TGI - Episode 212 “Turnaround”

00:00:19
Speaker 1: So I'm back here in my childhood bedroom in beautiful Connecticut. Let the jokes begin in the wonderful snowy. Is that a pink Floyd poster behind you? It is? I'm been my childhood of course. And uh, as I do every night when I can't sleep and I'm here, I go through some of my old stuff. And what do I stumble upon but the Hartford Current, from which is the oldest newspaper in them from September fifth, nineteen ninety three, okay, and it is the Surprises or Snoozer's edition of what's coming out on TV? What's gonna be good? What's gonna be terrible? According to I won't say his name from the Harvard Current. Oh, you should definitely say his name from thirty years in print. He put it in print. He should stand by his opinion. James Enderst is his name, okay. And if you go to uh, we go to G seven people and we go you have to turn pages, have to turn pages. Wow. Right below the headline how did these shows make it to TV? There is number four Boy meets whirld Yes, I shall read you what mister Innst said about our show. Thank you a show that makes you want to bring corporal punishment back to the classroom. Oh my god, bench Aavage Wild Palms is the supposedly ankst ridden eleven year old kid. We think he's faking it. And William Daniels Saint Elsewhere is the teacher with the less than tender touch, who, of course is a softie deep down inside. Another three kid sitcom, this time from Dinosaurs producer Michael j Michael Jacobs. It's no Wonder Years, that's for sure. What that is our review? Now the shows that this same guy said we're smash hits and we should be looking out for Oh good, yeah, yeah, let's hear Dave's World what Bakersfield PD. No, that didn't last, the John Larrichette show okay sure, and one of the other ones, The Mommies, My Brother's show. Amazing. Yeah, well we could. We could live in an alternate world where James got his way and my brother would be doing his rewatch podcast for the legendary sitcom on The Mommies, which lasted two seasons. Wow, that's so funny. If you go back to what we were talking about before with my father, who is not at all a stage dad, apparently he wrote this guy a letter of when okay, So so I did think we need to start revising. This is not the stage dad, he is the ultimately mister, and a letter kind of saying, what are you thinking? That's my my son show? It will be It'll be brilliant. Oh god? Did he think he would sway the guy's opinion? Like yet, what would do is make the guy dig his heels in more like yeah, this is what um. By the way, I should have also started by saying that I need to hop off this zoom faster than normal tonight because there's a Bakersfield PD rerun I want to catch sure, Sure, sure, yeah, absolutely huge show. It's funny to think about how it kind of used to be, like if you were a critic in America, even a television critic, you were kind of down on the entire medium, right, Like if something was popular, you just trashed it, like in this. We've talked about this before that we always felt like culturally insignificant when was on the air, and it was partly because we were we were compared to Wonder Years, which is totally unfair in retrospect, like they're completely different shows. But I guess the Ben Savage Fred Savage connection just invited that, of course a coming of age story. But it's like, but one is a sitcom in front of a live studio audience, which is clearly more you know, one foot steadily in the theater theatrical tradition, and the other was like trying to be a movie every week with voiceover and single camera, like not even really a comedy. It's you know, mostly a drama. So it's so weird that that. But I felt that, like, didn't we feel that. Didn't we feel like we were making something that was sort of i don't know, like not critically certainly not critically acclaimed, and not even really recognized as like real art or real like anything of lasting value. I felt like we were making like popcorn, you know. It was like this this little kids show. Um. And of course the irony is that our show is still being talked about and we have this incredible fan base. Yeah, I'm I'm okay with When we were on the air, we were kind of always overlooked and it was all about the other shows on TJF and all the other shows. I'm totally okay with that. What is starting to miss me a little bit is when there's all these kind of look back at the nineties, we're still never mentioned it, really never. It's every other show like they did, like TV of the Nineties on CNN they did kind of like all these different retrospectives. They never talk about boy Mutral, it's dotink, even like the puzzles, like Sue loves doing puzzles. They did like Phoebe in the nineties, and there's one tiny picture of coreing to Panga, and then it's every other nineties show is like this giant thing. So now I'm starting to get miffed when I wasn't there. Well, you know, we did get asked to do that CNN show, by the way, I think we said that, which is maybe why they then did it include us. I didn't get asked, would have done it? Oh well, you know, well, I think my favorite part of that story is that you even hoarded bad reviews of yourself, right, you were like, you know what, this is a terrible review, saving it. I'm keeping it, keep it. I honestly can't remember. Well, I guess I wasn't tapped in enough to even read reviews, but I don't remember ever hearing a good review except one time. Do you guys remember when Michael read a good review of our show to us all at the table read when we were like in seasons vaguely yeah, yeah, yeah. It was like some critics somewhere picked up on our show out of nowhere, I forget what publication, and they they wrote this like very extensive, like hey, this is the show that no one's talking about but actually deserves a lot of credit. And Michael was very proud of it because it, you know, recognized all the things that he felt he was putting into the show and that we were all doing. So he read it to us at the table read like at one time, and I remember being like, wow, somebody's actually somebody got it us. Yeah, and it is and is picking up on all the things