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| Forget it all and make The Good-Looking Guy. |
Very soon I'm going to start comparing the original series with the sequel. Some might say it's not fair to compare the two but I think it is when the sequel is clearly trying to duplicate the appeal of the original. Some might also say that since Girl Meets World is on Disney Channel it is obviously not intended for 23 year old bearded weirdos, but again I have to point out that the creators clearly intended to bring in the audience from the original. If they wanted to cut all ties to Boy they could have just created an entirely new show about teen girls living their lives without involving the Cory and Topanga characters from the original at all.
Therein lies the problem. Girl isn't quite sure if its a new show or not. Before the first season even ended the characters were making self aware meta references as if it were addressing well established formulas, even in regards to components that weren't in the original. Worse yet, in the very first episode the audience is supposed to believe that Corpanga's daughter Riley and her pal Maya are the bestest friends who ever friended and the light of their friendliness burns brighter than a thousand suns. The problem is that there is no evidence of the strength of their friendship except what we're told. We haven't seen their friendship develop at all; we're just dropped into the middle of this supposedly sacred bond between a troubled girl from the wrong side of the tracks and an innocent girl with a wholesome family.
Boy Meets World, on the other hand, took several seasons before it started making self aware jokes and even then they were more about being on TV rather than specific elements of the show. Cory and Shawn Hunter's friendship from Boy is legendary in its own right, but it took time to become what it was after the two actors were shown to have fantastic chemistry. In the first season Shawn was only slightly closer to Cory than the other guys in their friend group. He wasn't even poor and angsty. In one of the earliest episodes Cory has to paint his teacher/neighbor's fence for money because he's the only one who can't afford a cool water gun. Shawn's transformation into Judd Nelson from The Breakfast Club and Cory's unwavering loyalty happened gradually, First Shawn put a cherry bomb in a mailbox, then his mother took off with their trailer, then all hell broke loose and Cory was beside him the whole way. Riley and Maya are clearly meant to have the same dynamic but since their relationship didn't take any time to development we have no idea who they are on their own. They are exclusively defined in relationship to each other.
Everything in Girl Meets World is made to look like it's set in stone; supposedly the morality lessons are profound essential truths, the characters are timeless archetypes, and their relationships are bound by steel. That's why it all has to go. Or most of it can stay where it is while the Matthews family and the show itself (and maybe Shawn) moves to a different location. GMW's biggest problem is the insistence that everything is permanent so the only way to fix any of the problems is to start all over again, and for that to happen the main characters need to do the same. An interesting effect of that would be to put Riley, someone who has always been defined in relation to others, in a position where she has to find herself for the first time, as all teenagers must do.
If the Matthews are going to move, it would probably be simpler for them to go from New York to Philadelphia, where BMW took place. Adding a third location would over-complicate things and there are more reasons for Cory and Topanga to go to Philly than anywhere else. They have roots there and they might need to take care of a sick family member or an elderly mustachioed teacher/neighbor. As long as they're in Philadelphia it shouldn't be too hard for Cory to find a teaching job at his old school or for Topanga to reopen their old hangout Chubby's after her experience running a bakery in New York.
A move would also allow Girl to drop some of its more unsettling plot lines without drawing any undue attention to them. Farkle can disappear like his father Minkus before him and everyone can forget about his obsession with Riley and Maya that has gone on for too long. A less prevalent but much creepier "romantic" relationship is between 8th grader Maya and Cory's brother Joshua who is a high school senior. For the most part Maya's crush is one sided, but the show keeps suggesting that Joshua is in the wrong for rejecting her advances. In the episode "Girl Meets the Tell-Tale-Tot" Riley and Maya crash a college party so the latter can see Joshua. At the party a couple of coeds insist that Maya's actions are admirable and not dangerous and stupid while no one calls these coeds stupid and cruel. While its true that the age difference won't matter much at some point in the future for the present Joshua is 17 and seventeen divided by two plus seven equals fifteen and a half which Maya is definitely not. Joshua is nearly an adult and Maya is a child in every single way that counts. Also, Topanga has a rivalry with a six year old. They're absolutely vicious to each other. It's not endearing.
It would also probably be a good idea to shake up the writers room and bring in some new directors, but I don't have enough information about that to speak on it. I would, however, like to suggest that Fred Savage direct at some point. He is the brother of Ben Savage who plays Cory. Fred is most famous for acting in The Wonder Years and The Princess Bride but he also has a pretty impressive resume as a sitcom director for Modern Family, 2 Broke Girls, and various Disney and Nickelodeon shows throughout the 00's. Not that I'm arrogant enough to think that my opinion on this or any other aspect of the show matters. I've never run a TV show and even if my ideas were used the show might still stink, but it can only stink at the same amount or less.
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