Boy Meets World's Danielle Fishel Preaches the Importance of 'Commitment' After Apparent Ben Savage Fall Out
At 90s Con, the 'Boy Meets World' actress explained how the 30-year friendships led to a "true knowing of each other" because of "commitment" to their cast-wide bond
The cast of Boy Meets World is back together... mostly.
Danielle Fishel (Topanga), Rider Strong (Shawn), Matthew Lawrence (Jack), Will Friedle (Eric), Anthony Tyler Quinn (Jonathan), Betsy Randle (Amy), Lee Noris (Stuart), Trina McGee (Angela), William Daniels (Mr. Feeny) and Bonnie Bartlett Daniels (Lila) took a trip down memory lane as they came together at 90s Con in Tampa on Saturday — and spoke about the longevity of their friendships.
One member of the cast was notably absent: Ben Savage, who played Cory on the Disney Channel series. This comes after cast members alleged Savage "ghosted" them three years ago. Fishel, Friedle, and Strong stated he "just kind of disappeared from our lives," in a conversation with Variety earlier this year. "We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day and decided 'I don’t want this person in my life anymore,'" Friedle said.
Related: 'Boy Meets World' 's Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage Share Love Lessons from Cory and Topanga
On the panel Saturday, Fishel spoke of the importance of friendship, without naming Savage. "Over this many years and this much time together in different work atmospheres, you have fights, you have falling outs, you have moments where you come back together," she said.
This amount of time spent together — since the show premiered in 1993 — has led to friendship breaks and reunions. But it's the choice to stick together that led Fishel to praise the strength of their bonds.
"Because we are constantly put back together, there have been times where we’ve needed space from each other, and we’ve taken long distances," she continued. "Yet, when you really commit to a relationship, when you really commit to this idea that we are always going to be in each other's lives, the amount of growth and grace and forgiveness and compassion and true knowing of each other that we now have — that we never would have had had we written each other off and said 'I’m done with you, I don’t want to see you again.'"
Fishel concluded, "So, like, that commitment to a relationship is such a lesson for everybody."
Related: The '90s Nostalgia You Didn't Know You Needed: Every Single Time the 'Boy Meets World' Cast Reunited
Boy Meets World ran for seven seasons and ended in 2000. For a few years, Disney+ even satisfied fans’ fervent desire for a reboot with Girl Meets World, which ran from 2014 to 2017 and followed the life of Cory (Savage) and Topanga’s (Fishel) daughter, Riley (Rowan Blanchard).
Though both have long come to a close, the cast have remained close friends throughout the years. In April, the gang came together to celebrate Daniels’ 96th birthday with his wife Bartlett Daniels ahead of their appearances at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo 2023.
Related: 'Boy Meets World' Cast Says William Daniels Is 'Still Giving' Them 'Pearls of Wisdom' Today
Friedle, Fishel and Strong also collaborate on their hit podcast, Pod Meets World where the trio delve deep into their time as child actors and rewatch the sitcom.
In a July 2022 episode, Fishel opened up about the rough first day she had on set and recalled nearly getting fired when she was only 12-years-old due to her habit of speaking quickly.
According to the now 42-year-old actress, the series creator Michael Jacobs called her out in front of the entire cast and claimed he was “going to give you your notes all at one time, at the end” as if her notes were given first, “we would all be here for hours and no one would ever get to go home.”
Jacobs then proceeded to deliver his notes to everyone else before calling down Fishel's mother from the studio audience to join her at a table on set. "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," she said.
"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," she added.
After staying up practicing her lines with her mother into the morning, Fishel's hard work paid off. After participating in rehearsal the next day, she recalled Jacobs standing up to say, "Let's give Danielle a round of applause, you did exactly what I asked of you. Thank you, thank you. Congratulations, it was wonderful."
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'90s Con is taking place at the Tampa Convention Center through Sunday.
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