we are talking about that we want to be doing, Like somebody actually tapped into all of those things, and so it really must be there. It's not just for us right now. The one I remember that Michael did at the table read was he said, you know you're becoming popular when the title of your show starts to become part of the lexicon. And he said, I saw this the first time with King Charles or with Prince Charles in England when one of the titles he started, he did this big thing and it was Charles in Charge. He went, wow, my show is really me. So he said, I wanted to show you this article and it was some big skiing magazine and the cover said boy meets Matterhorn and he went, so we're making it, We're making it. I remember going like, that's kind yeah, because boy meets Girl is like a saying, right, that's ridiculous, right, So I kind of like, oh, he's reaching to make us feel better. I appreciate, will take credit for every boy meets headline. Ever, every boy meets something is totally because of us, right, even if it predates us pretty much. Yeah, Well, welcome to boy meets Pod meets World. I'm Danielle Fishel, I'm Rider Strong, and I'm Wilfredell. So we are here today to talk about season two, episode twelve, The Turnaround. It originally aired December sixteenth, nineteen ninety four. The synopsis is when Corey mistakenly agrees to take a nerdy girl to the dance. He and Sean decide to give her a makeover and hopes that she'll become more popular. It was directed by David Trayner. It was written by Michelle Palermo new writer Alert. Yes, I think this was one of our spec scripts. I think this is an outside script because I don't remember anybody named Michelle Palermo. No mean either. Yeah. So guest starring Darlene Vogel, who returns as Katherine kat Tompkins, Natania Ross as Ingrid Iverson. She would go on to play Robin Russo on The Secret World of Alex mac Marnette Patterson as Alison Cheever, Jennifer Banko as Becky Schultz, and the introduction of Will Estes as Alex, who will appear on three Boy Meats World episodes and has now been on the TV show Blue Bloods for almost three hundred episodes. He did three episodes of our show. I was like, oh my god, Yeah he was around. Yes, Yeah, that's exactly right. Natania's coming on the Natania Catania is coming on. Yeah. She came up to me and Will. We were at a convention h three year years ago, right, it was right during like right, the first convention I did after the pandemic, and she walked right up to us, and she has like very fond memories of being on the show. And um, and and we we have a mutual friend in Larissa Oleanik who was on Alex Mac with her and they're still like best friends. So it was it was good to reconnect with her. I can't wait to have her on the show. So yes, it will be great to have Natania Ross on the show when she comes to visit us. UM. So let's jump into our recap. We start in the school hallway. Mister Feenie is putting up posters for the Turnaround dance, when mister Turner in quite a tie. Oh it's all, but it's always the tie with the shirt, right, it's always the like pattern on a pattern that's just spectacular. It's so busy and and and like you said, writer, I so badly want to be in high definition because even when I posit to try and like see what the tie is, it blurs. It's like, yeah, yeah, what it is? It looks you're just squinting at the screen. It looks like Jack and the Beanstalk with like a boy climbing up a massive tree. I have no idea what it was. I just think that now ninety percent of his ties just have some sort of a fish theme and I just go with that. Okay. They can kind of all look like fishes a little bit, so it's like, okay, maybe you meant like fishes in the band fish like drugs, like nice just swirls and weird colors. I love that is Yeah, it's absolutely it's it's a picture a nectar tie for all that sort, for all the fish heads out there. Wow, no idea what that means album picture a nectar, great album. It's a down with the Seas tie. No, okay, good, okay, all right? Wow? So uh yeah Turner. Mister Turner pokes fun at Phoene, saying he's surprised no one is helping him with this grunt work, and then Phoene hands Turner. The rest of the posters should have seen that one coming. Mister Phoenie explains that the turnaround dances when girls ask the guys, and mister Turner says, oh boy, he's glad those days are over. Um. We used to at our school we called this dance the vice dance, which stood for vice versa. Oh okay, and then isn't also a sad Hawkins? Why why Sadie Hawkins? Who Sadie Hawkins. What's that mean? She was? It's so funny. I don't remember in what context. But Sue and I actually had the same converse when we first started dating, like fourteen years ago, and we looked it up and now I can't remember what it was. It was like a woman new cool story, Yeah somebody else not all going to be winners, Danielle hang bro Im. I thought you were sure this conversation, so I have the perfect answer and interesting enough for me to remember. We couldn't remember, and we looked it up, but we learned it, and now I can't remember. Is this still a thing? Do you think? Do? Do? Do school still do? Why do they call it a Sadie Hawkins dance? The Sadie Hawkins Dance is named after the Little Abner comic strip character Sadie Hawkins, created by cartoonist Al cap. In the strip, Sadie Hawkins Day fell on a given day in November, but it was never specified which day. Hmm, that doesn't seem to make any sense. So she was just a female character in a comic strip, you guess, So yeah, maybe she was. Yeah, I always called I referred to these There was a dance at school last weekend. Yeah, it is still so shocking to me that you weren't. It's so interesting that, like in your school everyone was apparently blind, and in Hollywood you were literally plucked out as being like, here's obviously the guy who's going to play the world's most handsome, cool older brother. I also wonder how much of that was because you were going in a way like you were going to New York. Yeah, your energies were elsewhere there. See, that's what they That's what everyone says when I talk to them now about it. But it just wasn't