S01.E09: Girl Meets 1961

[RedFire2000]

Cory gives the class a living-history assignment that takes the four friends back to New York City in 1961.

 

 

[AmandaPanda]

Sneak peek clip

 

And promo, sorry for the poor quality.

 

So, BMW sent Cory back in time to the 1950s to learn about the Space Race. GMW sends them to the 1960s for something. I know the writers are trying to have the same tone as BMW, but they seem to be recycling a LOT of plots, considering it's only been nine episodes.

[Lord Kira]

10 minutes into the episode:

 

It feels way too soon in the series for a plot like this. If I remember correctly, BMW only did this a few seasons in after all of the characters and relationships had been established.

 

Riley seems mentally challenged in the opening classroom scene, the scenes in 1961 are boring except for Maya. After Cory's assignment I was kind of hoping to see Riley doing research on Alan and Amy.

 

The chemistry between Riley and Maya in this flashback is off-the-chain though. Wow.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Lord Kira

[Skyfall]

So not really time-traveling but more seeing the kids in situations as their great grandparents...interesting concept.

 

EDIT: Glad the bakery is being used as the hangout spot!

Edited September 20, 2014 by Skyfall

[Lord Kira]

The second half of this episode was very good. Particularly Maya and Lucas. Their banter is amazing, and they even made the flashbacks awesome. They should ditch the Riley/Lucas thing and go with Maya/Lucas if they need romance in the show. Lucas is at his most entertaining when he's with her. "This is the greatest day of my life."

 

This show really lucked out with Sabrina. This girl is on fire. She definitely has a long career ahead of her.

 

I'm not sure if it is the character or the actress, but I found Riley to be just as annoying in the flashbacks as she is in the present.

 

Farkle has been way to preachy lately. Its kind of painful.

 

Am I the only one that laughed out loud at the Cory giving the "I have a dream" speech to the four whitest kids possible?

Edited September 20, 2014 by Lord Kira

[Aliasscape]

 

Am I the only one that laughed out loud at the Cory giving the "I have a dream" speech to the four whitest kids possible?

Honestly, I wasn't laughing at all. All they did was specifically point out how far we haven't come from 1963.

[benteen]

10 minutes into the episode:

 

It feels way too soon in the series for a plot like this. If I remember correctly, BMW only did this a few seasons in after all of the characters and relationships had been established.

 

Riley seems mentally challenged in the opening classroom scene, the scenes in 1961 are boring except for Maya. After Cory's assignment I was kind of hoping to see Riley doing research on Alan and Amy.

 

The chemistry between Riley and Maya in this flashback is off-the-chain though. Wow.

 

Riley is reminding me a lot of SpongeBob's friend Patrick with all the weird and dumb stuff she says.  Usually on a show, the main character (Riley) would be the one with the weird friend.  This show flips it by having Riley as the weird friend.

 

Agreed that Lucas and Maya continue to exhibit a lot of chemistry together.  The show seems to acknowledge that as most of Lucas's interaction is with Riley.

[AntiBeeSpray]

Honestly, I wasn't laughing at all. All they did was specifically point out how far we haven't come from 1963.

Me neither. I thought that Corey did a very good job in reciting it. Heck, it reminded me of Feeny tbh.

 

As for the episode, I really liked it. Was it perfect? No. Riley still got on my nerves somewhat. Farkle did a wee bit too. But, they've nailed the friends thing and in regards to this episode, they did a good job in regards to showing what their ancestors were like and how they lived their lives.

[bettername2come]

Oh Rider Strong directed this one! Boy Meets World did time travel better, but I like that it wasn't real time travel. It's too soon for that. Maya and Lucas continue to have good chemistry. I liked that they gave an origin for Topanga's name, and was that a reference to Angela's actress with the name McGee?

The year doesn't add up though. Based on the Boy Meets World I just watched, Alan was born in the fifties. Grandparents would've made sense, but they kept saying great-grandparents.

Edited September 20, 2014 by bettername2come

[AntiBeeSpray]

Oh Rider Strong directed this one! Boy Meets World did time travel better, but I like that it wasn't real time travel. It's too soon for that. Maya and Lucas continue to have good chemistry. I liked that they gave an origin for Topanga's name, and was that a reference to Angela's actress with the name McGee?

