"POD MEETS WORLD" and why it's different than all the other WATCH-ALONG PODCASTS.

So a few months back, as per usual, I fell out of bed and stumbled to my computer, and checked my Youtube. I remember thinking how annoyed I was getting at my algorithm giving me too much of the same boring videos, but then, like, four or five rows I saw something different.... 

("Pod Meets World." TGI-The Happening. Five hours ago.)

Huh...

Well, I guess I am more of a Podcast guy than I think I am, but I don't normally listen to a lot of podcasts. And when I do, they're usually, not the full podcast, they're usually just clips. I like clips of podcasts more than I like most podcasts. I even go to sleep a lot of the time to Youtube clips of Jim Cornette's podcasts. I've occasionally listened to a podcast episode or two from some widely varied people from Bret Easton Ellis to Penn Jillette to Richard Blais to Kevin Smith. Most of them were good, even though sometimes I feel like listening to full podcasts is like listening to a bunch of random ads spliced before, in the middle of and after the actual interview/parts of the show that you're actually trying to listen to, so mostly, I prefer to catch podcast material through, like Youtube or Tiktok clicks, like the "New Heights" podcast clips, that podcast from NFL brothers Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce. I never listen to a full episode of it, but I love checking for clips of it. Same with those animated clips from "Office Ladies", which is one of many Watchalong podcasts that have come around in recent years. These are podcasts where, the hosts, usually including at least one or two people who hopefully were somehow involved with the television show that they're talking about, and then they go, literally, episode by episode through a TV series talking about a specific TV show, and often offering some insight into the show, and often involve having interviews and guest co-hosts with people associated with the show. Some of the good ones have some reasonable critical analyses of episodes as well. I have listened to the majority of one of them, "The West Wing Weekly", which is a pretty damn good podcast. Still, my initial instinct is that, A. We just have way too many podcasts, in general, and B. Watchalongs in particular, and kinda,- they're interesting in concept, but I already feel like we have way too many aftershow programs for TV shows. I maybe watched one or two for a few shows I like, if they might have somebody interesting on, but mostly I've got negative thoughts on the subgenre. If it's a show I like I either feel like I'm being preached to by the choir, never mind how annoying it is if it's a show I don't like, but it's either feel like I'm being preached to, or annoyed by people who are technically preaching to me but are also critically nitpicking to the point of obnoxiousness over a show they supposed love. (I mean, I could be that way too, but, eh..., do you really want that, on things you like? That's fun when you want to bash something, not when you want to praise something.) These aren't bad these things, but most of the time I feel like they're for, and often by, the extreme superfans and so even when it's for a show I know exceptionally well, I don't dive too deep into those podcasts, "The West Wing" exception, but-eh, obviously and apparently I clicked on this when I saw it. 

"Pod Meets World" stars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle, three of the stars of "Boy Meets World" the '90s sitcom, that, I have had some very complex feelings about over the years. Now, back when it was on the air, I felt very alone in praising how good the show was. It's hard to explain entirely, if you didn't grow up with it, how separate the TGIF block of television was to the rest of television, especially for kids and teenagers at the time. I knew kids growing up who basically were only allowed to watch "TGIF" because their parents worried about television that potentially wasn't as family-friendly or family-concerned, at least in terms of primetime television, but even still, if you were a kid, you always watched "TGIF", and "Boy Meets World" was,-, um, not the beloved series that it is now. I distinctly remember conversations of everybody talking about the lineup and the conversations were mostly about "Full House" or "Family Matters" or "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" as being the more compelling series on the block at various times, and I felt very alone in- not-so-much in defending "Boy Meets World", 'cause most everybody liked the show, but nobody thought it was, like the greatest show, so I was usually the only one around who really praised it. And to be honest, I didn't necessarily think it was great either, but I think it was very good, maybe one step below it great, very good (Shrugs), and I often called it the most underrated show on television at the time, which mean, that, to me, it was above-and-beyond, for a TGIF show.

After it ended, I saw the show appear in syndication  and I thought I was vindicated by seeing how well the show actually fit next to other recently rerun shows of the time that were much more acclaimed, but then, it actually started to get really popular through those reruns. I even once saw it pop up on a Top 100 Television shows list, and it was in the Top 50, and- that's when I started to think, "Okay, back up a bit, this was a good show, it was not a great show!" I participated in one of those polls, and I not only didn't put it on my Top 100, I don't even think I seriously considered it. I was kinda stunned how overly-praised it was getting, then, and then it got a sequel series on Disney Channel, and that show was pretty well-acclaimed as well, people were even pissed when that got canceled. All this really just felt so bizarre to me, all this praise for a series that used to be the show I was technically championing back in the day,- well, it took me aback. I thought it shifted too far in the other direction and passed me even. 

