The curtain on “Boy Meets World” continues to be pulled back via the “Pod Meets World” podcast. During Wednesday’s episode, writer Janette Kotichas joined hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong to discuss her experience on the show working under co-creators Michael Jacobs and April Kelly.
She explained that she already had a working relationship with Kelly, who told her she’d pitched the idea of the show to Disney and they were pairing her up with another writer to create the show. With that, Kelly brought her into “Boy Meets World.”
Fishel noted that past writers who had been on the podcast explained that the writers room in Season 1 was pretty divided between “the Michael camp and the April camp.”
Kotichas confirmed that, quipping that it was “the mean girls and then April and her two or three writers,” which also included Ken Kuta. “I didn’t realize going into it, I didn’t know it was going to be that divided. There was a lot of snarkiness on the other side and that’s OK,” she said. “I didn’t know that they had gotten this story that April was this monster. April is an amazing human being and so generous.”
Kotichas, who wrote Season 1 episodes “Boys II Mensa” and “Boy Meets Girl,” remembered getting notes from Jacobs on one of her scripts. “He goes, ‘I don’t even know what to say.’ He throws my script and goes, ‘This is a piece of blank,'” Kotichas alleged. “April says, ‘OK, Michael, it’s cool. Let’s just sit down and go through the script and give Janette notes.'”
She then told a story that while “the head mean girl had a huge overall deal at Disney,” it was Kelly who gave her credit card to the PAs to buy dinner for themselves after a long day of work.
“Boy Meets World,” which aired on ABC from 1993 to 2000, finished its first season in 1994 and Kelly went on vacation. Before leaving, Kotichas recalled, Kelly told her that both she and Kuta’s jobs were safe for Season 2.
“I was like, ‘I just wish you weren’t going to France, I wish you’d wait until the contracts.’ April was like, ‘No no, this is all worked out. Michael’s agreed to it. Your names are on the list on his desk,'” she told the actors. “Cut to… we got let go and we’re not on the show. I sent April a telegram in France to her hotel saying, ‘You’ve been cut.’ I’m sure her agent did, too. We just got cut. … It was traumatic for me.”
The cast was surprised to hear Kotichas’ claim that Kelly had been cut from the show. “I always thought that she was fed up with the show and left because of the politics and what not,” said Strong. “I didn’t realize it was actually a move that was made. I assume that was a decision made at the network level or Michael suddenly had more power than he had before and was able to take over the show.”
Friedle claimed, “I heard several times coming out of the writers room — I’m not gonna say anybody’s names, but I heard this quote several times: ‘Women ain’t funny.'”
PvNew has reached out to ABC and Jacobs for comment. Kelly could not immediately be reached for comment.
Both Kelly and Kotichas have since moved away from Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Kelly has been asked to come onto the podcast; she declined, but sent a sweet letter for Fishel to read on air, which she did on during the Jan. 4 episode.
While Kelly raved about the cast, she did shed a bit of light on her experience on the show, writing: “Ugly studio politics swirling far outside the notice of the young cast precluded my returning to the show I created for a second year, but I knew ‘my kids’ would be in good hands with director David Trainer, also a consummate professional and the perfect man to protect them from the worst of the disgusting behavior and the dismissive attitude displayed by a certain other jerk who shall remain nameless.”
Trainer recently joined the podcast as a guest as well, and while he said he had some great memories working with Jacobs, he also found some of the experiences to be “hateful” and “disgusting.”