The year doesn't add up though. Based on the Boy Meets World I just watched, Alan was born in the fifties. Grandparents would've made sense, but they kept saying great-grandparents.

Yea I liked that. He did a good job. Me too, it's cool.

 

Good catch. Oops. Guess they need to fix that one.

[benteen]

Yeah, I didn't think the timeline added up either.

[DeepPoet117]

Well this is from the same people who had Cory and the gang skip two grades with no explanation. I liked the episode for the most part, but I think some of the previous episodes were better.

[maraleia]

The fact that the students in Cory's class are mostly white doesn't ring true. This is a public school in NYC the most racially diverse city in the US. Also, they should've consulted with some teachers to get the school vibe down which begs the question why isn't Cory their homeroom teacher? Then they wouldn't have to worry about him following a theme or timeline for his lessons.

I really wanted to like this show but the only good thing about it is Sabrina as Maya.

As others have said upthread, BMW didn't do this story until after the first season.

[Brian Cronin]

I think Carpenter is so much better than the material that it really does make the show for me, in the sense that it does give me a real reason to keep coming back to watch the show.

 

To wit, I was watching Cooley High the other day. Decent enough movie, but if it didn't have Glynn Turman as the lead, it likely would have been just a generic high school film. But it DID had Turman, so it helped really make the film special and you could look at him in that movie and say, "This guy is going to have a looong career" and here we are forty years later and he is still a regular working actor (and not on small shows, either, the guy has done some big shows). I sort of get that feeling about Carpenter, as well (to a much lesser degree, of course, as Turman was really good in that movie and he was also already in his late 20s playing a teenager). I think we'll be seeing a lot of her in the future after this show. I couldn't really say that for any of the young actors in the original cast of BMW. 

[Primetimer]

It's the '60s, man!

Read the story

[sunrisepink]

I was starting to hate this episode as soon as the flashback started, but when Sabrina Carpenter turned around as the hippie chick I started to come around. Why was Rosie dressed as Audrey Hepburn?

[Bill C.]

Simply stereotypical hippie/beatnik garb, I imagine...which applied to everybody except Lucas's grandfather.

 

And while this was a sweet and fluffy episode, and perhaps inevitable in concept considering its nature, I do wonder why they did it so early in the show's run.

[wingster55]

I'll be honest..I don't notice any major discrepancy between the two lead actresses..and no to Maya and Lucas..let's not go there imo

[KaveDweller]

I enjoyed the episode but I thought it was kind of ridiculous to believe that all the kids' relatives met when they were younger.  I didn't mind that they did a time-travel episode so early though.  Shows try to be bigger/more dramatic these days.

 

The year doesn't add up though. Based on the Boy Meets World I just watched, Alan was born in the fifties. Grandparents would've made sense, but they kept saying great-grandparents.

Yeah, it doesn't work.  I am basically the same age as Topanga and Cory and my parents were teenagers in the 1960's. My grandparents were in their 40s.  If Rosie is Topanga's grandmother and she had Topanga's mother in 1962 (right after the events in this episode), she must have then had Topanga at age 18-19. I think they just wanted to do the 1960s.

[Fostersmom]

I don't get why they just didn't say grandparents. They used Topanga's family, how many people would even remember her mom's name from original recipe BMW? Yeah, it would kind of mess up the time line if they made Alan or Amy adults in the early 60's when they would had obviously have been tweens, but they could have used Toganga's mom and all the rest's grandparents. Or at least I'm assuming they were adults in the flashbacks and Maya wasn't a teenage runaway. 

[Aliconehead]

I actually do remember her name Rhiannon

[Dots And Stripes]

This was too cheesy for me. I don;t quite know what was happening and "Rosie's" desperation for a friend was weird and not in a good way. Maybe they're just continuing on in BMW's footsteps on that one. It reminds me of the episode where they flashed back to Cory and Shawn's first meeting.

