, honestly, the whole wrestlers

episode was, was hilarious. I thought that was

really great, even though there are. you know,

a bunch of issues under that. I thought the comedy

of, of, of the wrestling part. And again, you're

getting, you know, Frankie as a character and

seeing, you know, how, how his family life is.

And this show, even though it's stars Ben Savage

and, and Ryder Strong and what's his Allen and

Amy and all that, like. Normally these family

shows, there's like a star and you follow that

character's journey. This show, it's such a family

television show that the entirety of the cast

you follow. Like the only thing so far we have

not really gotten in these 10 episodes is anything

to do with Topanga's family. Yeah. Which that

eventually comes too. Right. It does. Absolutely.

What else did you like with this half of season

four? Well aside from that from that episode.

I thought it was kind of interesting that Cory

was friends with the lunch lady in I believe

that's the same episode as the mom Fishing for

verna. I think yeah. Yeah, so that was kind of

cool I enjoyed that I I could see where Sean

would be somewhat embarrassed about his dad being

the janitor at the school. Because, you know,

as a teenager and as a kid, like, you don't want

that. Like, you don't want your parents really

anywhere near where you're at. True. Just because

it's just awkward socially and yeah, a lot of

people just don't respond well to it, you could

say. But I think the lesson in this episode he

was trying to work Yeah, nothing to do with like

his son, you know, yeah like his social status.

He was trying to work to provide Which yeah that

which was something that Sean wasn't paying attention

to you right But it also like if you if you look

at the the scene in that episode with Sean and

Chet You know where he's like near my son I wasn't

near you. You know, I wasn't around a lot. Well,

here I am. You know, even though they're not

going to, I mean, they might say hi to each other

in the hallways, but they're not going to hang

out. I mean, like you said, he's there to do

a job. Sean is there to learn. That kind of thing.

Eli Williams, that's what Alex Desert's character's

name is. Yeah, I did miss him this season. I

thought they were really doing a really good

service with adding him. For a secondary class

and I'm not sure why they took that away as far

as the story goes I don't know what was going

on with the actor or the whatever behind the

scenes stuff. Is it weird that Feeney is now

the principal or has he been the principal the

whole time he's been the principal the whole

time. Okay yeah he was the principal the minute

they got there and they're like guess what no

more Feeney and then. And then he shows up around

the corner and they're like. You know, I will

say there are and they'll probably be in this

episode somewhere cuz I don't remember them right

off the top of my head There were a lot of good

Feeny lines in this these ten episodes Well Feeny

always tended to get that the that knowledge

that you would get from like Wilson on home improvement

mm -hmm, and That's what made him really enjoyable

was he was he was like your for all intents and

purposes, like how everybody compared Bob Saget

to being America's dad. He was like America's

teacher grandpa. Yep. And for me, it's so great

when I hear him do various things because I'm

like, hey, that's Kit from Knight Rider because

he was the voice of Kit from Knight Rider. You

wait here. The informant will come by and drop

the evidence in the window in about two minutes.

I'm a mobile mailbox. But no, there are so many,

like, Mr. Feeny's a funny guy. He's got a dry

humor. Yeah, it's a dry humor, but it's not so,

so horribly awful or anything like that. This

season, I forget which episode it is, but this

is the one where they always use the clip of...

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the

one less traveled by. And that has made all the

difference. Okay, now, what do we take from this

poem? Interesting, in my class, Mr. Hunter handles

the yipping. Sean! Sean, it's both of them! Oh,

no, now I don't know which class I slept through.

Mine, Hunter. Remember the road not taken? A

remarkable poem in which the poet tells us that

we make choices in life and each choice puts

us on a new road that can have a profound effect

on our destinies. This is the is the season where

that comes from. I was like, oh, this is so me.

This show has so many good moments. It has so

many moments that. Because it is full on family.

Like I don't remember family television like

this. I know family television existed with like

family ties, which was a little bit different

because it was more political or with family

matters or even with the Cosby show or like you

were saying with home improvements and with like

everybody loves Raymond and that kind of stuff.

And, but for me, Boy Meets World so far on this,

you know, look back through this series. This

show was so goddamn good. Well, in it, it was

relatable. Mm -hmm. It's relatable 40 -something

or 20, 30 -something years later. I'm watching

these episodes and I'm tearing up at certain

points and I'm like, wow, yep, I know what that's

like. Anything else you want to say? What did

you think of the turkey episode, the Thanksgiving

episode? Well... It was interesting. Especially

having the different families all there trying.

I don't know. It wasn't bad. I like that they

made the effort. Whether it works or not, it's

still there. And for how intertwined Sean is

and the Matthews family's life. I don't know.

It's nice to see them more integrated. Yeah,

and then they kind of show the You know the differences

on how you know upbringing and how people are

raised and how they turn out based on that Yeah,

which is very true. We have Frankie's younger

brother wanting Herman wanting to date Morgan

I've always felt like some of those those kid

romances like you look at Rudy Huxtable and and

Kenny in the Cosby show. I always thought that

was kind of, I always look at that kind of stuff

and think, oh, how innocent that they are kind

of thing. Like, I don't know. It's just one of

the things. Coming up next time on part two,

we will be talking about the other 11 episodes

of or 12 episodes of the series. And again, I

feel like it's going to be very interesting because

I'm looking at some of these descriptions of

these episodes and I do not remember a damn thing.