People might wonder a bit how I'd think it went from underrated to overrated like that, but you gotta realize, even at the time the show was on the air, in my mind, and a lot of other peoples in fact, there was really only one, really great, child-centered coming-of-age sitcom, and one of the biggest drawbacks to "Boy Meets World" is that it was also the obvious show to compare it to, and that's really unfortunate, 'cause, well.... 

 

(Chuckle under breath)

Okay, there was a recent episode of this podcast, where they discuss how people still somewhat struggle getting the title of the show correct. "Boys Meet World", would get mentioned something, freudian-like. I kinda get why, "Boy Meets World" is a weird, generic title to begin with, but also because, most people if they ever actually did talk about the show, the didn't call it "Boy Meets World", they actually called it, "That Show with Fred Savage's younger brother". 

It's hard to remember how big "The Wonder Years" was at the time, and how long after it ended it still lingered. Hell, it was the inspiration for a new series recently. And why not? It's the quintessential dramedy that perfectly encapsulates those coming-of-age teen years, and also remains one of the most groundbreaking shows of our time, arguably, with it's voiceover monologue and single-camera film style, it was way ahead of it's time. I'm not at all surprised that Fred Savage, who while still occasionally did some acting, even starring in a TV show that was a surreal parody of those kind of "Talking Dead"-like aftershow series that I don't care for at all, called "What Just Happened", (That was something, wasn't it? I'm not sure what, but it was something) but has mostly become a prominent TV director and producer and would be one of the main people behind that new reboot of "The Wonder Years". Yeah, there's no way, I could consider "Boy Meets World" an all-time great series, when compared to a classic like Ben's older brother's series. 

Except, lately, I've been totally starting to rethink that analysis.

Yeah, y'know, maybe I actually have always been underrating "Boy Meets World", in some ways, all this time and also, simultaneously overrating "The Wonder Years", 'cause, while it's still a great classic, it's a lot cringier than I think people remember. Sometimes in good ways, but other times, it did kinda take a left turn into fields that were a bit too weird. Especially in the later seasons when Kevin Arnold really did kinda become too much of a stick-in-the-mud hypocrite. And it also took itself to a few weird places, literally. Like, a few years ago, I did a Top Ten List of Good TV Shows That Ended at the Right Time and "The Wonder Years" was pretty high on that list, and I found a small clip of that show's finale episode that I think got copyrighted or something, but..., anyway- I mentioned that I was surprised when I originally researched that episode that it wasn't supposed to be the finale, mainly cause of how well it wrapped everything up, but in hindsight, it was a weird finale. Like, why was he chasing Winnie to her summer job?! WTF! You know what, I'm glad Winnie didn't end up with him at the end; they weren't meant for each other. Also, half the appeal of the show was how nostalgic it was for the time period, which, admittedly, I like the time period, even if it was a bit sanitized and whitewashed, so I didn't have an issue with it, but it is a very white-bread innocent-seeming look at the time period, I'm glad Lee Daniels worked on an African-American remake of it, to put a new spin on the late '60s-early '70s. (Not that "Boy Meets World" doesn't have racial issues, but they definitely were done better.)

Yeah, in hindsight, I feel like there was a lot more in "Boy Meets World" that holds up over time, and it does hold up better than most other shows you could compare it to. It got the idea of the troubles of youth, especially for the time period it was made and existed in, a lot more than "The Wonder Years". 

Also, though, there was a reason that I didn't make note of at the time, when I talked about it why the original "The Wonder Years" ended so suddenly and abruptly, and...- well..., um, it turns out Fred Savage is a fucking creep! 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-10/fred-savage-allegations-misconduct

Yeah, I don't know if anybody caught this one, he got #MeToo'd pretty hard, and this transcended to "Wonder Years" now only to the new one where he got fired from, but also, apparently him and Jason Hervey, who btw, there's a guy with a weird career and a pretty good-sized list of questionable people he works or hangs around with, on the set of their original show, they apparently harassed a female employee back then, and after she got fired after complaining, ABC suddenly ended the series after a short settlement, and no, these aren't the only incidents. Apparently he's gotten in trouble on more than a few television series lately.

