Boy Meets World Stars Discuss Whether A Shawn And Topanga Romance Was Ever In The Works
"Huh, I wonder how many people the idea of Cory and Topanga has ruined?" Topanga (Danielle Fishel) asks this question in the "Girl Meets World" episode "Girl Meets Smackle" after her son learns the hard lesson that not everyone gets to meet the love of their life at an extremely young age the way Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga did in the classic sitcom "Boy Meets World." Sure enough, Buzzfeed wrote a whole list on the subject, listing all of the ways that Cory and Topanga gave people unrealistic expectations about relationships.
A few people have pointed out that Cory and Topanga get a little too intense in their relationship. In a Reddit post by a now-deleted account, one user in the r/boymeetsworld subreddit thought, "the romance always seemed out of place in BMW, the story lines and the conversation around it seemed more appropriate for late 20/early 30 yr olds to be having, not teenagers/college students." A lot of the conversation was hotly divided, but u/thepittstop pointed out that they do note several times in the series that it is strange that Cory and Topanga have this relationship in high school. Still, it seems some fans are still bitter that they never got their Cory and Topanga-style relationship in real life.
On the podcast "Pod Meets World" — where "Boy Meets World" stars Rider Strong, Fishel, and Will Friedle discuss their experience working on the show — the three hosts had a discussion recently where they asked the important question: was there ever any plan to create any romantic tension between Topanga and Cory's best friend Shawn (Strong)?
There was never any real discussion about Shawn and Topanga
In a "Pod Meets World" episode about the "Boy Meets World" Season 1 finale, Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle discussed whether or not anyone ever considered making a love triangle out of Cory, Topanga, and Shawn. "No, I mean if anything, they did Eric and Topanga, right?" asked Strong, referencing the Season 1 episode "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not." "In the first season they had that little crush moment. But Danielle, they never really established you having any relationship with Shawn other than annoyance at his presence ... I think [Season 6 episode "Hogs and Kisses"] was the only insinuation that we ever, cause I'm trying to remember, like how often did we have scenes just the two of us cause they must have happened, right?"
The episode they referred to, "Hogs and Kisses," is the one in which Shawn and Topanga kiss as part of a promotional video for their college, and Cory, originally fine with the kiss, goes into a rage of jealousy and insists that his best friend and his girlfriend go on a date to see if they have feelings for each other. Naturally, their date amounts to nothing, as they spend the whole time talking about their dear Cory.
Fishel went on to agree that it was rare to have scenes with just her and Strong and that it was usually the three of them together. Ultimately, the trio didn't really see much evidence of any attempted connection between Shawn and Topanga, and pondered if there was ever any discussion of it behind the scenes.