 

The show tries too hard. Rather than trying to give everything a deeper meaning, I wish they would just have fun and pick their moment to show the bigger message. The same applies to Cory's teaching style. He sounds desperate for the kids to get some big life lesson from everything he teaches. Feeny was the unmovable rock that let the kids come to him whereas Cory practically begs the kids to listen to his words of wisdom. I wish he would just tell the kids about the sixties without sounding like he'll die if they don't hang on his every word. 

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the timeline for great grandparents was off. I was also confused how old the kids were supposed to be. None of them can pull off being in their twenties, except maybe Lucas. (I'm waiting for the reveal that Lucas has been left back 4 times. He doesn't fit with the other kids, except maybe Maya.) It was all very weird and poorly planned out.

 

In spite of everything I said, I was starting to enjoy the episode when Maya was bantering with Lucas. I agree with everyone who says Sabrina is the strongest part of the cast. She continues to impress me.

[Fostersmom]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the timeline for great grandparents was off. I was also confused how old the kids were supposed to be. None of them can pull off being in their twenties, except maybe Lucas. (I'm waiting for the reveal that Lucas has been left back 4 times. He doesn't fit with the other kids, except maybe Maya.) It was all very weird and poorly planned out.

 

 

Even with Farkle's beard, I still saw him and Riley as teens, where I saw Maya and Lucas as early 20 somethings. Maya's character was traveling from NY to California, so I chose to believe she wasn't a kid, but yeah, the timeline was all out of whack on all accounts. 

 

We are nine episodes in and Riley has gone full on idiot. Yesterday was grape day? At least it took Eric until the third or fourth season to start losing all his brain cells.  Apparently Auggie and his "I'm this many" is the child prodigy of the family. 

[Lord Kira]

We are nine episodes in and Riley has gone full on idiot. Yesterday was grape day? At least it took Eric until the third or fourth season to start losing all his brain cells.  Apparently Auggie and his "I'm this many" is the child prodigy of the family. 

 

Yeah, she is terrible. Its a shame she is the main character, though I think by the time season 2 rolls around more focus will be on Maya, Lucas, and Cory, with Riley taking a backseat for a while.

[benteen]

Like I said, usually it's the main character who has a weird friend.  This show is different because it's the main character who IS the weird friend.  It'd be like Screech being the main character of Saved by the Bell.  Though I'm starting to think Patrick from SpongeBob is a better comparison to Riley in terms of intellectual prowess.

[Dots And Stripes]

Like I said, usually it's the main character who has a weird friend.  This show is different because it's the main character who IS the weird friend.  It'd be like Screech being the main character of Saved by the Bell.  Though I'm starting to think Patrick from SpongeBob is a better comparison to Riley in terms of intellectual prowess.

I'm not so sure about that. I would call Cory weirder than Shawn, although no one out weirded early Topanga. For her weird obsession with telling her friends she loves him, Reilly isn't truly all that weird. She's a good kid, pretty, and kind of an every girl. I completely get why the girl who tries to do the right thing is the central character while her best friend is the rebellious one. It's very Cory and Shawn. I think the show's willingness to show Maya's flaws along with Sabrina's charisma are what make Maya the more compelling character at this point. 

[RedFire2000]

I thought this was a bad episode. Definitely wasn't feeling this episode at all. This episode tried really hard to make it seem as if Riley, Maya, Lucas, and Farkle are these really close friends destined to be together always hanging out with each other, but it really wasn't handled well and I wasn't sold on it one bit. It was just stupid that they really tried to sell that nonsense, these four have yet to go through anything significant together as friends yet they still pulled off this "reincarnated friendship" garbage. It also wasn’t very funny or well-written, and involved a lot of questionable characterization – like Riley, Farkle, and Lucas all being anti-History Class. Which doesn’t sound like them. But I expected it to be a crappy episode anyway so I won't say that I'm disappointed since it was to be expected in the first place.

[Rowsdower]

I actually do remember her name Rhiannon

 

Yes, she was called that on screen (after Topanga referred to her as "Chloe" in previous instances).  That's the degree of continuity that Boy Meets World maintained.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the timeline for great grandparents was off. 