So yeah, with that information, "The Wonder Years", suddenly gets a little more icky, especially in those aforementioned the later seasons. Now it makes a lot more sense why he would lie about Winnie sleeping going all the way with her that time. 

OMG, I just realized "Boy Meets World", actually did that storyline better, didn't they?! Yeah, maybe "Boy Meets World" is a better show that I always gave it credit and even though I was ahead of the curve, I didn't realize how ahead I was until everybody else caught up and passed me. And maybe "The Wonders Years", might be a little creepier than it should've been. 

I should note that Ben Savage, is conspicuously absent from this podcast, which, well, considering, that his brother, was just getting caught up in his troubles right around when the podcast first started, that makes sense. Although I don't know if you've heard his news lately....

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/07/boy-meets-world-actor-ben-savage-california-election

Um, yeah, he's running for Congress right now. Um, okay. Good luck with that. 

Actually, this isn't out of nowhere, while he still has been busy acting pretty regularly, he's also been heavily involved in politics for years. He has a Political Science degree from Stanford and he worked as a congressional aide for Sen. Arlen Specter,- who, was a Republican at the time, but Ben's a registered Democrat, so... (Shrugs) and he's run for local political office before and it's something that he's been passionate about for years. I'd hate to have answer questions about his brother if I were him right now..., but while there's been a lot of stories of Fred Savage's disturbing side out there, I should note that I haven't heard anything bad about Ben Savage personally so far. (Although, now that I'm thinking about it, that makes that episode of "Boy Meets World" where Fred guest stars, umm,- oh boy, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, that is going to be a very troubling podcast episode when they get to that one. Man, I wondered how he seemed so good at playing a creep, now I know.) 

So, yeah, I started listening to "Pod Meets World", not so much because I am a huge fan of the show, but originally because of, well-,  how vehemently my thoughts and perception on the show, as well as the public-at-large have, really shifted over the years for me. And yeah, sure, I thought this would be an interesting way to revisit and remember the show, kinda in the same ways that many of those other podcasts for shows like "The Office" or "The West Wing" or "Scrubs" or whatever other ones out there do....

(Very long pause, deep breathes) 

Okay, um, this is the part, where I start trying to explain, specifically why this version of all those other shows is different, and, it is. It is, it very much is. Trying to explain it, though.... 

Okay, so most of those other shows that have relatively big new watchalong podcast followings, they're mostly run by people who, sure, mostly had a connection to the show, but, also, really know the shows pretty well, for the most part. The thing here is that, even if they hadn't per se, watched the shows in a while, they were mostly adults when they did those shows. And, these actors in particular, um, they were not at the time. "Boy Meets World". and this is something that I never really thought about at the time, or until now honestly, but it was one of the few primetime sitcoms that really did focus around kids. Like, the main actors were all child actors. There were of course plenty of other, family sitcoms, but mostly the kids were secondary characters, and the ones that weren't, the adults were still, the more prominent figures in their lives. In that respect, while there's definitely some prominent adult roles and characters on the show, "Boy Meets World" seems like a huge exception nowadays. 

I mean, I guess there's some older sitcoms that kind fit this. "Leave It to Beaver" comes to my mind right away, But that, and some of the other kid-centered sitcoms of that era like, "Dennis the Menace" or "The Patty Duke Show", most of them seemed to have some kind of weird gimmick, or was about how much the actions of the kids were perilous to the adults around. But still, like,  even "The Wonder Years" has a lot fewer episodes focusing mainly on Kevin and the trials and tribulations he has with his fellow teenagers than most people might remember, hell I'd argue most of that show's best episodes in hindsight focused more on the older characters like Kevin's parents or even his older siblings. There were shows were you saw kids grow up from kids to adults obviously, but usually the main characters were already well into their teens like, "Happy Days" or "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis", either that, or you had shows where, while the kids might've been the most common focus of the show, they weren't the show's protagonist. Like, you might remember the kids on "Full House" more, but the "stars," were the three adult men raising those girls. Nowadays, there's a bunch of shows that are more kid-focused like that on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, but y'know, even something like "Saved By the Bell" at the time, really wouldn't fit this description. I guess, stretching, maybe something like "Family Ties" when the focus shifted more towards Alex as oppose to the parents, but honestly, even that feels like I'm pushing it. Neither of those were inherently coming-of-age series, and all those older shows seem mostly like whitewashed artificial idealize visions of what people thought the '50s was that even if they more appropriately would fit as a comp for how "Boy Meets World" structured, they wouldn't seem modern enough to really count. Beaver's best friend never ended up homeless for an episode because his mother left and took the house that him and his father lived in with her. 

