This Road We Call Life
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This Road We call Life
Boy Meets World had so many great things going for it. It taught children life lessons without them having to learn the hard way and there being a possibility of ruining their lives forever. The show talked about real issues going on in the world, unlike many other television shows geared toward the same audience. The show even became emotional at times. Some people in the show were better off than others, but that did not matter to the characters. They all treated each other the same. This is an idea that should be instilled in all children across America. At the same time, the show could be funny and exciting. The success of the show, however, depended on the audience. It resonated so deeply with the generation that grew up with it because the characters grew and changed along with the audience.

This Road We Call Life
Colcord (1997) wrote,
“When this Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World
Wandering down this road that we call life Is what we’re doin’
It’s good to know I have friends that will always
Stand by me
When this Boy Meets World” (ll. 1-7). This quote from the theme song of Boy Meets World demonstrates a good perspective to have on life. The themes of the show resonated with its audience because the characters face so many real-life situations and issues throughout the course of the show. Shawn, in particular, goes through many hard times and has to learn how to deal with these difficulties properly. The show’s success has depended on the growth of its characters in relation to the growth of its audience.
The show focuses on two young boys as they grow up and move on to bigger and better lives. The boys experience situations to which many people can relate. Some major character archetypes shown in Boy Meets World include the boy whose family is well off with the friend whose family has low income, as well as the boy and the girl who like each other but, who are afraid to say it. These are situations that most people have experienced in one way or another. Another real-life issue portrayed in the show is growing up, finishing high school and having to leave home for the first time, a scary idea to most people. The show includes conflicts between brother and brother, friend and friend, father and son, boy and girl, mother and son, and teacher and students.
Some of the conflicts we see in Boy Meets World revolve around the emotional development of the characters. As children grow into adults they become better at dealing with their emotions, though some are better at it than others. Much of how children develop depends on how their parents raise them and the challenges they have to face while growing up. John Santrock (2010) says “During middle and late childhood, many children show marked improvement in understanding and managing their emotions. However, in some instances, as when they experience stressful circumstances, their coping abilities can be challenged” (p. 558). When a child’s coping abilities are challenged, they may have a harder time dealing with stressful situations.
This inability to cope is exemplified by one of the main characters in Boy Meets World. Shawn starts out as an impoverished child growing up in a trailer park, trying to learn to live with parents who have differences of opinions on everything and a mother who cannot seem to be able to decide if she wants to be in his life. His family, though they love him, are not the best people in the world to be raising a child. Most of them have prison records or have spent time in jail. By the end of the series, though, Shawn is able to move beyond this rough start to life, own up to his mistakes, and accept the deserved punishments.
One person who helps him do this is his best friend Cory. Cory is not exactly a “rich kid,” but his family is much better off financially than Shawn’s family. Even though Cory and Shawn come from two completely different lifestyles, they meet very early in life, become fast friends and are soon inseparable. This life-long friendship is one that every child in America dreams of having and is one of the bigger reasons that the show was so successful.
This show was not always as successful. Rider Strong (2013), the actor who played Shawn, says:
At the time, it was actually a little frustrating for us as a show because we would get good ratings, but we weren’t a hit the way that, say, Sabrina the Teenage Witch — which followed us — was. Sabrina had better numbers than we did; Boy Meets World was always just ‘OK.’ … There was almost this [behind-the-scenes] sense that no one was really watching our show. “Rider Strong Recounts Boy Meets World’s Journey”
Despite this, the show turned out to be an international success. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) gave Boy Meets World 7.8 stars out ten.
Boy Meets World stopped short of being as sappy as Full House, one of the show’s biggest competitors for ratings. IMBd only gave this show 6.1 stars. Full House was sentimental to the point that every episode ended with a solved problem and a hug. Unlike Full House, Boy Meets World sometimes had no happy ending. This show had a bigger dose of reality and taught hard lessons that many kids have to learn to survive in the current world. Shawn, in particular, had a lot of hard lessons to learn. There are three episodes that particularly come to mind when it comes to Shawn learning difficult lessons. “The Fugitive,” an episode from season one, starts with a thirteen-year-old Shawn showing up at Cory’s house in the middle of a thunderstorm soaking wet. He has thrown a lit cherry bomb in a mail box and the police are after him. This may seem a bit drastic to some people, but something similar has surely happened to some teens in America. By the end of the episode he learns that no matter what he has done he can always go to his parents with his problems and they will help him no matter how bad the situation seems. This is a good concept for children to learn because they need to know they have people to rely on not only through the good times, but also the bad
“Cult Fiction,” from season four shows a lost and confused sixteen-year-old Shawn meeting a pretty girl who is in a cult. He decides to join the cult thinking that, if she can find peace there he can too. After his dad leaves to go find his mom and his mom decides not to come back to her family, he thinks that he has no one in his life upon whom he can depend. However, when Mr. Turner, his teacher who has treated him like a son, is in a motorcycle accident, he turns to God. As he is sitting in the hospital room with Turner, who is unconscious, he prays that he will become better. Shortly after praying, Turner holds Shawn’s hand. This teaches him that he can rely on God when things become hard. A child that begins relying on a higher power shows major religious growth and therefore is one step closer to becoming an adult.
The next show that comes to mind is “Family Trees” from season seven. This episode shows a nineteen-year-old Shawn who has just lost his dad four months ago. He receives a letter from his mom informing him that he has the right to know she is not his birth mom. After receiving no results from an internet search to find his real mother, he turns to alcohol to solve his problems. He ends up ruining a party by showing up drunk, thus hurting all his friends and family, but soon discovers that no matter how bad life can get drugs and alcohol is never the answer. They will only hurt and destroy, never help like many people in the world think.
All of these episodes show real life situations that many other shows will not talk about on a children’s program. There are even a select few episodes that Disney Channel will not show due to their content. Boy Meets World is different from so many others in its generation not only because it talks about real issues, but also because it managed to keep all of the main characters throughout the years that it aired, aside from adding some side characters and changing up the surroundings a bit. From middle school through college, the main trio of Corey, Topanga, and Shawn keep evolving and growing. As the show goes on Cory’s older brother Eric develops into more of a main character. At the same time they bring in Jack, Shawn’s older half-brother, as well as Rachel, their new college roommate. This secondary trio of characters adds a comical aspect to the show.
The show brought laughs, but it also focused on the main issues about which kids growing up in school have to worry. The show had many good serious episodes, and most of the serious episodes dealt with Shawn: Shawn goes out drinking; Shawn's dad died; Shawn joined a cult; Shawn blew up a mailbox. The show mixed comedy with seriousness well, and some episodes can be truly emotional. All of this is very important to the show, but what is most important is that the characters lean and grow along with its audience starting from the very first episode.
References
Boy Meets World. (2013, September 1). IMDB. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/
Colcord, R. (Writer) (1997). Boy Meets World theme song [Song]. Retrieved from http://www.lyricsondemand.com
Full House. (2013, September 1). IMDB. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com
Masters, M. (2013, June 22). Rider Strong recounts Boy Meets World's journey from 'ok' ratings to enduring cult hit. TV Line. Retrieved from http://tvline.com
Santrock, J. W. (2010). A topical approach to life-span development. (5th ed.)(p. 354). Dallas, TX: McGraw Hill.