Calvin and Hobbes...

The Gritty reboot!




Enjoy!

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 5 part 3

And so, after a short hiatus, we come back to the last third of season 5.   When we last left our intrepid heroes, Cory and Topanga had broken up, and Shawn was all mopey because of it.   But how will it end?  Lets jump right in and find out!

In the first couple of episodes, we get a whole lot of nowhere.  Shawn is still broken-hearted over the breakup, and so, when the entire group gets detention, he has a daydream about killing everyone off to get Cory and Topanga back together.  It’s basically the best thing ever, and probably my favorite episode of the season.

Cory is depressed, and apparently not a fun person to be around, until he gets a bit of alcohol in him, then he’s a hoot and a half.  That is, until his dad finds out, and nearly ruins his and Shawn’s friendship, along with sending Shawn down a shame spiral that only ends when he (possibly) unintentionally pushes Angela around.

We then have a bit of a filler episode, though it is another fantastic one, right up there with the horror movie one.  Eric realizes he can do Shakespeare, and manages to get himself on a Hollywood show: Kid Gets Acquainted With the Universe.  It’s about as meta as you can get, though hilariously funny at the same time.  And then they go back around on the whole thing, which I have to show a bit later in this post.

But now, we are down to four episodes left, and things need to kick into high gear.  Topanga *gasp* goes on a date with another guy, and finally realizes what Cory had been telling her all along.  Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss, and doesn’t mean anything, and thus, our happy couple are happy once more!  Except, oops, they forgot to tell Shawn before anyone else, and now, they are playing broken up so Shawn can get them back together, with near disastrous results.  However, things work out in the end, and everyone, including Jack and Eric, go to prom.  And who happens to show up there?  A newly pregnant Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, of course!

This leads us into the penultimate episode of the season, where Cory is afraid of change.  Unfortunately for him, EVERYTHING is changing.  Chubbies? Changed to Peg Leg Pete’s. His room?  Duckies, if Eric has his way.  Mr. Feeney? Retiring, to the shock of everyone.  And somehow, Cory pulls through, even after Topanga drops a bombshell: She applied, and got waitlisted, to Yale.

And so, we hit our final episode of the season, graduation.  We see some old friends, we tie up loose ends, and Cory is supportive of Topanga going to Yale, even if it’s only pretend.  And when she gets in, no one knows what’s going to happen, especially not Cory.  Topanga asks Mr. Feeney for one final bit of advice, and he tells her to go to Yale, unless she has a good reason not to.  And does she have a good reason?  Find out in the clips below.

So this was a story heavy third.  So much happened, the overarcing plot can sometimes get jumbled.  But it basically amounts to Cory, Shawn, and Topanga growing up, and possible growing apart, with as much grace as you would expect from three 18 year olds.  This last third of the season is definitely some of the strongest storytelling in all seven seasons, and has so many memorable moments, it’s hard to chose just one from each episode.  For example, I didn’t pull Eric’s niece/niche confusion, which has a payoff…in season 7.  This is the season where you grow to really care about these characters, and want to see them succeed and be happy, and you are not disappointed at season end.

And now, without further ado, a clip show, from me to you!

And Then There Was Shawn(S5E17)-After the group’s life seems to turn into a horror movie, Shawn knows exactly what will happen.

Melissa Meets Boy:Season 5, part 2

So we had a lot happen to our intrepid heroes in this third of the season. 

Cory and Shawn have a lot of growing up to do as friends, first with Shawn succeeding more naturally in business then Cory, and the resulting jealousy that involves, then Shawn not feeling super confident, and Cory learning to let Shawn rely more on himself, instead of Cory always propping him up.

Shawn and Jack also grow closer as brothers, with a only a bit of strife to go along with it, along with wrestling…lots of wrestling.

Eric continues his slow slide to crazy town, with a few lucid moments before that happens, which I’ll highlight in the video section.

And then we have our big thing.  Cory and Topanga.  Things had been going along swimmingly, with Cory doing something stupid, realizing it, and they forgive and move on.  That is, until the senior ski trip.  Cory fails in getting off the bus, and has to skip the first day of skiing with a sprained ankle.  He and Lauren(boo, hiss) stay up all night talking, and eventually even kiss.  Cory lies to Topanga about it, but she finds out, of course.  And so, our favorite couple has split up, and there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth as we wait for the final third of the season.