"Boy Meets World" was a sitcom about teenagers coming-of-age and learning life lessons, and it focused more than any previous show, on those teenagers, at least the main ones that we most focus on and those teenagers were played by, often, very young teenagers themselves. (Not always..., but mostly they were. [Little advice: Don't try to do math using Rider Strong and Trina McGee's ages])

And as it turns out, none of them seemed to have ever watched the damn thing. 

Yeah, that's not necessarily a thing for all actors, or even all child actors, but a lot of actors don't watch their own work and that is part of the appeal of a lot of watchalongs how the stars hadn't seen the shows they were on. It's a nice hook, and these actors, they didn't watch the show originally, or watch it as much. It was work, it was a job, and while the fact that it's survived and remains beloved is a blessing, they didn't watch the series much when they were making it. It basically was a show, and honestly, since they were kids and their lives were so filled with schoolwork outside of this job, I doubt most of them wanted to bother with watching their own work on their free time. Most other similar podcasts they're usually either run by fans who are uber-familiar with the show, or adults who either had better memories or were just more involved and had more influence on the actual series. 

And, that's another thing about "Boy Meets World", actually a couple things, to be honest. Firstly, "Boy Meets World",- how do I put this..., this show, went through a ton of changes during it's run. Like, a weird amount of changes, not necessarily the most natural ones either. It's not that unusual for older sitcoms, a lot of shows add or drop characters as a series continues for one reason or another, but few shows this memorable and good were as jarring with it. That's one reason I always struggled listing it among the all-time greats, 'cause this show, while it did evolve and grow, like, if you came onto the series late, and then watched a first season episode, you could easily think you were watching two different series. Hell, arguably "Boy Meets World" had many multiple series within it. Trying to narrow it down, or even explain it all can be daunting.

Like, the first season, Stuart Minkus, a main character who was played by one of the more well-known actors coming into the show, he was written off after the first season. Then, the second season added, three bully characters that seemed to come out of "Happy Days", as well as a cool young teacher character. One of the bullies would eventually leave, and then come back later, after being replaced by another bully, Jason Marsden played, essentially himself, or a character with his full name, sporadically over the first couple seasons before moving to "Step By Step", Danielle Fishel's Topanga wasn't an official regular 'til like, season three, somehow. The young teacher, eventually got dropped, the bullies got dropped, Shawn suddenly had a brother, although trying to keep track of his family gets harder the more you pay attention.... (I don't think this show wrote a Bible 'til like season five) Essentially, the show changed from like, IDK, "Leave It to Beaver", to "Party of Five" to by the end, seeming like..., man, I don't even know what. I haven't even gotten to the added pregnancy from the mother, the missing sister character who just didn't exist for a season before suddenly coming back. People who actually have sat through the show will get this, but-, okay a good comparison show that came after "Boy Meets World" is "Malcolm in the Middle". Now, that show, had a lot of changes over it's run too. People having kids, characters becoming regulars, characters leaving and coming home with wives and kids of their own, and it was centered around a middle child's experience, yada, yada, yada, but at no point during the run of that series, would you ever look at that show, and say that, the show wasn't "Malcolm in the Middle". "Boy Meets World", you cannot say that about. Fewer sitcoms that lasted this long and remain this beloved and acclaimed have this many complete tonal shifts. I remember it being confusing and jarring at the time, and it must've been even nuttier for the kids who were on it. 

And that's the other thing.... See, when you listen to some of the other similar podcasts out there, most of the people are telling behind-the-scenes stories or going into more detail of how these shows got to be what they were, etc. etc. And "Boy Meets World" is already a strange amalgam of a show. It's the kind of series that could have years-long believable romantic arcs that goes from middle school to college and also dive deep into the soul of troubled youths and really lay out just how easy and protected some kid's path to adulthood is, while showing how jagged, troubled and strained that kid's best friend could be, and yet, it's also the show, that for some frickin' reason, has a random Monkees reunion in it!? 

No seriously, that happened! 

There's even a pseudo-sorta "The Partridge Family" crossover, in the middle of this? (Also, holy christ, did Topanga just call Ethan Suplee's character a "Mallrat"? Man, they were way more inside jokes on this show than people realized.)

The thing is, as out-of-fucking nowhere as that was, and believe it or not, stuff like that wasn't as unusual on certain sitcoms in the day, and I can still list like, five or ten stranger things that happened, just on "Boy Meets World", but usually the actors on the show will know a little bit about how stuff like that happens. But, what happens when, the majority of your shows cast, are still not old enough to drive, much less, have like a real producers-like say in what happens in the show?