 

The flashbacks were set in December of 1961 (roughly nineteen years before Topanga's birth, based on most of the canon).  As KaveDweller noted, if we suppose that Topanga's mother was conceived a few months later (undoubtedly following a whirlwind romance and wedding, of course), she gave birth to Topanga at the age of about 18.

 

It's impossible to reconcile Boy Meets World's numerous inconsistencies, including Rhiannon Lawrence's portrayal by two actresses with a ten-year age gap between them.  However, Marcia Cross (who played the character in the last three of her four appearances) actually was born in 1962.

 

Needless to say, adding the birth of Nebula Lawrence (Topanga's older sister) to any timeline raises more questions than it answers.

 

I was also confused how old the kids were supposed to be. None of them can pull off being in their twenties, except maybe Lucas.

 

Contextually, the characters obviously were much older than the actors.  I assumed that the flashbacks were intended to be viewed not as literal historical depictions, but as imagined recreations with the present-day characters substituting for their ancestors.  The photograph shown at the end (featuring significantly older people) corroborates this interpretation.

 

Yes, the underlying premise is very silly, but at least the writers didn't expect us to believe that the characters' great-grandparents looked and sounded exactly like them.

Edited September 21, 2014 by Rowsdower

[BigPaul25]

I'm still rooting for Rowan here. Sabrina is 15 and doesn't have to carry the show. Rowan will just turn 13 next month. What a lot of posters have labelled as Riley being stupid.i only see as book smart but lacking social skills. Kind of like the home schooled girl who yells out the answer at the spelling be with great.confidence

BTW, Rosie's Audrey Hepburn outfit was based on Audrey's character in 1957's Funny Face with Fred Astaire. That character hung out with a decidedly Beatnik crowd. Granted 1961 was when Breakfast at Tiffanys came out but I doubt that Dismey would allow a filtered cigarette on screen.

[MaiSoCalled]

I liked that rather than all the ancestors having this complicated history with one another, they simply all happened to meet on one single night. That worked for me, And while the timeline is a bit fuzzy, making it Topanga's family helps matters. Time's always been a bit strange in this world anyhow; Topanga must have been pregnant with Riley during school, and even Minkas had a child at a young age. I didn't notice - did the other kids say they were talking about their grandparents or great-grandparents? 

 

One thing I loved was the final scene with the four kids in the classroom, asking Cory to teach them about history. Perhaps it was because Rider Strong was directing, but I felt that scene was a beautiful mirror of the original series. 

[Dots And Stripes]

Contextually, the characters obviously were much older than the actors.  I assumed that the flashbacks were intended to be viewed not as literal historical depictions, but as imagined recreations with the present-day characters substituting for their ancestors.  The photograph shown at the end (featuring significantly older people) corroborates this interpretation.

 

Yes, the underlying premise is very silly, but at least the writers didn't expect us to believe that the characters' great-grandparents looked and sounded exactly like them.

Maybe I'm just lazy, but I don't want to have to do this much work to interpret an episode of GMW. It is was stupid assignment for a history class and I still find it bizarre that we're supposed to believe Riley and Lucus both honed in on this one night out of an entire decade to find out who their great-grandparents were.  I get that this show is not about being realistic, but I just found the whole set up to be poorly planned out and without a satisfying payoff. 

[Kromm]

This show really lucked out with Sabrina. This girl is on fire. She definitely has a long career ahead of her.

It's rather telling that both Sabrina and Rowan sing, and yet Sabrina is the one they managed to shoehorn in an actual chance to sing into an episode. Rowan and some autotune got the main titles, sure, but Sabrina got a live untweaked acoustic performance (which is a good thing, a huge sign of confidence in her ability).

 

Meanwhile, the horrible pseudo-country singing they had that kid that plays Lucas do?  Meh.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Kromm

[Kromm]

Yeah, she is terrible. Its a shame she is the main character, though I think by the time season 2 rolls around more focus will be on Maya, Lucas, and Cory, with Riley taking a backseat for a while.

I don't mind Riley that much.  They DO explain her fairly well when they even verbalize the fact that she's someone who sees the best in everyone and who tries to make friends with everyone. The issue I suppose is that emotional innocence is supposed to be paired with her often seeming lacadiascal about school assignments, and yet we're ALSO told that Maya is the bad student and that Riley gets as many As in school as her Mom did.  Which hardly fits, because Maya seems far smarter than Riley (admittedly a lot of that is street smarts, but not ALL of it), and if Riley is good at school we see little to nothing but evidence the opposite is true.

