Fishel argued that the show “should have been” more about its child stars, Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter.

Danielle Fishel says she had ‘insignificant’ role on Girl Meets World because everything was given to Ben Savage

Fishel argued that the show “should have been” more about its child stars, Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter.

By Shania Russell

Shania Russell

Shania Russell is a news writer at *, *with five years of experience. Her work has previously appeared in SlashFilm and Paste Magazine.

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September 3, 2026 12:23 p.m. ET

Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel on ‘Girl Meets World’. Credit:

- Danielle Fishel says *Girl Meets World *was too focused on Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews.

- The actress, who is revisiting the *Boy Meets World* sequel series for her *Pod Meets World* podcast, argued that the show “should have been” more about its young stars.

- She added that she ultimately had an “insignificant part” on the show because “everything was given to Cory.”

Danielle Fishel is having a tough time revisiting *Girl Meets World*.

The actress, who played Topanga Lawrence on *Boy Meets World* and its 2010’s sequel series, has been rewatching the show alongside fellow stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong for their *Pod Meets World* podcast. Three episodes in, the trio have identified a huge flaw in the show’s design: that it focused too heavily on Ben Savage‘s Cory Matthews.

“My main problem with the show so far is it doesn’t know what it is yet,” Friedle said on their Sept. 3 episode. “It seems like they’re trying to manufacture depth, where it’s like — I don’t want that. I want a wacky, crazy Disney Channel show. Lean into that as opposed to having Cory have to teach everything [in] every episode.”

Strong agreed, adding that by the third episode, “You start to see that the dynamic of the kids just being friends to each other is the best part of the show.”

Fishel then chimed in, declaring, “It’s what the show *should* have been. It should’ve been a kids show; that’s what it was supposed to be.”

Sabrina Carpenter, Uriah Shelton, Rowan Blanchard, Danielle Fishel, and Ben Savage on ‘Girl Meets World’.

Tom/DISNEY CHANNEL via Getty

Billed as a spinoff of the original show,* Girl Meets World* revolved around middle-schooler Riley Matthews (Rowan Blanchard), the daughter of Topanga and Cory, making her own way in the world. The cast notably featured future pop star Sabrina Carpenter as her best friend, Maya Hart, and their wider friend group of Lucas (Peyton Meyer) and Farkle Minkus (Corey Fogelmanis, playing the son of Lee Norris’ Stuart Minkus).

While episodes of the show largely centered around Riley’s teenage antics and various issues along the way, Savage was a pivotal part of the show as the adult that they turned to for advice both at home and at school, where he served as their history and homeroom teacher.

“It was supposed to be [about] new characters,” Fishel said, adding that she was initially told, “‘It’s going to be about them, the same way *Boy* was about all of us.’”

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She continued, “Unfortunately, it wasn’t. And I remember people would apologize to me and be like, ‘Sorry, you have such a small part in this.’ And my thought was, ‘No, no, no, I *should* have a smaller part in it.’”

She explained that with the show focusing instead on the new generation, she was prepared to have a reduced role. “But it wasn’t that I was having a small part in it because the kids were so much more heavily featured, it was that I was an insignificant part because everything was given to Cory,” Fishel said. “It’s still *Boy Meets World*. Even the POV always comes back to, ‘Well, how does the dad feel about this?’ It’s like, ‘Wait no, this should be about her.’”

At another point, after running down the plot of the third episode and the many roles that Cory filled throughout, she complained, “So Cory is the fun parent *and* the lesson parent *and* the teacher *and* the father. I’m just there to make sure no one falls out a window.”

“Or has fun,” quipped Strong.

Danielle Fishel, Rowan Blanchard, and Sabrina Carpenter on ‘Girl Meets World’.

Ron Tom/Disney Channel/Getty

When the *Boy Meets World* alums first began their watch of the Disney sequel series, Fishel described her experience on* Girl Meets World *as “really frustrating,” noting that she didn’t have a full picture of what she was signing up for. She claimed that Michael Jacobs, the executive producer who created both shows, initially told her that there would be much more distance between the two shows.

“Before the show came out, Michael [and I] had a whole conversation about the idea that this was not going to be a reboot. It was going to be a whole new show,” Fishel said, but noted that things quickly changed once they were on set. “We got in there, and every day from morning until night was Michael and the writers trying to shoehorn *Boy Meets World* things into it.”

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The actress admitted that she still would have signed on for the reboot if she’d known what it would be from the start, but said that the show’s distance from the original series was a particular point of interest for her.

*Girl Meets World *ultimately ran for just three seasons on Disney Channel from 2014 to 2017, while the original *Boy Meets World* ran for seven seasons on ABC from 1993 to 2000.

- Children’s Shows

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Children’s”