the case. I just it's also it's different. I mean you you you know this more than Danielle's probably right, because you grew up in a smaller town. When you grow up with people that you've known since you know, kindergarten or second grade, you go through kind of ebbs and flows of your friends with them, you're not friends with them, you date somebody, you don't date them. My flow was done by sixth grade, right sixteen. Gosh, I was so cool and I didn't think I was cool, but sixteen. Yeah, it's been it's been a real struggle since we got that on the time Machine list. Right, we got that on the time Machine list absolutely all right, so uh miss missus chart. Well, my question that I was asking, do do you think do schools still do this? Do they still have a girls ass guys? Is that even still a thing? It seems like gender wouldn't be put into anything nowadays in a school, right, I would it would just be have a dance. Yeah, we're having a dance whenever. Yeah. I wonder if dances are even still popular. I think actually would be right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we need virtualize dating, you know, to like get people to sort of out of their shells, and especially nowadays because it's a couple hours, maybe not on your phone, not on social media, not on this tex Stoe, if you're actually with people and doing getting going into a room together. I would actually be shocked if this is not still very popular in most schools across the country. I mean, it may be something that's starting to be phased out, but I bet I bet the trade are still are still continuing on. So I bet this is probably still something that happens where sounds dangerous though it does in Miami Vice. I'm imagining like in the back, crazy foul so miss Tompkins walks up and Phoene asks her to chaperone the dance and says that she can invite a gentleman. It looks like she's going to ask mister Turner, but instead she tells him to raise the poster just a little bit on the right, and Corey and Sean walk to the lockers. Corey is happy the pressure is off because now the girls have to ask the guys. Eric overhears them and ask if that's what they really think. He tells them the turnaround dance determines where they stand and the type of girl that asks you tells you who you are, which I thought was a um. I thought that was a really smart premise for Eric to bring into the situation like a whole new not just about oh man, it's you know, you have to worry about whether or not you're going to get asked, but then who who do you end up going with? Because that tells you where you are and the I thought that was really clever. Well this is it struck me that we were definitely throughout season two and it seems like this has happened a bunch and will probably continue to happen. Eric is is this figure in the script who's like the thesis statement guy, like you know what I mean, Like he comes in and says like, this is the rule, this is the way it always is, and then of course we watch that either play out or not. It's sort of like in Seinfeld whenever they would have a situation then to be like, you know, well, the guy, you know, this is the rule, this is the way it always is. You do this, and then this happens, and then of course you watch that gets subverted Eric, like will your role in the show has been to be sort of the authority for better or worse, who like makes this bold thesis statement that then becomes the logic of the entire episode, and all the comedy and all the situations sort of revolve around whatever that logic statement that you made to open the show with. It's it's it's kind of a thankless position. It's like it's interesting. Well, first of all, I couldn't tell if you were doing Jerry or George, but it's the I've seen four episodes of your person will work on that um but the uh, it also was the appression we used to do a Siefeld depression, which was a line from Boy Meats World that we would do it in Seinfeld's voice to remember. I think it was a line for Boys in the Shower I'm gap, I'm gap. Oh yeah, what, I don't remember what it was like at I'm always gap in the shower of the gap, and then you did it used to do it as Jerry Seinsfolk. What I mean, I'm gap. Of course I'm gaping. I'm good. The thing I liked about this episode, well, first of all, they are trying to make Sean and Corey and then Eric kind of work together the first time that I'd ever really seen that happen, which is which is kind of cool. Yes, but it does. It seems like they were doing levels of adulthood in this episode, if that makes sense, where it was one level above Corey and Sean is Eric kind of like I've been there right where you are, but only a year or two ago. Yeah, and then it's Turner and the new teacher, and then it's Phoenie and then while you're also forgetting and Allan and Allen. Yes, So they did these kind of levels of dating or relationship hood in this episode, which I thought was was kind of interesting. Yeah, and I'm not. It really worked. I loved the three of you guys together, and yeah, I thought I thought it was really beautiful, so too, I thought it was good. It was a good episode. So Eric tells Coorey and Sean if they want a cool girl, they have to position themselves, stand near their lockers and make sure they're seen. Eric positions himself literally in the way of Jacqueline while holding his favorite folder. You were holding those, I never I never miss it when you have one of those. I think it really is and just tackles the girl as she walks by. Well, she just basically tackles you, and you just go right with her. Just here we go. I'm going this direction too. It worked. Yeah, it worked, and it was very funny. So Corey tries the same type of positioning, but to no avail, and that's when Becky comes up and asks Sean to the dance. Corey is impressed because she's like the third coolest girl in school. Did you guys think this was like her looking at your butt? Okay, no, I was more like, why is my head? I actually think it was part of the joke, because again, yes, rider, your locker was now the bottom locker and you were bent over and Ben comes up to you. Corey says, what kind of girl do you