 

I actually do think the actress is doing okay with the wacky/lovable scatterbrain stuff they give her.  If they hadn't also tried to insist she's smart, I'd have far less of an issue.

 

What the situation with Sabrina and Rowan reminds me of is a somewhat annoying Nickelodeon show I used to watch with my niece--Victorious. It starred a pleasant but slightly bland young actress named Victoria Justice.  Her best-friend character/co-star was Ariana Grande.  My memory of the show was that my niece loved it, and I was bored, but the indisputable fact was that Grande was the real star, even if she got second or third billing.  And guess which one of them is super-famous now, around four years later?  To be fair, Rowan isn't as bland as poor Victoria Justice, and I sense a lot more genuine warmth from Sabrina Carpenter than Ariana Grande (who's main asset seemed to be besides a great voice, a great ability to play comedy), but it's a kind of interesting parallel.

Edited September 22, 2014 by Kromm

[KerleyQ]

I don't mind Riley that much.  They DO explain her fairly well when they even verbalize the fact that she's someone who sees the best in everyone and who tries to make friends with everyone. The issue I suppose is that emotional innocence is supposed to be paired with her often seeming lacadiascal about school assignments, and yet we're ALSO told that Maya is the bad student and that Riley gets as many As in school as her Mom did.  Which hardly fits, because Maya seems far smarter than Riley (admittedly a lot of that is street smarts, but not ALL of it), and if Riley is good at school we see little to nothing but evidence the opposite is true.

I actually do think the actress is doing okay with the wacky/lovable scatterbrain stuff they give her.  If they hadn't also tried to insist she's smart, I'd have far less of an issue.

 

 

The school/grades thing doesn't surprise me.  We've seen a lot of examples in the short time the show's been on that Maya just flat out doesn't try, partly because it seems almost genetically ingrained in her to not believe that she's "good enough" to succeed.  We're seeing her slowly come to the realization that maybe she does have something to offer, but it's slow going.  I think that's kind of common in the Maya type characters we see on various shows.  

 

On the flip side, Riley is the daughter of an over-achiever and a teacher.  I'd be surprised if she wasn't getting good grades.  

 

I don't think it's a reflection on the relative intelligence of either girl, but the attitude that each was brought up to have towards school.  

 

And on a general note, while I do think Sabrina is the talent of the cast right now, Rowan is good too.  That is definitely Cory's kid, I can see exactly why they gave her the role.  And she's younger than Sabrina, so I'd expect Sabrina to be more polished.  I think there's a lot of growing that happens in the time between their respective ages, even though they're not that far apart.  

[ladyrott]

I rather liked the episode.  The explanation of Topanga's name was nice and I do like how they are making the four kids such good friends without the romantic stuff that I am sure will be showing up sooner rather than later.  Of course, the whole "our great-grandparents met one night in NYC" is the same wish fulfillment crap as having the girls find the locket owners on the Subway, but in this case, I thought it was cute.  I do love Maya and Lucas and their teasing of one another.  I always get a laugh from the two of them going at one another.

 

I can't believe they did a show about family history and DIDN'T have Amy, Allen, Eric or even Morgan mentioned.  I so wanted Uncle Eric to drop by and help. 

[JoKe]

I was hoping Rosie would turn out to be Cory's Nanna Boo-Boo

[SmithW6079]

Weren't the beatniks the late '50s/early '60s, while flower children a product of the late '60s/early '70s? 

 

It bugged me that May's bus broke down in New York, heading to California. I guess I presumed she would have begun her journey from NYC, which would have meant the bus broke down before it even started.

 

So by not befriending Rosie McGee, at least two of the others had bad lives? Apparently, Maya is still paying for the mistakes of her great-grandmother. And while I think Sabrina Carpenter is great, and I like the character, I am getting a little tired (already) of "Maya thinks she's not special, but she really is."

