Your childhood was almost drastically different, Mr. Feeny once tried to QUIT “Boy Meets World”
It’s genuinely impossible to imagine Boy Meets World without William Daniels, aka the actor who played Mr. Feeny. But apparently, it almost happened (gasp!). In his new memoir, William Daniels revealed that Feeny was almost a different character (as in a much less wise, caring, and special one), and so he almost quit before the pilot was even completed.
Daniels recalled approaching producer Michael Jacobs after one of the very first table readings to tell him he would be quitting — because his character just wasn’t right.
He said, "Michael was in the middle of a rewrite as we spoke and asked me to give him twenty-four hours to complete it. If I felt the same way after I read it, he said, then I could leave."
Lucky for him (and us!), the new script was vastly improved. Daniels said he knew everything was going to be okay when he read his new lines — specifically the part where he explains the beauty of Romeo and Juliet to young Cory (who is super bored by it in class). The specific lines that sold him were:
“I live on the other side of the fence from you, Cory. And it’s impossible not to face your direction and notice people in the next yard. And in the time I’ve gotten to know them, it is apparent they are fine individuals. But their real strength comes from being a family. And do you know why they are a family, Cory? Because at one time a man and a woman realized that they loved each other and pursued the unlimited potential of what may come from that love, and here you are. There is no greater aspiration than to have love in our lives, Mr. Matthews. Romeo knew it and died for it.”
SOB!
"Here was a Mr. Feeny I knew I could play. I called Michael and said, “If this is what you can do in twelve hours, I will never quit again."
via giphyIt hurts our heads to think that none of this would have happened if he’d called it quits…our childhood wouldn’t have been the same!
via giphyAnd with that, we can only think to leave you with one, single word: FEENY! F-F-F-FEEEEENYYYY!