think you're going to get from this position? And then she comes and asks you a question. And when she walks away, she checks out your booty. Well, nobody, that's the thing. No, no no, no, Unfortunately she checks him out when he's really he's in the locker, she checks out his butt. Okay, when she's leaving, he's facing her and she's checking out his crotch. Just my crot Okay, it's all. It looked like she checked out your junk, nodded and walked away. Well then I needed to be wearing Tony's pants clearly needed to be needed. Screw these baggy jinkos. I needed to really emphasized in the paint game. So I do think that was It literally was that it was a It was a booty joke, which you know. Okay, so I didn't tell you guys this, But we're watching an episode Alex and I don't remember which episode, and Tony walked out of the classroom the allway and she just went and I was like what, and she's like, it's just some tight pants for a teacher to beware and I was like, oh okay, I thought maybe you just out of attractive, and she's like, no, it's the parents are a little much. Yeah, oh my god, in the hair love it. Oh my gosh, thank god. We love Tony. We do. And then Topanga walks up to Corey and Sean and she knows that they're waiting for a girl to walk by and ask them to the dance. Topanga reveals she's not going to the dance. It's a protest because of gender bias. And then's back for a moment. We get some old Topanga. I mean, it's like it's new new, old Topanga. It's like, stay taking it all, you know, this is the best of it. This is the way it probably should have been from the moment Season two started. Yeah, keep those lines, keep that perspective. But then of course it's matured into, you know, something slightly different, and this is a great use of that. I thought it was perfect. It also changes instantly when she's like, you know, and then my dad, he's taking me to New York to go she's happy for Christmas, and I call him my daddy, which is the first time I don't call him Jedediah. Yeah. Also, I'm not needed in this episode. Get me out of here? Why are you? You don't come back, do you? I'm in I'm in Turner's classroom later to like mumble something and then with the lightning speed of the flash, I am out of the classroom the minute the bell rings. I'm literally the first person out. The bell rings and I'm like go and I just out. Yeah, not needed in this episode? Why was I here? I can't believe they kept this take because I don't know if it bothered you guys, but your jacket being hung up on your I couldn't take my eyes off it. I just fix your jacket, Fix your jacket. Well, we're gonna cut to a different take, right, It's like no, So it's like just staring at your ja. It's one of those stupid television things. It's like, this is why you know people, Um, people probably don't understand that there's when you're making a TV show, there is a wardrobe or any any content there's there. There's always makeup and hair people and wardrobe. But on set, so they don't just get you ready before you go out to shoot. They are there on set just to fix stuff like this, just to make sure like a hair isn't fallen in front of your face. And it's one of those kind of superficial things. I remember I was directing something years ago and the person hiring me to direct it was like, we don't need a makeup person because we want this to look real. And I was like, well, you are an amateur, Like you don't understand that, like looking real does not mean not having makeup. Even if you want things to look rugged or real or natural, you need just because otherwise the human eye will gravitate towards mistakes or like hairs in the face or like all these weird things. And so this was a perfect case of like why did they use this take? I can't I can't stop looking at her jacket. I know it definitely, Yeah, it threw me too, but also just not needed in the episode. Get me out of here, Get me out of this episode. See that's her outfit. Is not what threw me in this scene. What threw me in the scene is when they're cutting every time to the other angle, there was a giant sign behind everyone that said sex. It was right above Jessica Jessica's head. Yes, yeah, because it said sex ed, but her head was black blocking the edge, so it just said sex the whole scene right over everybody's shoulder. And I noticed that too. My jacket and sex were the two things I noticed. So uh, Now, with Tapeca off the list, Dass rights exactly everything was ruined. This was the moment Topanga says her daddy is also taking her to New York for the weekend to go Christmas shopping. And now with Topanga off the list, Corey daydreams a popular girl, Alison Cheever, will ask him out, but Shan says, says, if a bomb hit the school and only Corey survived, she'd probably ask the most popular dead guy. And then Sean goes off to class, but Corey sticks around to get asked, and then, in an almost dream like segment, with so much wind, so much much wind, she can't keep her eyes. It was they could have toned the wind down by just a little bit. It's still would have been good. But there's the exact same shot from when we did the slow mo invitation hand out thing. It's like yep, down the stairs towards Corey. Yeah, So Corey ends up saying yes to Allison and then the dream ends and Ingrid is revealed she is a very nerdy girl who has actually asked him out and he has now said yes to her. Womp, whomp, oh no, oh no, party, that's right, bold st. I have a question if anybody notices, because I could be wrong. At this point in the episode, there is nothing whatsoever to indicate it is a holiday episode. Correct, nothing, No, I don't know. Hold on. The Turnaround Dance Flyers have Frosty like a snowman, like a Frosty the snowman thing, which is actually one of the things I was thinking is that maybe mister Turner's tie was somehow Christmas related. Okay, so the Turnaround Dance Signs do have a snowman with like a with like a Santa hat on or something. Yeah, okay. My take is that this is clearly a script that they purchased from outside of the writer's room, and then they just Christmas. Ye just sprinkled some Christmas because they were like, oh, well, we're