There were many many great moments throughout the season, and here are a few of them for your viewing pleasure.

How to Succeed in Business(S5E9)-Eric and Amy are in the same creative writing class, and Amy is writing stories about her early relationship with Alan.  Eric is not impressed, until it’s about him.

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 5 Part 1

So, when we last left our favorite group, they were moving into a new phase in life.  Cory, Shawn, and Topanga are seniors, and are getting ready to grow up.  Shawn realizes that first, he has the brains to get to college, he just needs to use them.  He then realizes his player ways are getting old, and he wants to have a serious relationship, not a fake thing.  Shawn meets Angela for the first time this season, and they start dating.

Cory and Topanga are starting to fall into ruts, and some of the cracks in their relationship is starting to show through, and those cracks will be followed through later in the season.

Eric, after getting into college at the end of the last season, really has to grow up.  After messing up the dorm situation, Cory finds him a new roommate, one that happens to be Shawn’s half brother.  And thus, Shawn moves in with the both of them.  A big chunk of the story arc for this part of the season is Shawn and Jack getting to know each other, with a slice of Eric and Jack becoming good friends as well.

This part of the season is a lot of buildup for the rest of the season, and boy, will it pay off. 

Lets look at some of my favorite moments through this first third.

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 5

Now that we’ve finished season four, and junior year, we move onto senior year, and lots of changes for our main group, and Eric.

Cory and Topanga move forward in their relationship, only to hit the massive iceberg Lauren(boo hiss).  Will they reconcile in time for prom?  Of course, but what happens when they have to make the decision to affect the rest of their lives?

Cory and Shawn, on the other hand, don’t move their friendship forward, and they are okay with that.  They are each other’s constant, and only fight when one or the other feels their friendship is threatened.  Shawn felt that way a few times this season, first, when Cory was looking at colleges Shawn couldn’t get into, then when Cory almost broke Coryandtopanga apart.

Eric had the most changes through the season.  He moved out of his parents house, and into an apartment with two new roommates:  Jack, a guy remarkably similar to Eric in temperament, who just happens to be Shawn’s brother.  Oh, and Shawn moves in too.  Eric navigates his way through his first year of college, and learns a lot about himself as well, especially when he substitutes for Mr. Feeney in a citizenship class.

Shawn, when he wasn’t being friends with Cory, had a couple of major arcs this season as well.  First and foremost, he was getting to know his brother, Jack.  Jack had moved with his mother and step-father out west, and had no contact with Shawn or his bio-father until he showed up one day looking for roommates.  They have conflicts, and arguments, but they mostly gain stories.  Shawn was also finally in the mood for a long term girlfriend, and found one in the purse-girl, aka Angela Moore, the first REAL minority character in a main role on the show.  Their relationships had it’s ups and downs, but it does lead directly to one of my favorite scenes, where Cory tries and fails at being mad at Topanga.

There are many other fun moments this season, and I’ll dig a bit more into the first third next week!

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 4, part 3

And the season wraps up with some of the most powerful episodes of the series.  There is a lot of growing up going on, especially with Shawn and Eric.  Our main group is getting ready for senior year, with lots of SAT studying going on, but Topnaga’s parents try to throw a huge wrench in the plans.  Eric tries to find a path in life, and may have found what he needs.  And Shawn…oh Shawn.  Girls, cults, life changing experiences, he had it all.  Let’s get onto the recaps proper.

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 4 part 2

And the plot thickens, just as I said it would!

BMW goes for a more serious episode, showing the evils of child abuse.  The season picks up a bit after that, with some character development and funny items, like Cory’s ‘two places at once’ gambit, and a cute little Thanksgiving story.  The boys’ friendship grows stronger after a girl tries to drive them apart, and then they both almost join the mafia.  For realsies.  Shawn decides to turn Mr. Feeney’s home into a B&B, and learns a little bit about himself in the process.  Finally, Cory gets his driver’s license, and grows up a bit, after his father is able to let go just a little bit.

Eric’s dumbness has started to come to the forefront, with his terrible one-man show.  Shawn learns he’s not just the dumb sidekick, and Cory’s crotchety old man ways come up even more.