Yeah, they were very much in the dark on, a lot of stuff. Basically everything. They weren't in the writer's room, they were never producers on the show. Two of them became television directors, but when they weren't on set learning their lines and performing, they were busy with schoolwork or occasionally playing with some of the other kids on the ABC lots at that time. They show up, and basically be handed scripts and told to do the work 

"Boy Meets World" was a show, about and starring young kids, but was created and run by a bunch of adults..., and the show is about thirty years old now.... What I'm saying is, it didn't take too long for this podcast to start to get, um, somewhat uncomfortable....

I mean, there's nothing here on the likes of a Dan Schneider series, thank god, and it certainly was worst in the past for child actors,- you don't have to dig too far deep to find some really troubling horror stories that thankfully the kids of "Boy..." didn't have to go through, but-eh, yeah, how exactly, did these kids pull this show off? Not that they aren't capable, clearly they were, but like, what exactly was the process of, how, they pulled the show off?

I should stress that this podcast, there's a lot here for people, not just people who are fans of the "Boy Meets World", there's a lot of great behind-the-scenes details of working on a nineties network sitcom and how all that worked and some Disney lot stories and tales, some cool fan theories and details and some other fun details, and a lot of really great, eclectic interviews, but it didn't take long for some of these anecdotes to get a little, cringy.... So, other than Ben Savage, the next person who, has been the most conspicuously absent from the podcast, so far, is series creator Michael Jacobs. (Co-creator, actually, but that's a whole other mystery the podcast has searched through.) Jacobs is a very recognizable name in television, especially if you're my age and his shows were all over the television landscape in the '90s. At his best, which, I would argue are "Boy Meets World" and "Dinosaurs" he's created some of the best and most long-lasting television around. It's possible he's just, been busy; he's apparently been shooting a movie, but eh, it's never been explicitly said on the podcast yet, and I don't think it's a true claim I'm about to make here, but it certainly feels like he's being excluded, despite him working with every host on this podcast recently on "Girl Meets World", the aforementioned sequel series. It seems that while he was incredibly talented, and everybody who's on the show, hosts and guests alike, praises him for that, he also, had a bit of a controlling personality at times. One of their early episodes is with David Trainer, who is a longtime legendary television director, who's worked on basically almost every multicam sitcom you could think of in the last forty years, most notably, he directed every episode of "That '70s Show", but he also directed the first two seasons of "Boy Meets World". Anyway, their talking about the show and Danielle Fishel's talking about getting the part of Topanga, and eventually appearing in her first episode of the series, and like, up until, like the twenty minute mark, at least of this Youtube video on their page, it's all really fun reminiscing and storytelling about television's past. And then at around the 23 minute mark, this podcast goes from fun reminiscing to incredibly dark really fast.

 

Holy Christ! That is, some terrifying shit, if you're an adult to hear! Like, note sessions are common, run-throughs of the episode are common, but apparently Michael Jacobs of all showrunners might've been the most intense of all of them! (At least, I hope he was...!) He's telling this, to a brand new-to-the-show, possibly for only the one episode for-all-anybody-knows-at-that-point, 12-year-old girl! And if you keep listening, don't worry, it's not that he's just an eccentric control freak to little kids, he would tell grown-ass adults just as many obnoxious things too! (Seriously, why in the fuck would you ever tell Betty White to be more like Florence Stanley?! Like, good god, he was still the guy who only did "Charles in Charge" and "My Two Dads" at that point, and even if that wasn't the case, that's like a 12/10 on the "What-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you scale! Yikes!) And like, Trainer, to his credit, acts appropriately to that story, and then you can kinda just see everybody else like, trying desperately to come to grips with that kind of realization and get back on track with the podcast, it's is surreal. 

They joke about it at times how going through the show is almost like, therapy, since they do have only scattered recollections and memories, some of them, of the show, but like, "Pod Meets World" is part looking into a therapy session at times. Hell, the latest episode of "Pod Meets World" that posted, as I was typing this, is called "Group Therapy Meets World". It's also part mystery, 'cause since these kids were so in their own world, segregated from all the other goings-on on the set, things that would happen between the adults or that the adults would have to taken care of, they were mostly kept out the loop on them. Sometimes, for good reason, other times, maybe not so much. So, not only are they just looking back in general, they're kinda just piecing together a bunch of stuff that, well, might not technically be mysteries, but y'know, were mysteries to them. They didn't know what was going on. They were protected and kept out of some of this, and for all we know, it might've been for the best, but also, for them, things would suddenly just happen and they'd just have to go with it. Why the show would change so much? Why some people were there one day, and not the next and never again? They didn't know, and if they asked, they always get, like, a real satisfactory answer.