right around the holidays and we need a Christmas episode. Boom, plug and play. Yep, exactly. And also Ben's eventual outfit that he wears with the white turtleneck and the green Christmas sweater. Oh geez, is that what? I didn't know if they were trying to make him look sweet Swedish. Yeah, that's him being Swedish. But it's like green Christmas trees. It's like it is actually Christmas trees. Also, his shirts are so long. Did you guys notice the amount of bulking at the wrist? Yeah? Okay. Anyway, we're in the Matthews kitchen. Corey is practicing turning down Ingrid blaming a look alike pretending to be him, and Alan watches from the stairs. Corey fills his dad in and says um and Alan says he needs to go with the girl he said yes to, no matter her social standing. Corey then ask asks Eric to help him get out of the date, but he says he agrees with dad and Corey has to go with Ingrid. If he bails, all girls will know because they communicate all the time, and then they will all hate you. Some prop act in here with the red stuff, with the red stuff juice, You're like shake, I shook, and then I open it and then I put the cap in my pocket. Cap and you never as no, of course not. We need it for the next weake true professional. Morgan walks in and grabs something from the fridge, and Eric mentions he likes Amy's chili from the night before, and then Amy walks in and is so happy to hear Eric liked your chili, proving Eric's point that women are in constant communication. But just notice the use of the word online. Yes, yes, tomorrow online. It's an East Coast thing. Yeah, yeah, you don't say waiting in line, right, Internet thing? It's not. But it's not quite what you're thinking either, Danielle, because I don't think he meant that like women are in a line. It meant that that they're in a communication network. But it predates the Internet in a lot of ways. Or then I think, so it's sort of like the network. I don't know. It was super interesting. I was like, how does is this being used? This word online is being used correctly as if we're sharing it online, but he means it completely metaphorically as we create the online meets online wed Wow, guys, it was created by Hawkins. I can't remember why Will and I had this conversation once. I don't remember the album. I don't remember. Then we're in mister Turner's classroom at slash the school hallway, mister Turner is teaching Shaw's play Pigmalion, and no one in class is responding to it. He explains that what you can learn from the book is how you act, how you speak, and prejudices about class can determine what you do in life. You're turning a list of all the books and literature referenced on Boymat's world, because it is pretty interesting and it is extensive. We've we've done Hamlet multiple times, but Pigmalion. I've never read Pigmalion. I've never read. Yeah, I had to look it up and find some information about it. Is the basis for My Fair Lady, so that's the more popular version of it. But Pygmalion is a play from the early twentieth century. Um and it's taking someone ugly and making them better looking. No, it's taking somebody unrefined and teaching them. And you're trying to get into it, and neither of you have read it. Don't tell me what it's about. Let's read it and then yes, I would love to write. Okay, it's dressing DiCaprio in and bringing him to the captain's table in Titanic. That's PIGMAILI, so, well, you're original. Pigmailian myth is that a guy makes a statue and then it comes to life, like he makes the perfect woman out of us, like marble, and then that statue comes to life and he marries it. Huh yeah, of course by okay stilling it. And once again, nobody's read the book. No, It's kind of every episode is like, here's the book. What nobody's read it? Come on, let me tell you what it's about. It's like, okay, some of these some of these kids got to read the book eventually, you'd think. Speaking of Tony does say his stallone. Yeah, mister Turner says, what if I walked into class one day and said, hey, how you doing. I'll miss the Turner and I'm going to be learning you skuys some good English? What would we only think of him that far off from how he first came into the show. It's like, it's like, yeah, it's it's a couple degrees, But I feel like the correct response would have been like, well you kind of did, buddy, Yeah, we could have said that. Yeah. Sean says he thinks he'd actually have a shot of getting an A and Turner explains how you speak and how you look can affect people's perceptions of who you are. And then the bell rings and I bolt out, like the flash, I'm the fastest I've ever been in my entire life. There the show that week, did you have like, Oh, I gotta I gotta go do home improvement exactly? Sean says he figured out how to make Corey's date with Ingrid work, changing her to make her cool. It's all here in the pig play, which it was funny. I said, I love dumb Sean. I really like dumb Sean the way he is in this episode, if that makes sense, the way I've been in other episodes. I'm like like over, but this was. I thought this was fun, Like this just makes sense, like this creates the dynamic. I didn't feel like I was pushing it too hard. It's yeah, no, I agree, there's this This was. I love this episode. I thought it was really good. Yeah, it was a good episode, not like super funny. But that's why. That is the one thing I thought. I was like, I don't necessarily know that I laughed a whole lot, but I was. I was super engaged and I liked that it had a great flow. Um, it felt really nice. I felt comfort yeah, and it's yeah, it felt warm and fuzzy and all the right ways. It was a good and great moments for all of the adults, Like all of the adults had their own kind of things going on by themselves, and it was great. I loved it. I think sometimes, you know, our storylines boy Mets World in general, but what I've noticed with season two, they kind of get a little convoluted, Like yeah, it's like it's like six too many ideas, or it's like, you know, one turn and then it turns, and then it turns and then it and it's like I kind of feel like we're twisting us, Like when we talk about the