Girl Meets World: Give The Girl A Chance!

People saying that Disney Channel will kill Girl Meets World, plus articles like this one have led me to write this article.  For those of you who are "Team Let Them At Least Air One Episode Before We Pass Judgement," maybe you can help spread this article around to the haters.  There are perfectly good reasons why we should wait to pass judgement on Girl Meets World.  Those reasons are, in no particular order:

Good Luck Charlie Doesn’t Suck

I’m starting with this one because it’s actually the most relevant to the point on hand.  Everyone is saying that Girl will suck because it’s on Disney Channel.  They then compare it to the singing/dancing shows of Disney Channel – Shake It Up, Austin & Ally, and even Hannah Montana, for some reason.  Sidebar: Everyone knows the last episode of Hannah Montana aired nearly three years ago, right?  But there are non-singing and dancing shows on Disney Channel, too.  I don’t really know that many people who hated Wizards of Waverly Place, for example, which was a family show with wizards.  But, Girl Meets World isn’t supernatural, so I probably shouldn’t compare it to that.

Absolutely no reason I can’t compare it to Good Luck Charlie, though.  And actually, that is the Disney show I should be comparing it to.  It’s just a show about a family – its whole hook is the baby named Charlie.  Toby’s just there because… I don’t know, actually.  I stopped watching around that point.  However, it’s a family show that’s on par with the family shows most of us grew up with.  Oh, yeah, and Good Luck Charlie is the one that is slated to have lesbian moms as part of the subplot in a future episode.  Apparently, the first Disney show that’s going to have homosexual characters at all is treating it so normally that it doesn’t need to dominate an episode or anything.  Does that sound like a channel that would go out of its way to kill a show?

The Original Creator, Writers, and Crew Are Working On Girl Meets World

I would understand being much more nervous if someone from our generation had sole control of the Girl Meets World helm.  I have read the fanfiction, and I’d be too worried that just half way through the series Cory would leave Topanga for Shawn, or worse – Topanga would leave Cory for Shawn.  But, luckily, those people aren’t in charge.  The exact same people who brought us Boy Meets World are.  Are you saying that you don’t trust them?  That’s like saying you have the most perfect parents, but if something happened to you, you still wouldn’t trust them to raise your kids.  Do you think Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel would have signed on if they hadn't stayed true to Boy Meets World?  I mean, these facts alone should help you relax and learn to love the sequel, but some of you need more convincing.

The Cast Already Has Amazing Chemistry

If you follow them on Twitter, or have read my blog ever, then you know this.  The kids went trick-or-treating together as the Scooby-Doo gang.  There was that day they hung out at Ben Savage’s house.  Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage went out to lunch to celebrate Cory and Topanga’s 14^th wedding anniversary.  I can go on and on.  The cast already is super close, and they have a lot of fun together.  It was the chemistry among the characters that we loved on Boy Meets World, and it’s already there now.  What are we worried about?

Boy Meets World Wasn’t Instantly the Show We Know And Love, Either

Eric and Feeny.  Turner and Shawn.  Cory and Topanga.  Shawn and Angela.  What do all of these things have in common?  They’re some of the first things we think about when we think Boy Meets World.  What else do they have in common?

None of these were things in the first season.  Eric and Feeny’s relationship was relegated to Eric happened to be a teenager that could date Feeny’s niece, or work in nicely in the plot about explaining what high school was going to be like.  They had no on screen time.  Turner was introduced in the second season, as was the relationship between Cory and Topanga – in fact, Topanga wasn’t even a main character in the first season.  She was only meant to be in one episode.  And Angela didn’t come around until season 5.

Season one was messy and trying to find itself.  Cory and Shawn’s friendship took until about the Christmas episode to solidify.  Minkus was the one that was in love with Topanga – oh, and yeah, Minkus existed.  Speaking of Topanga, she was a hippie with big hair that channeled spirits and did yoga.  She was nothing like that by the time the second season started.  Mr. Feeny played favorites, but his favorite students weren’t Eric, Cory, Shawn, and Topanga – again, it was Minkus.  Shawn didn’t really become Shawn until he blew up a mailbox with a cherry bomb – and that was the 17^th episode.  Boy needed an entire year to find itself – and you can’t even give Girl one episode, knowing it has the advantage of already knowing who the characters are?

And speaking of knowing the characters… This one is the harshest truth, which is why I saved it for last.

Girl Meets World Isn’t Even Meant For You

Though a family show, Girl is targeted at us about as much as the original Boy was targeted to our parents.  It was made knowing full well that kids were the main focus.  Are you still a child?  If you are, then how did you grow up with Cory, Shawn, and Topanga to be outraged in the first place?  And if you’re not, what you’re basically saying is that this generation can’t have a show that speaks to them the way we did just because the parents are Cory and Topanga.

And that’s exactly it.  The characters we’re meant to identify with are the parents.  It could be worse – our parents were meant to identify with Amy and Alan, and those guys are grandparents now.  No, the kids are meant for kids to connect to, and not us.  Even if you hate it, you’re not the target demographic.  If Girl Meets World connects with kids the way Boy Meets World connected with us, it’s succeeded in what it meant to do.

In conclusion, just watch one episode before you jump to conclusions.  You could be pleasantly surprised, and either way, there’s no point in worrying – it matters more that the kids like it than it does that you do.