It's kinda like-, well, scratch that, it's exactly like when you're a kid and something's going on, and all the adults are acting weird and then, every time you ask for, exact details of what's going on, you don't get anything, and it's now, years later and you're going, "Wait, what the hell was all that about?" and now you're kinda finding out the information, 'cause you're older now, but you're still quite getting it entirely... This can be especially daunting for a TV series, where their actually can be a lot of turnover, and "Boy Meets World" in particular, was not necessarily a show that was considered a premiere series to be working on at the time, so, especially in places like the writer's room, grownups were coming in and coming out all the time. And "Boy Meets World" had a bunch of actors coming in and then suddenly leaving as well. Even if, more often than not, it's something benign, it's still, just, like, from their perspective, "WTF, where'd did person go? They're gone now?" 

Most every other podcast like these, even the ones I like, are basically just, analyzing the episode, maybe an interview or two with people from the show or associated with the show, and then, just everybody sharing their same old stories with old friends and all of whom are sharing interesting stories within themselves, at least, for us who hasn't heard most of them, but I'm sure if it wasn't from these particular people, these tales would mostly be just, stuff they lived through and remember and all already know. It's interesting to us, and occasionally there's a slight deviation, but it's mostly their boring stories of glory days. "Pod Meets World", by sheer circumstance of the podcasters being, really too young and out of the loop at the time, happen to be on a show that's stood the test of time, and was more groundbreaking and influential than it seemed to most at the time, and that show, just happens to have a very chaotic and complex behind-the-scenes world that made it at times seem, quite elaborate and complex on the screen as well, and these three just happen to have the willingness to be as out in the open with as much as they can, and be willing to find out and search for the answers to things that, they just missed when they were around, all this, and more, really makes this the most compelling and interesting podcast of the bunch. It's part therapy session, part investigation, part rewriting of history, part look at the '90s sitcom and child actor world, especially a look at the ABC lot, and yeah, you do get the occasional boring story and inside jokes between friends, but like, even those seem to come off and feel more like sudden repressed memories being unleashed to the forefront of their mind as they watch the show, either for the first time in years, or for the first time ever. It's way more compelling, and I hope other podcasts start popping up with similar vibes.

I mean, there's going to be lots of discussion and analysis on those most beloved, remembered and acclaimed shows and a lot of those shows, were so good and popular at the time and remain so now, that people who started with the show just stayed with the show for most of their run, and again, they were all adults, and were kept in the loop and well aware of everything going on, and frankly for some of the great shows, there isn't a lot of real drama, and even the stuff that was, can be pretty easily downplayed. But, the shows that weren't sure they were gonna survive the next year but somehow did and kept struggling to figure out what they had to do to stay on the air, and maybe had lots of tension in writer's room, lots of rotating producers, showrunners, cast, directors, etc.; they might not be the most beloved series, but they probably have way more interesting tales of the struggles of television back in the day, both the struggles of being apart of it, and the struggles with the actual progress of making it. Maybe those are the podcasts we can really use the most, and can learn and be inspired by more. 

(He writes before he actually starts thinking about some of those shows and some of the stories about and surrounding him.) 

But, then again...,- ugh... Yeah, actually strike that. After thinking about it, I totally get why, nobody would want to do a watchalong podcast, on eh-hmm, let's say for example, "Suddenly Susan" or "Cybill" or "Grace Under Fire", at least nobody with too much direct involvement with those or other shows, but I'm definitely glad we're getting "Boy Meets World" told this way. And they're not even done with season 2 yet. If you know the show, you know there's a lot coming up, and even if you don't know it like the back of your hand or don't feel like seeking out the episodes on Disney+ or elsewhere, there's still a lot to like and learn, fascinate and possibly terrify you on this podcast. anyway. 

Yeah, if there's one of these podcasts who I'm gonna recommend to someone who isn't intimately familiar with the show and doesn't necessarily want/need to go through the episodes with them to find the podcast fascinating, it's definitely "Pod Meets World". It might not be the most likely show that you'd think would lead to that great of a watchalong podcast, but that's perhaps exactly why it is.