Turner Phenee dynamics, they get twisted in knots too many times, so you're like I've lost track of like who's supposed to win this argument or or how I'm supposed to feel about it. Whereas this felt very straightforward and yet still had like you know with Ingrid, especially you know, like her like little zingers at the end, and she still kind of walks away and screws Cory over. But it didn't feel like we had gone through too many storylines to get there. It was just like, oh, we went through the kind of predictable thing, but we did it well and we still got it, so it wasn't It didn't feel predictable, didn't feel so easy, And like with the Turner Phoenie stuff here, it felt effortless, like, yeah, they're still jabbing each other, they still change each other. It's just enough. I don't know, it felt very straightforward and contained. It just felt tight. Yeah. Yeah. And the and the fact that the three of you guys were now together and each having your own storylines and we knew exactly who you were and we didn't need a lot of like backstory to figure it out. I agree it was great, which became a thing because I think the opening title sequence of season three is just the three of us are like playing cool at Chubbies, and it's like they were trying to focus the show in a different way, and this is kind of seemed like the genesis of that. Yeah, well, since the boys don't know what's cool, Sean says his date Becky, can give Ingrid the makeover. Then in the hallway, mister Turner asks miss Tompkins what she's doing over the weekend, and she tells him she's chaperoning the dance, but she still doesn't ask him. He's bugging out, And then we are in the Matthew's kitchen, Corey and Sean are picking what Ingrid should look like from magazines. Corey gives a picture to Morgan to run upstairs to Becky and Ingrid. Which this is very weird science, yes, isn't it? Yeah, like that, and it makes me so uncomfortable. This whole idea of like piecing together the perfect girl like weird science, just ages horrifically. I don't know. It's such a good movie though, it's such a good concept for a movie. But it's such a good movie. No, dude, you're just such a child at the age. It's a great it's a great, great movie. Yes it is. Oh, it's a great, great movie. A movie. It's it's it's about but it's it's a great movie. The characters are so there's the characters are so charactery and ridiculous and amazing that it's, oh god, it's I disagree hundred percent. It's great film, great film. Well, in this case, at least I agree with you writer that it's that it doesn't age very well. But the great news is that Amy walks up and says these aren't even good representations of women, they're unrealistic portrayals. And then she asks where they got these, and Corey says from the magazines on your nightstands, which which is great, great, just a great thing. And then Amy becomes nervous and says, you didn't open the drawer, did you? Great joke, A great joke. It's a great joke. I mean it brought back some of the stuff we had talked about where you know, really no kids understand that joke at all. It goes right over the head. You don't have to worry about even a kid picking up on like hey, what does that mean? Like you know, just it's just like okay, no, I don't know when the draw or whatever. But it's such a great joke for adults. So you're really funny. Really, I have a question, do you think that the fact that it wasn't Corey and like they easily could have done the scene where it's Corey and Sean pulling out the dresses and trying to dress her up and hear something, but they didn't. They made it where it was the the female character who was kind of up there in charge of everything. Do you think that softened it at all a little bit that it wasn't, you know, because it could have it could have been a lot weirder. I thought if it was like, well here in very sitcom, for it to be like Coorey and Sean like try this dress, you know, Yeah, that's a good point. I I actually really miss I feel like there's a missing scene between the last one and this one, which is the scene where we talked to Ingrid about right yeah, And I was really uncomfortable with the lack of sort of understanding of what we're like conversation with It's like she is literally a prop that we are dressing, right Obviously, by the end of the episode, it saved like she even want a scene. She says, I want to be popular, which to me, I was like, Okay, I'm I'm totally obviously I'm cool. At the same point, and the show the show that like in a lot, like like a lot of Boy Meets World episode, a lot of Boy Mets World second season episodes, it does arrive somewhere that I think is really nice and nuanced, but it kind of in getting there, you're like and for me, even after the end of the episode, I really wish there had been a scene with Ingrid right and Becky, I guess where we sort of just discussed the plan or we all are on the same page. Because the way that this scene is laid out, it's I don't know, you're not sure how they Yeah, you're not. I agree with you. This scene made me feel a little icky, and I think that's exactly what it was, is that you're not sure whether or not there, how they're feeling when they come down the stairs, Like you get Becky, you get kind of Becky's into it because she comes down, she's like really performative, she's excited to introduce. But then Ingrid comes down and you're a little like, how do you feel about this? Yeah? And then I miss her, which is like made it even worse, and I was like, uh, but yeah, again, I think that that's in some ways good, that the path is right, you know. I think it's supposed to make you feel that. I just wanted to a little bit because when she grabs him and says I want to be popular, I was like, that's great. Yeah, that's on board with this. Yes, if you get where it's like, look, I know this might sound weird, but if we make you cool, yes, make me cool? Yes? Please? Yeah, that would be it and you'd be on board then for everything totally. Yeah. And in fact, having to ask her is an awkward scene, which would have been great awkwardness for Corey and you know, like like having to know how