 

I know they were going for a "Beat" vibe by calling Farkle's great-grandfather "Ginsberg" (obviously evoking Allen Ginsberg). Were they implying that Farkle's great-grandfather was also gay (or bisexual)? 

 

I thought Riley was adorable in her Audrey Hepburn get-up. She looked good with her hair like that.

[sunrisepink]

Sabrina got a live untweaked acoustic performance (which is a good thing, a huge sign of confidence in her ability).

 

That was Sabrina Carpenter's real voice?

[Kromm]

That was Sabrina Carpenter's real voice?

What would lead you to believe it wasn't?

[sunrisepink]

What would lead you to believe it wasn't?

 

Too many episodes of sitcoms like Saved By the Bell? Haha.

[methodwriter85]

Nope, it's definitely her real voice. Sabrina really can sing.

 

 

It's impossible to reconcile Boy Meets World's numerous inconsistencies, including Rhiannon Lawrence's portrayal by two actresses with a ten-year age gap between them.  However, Marcia Cross (who played the character in the last three of her four appearances) actually was born in 1962.

 

Honestly, I thought about that as well. It's possible for Riley to have a 33-year old mother and a 52-year old grandmother, and therefore a great-grandmother who was a young adult in 1961. I mean, I bought Corey and Topanga having their 12-year old daughter in 2002...it actually makes sense if the Topanga's family has a tendency for having their kids young. And in any event, we've barely seen Topanga's family so inconsistencies don't bother me as much as they would for Corey's family.

 

I actually really liked the episode. Lucas was at his most fun bantering with Maya, Maya and Riley's flashback chemistry was great, and the little moment with Topgana was great.

 

I really think the show has been ironing out a lot of their earlier problems.

Edited September 28, 2014 by methodwriter85

[magicdog]

Am I the only one that laughed out loud at the Cory giving the "I have a dream" speech to the four whitest kids possible?

 

 

I found it rather trite and predictable.  That speech always gets trotted out when the 60s are mentioned in any show.

 

What bugged me most about the ep was

 

• The "great grandparents".  Seriously, it would have made far more sense if they were merely grandparents.  Chances are the characters from the past would have been in their early 20s anyway.

 

• Sabrina wearing that hippie outfit in 1961.  That look didn't come into vogue until 6 or 7 years later and was still more common in California rather than the East Coast.

 

• That these white kids were in a NY public school.  Seriously, NYC public schools are dominated by Blacks and Hispanics.    IRL, they'd be more likely to have been attending a private school (sectarian or otherwise).  Of course if they wanted to take a chance, they could have had a situation in which the kids were home schooled (which is another education option) and Cory could be part of an education co-op.  Then the real creativity in education could begin with all sorts of adventures.

 

• I liked the Topanga origin reference but why would they wait for two generations before using it?  Plus, as previously mentioned, Nebula was the first born.

 

 

It bugged me that May's bus broke down in New York, heading to California. I guess I presumed she would have begun her journey from NYC, which would have meant the bus broke down before it even started.

 

 

Or she began her journey from New England (maybe Connecticut?) and then broke down in NYC. 

 

 

I can't believe they did a show about family history and DIDN'T have Amy, Allen, Eric or even Morgan mentioned.  I so wanted Uncle Eric to drop by and help.

 

This.  A mini reunion would have been awesome!

 

Weren't the beatniks the late '50s/early '60s, while flower children a product of the late '60s/early '70s?

 

That would be correct.  However, Beatniks were similar to the Hippies in many respects - they just didn't last long as a movement. 

 

I know they were going for a "Beat" vibe by calling Farkle's great-grandfather "Ginsberg" (obviously evoking Allen Ginsberg). Were they implying that Farkle's great-grandfather was also gay (or bisexual)?

 

 

I did get a giggle out of "Ginsberg" but I'm certain it's a reference to his part in the movement, not his sexuality. 

[tami]

this episode was borderline BORING. that's all i have to say about it because i didn't even pay attention enough to get anything else from, was too busy on my phone -_-. but in reality though i don't really like flashback or into the future type episodes anyway, but i figured since i watch this show i'd watch this episode, but in the end it was watching me BEGGING for the attention i was giving my twitter.