Thought I’d do the clips a little differently this week, with a mini plot synopsis with them, so enjoy!

The funny stuff: Summer duldrums

With no new sitcoms on for a couple of months, I've been scrambling around, trying to figure out what to put here.

this week, I thought I go with a couple of fun videos posted to The Daily What.

First, a super cute tribute:


And then, and awesome cover:


Have a great Sunday!

Ranked: Best to Worst

I don’t have as much time as I normally do for this post tonight, so I thought I’d do my list a bit different today!

I’m watching Willy Wonka as I type this (old, not new), and I had a brilliant idea:  ranking the ‘punishments’ from best to worst, worst being the one that would suck the most.

I assume everyone knows the story, but a quick recap:  Willy Wonka, reclusive chocolateer, has invited four holy terrors, and one good kid to his chocolate factory.  The kids misbehave, and Wonka teaches each of them a lesson in turn.  In the end, the good kid wins, and everyone is happy, yay!

So, lets get right to it.

5

Mike Teevee

Mike Teevee was a proto-ADHD kid, loooooves TV.  He watches it all day, dressed as a cowboy, complete with pop guns to help his favorite heroes.  When he gets to the studio in Wonka’s factory that transports gigantic chocolate bars through the airwaves to a person’s TV as a normal size candy bar.  Mike knew exactly what a person should do with that kind of technology:  send himself through, of course! So he did it, and shrunk down to TV sized, which was a problem in the seventies, considering the TV’s were only like, 10 inches high.  So Mike’s tiny, and I’m like: AWESOME.  Who doesn’t want to be a verrrrry  tiny person?  Think of all the things you could do:  be an awesome electronics repair person, ride a cat, wear very tiny clothes.  The possibilities are endless, limited only to what you can think of.

4

Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt is a nasty sort:  terribly spoiled, and rotten to the core, with parents that are more interested in placating her tantrums then setting her straight.  When she gets to the room with the golden geese, she of course is not going to leave until her dad buys one for her.  She sings a fantasic song about it, and then manages to get herself dropped down the garbage shoot because she a bad egg.  Bad egg, get it?  It’s punny. 

So, she doesn’t get any fun disfigurements, but she also doesn’t have to explain to all her (most likely) horrible friends.  Not to mention: fun slide ride!  Who doesn’t want to ride a giant slide?

3

Violet Beauregard

Violet Beauregard is a self-centered little girl, but she isn’t quite the terrible person Veruca is.  Her big thing is she likes gum.  A lot.  Like, a not healthy fascination with it.  She’s been chewing the same piece of gum for three months is what I’m saying.  After a quick interlude with the everlasting gobstoppers, Wonka shows the kids his newest invention, the three course dinner gum.  Violet NEEEEDS to taste the gum, even above Wonka’s protestations, and she turns blue, and turns into a giant round blueberry, or at least something that looks like a giant round blueberry.

Several possibilities with this too:  She could join the Blue Man Group, or be a circus performer.  But she really would be limited in her future possibilities, which is why I have it as less desirable than Mike’s.

2

Augustus Gloop

Poor Augustus.  All he wanted to do was eat all the things.  This kid had a voracious appetite, and his waistline showed it.  In the very first room, Augustus fell into the chocolate river, and got sucked up by the chocolate transport system.

This one looked like it hurt: first, nearly drown by chocolate, then poke and prodded, and finally squeezed through a pipe much to small for him.  Not a fun time, and much sucking was had by all.

1

Charlie Bucket

I know what you’re thinking:  Charlie didn’t have a punishment, he won the whole thing! 

But nay, I’d say! 

Think of the psychological torture Wonka put him through.  First, he had a run in with the crazy Slugworth, promising him riches beyond his wildest dreams.  Then he had to see four kids be taken away in front of his eyes, with crazy orange men singing happily about it.  Then there was the tunnel of craziness, with the bugs, and the psychedelic colors, and all sorts of other craziness.  THEN there was the fizzy lifting drink that nearly sent him to the ceiling fan, until he difused it with farts.  Finally, there was Wonka himself yelling at him: “You get NOTHING!” 

Poor poor Charlie.  Sure, he wins the chocolate factory.  But at what cost?  What cost?!?

(Visual aids tonight or tomorrow, so check back!)

