The actor played Shawn on all seven seasons of “Boy Meets World.”

Rider Strong is shocked Disney allowed Girl Meets World to cross so many ‘troubling’ boundaries

The actor played Shawn on all seven seasons of “Boy Meets World.”

By Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt

Raechal Shewfelt is a writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2024. Her work has previously appeared on Yahoo and in American *Journalism Review* and *The Shreveport Times*.

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September 7, 2026 6:27 p.m. ET

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Rider Strong on June 6 in New York City. Credit:

Cindy Ord/Getty

- The *Pod Meets World *crew discussed an episode of* Girl Meets World *that left Rider Strong ‘bugged.’

- The star didn’t approve of the way Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews acted as his daughter’s teacher.

- He praised Mr. Feeny, who was portrayed by actor William Daniels, for the way he taught.

The *Girl Meets World** *cast has called out some questionable behavior by one of the characters, Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews.

*Boy Meets World** *cast members Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle talked about the third episode of the sequel series on a recent episode of their show, Pod Meets World, in which they had some criticisms of Cory’s behavior in the third episode.

In *Girls Meets Sneak Attack*, which aired July 18, 2014, Cory, who grew up to become a history teacher, gives his daughter (who’s also his student) a break when she’s upset because the boy she likes appears to like another girl. The kids are played by Rowan Blanchard (as Cory’s daughter Riley), Peyton Meyer (Lucas), Olivia Stuck (Missy), and Sabrina Carpenter (Maya).

As he teaches, Riley’s friend Maya points him toward Missy and Lucas, prompting Cory to allow his daughter to leave class.

“And this bugged me,” Strong said, “because he’s being a horrible teacher.”

Fishel and Friedle agreed.

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“He’s going to let his daughter leave the class, because he knows that she’s jealous of a boy [liking another girl]?” Strong recounted. He added that “this is where Feeny [actor William Daniels’ character in *Boy Meets World*] would always be a teacher.”

He reminded his cohosts that Mr. Feeny would always refuse to change a grade or break a rule to save someone.

Cory “has to be the boundary-maker,” Strong said. “This is immediately troubling to me. And it’s so weird that Disney was okay with this,” he said, adding that it was “actually kind of a big deal.”

The cast of Disney Channel’s ‘Girl Meets World’.

Disney Channel/Bob D'Amico

*Girl Meets World* premiered over three seasons, from 2014 to 2017. While Fishel and Savage were cast members, both Strong and Friedle made creative contributions and guest appearances.

Co-creators Michael Jacobs and April Kelly reunited for the sequel series to *Boy Meets World*, which aired from 1993 to 2000.

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“I’m more amazed that Michael is okay with this,” cohost Will Friedle commented, “because he and Bill were so adamant about how the teacher was supposed to be portrayed.”

Strong said he thought the people in charge of *Girl Meets World* were very into “the idea that Cory is sort of perfect.”

Listen to their full conversation above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”