Ooh, season four has a two -parter. A long walk

to Pittsburgh, parts one and two. I don't remember

any of this. I'm sure it'll come back to me when

I watch them. Yeah. Because I watched all of

this every week, TGI Friday. Yep. And what year

did Boy Meets World end? So seven seasons, 93

to 2000. Okay. So it was before I worked, so

I watched it every week. Okay. Yeah, I did not.

And I am really, really curious about this because

the next episode that we have coming up... you

know the start an affair to forget includes us

oh my god that's right what okay so here's here's

a preview folks so in the I didn't did not forget

about this in the 11th episode an affair to forget

is that where Sean Corey Sean is in shock when

his girlfriend Jennifer dumps him to try to help

him. Corey starts bad mouthing Jennifer to Sean.

So Jennifer is the future Mrs. Minkus. Oh, that's

funny. Same actor. I mean, I remember the character.

I remember the character like it's yesterday.

I don't exactly remember this episode, but I

remember she did date Sean. before eventually

ending up with Minkus, and I just looked up the

actress and it is the same actress in this 1996

episode as it is in Girl Meets World. That's

funny. Yes. It's awesome. Very, very cool. All

right. What do you got going on, sir, since we

don't do a whole lot of podcaster meets world

very often? I'm looking at the usual, the podcast

that I'm normally on, All Things Transformers,

Altered Geek, Studio. The occasional tune cast,

working on custom action figures. Very cool,

very cool. Yeah, looking at Podcaster Meets World's

history, we started this on February 2nd, 2016.

We had one episode in 2018, two, three episodes

in 2018, and then the last three episodes last

year in 2021. So it's been a long journey for

us. to get this show done. But it has been fun

and I absolutely love going back and watching

this show. It's a real joy to watch this specific

show. So I've been watching it while I've been

crafting my figure that I'm working on. Yep.

So it's it's it's it's entertaining and lethargic

to sit and somewhat pay attention to it while

I'm crafting. Yeah, absolutely. It's so fun.

It's like I'm rediscovering this show, like I

said, because season three, four, and part of

five, I do not remember. Season six and seven,

I remember like the back of my hand because season

six and seven was the wedding and Angela and

Sean and, you know. rocks with squirrels or books

with squirrels or something with squirrels with

a Batman suit or something. I don't remember.

Well, I also remember during the wedding that

they got arrested. Yep. Because Eric is an idiot.

Of course. He's like, my brother's an idiot.

And he's like, I'm an idiot. Yeah. But yeah,

I don't know. I enjoy the show for what it is.

It's very timeless. I remember watching it again

this for the first time since it aired when Mary

and I first moved out together and I found somebody

I think I paid like and this was back in the

day when you couldn't get Stuff they didn't even

have it on DVD. It was no way to get it. I think

I paid like 70 bucks on eBay for Somebody had

recorded them all on VHS tapes at one point and

converted them to a DVD Oh Wow converted all

of the series and so like you had half a season

on each disc and And so I still have those in

the basement and there's like one episode where

it's a little goofy and like the the something

was wrong with the the recording but okay But

anyways, I was excited when Hulu had it and then

now Disney Plus has it. So I don't ever have

to get those out because one, I'm lazy and I

don't use discs anymore. Absolutely. And I mean,

I want to do this myself, but I have an assignment

for us for next time because since we started

this podcast, other people... more famous people

than us have started their own podcasts. So Christy

Carlson Romano, who was Ren Stevens on Even Steven,

she's the voice of Kim Possible. She has a YouTube

channel and she now has her own podcast called

Vulnerable with Christy Carlson Romano. First

guest. None other than Will Friedle gets vulnerable

and they go through his entire career. So I want

us to listen to that and kind of have that be,

depending on what happens to Eric in season four,

in the rest of season four, kind of have that

be a little spotlight thing. Cause I think that'd

be kind of interesting for us to listen to a

podcast and then say, Hey, this was kind of awesome

to listen to her. It was nice to hear his journey

or, or whatever. Makes sense. Yup. You can find

us online, folks, geekcastradio .com. You can

listen to and comment on all of our content.

We're on Spotify and iTunes and everywhere podcasts

are found. You can find me on Twitter. I'm at

TF2 and Mike. You can find that GeekCast Radio

for the network on Twitter. What are your Twitters?

You have like three of them, I think. No, I have

two. at SCP -21 and at Steve Phillips VO. You

can also follow his show at AlteredGeek, everybody.

You actually have four with at all things TFV3,

but anyway. Yeah, I don't want those unless I'm

actually doing them. Oh boy. All right, folks,

we're going to get the heck out of here. And

thank you for still listening. If anybody's listening

to this, I don't know who is or who isn't listening

to this because as I've said earlier already

in this episode, we've done these so infrequently

and that's just because of life and things and

whatever. But like you said, now that Disney

Plus has both boy and girl meets world, we should

be at least able to do one of these, one or two

of these a month and hopefully finish it by the

end of this year. That's the plan. Let's hope.

I mean, I guess we could. I guess we could drag

it out to September of next year and hey, 30

years, yay! Not really. I wish. Shouldn't be

that hard, most of them aren't. Already podcasting

themselves anyway. Alright folks, unleash the

geek in you and we will catch you next time here

on Podcaster Meets World. Look what they done

to my boy. Oh, Sean, if it's any consolation,

I think you can do a lot better than Jennifer

Bassett. Thanks, Sean. Uh, wait a minute, Topanga.

Have you looked at her? Okay, so she's pretty,

she's tall, she drives a new red convertible.

Oh, heck, I'd go out with her.