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 4, part 1

Ahh, I was right!  Season four was when our favorite high schoolers really started getting into mischief, and we loved them all the more.

We started with a road-tripping Cory and Eric, and when they are three hours from home, Eric makes a detour, frustrated his life has gone nowhere, and determined to stay in his new favorite town.  He’s eventually persuaded to come home, and the story gets going in full.

Cory’s neuroses are in full display now, from a overreaction to his appearance, and how he compares to Topanga, to a major freakout when his dad quits his job at the grocery store, to the first appearance of Cory as an old Jewish man when he gets tonsillitis, and Shawn tried to convince him he’s going to disappear.

The main arcs of this season get set up in these first few episodes, with Amy purchasing a sporting goods store for Alan, to Cory and Topanga getting into a groove with their relationship.  Shawn’s mother returns after a year plus of being on the run, and the Hunter’s learn to be a family again, with Shawn adjusting to his dad being the janitor at his school.

There are so many funny moments, I won’t be able to cover them all, but I’m going to try!

Top 10: TGIF!

And we’re back, with another top 10!  This week, I’m going to look at my favorite shows on ABC’s TGIF lineup.

Started in 1989, the original run of TGIF lasted until 2000.  There were quite a few one season or less shows I don’t really remember, but there were also a bunch that lasted for quite a few seasons.

No honorable mentions this week, since the one I remember outside of my top 10 I didn’t like.

So, to start things off…

10

Clueless

Yes. This was based off the movie, and it was pretty fun.  Alicia Silverstone didn’t return, in favor of the blond girl from Are You Afraid of the Dark, but Brittany Murphy and Stacey Dash came back, as well as several of the teachers and family.  This was kind of brainless fun.  It was “White Girl Problems” before that was a thing, but you didn’t hate Cher for it, it was just how she was raised.

9

Teen Angel

Marty and Steve were best friends, until Marty ate a six month old cheese burger from under Steve’s bed.  Now Marty’s dead, and…they’re still best friends because Marty is Steve’s guardian angel.  Weird premise, but it was to go along with the supernatural theme of the week, apparently.  This was another throwaway show, as it barely lasted a season, but it has stuck in my mind all these years, so who knows?

8

Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper

This was about a teacher/basketball coach at a school in Ohio.  I don’t remember too many of the details of this one, but I do remember enjoying it, and watching Lori Beth Dinberg outside of her All That confines.  It was apparently on for five seasons, who knew?

7

Step By Step

Ahh, the Lamert/Foster family.  A new retelling of the Brady Bunch story, Carol Foster, with her three kids, and Frank Lambert, with his three, get married, and the families combine in some interesting ways.  Dana and JT hate each other, Karen tries to get Al to be more girlie, and the two younger boys tried to get noticed.  It was a fun show, even if it did try too hard some times *cough*Cody*cough*

6

Sister Sister

Tia and Tamara Mowry starred as…wait for it…twins.  Yeah, surprise surprise.  They were separated at birth, and discover each other in the mall.  Typical twin shenanigans followed, though the girls definitely had their own things at the same time.  The show actually only lasted two seasons on TGIF, but had an additional four on The WB.

5

Full House

Who doesn’t love the Tanners?  Danny, Uncle Jesse, Joey, DJ, Steph and Michelle were a constant in my TV lineup, even after the show was cancelled due to all the syndication deals it has.  Terribly saccharine, this show really knew how to try to get a person to feel for the characters.  That isn’t to say they were successful all, or even most of the time, but they tried, gosh darn it, and we like them for it.

4

Dinosaurs

Yes, the show that made ‘Not the Mama’ popular.  This was a live action show, all the characters were giant costumes that the puppeteers wore, and voices were dubbed in.  It was a silly, fun little show that ended with the dad ending the world.  Happy time for all! 

3

Family Matters

“Did I do thaaaaaat?”  A common refrain heard ever Friday night, when Steve Urkel did something stupid.  This was a great show, and even though it was a comedy, the characters learned, and grew.  I don’t think many people know this:  Steve and Laura get married in the end.  Yes, Steve.  And Laura.  Not Stephon, not geeky Laura, but Steve and Laura.  This show, along with character development, was exceptionally whacky, mostly due to Steve and his crazy inventions.  We loved him for it though, and the show was great because of him.  Though the whole, ‘trying to make Jaleel White look cool’ failed every time, cause he is one weird looking dude.

