Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Melissa meets boy: BMW Primer


The Feeny call.  Eric as a couch.  Cory and Topanga 4eva!  “Mr. Matthews.” “Mr. Squirrels.” “Eric?” “Plays with.” “Oh my god, they killed Kenny!”  Evil Lauren.

There are so many funny memories, sad memories, memories that make me giggle, ones that make me cry, that trying to put them all on paper would just be a rehash of the entire show.  I am going to do my best to parse them down, so this series of posts only takes two months, instead of a full year, as it so easily could.

To start out, I’d like to give a brief synopsis of the seven seasons: Boy. Met. World.








OK, just kidding, Cory Matthews did more than meet the world…but not by much.

Boy Meets World, which ran for seven seasons on ABC in their famed TGIF block, followed the life of Cory Matthews as he grew from a snot nosed twelve year old into a married adult of 21.  And if you’re wondering how Cory went from 12 to 21 in 7 seasons, so am I.

In the first season, Cory and his best friend Shawn were in the 6th grade, and they had typical kid problems, such as feeling weird among peers, cheating on IQ tests, and staying out of trouble with their teacher, Mr. Feeny.

When they moved onto seventh grade, in the second season, Mr. Feeny followed them to their new school, and they met a new teacher, Mr. Turner.  Cory started to notice girls more, including Topanga, but their problems were still pretty small and relatively normal, including bullies, girlfriends, and dating bully’s girlfriends(whoops).

Season three found them in eighth grade, and things started to go a bit off the rails, although the show was really in it’s prime.  Cory somehow manages to teleport himself back to 1957(what a dream!), Topanga wins a trip through school to Disney World, and Cory and Topanga officially start dating(finally).

Ninth grade couldn’t be done fast enough, and apparently the show runners though so as well, since the fourth season saw our favorite trio in tenth grade. Cory befriends a former bully, whose dad happens to be a pro wrestler, Topanga(gasp!) cuts her hair, and of course, the glorious, fantastical, “Shallow boy”

Also not to be missed: Maladjusted Woman-hating Loser Freak
Of course, once a person is done with 10th grade, it’s off to senior year, of course!  Season five watched Cory and Shawn have college application angst, Cory kisses another girl(NOOOO!), and Eric auditions for Kid get Aquainted with the universe.  Yes, it’s as meta as you would think.

Once the group was off to college, in season six, things only got crazier.  With the core group of three expanded to six, or seven, depending on Shawn’s dating status, the antics, they were wild.  Cory and Topanga were engaged until her parents dropped the big D on her and borked everything up.  Cory also was killing people(in his dreams), and a snake-y teacher causes Cory to lash out and hit him, even as that same teacher hits on Topanga.

The final season saw the madcap zaniness of the group of friends we loved come to an end, with all the antics we had come to expect.  Eric, Cory’s brother, was the cause of most of them, from cross dressing, to gaining psychic lottery number powers, to hiding in a couch; if you want crazy, you want Eric.  Cory and Topanga had us all at 'I do', after Cory finally convinced her that her parent’s divorce doesn’t affect her love for him.  And oh, that Shawn, he’s so dreamy!

Next week: Cory, Shawn, and Topanga: A character study

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