Danielle Fishel recalls Boy Meets World creator threatening to fire her at age 12
Co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong agreed that Michael Jacobs fostered a "damaging" set
Many people have warm memories of Boy Meets World, including cast members Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle, who started a rewatch podcast (Pod Meets World) for their iconic ’90s sitcom. As much as they may enjoy revisiting the series, though, working on it apparently left some emotional scars.
In a recent episode, Fishel recalled when she first got the part of Topanga–after another actor had already been cast. Within days, she was on set, and had her first “marathon notes session” with series creator Michael Jacobs and the cast.
“Michael starts off the notes by saying, ‘Danielle, I’m going to give you your notes all at one time, at the end and I’m going to give everyone else their notes now, because if I made everyone sit here through all of the notes I had for you, we would all be here for hours and no one would ever get to go home. So you’re just going to wait for the end,’” she shared. “From that moment on, my eyes welled up because you know, I’m now in front of everybody—all the producers, all the writers, all the cast and all eyes are on me for a second.”
Fishel began sweating just remembering the uncomfortable moment, remembering, “He went through every single one of my lines and what he wanted and what I wasn’t doing right and how slow I needed to talk. … What I know specifically was said is, ‘All I know is, if you don’t come back tomorrow doing this entirely differently, you are also not going to be here,’ referencing the girl I had replaced.”