Rider Strong Thinks Girl Meets World Could Have Been Way More “Extreme”

Girl Meets World has tackled some pretty serious issues during its three-season run on Disney Channel. Riley (Rowan Blanchard) dealt with a cyberbully, Farkle (Corey Fogelmanis) faced an Asperger's diagnosis, and Cory (Ben Savage) taught his class about cultural appropriation. One thing that Girl Meets World didn't have? A character joining a cult — which is what Shawn (Rider Strong) did in the original series Boy Meets World. In a new interview on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, Strong reveals that there may have been a few dark moments like that had the Girl Meets World been on a different channel. "For some reason on [ABC's] TGIF we would just do these [episodes] that were like full on dramas and nobody seemed to notice," said Strong of famous Boy Meets World episode "Cult Fiction," in which a lost Shawn gets brainwashed by a hug-happy cult, only to be brought down to Earth when his guardian Mr. Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn) gets into a near-fatal motorcycle accident. Did show creator Michael Jacobs have a change of heart about including such dark material when he planned Girl Meets World? According to Strong, Jacobs would have made the show a lot more extreme. "We've had some very dramatic episodes [of Girl Meets World]. I don't think as dramatic as Boy, mostly because we're on Disney Channel and they won't allow us to. I think had Michael had his way, Girl Meets World would have swung just as extreme."

Girl Meets World, which will air its two-part series finale on January 20, kept the comedy even in its "realest" episodes, but it's worth wondering where the series could have gone had Disney Channel not reeled Jacobs in. Would Farkle have gotten into a motorcycle accident, never to be seen or heard from again? Would Riley have joined a nefarious hugging commune? Come on Netflix — pick up this series so we can see how weird things can get.