to get her. How are we going to sell this to her? And then he tries to sell it and it doesn't work, and then he just is honest and then she's on board. Like that would have been a great scene, like now could I pay for the Animal's Advocate? Is she supposed to be the statue from Pygmalion? So the statue didn't choose to be carved so but in the play a play in the play, apparently the girl does actively pursue. She does, okay, okay, got you got you got? She says, we gotta read it. Yeah, we gotta do it. New podcast. Uh Ingrid comes down looking pretty, but Sean isn't impressed. No, it doesn't work. Corey thinks she looks gorgeous, but Sean says she just looks pretty, but cool is more than looks. It's a feel. Sean is looking for someone more exotic, like in the magazines, you need to have an exotic foreign name, and Ingrid says her family is from Sweden alcohols. Did you guys notice that? Yeah, well it was such a such a high level joke. It was like, I don't know, but I only knew like one of them. But then I was like, Amaretto, but I don't know what I think one was. Wait, which ones did you say? I think he was like Frangelic something. I think it's an It's an alcoholic, Like, oh, this is such a subtle like this is Sean's reference points are like what his mom keeps on the shelf. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, oh that's so funny. So Sean starts a freaking out about this. He asks if they have nude beaches there, and Ingrid says yes, And then Sean has a plan to make both Ingrid and Corey very popular. And then Sean and Becky are talking to people in the hallway about Ingrid's family being from swed and in Sweden they sunbathe in the nude. Actually they do everything in the nude. Okay, one of my favorite things in all of life, but is fake bad acting. I just there's nothing I love more than than than than doing it, than like being asked to be a bad actor and then watching good actors be bad actors. Yeah, we used to do this all the time on board, you guys, remember we used to do there's a there's there's the scene from the movie Parenthood where the kids mess up the lines and then they're on stage. They're like little five year olds on stage. Yeah, and the line is the line is you know they're not they're they're stolen away, and then the teachers whispering they're not stolen, they're put away. And I think as actors, you just gravitate towards loving bad actors. I love Boogie Nights for this reason when they do like they're all these amazing actors, Julianne Moore and then the second she's on camera in her porn movie, she becomes the worst porn actor you've ever seen. And uh, and what's his name? Doing bad singing when he has to you know, feel feel feel you got you got the touch? Oh, I just like and so when I saw this, I was died. I was like this is so great, And I honestly don't really remember this this actress who plays Becky. I remember, like when I saw her face, it was like, of course, but I don't remember her name or like really hanging out with her. But I just love that she brought it for this moment because I just think, like, the bad acting thing is so fun. Yes, and there Ricky, Yeah, absolutely, which, by the way, So I texted the guys last night because I knew Ricky looked familiar to me, but I didn't remember that his name was Ricky or that that was Ricky. And Ricky looks a lot like Speck. Do you guys remember spec Ye. Speck was a third teacher they brought in later who helped me with me, a maths brought in for Ben and Danielle, and he worked with me for a little bit but not but he was a math tutor. Yeah, David Speck, David Spack. We called him Spec And I thought maybe it was I thought, so I thought maybe Ricky was Speck. But then I also thought maybe Ricky was Noose because we had talked about the background actor or Noose whose real name was you just learned Michelle Michel, So I then texted the group and he said a noose or speck and then either neither one. It's Ricky. So anyway, I was a very close friend of mine. Like I said, he taught me. He taught me to play D and D. He lived with the We did theater together back when I was like before. I think we did theater together before I did LAMI. So I knew Ricky when I was eight years old. Weren't really in touch anymore. I know. He teaches in Hawaii. He's an acting he teaches acting in a way. He's a big theater guy. He went to the Idlewild School for the Arts, which I always wanted to go to. It's a boarding school in Idlewild, which is mountain town up in um right outside of Los Angeles. And I always wanted to go to school there because all they do is acting, dancing, and music and you live there in the woods. It's like a dream come true. But they wouldn't let you go if you were also a professional actor, Like you couldn't while go in there. So I but I was like always my dream, like we can live in the woods and just do acting was perfect for you. Now you'd just be like I just want the woods part. I don't need the acting part. I just want Well, now I want to go teach there, so if you're listening, that would be so fun. Oh my god. Yeah. Well, then Ingrid walks down the hall in traditional Swedish garb and everyone is looking at her and says she's so cool. Will Estes wonders why she's dressed, and Sean says that underneath the clothes she's nude. Three great fun. I literally wrote, I love dumb Sean. Yeah, I do. I know. It's so great, it's awesome. And then when Sean is asked if they're buying it, he says, oh jaw, which I then remembered of course, you guys saying this week. Uh. And then we are in the school cafeteria. Sean tells mister Feeney that it was him and Corey that changed English. Look, where's Topanga? That would have been a great scene for Topanga to be shouldn't have been in this episode. It was waste of paying for me, right, Yeah, we just thought have been nice to have a chapanga perspective. Because you called you could have also called us out on like like why aren't you Becky like helping dress out, you know, like like it could have easily been to Panga, because then we could have had you sort of calling us out for like being sexist and treating her like a doll or whatever. You know, you