Danielle Fishel is known for playing Topanga Lawrence, a beloved main character on ’90s sitcom “Boy Meets World.”
But she says after her first day on the job, she wasn’t sure she’d be there for a second.
Fishel, 41, recently recounted a story about series co-creator Michael Jacobs threatening to fire her when she was 12.
She got sweaty just remembering the stressful moment in her career on the “Pod Meets World” podcast (you can listen below) she hosts with fellow “Boy Meets World” stars Rider Strong and Will Friedle. Their special guest was director David Trainer, who worked on two seasons of the show.
Jacobs, 67, who grew up in Highland Park, had already rejected one Topanga before the role was recast — that’s why Fishel was there.
The actor had only done commercials and two episodes of “Full House” before she auditioned for the show. At first, she didn’t get a callback for Topanga, though she did book a smaller role on the show that had a few lines. Fishel watched as Jacobs worked with the first actor to play Topanga. She says it was a formative experience, one where she realized what acting could be.
But shortly after that, the other actor was cut from the part. Fishel found herself re-auditioning for the role alongside Marla Sokoloff (”Full House”). While Sokoloff generated a lot of enthusiasm, Fishel was in tears, sure her own performance did not measure up. Despite her impression, later on, her dad got the call that she was the new Topanga.
The role would launch her career. “Boy Meets World” aired on ABC from 1993 to 2000, following Ben Savage’s character Cory Matthews from middle school to high school and college. Topanga is Cory’s love interest in the show.
Strong played Cory and Topanga’s friend Shawn Hunter and Friedle played Cory’s older brother, Eric Matthews. Fishel, Strong and Friedle rewatch the show for the podcast and share behind-the-scenes stories.
Fishel says she didn’t have long to savor being cast in the big role. She got the part on a Friday, and by Monday, she would have to show up as Topanga.
They worked all day on the show that Monday, then had a producer run-through at night, after which Jacobs was supposed to give the actors notes on their performances. But he told Fishel, in front of the whole cast and all the producers, that his critique of her would have to come later.
“If I made everyone sit here through all of the notes I have for you, we would all be here for hours and no one would ever get to go home,” she says Jacobs told her. “So you’re just gonna wait for the end.”
The young actor bided her time with tears in her eyes, battling a sense of doom. Later, he sat down with Fishel and her mother to go through the script.
One issue was that she would often talk too fast — “it’s still hard for me to talk slowly,” she says.
“All I know is if you don’t come back tomorrow doing this entirely differently, you are also not going to be here,” she says Jacobs told her.
Fishel stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. with her mother going over all of her lines for Tuesday, the day of the network run-through ... and her day of reckoning on the show.
Ultimately, it worked. He approved of her performance, enough to openly praise the young actor. They started taping the show the next day.
Trainer says that as much as the series had a winning dynamic powered by the connection between what Jacobs wrote and how Savage brought the character to life, it could be “unpleasant” working with Jacobs.
“You’re sweating, I’m pissed,” he says of the Fishel’s story from her days as a tween actor.
Jacobs co-created “Boy Meets World” with April Kelly. The pair went on to create the spinoff series “Girl Meets World,” which ran for three seasons on the Disney Channel starting in 2014. Fishel and Savage reprised their roles as adults and appeared on the show as parents to the main character, their onscreen daughter Riley Matthews (Rowan Blanchard).
Jacobs also co-created the ABC series “Dinosaurs” and the NBC series “My Two Dads” and was nominated for an Oscar as a producer of the film “Quiz Show” (1994). He received three Emmy nominations for outstanding children’s program as a producer of “Girl Meets World.”
Trainer, an Emmy nominee for CBS’ “Designing Women,” directed 199 of 200 episodes of Fox’s “That ’70s Show.” He describes on the podcast what it was like to work with Jacobs in some of the more tense moments.
“Whenever Michael lurched to one side of the boat, everybody went to the other side to keep it from going under.”
Fishel, who would go on to become a TV director herself (Disney Channel series ”Girl Meets World,” “Raven’s Home” and “Sydney to the Max”), became hypersensitive to the creator’s reactions for each and every episode.
“You’re chasing the dragon of Michael approval,” she says.
Trainer says that setup on the show likely had something to do with being able to have so much power over young child performers.
“You guys were all kids,” he says. “Michael couldn’t pull this stuff with adults.”
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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