Growing up I didn’t have many television shows I watched regularly. My parents aren’t media people, and we often didn’t have a TV or cable membership. This is probably why I’ve always been more of a movie person than a television. However, the comedy Boy Meets World is an exception. Starting in 1993 the show aired for 7 seasons and in the 2nd season the characters began high school which was the same year that I was a freshman. Then they started college in 1998 which was the same year I started college. You get the idea- I grew up with this show!

Like most media from childhood, I have a lot of nostalgia tied up into Boy Meets World and the new documentary at Tribeca Film Festival Doc Meets World dives into those emotions but it tries to dig deeper particularly into the lives of 3 of the show’s stars: Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong. It uses a tour for their podcast Pod Meets World as the narrative device to explore teen stardom, friendship, fandom and more.

It’s unfortunate the show’s star Ben Savage did not participate in the documentary or the podcast. It leaves the documentary feeling empty of a very important perspective on the show and forces others to guess how he may or may not be responding. Things can also get in the weeds with the tour, and the mechanizations of running a podcast, which are both about as exciting as you’d expect.

Still if you are a fan of Boy Meets World you’ll enjoy this documentary. It’s pleasant to catch up with Fishel, Friedle and Strong and in a world where so many child stars end up as troubled adults it’s nice to see that basically everyone from this show turned out well. I don’t think non-fans will be entertained but that’s ok. It’s made for the fans and as one of them I’m glad I saw it.

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