2

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch

Another terribly fun show.  At least this one didn’t try to be based in reality with it’s whackiness.  Everyone rooted for Sabrina and Harvey to get together, and they eventually did…in the series finale on another network.  The situations were almost always enjoyable, and even if they did change the rules approximately three times an episode, it was still a good show, and one that stands the test of time, even if it’s fashions don’t.

And the number one show is…

1

Boy Meets World

Another top pick I’m sure no one is surprised over.  I love this show so much.  The characters are fantastic, the situations, for the most part, are based in reality, and feel as though they are handled in a way that is, if not how normal people would handle them, at least done in the way we would expect the characters to deal with them.  Cory and Topanga 4eva!

Melissa Meets Boy: Season 3

Ahh, season 3.  The one where it all started to meld into the Boy Meets World we know and love.  The characters partially developed in the first and second seasons are solidified, and we really get to know who everyone is.

Cory and Topanga started dated, then ended dating, then started and ended several more times during this season.  They were almost as bad as Ross and Rachel, with even more silly antics.  We ended here with the big Disney ending, and Cory and Topanga together, as they should be.

Shawn did move in with Mr. Turner, and there were several speedbumbs along the way there, as well.  Mr. Turner had to learn it is probably not a good idea to lie to Shawn, and they both had to figure out the cohabitation thing.  The season ended with Shawn moving back in with his father, even though his mother hadn’t turned up yet.

Eric became a bigger part of the cast as well, with a decent chunk of time devoted to his last year in high school, and what he’s going to do once he graduates.  Hint: it’s not going to be college, at least not in season 4.

This season was very good, though not quite to the heights we would see in seasons 4 and 5.  There were many highlights though, as follows:

Melissa Meets Boy:Season 2

This season started breaking out of the mold a little bit.  Characters grew more into the people they would eventually become, new characters were introduced who would have a major impact on the show, and the set moved to where we would know it for the next four seasons, John Adams High.

The season started with Cory and Shawn coming into their first day of high school(apparently, John Adams was a 7-12 school), and promptly pissing off the school bully, Harley.  They soon are introduced to Mr. Turner, another mainstay for the next couple of seasons, and a big part of campus life for it.

Cory and Shawn go through the normal seventh grade turmoil, from finding friends, to finding girls, to passing class, to finding girls, from avoiding bullies to finding girls.  If you didn’t catch that, a big plot point for a chunk of the season was Shawn’s ability to date, and Cory ability to be jealous of that ability.

In this season we had our first glimpses of Cory and Topanga, though they never actually date during this season.  However, there is some ‘ seven minutes in heaven’ action.

A lot of what this season was was a buildup of arcs for all of the characters, arcs that would last as character growth through much of the show’s run.

There were a couple of standout moments, check after the break for them!

Melissa Meets Boy: Season one

The first season of Boy Meets World was very traditional.  Most episodes were self-contained, friends appeared in one episode only to vanish the next, and the stories were not terribly complex.

The standard TV tropes are pulled at nearly every stop, and the characters don’t grow, or if they do grow, it doesn’t stick.

However, throughout the season, we get glimpses of what is to come, especially with the secondary characters.

You can really tell the family loves each other, and the friendships are strong.  The humor is not quite there, but it occasionally peaks out.  The ‘special’ episodes/moments are a titch saccharine, but still manage to get to you if you let them.

I don’t have favorite whole episodes, but there are several moments that are good indicators or what is to come in future seasons.

After the break, see what they are!

Remember This!

Hey! Hey you!  See the post below this one?  That was my 100th post!  Craziness.

Anyway!  Rember Doug, the nerdy Nicktoon, and his best friend Skeeter, and his crush Patti, and his bully Roger?  Well, they grew up, check it out!



Poor Porkchop.

Melissa Meets Boy: Who you callin’ tertiary?

Last week, we discussed the secondary characters of Boy Meets World.  However, there were many others that fleshed out the show’s universe, and I’d like to discuss some of them here.

