Boy Meets World Creator Threatened to Fire Danielle Fishel During Her First Week On Set

Danielle Fishel was almost fired from Boy Meets World during her first week on set, she revealed in a recent episode of the "Pod Meets World" podcast, in which hosts Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle were joined by director David Trainer to discuss the early days of the series.

When Fishel first auditioned for the role of Topanga, she never received a callback, she explained. But after the original actor cast in the role didn't work out, Trainer asked Fishel to come back and audition again.

She got the part on a Friday night and had to be on set on Monday. Fishel, who was 12 at the time, recalled speaking very fast, and she worked hard to slow down her speech all day during rehearsals.

Finally, the time came for the producer run-through with show creator Michael Jacobs.

"I had never been a part of his marathon notes session," said Fishel. "This was my first one because it was my very first week. Michael starts off the notes by saying, 'Danielle, I'm going to give you your notes all at one time, at the end, and I'm going to give everyone else their notes now, because if I made everyone sit here through all of the notes I had for you, we would all be here for hours, and no one would ever get to go home. So you're just going to wait for the end.'"

"From that moment on, my eyes welled up because you know, I'm now in front of everybody — all the producers, all the writers, all the cast, and all eyes are on me for a second."

When Jacobs finished giving the other actors their notes, he asked Fishel and her mother to join him for a meeting.

"He went through every single one of my lines and what he wanted and what I wasn't doing right and how slow I needed to talk," Fishel said, revealing that even now, 30 years later, she was sweating while talking about it.

"What I know specifically was said is, 'All I know is, if you don't come back tomorrow doing this entirely differently, you are also not going to be here,' referencing the girl I had replaced," she continued.

As a result, Fishel and her mother then went home and practiced every single line until late into the night.

After hearing the story, Trainer said, "I worked for Michael for years on multiple shows. This is a hateful story. There's many wonderful things about him, but there's hateful things. This is one."

"To hear this, you're sweating? I'm really pissed," he continued. "It's enough to make me want to sign off of this podcast. I don't want to be associated with anything that guy is associated with. This is just not how you do things. I'm glad it became a hit, but this is disgusting."

Trainer added that "everybody who worked with Michael understood, implicitly or explicitly, whenever Michael lurched to one side of the boat, everybody went to the other side to keep it from going under."

Fishel said that in practicing her lines, her goal wasn't to perfect the part, but rather, to make Jacobs happy.

"That's the problem for me, that's what I remember feeling," replied Strong. "That’s what I don't think is healthy."

After practicing her lines the way Jacobs wanted them, Fishel said the following day, Jacobs stood up and said, "Let's give Danielle a round of applause. You did exactly what I asked of you. Thank you, thank you. Congratulations, it was wonderful."

She added, "He gave me some praise about some specific things and then, he started notes. There were no more threats of being fired. I had done the work, and I had shown him that I was worthy. It totally sets up that you go after that every week. You're chasing the dragon of Michael approval."

"He set it up in such a way that for now when he gives you the standing ovation, it's like the sun is shining on you," said Friedle. "It had nothing to do with your acting. It was just, make Michael feel good."

Boy Meets World is available to stream on Disney+.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.