Mr. Turner:  Mr. Turner was the other teacher, brought in in the second season, probably due to the whole middle school jump thing, but the show always fell back to Mr. Feeny anyway, so I’m not sure what the initial purpose actually was.  He was a bit of a ‘rebel,’ always wearing leather, and he rode a motorcycle, so we were supposed to think he was cool.  Once Shawn’s dad left in the third season, Shawn moved in with Mr. Turner, and they had their little adventures there, really breaking out of the school/Cory’s home paradigm the show had been kind of stuck in.  Mr. Turner’s final act was indirectly saving Shawn from a cult, by getting in a motorcycle accident.  That moment was another one that got me every time.

Top 10

Today we go back to the 90’s and find some computer games that I played over and over again

MY TOP TEN OLD SCHOOL COMPUTER GAMES!

I’m skipping consol games, only because we didn’t get a consol until late in the N64 cycle, and thus missed out on most of the video games from then.

FIRST: A couple of honorable mentions.

Jill of the Jungle-a fun little platformer with shapeshifting puzzle rooms.

Duke Nukem-another platformer that was great fun, and the replay factor was very high.

Pipedream-a puzzle game where you tried to make a path for the slime though the pipe pieces given.

Wolfenstein-Doom for the WWII crowd, I didn’t play this one so much as navigate for other playing.

Sim Farm-Run your own farm!  What not to love, besides escaped animals, buggy fields, encroaching towns, and polluted water supply?  It was a fun little diversion, though

And now... 

Number 10:

Sim Ant

This game was great.  I loved sending new colonies out, and letting them expand territory, and thus winning the game without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting.  Plus there was the whole sending out an army of ants to kill a caterpillar, or even better, the dastardly spider!

Melissa meets Boy: Parents, friends, and Feeney

This week, I’m going to talk about the rest of the secondary characters, of which there are a substantial amount.  Let’s start with…

Courtesy http://joloso.tumblr.com

Mr. Feeny-This was Cory, Shawn, and Topanga’s teacher through the entire series.  How does that happen, you may ask?  Well, every time the main group moved up a grade, Mr. Feeney came with them.   When they moved from elementary to middle/high school, Mr. Feeny became the principal.  When they graduated high school, Mr. Feeny first decided to audit classes at the college, and then somehow became a professor there too!  Mr. Feeny was the mentor of the group, recipient of the Feeney call, and teacher of lessons and lessons to everyone on the show.  He always had a kind word, or a slap on the head if it was necessary.  Even if someone(*cough*Shawn*cough*) straight-up takes over his house for a b&b while Mr. Feeny is on vacation, he lets that someone off with a slap on the wrist, after that someone gave Mr. Feeny the profits, of course.

Alan and Amy Matthews-These are Cory’s parents, the early foils and later plot-drivers of the show.  When Boy Meets World first started, Cory’s parents were the disciplinarians when Cory did something wrong, the celebraters when he did something right, but their characters didn’t go much beyond being stand up people, and Cory’s role models.  Sure, we got bits of personality here and there:  Alan was a grocer, a former Navy Seal, stern but not above helping his kids during a punishment.  Amy was a real estate agent, a bit sneaky when it came to snooty friend’s parents, and very interested in her kids’ well being.  But later on in the show, they began to have their own plots, and their personalities really came through.  Alan didn’t like being a grocer, so he quit his job.  Amy wanted stability, so she bought a sporting goods shop for him.  They had another kid late in the show’s run that fueled several arcs forward for all the cast.  In short, they started out cookie cutter parents of the sitcom mold, but eventually grew into fully realized characters themselves.

Melissa meets boy: Mr. Squirrels in da house!

This week, I was going to talk about all the secondary characters, but one really stood out:

Eric Matthews.

In the first two seasons, he was 100% normal.  As Cory’s older brother, he did all the things a typical older brother does-tease Cory relentlessly, go on dates, and occasionally go on dates.  And no, that is not me losing my mind, Eric had a new crush just about every single episode, from random girl, to random other girl, to Kari Russel, Eric dated them all.  He, along with his best friend Jason Marsden, had many b-plots during this time, though James Marsden mysteriously vanished after the second season.

However, in the third season, Eric started to change as a character.  I think it was around the time of the Disney trip, when Eric made a life-size doll of Cory to fake out Cory’s teachers, that Eric really jumped headlong onto the crazy-train.

Eric, during that period, went from average older brother to kinda dumb older brother.  He nearly didn’t graduate high school, and then didn’t get into college, forcing him to lounge around the house all day, leading to another of my favorite moments.

Once Eric got to college, he got dumber, and dumber, and dumber.  However, he got funnier and funnier and funnier at the same time, so it worked out really well!  Eric is probably my favorite character from Boy Meets World, while he was REALLY dumb,you knew he cared for his family, and was generally a kind-hearted soul.

Eric had many many many misadventures, really to numerous to count.  So, I leave you with, the best of Eric Matthews

Next week, the rest of the secondary characters, I promise!

Melissa Meets Boy: A character study

Last week we took a look at Boy Meets World in a general sense, with a quick and dirty review of all the seasons.  Today, I’m going to look at the three main characters of the show, Cory Matthews, Shawn Hunter and Topanga Lawrence.

To start:  Cory Matthews

The titular Boy who met the world, the show revolved fully around him for the first season and a half.  In these first few episode, Cory is a good kid, only really getting into trouble if someone goads him into it.  This sticks with him through the show’s run, though he does get into a bit more trouble as the series progresses. 

Cory is really our everyman, the viewers link into the world the writers have created.  He does a fantastic job of that, but on the downside, it leaves him a titch bland.  I remember one gag, where he was complaining to Shawn how he was mediocre, and he stands next to a poster of celery in his room.  Yes, apparently those exist.  

Now, not to disparage on accountants by any means, seeing as I am one, but that’s what Cory dreams of becoming.  In the first season, he had more typical ‘I wanna be a baseball player!’ aspirations, but when the show started focusing more on his family, he got more and more bland.

This isn’t to say that I don’t adore Cory.  He was a real character, and none of the stuff he did or said seemed like it was coming out of left field.  The reason I think that is, though, is because it was so easy to replace him with me, in my head.   

That is not to say that those that he surrounded himself with were boring, though…

Shawn Hunter, Cory’s best friend, grew up in a trailer park, the exact opposite of Cory in just about every way.  He was scrappy, he was resourceful, he was incredibly cute, the girls wanted him, the boys wanted to be him…unless he was Veronica, then it was the other way around.  Shawn was a sensitive soul, he wrote poetry in a hidden journal, about all the pain in his life.

Just about everyone he met wanted to ‘fix’ him, except Cory, and that I think is why they were such good friends.  Mr. Feeney tried to mold him into a better student, Mr. Turner tried to give him a family, and then failed to follow through, everyone wanted Shawn to be different, except Cory.

What Shawn didn’t realize, though, was that he was becoming a better person through Cory, as Cory led by example.

When Shawn was dating Angela, he asked Cory for advice, and they ended up at a fancy old people restaurant.  I don’t think I can do it justice, so I found it just for you!

I get misty every time I watch that scene…you can really tell Shawn is happy, for maybe the first time in a long time.

Of course, being from the wrong side of the tracks, Shawn seemed to carry much of the drama on his skinny little shoulders.

From a crime ring led by a brother in the trailer park(one we never heard from again), to a girlfriend with abusive parents, to underage drinking, Shawn saw, or did, it all.  And when he came through on the other end, relatively unscathed, you, as the viewer just wanted to give him a hug.

And when he tousled his hair, you wanted to do much more…

Speaking of hair:

Topanga Lawrence, girlfriend/wife of Cory, started out as a crazy hippie.  She wore peasant dresses, and her loooong hair was crimped and was allowed to flow down to her hips.  She asked spirits to help her solve math problems, she sang weird songs and drew lipstick hearts on her face, she gave Cory his first kiss when he was feeling exceptionally weird and out of place.

As the seasons went on, she toned that down, and eventually cut off her hair completely.  After she did that, she transitioned into a ‘cooler’ person, one who mostly wore normal clothes, though her dad was still Peter Tork, until season six, when he made a sudden body swap to Michael McKean for one episode.

She also became the ‘smart one’ graduating valedictorian, almost going to Yale, but deciding to go to Pennbrook with Cory instead.  Cory and Topanga were a good couple, a notch to the other’s groove, and even though the writers contrived to keep them apart as best they could, of course, they ended up together in the end.

Next Week: Secondary characters, or, Mr. Squirrels and company