could have said all these things and we could have had those conversations and have it out and still done the stuffy like had the same storyline, but had a little bit of perspective, which would have been what we would do later, you know, by fifth season. That's exactly what would have happened. And they could have changed the comedy up where it would have been Danielle saying like, you know, this is sexist and blah blah them and I hate the shoes like that. It would do stuff like that where it would be really funny, but it would still be her kind of thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, time Machine. Yeah. I guess it's mostly because they had probably I was my contract was like guaranteed thirteen out of twenty one, so they were paying me anyway, and they were like, let's plus you plug me in, and then they maybe they didn't want to pay it to be one of the cool girls, so they didn't want me to be a part of that group, so I had to be out of town. I don't know um anyway. Phoene then corrects Sean's grammar and says Corey and I, to which Sean says, great. Now everyone wants to take credit and again it's just another opportunity for dumb Sean and it's it's just so funny. Also, Corey in that winter sweater and that white turtleneck is quite a look. He's trying to be Swedish, right, is that what's happening? That's all? But I actually think Corey should have been dressing like this more often. I like it. Actually, if you think about Corey's character, that he would like want to be a little like nice are put together in a sort of like old old man way makes sense, yeah, and like yeah, he just so desperately wants to be cool though, and as the character on the show, but you're right, that's what he would naturally gravitate toward. That would probably have been in So Corey invited Ingrid and her friends to his house for a pre dance Smorgesborg, but Ingrid says she needs to talk to Corey alone. Ingrid tells Corey she can't go to the dance with him anymore because she's cool now and Rick Lawler. She asked Rick Lawler to the dance instead, Ingrid thanks Corey for his help, and he is very deflated. She leaves and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Sean comes over and says, well, just heard what happened, and he's tapped into the women's network, which is a really funny runner we get from the rest of the episode. It's a great runner though, So it's a great runner. But Ryder comes over and says, so, hey, you know, I just hear you got dumped, and for some reason, Ben takes a really long pause before saying it just happened. Oh really, there's kind of a weird like he was waiting for a camera move or something, but it was like an unnatural amount of time before he actually throws the joke back. It was really bizarre, Like, wow, that was funny. Strangely long pause. I didn't notice it. Yeah, that's weird, it's funny. Well, justice Corey is set with being average and dateless. Allison comes up to Corey and asks him to the dance. Corey first make sure this is real that Sean sees her too, and then says yes and hugs her legs in the most desperate hug of all time. And then we're in the Matthews living room. Alan and Amy are decorating the Christmas tree. Eric comes down to wait for his date to come to the door, but she just honks from her car and he feels cheap, but he also kind of likes it. It's a great creep and that's why I saw the Christmas tree. I was like, oh, Christmas episode, right, Christmas, there's Christmas tree. Guess we're doing a holiday episode that's the same thing. Yeah, It's like okay, And then Eric calls for Corey as rides leaving. Corey comes down to leave for the dance, and Alan quickly pushes Corey out the door so that he and Amy can be alone. They sit on the couch ready to drink wine and eat cheese, and he starts massaging her shoulders. And then we're at the Turnaround dance. Corey walks in with Alison. I mean, just I know we've hit this a bunch, but like, I just love Rusty and Betsy being clear great. I know, talk about the adults stuff in this episode, there are a lot of little asides between the adults. That were great. Yeah, all the adults in this episode had a lot of fun stuff that is relatable to all of us olds. Now. Yeah, So Corey walks in with Alison, but then Alison thanks him for bringing her and she starts to walk off. Alison says she's dating Danny, but her parents won't let her go out with ninth graders, so she needed Corey to physically take her to the dance, and then he stops her from giving him another pity kiss on the cheek. Sean immediately comes over to say he just heard what happened. Did you see the girl in the background. No, No, there's a great group of kids in the background. So they're like towards the door. So it's when they're cutting too. I think it's Corey's close up, and it's like three of the four people decided we're going to be the group just standing here having a conversation, and one of them went, no, I'm going to be at the dance in the middle of the conversation, and there's one just dancing it up. Of the three, it is the great It's like they all got different direction and it was phenomenal. It was great. So I think this is the moment when Sean says he heard what happened, and Corey says the women's new work, and he goes, no, I was just standing right here, which is really funny. And then Sewan says he's gonna go get punch and cookies. And then mister Feeney is lecturing missus Tompkins and mister Turner to behave even though they were just talking. Miss Tompkins admits she didn't ask mister Turner out all week because she wanted to watch him squirm. She told the Girls Network, though, not to ask him out, so she had it covered. Miss Tompkins eventually asks him to dance. Actually, that's not what happens. He completely hints to her that he wants to go dance, and she finally says, are you saying you want to go dance? And yeah, which is They were great in this scene, like the way they played off each other and him like setting yeah that like maybe we could look different directions and she's like, you want to dance? Yes? Yes, remember together did more than one episode. I'm glad she did. She was great, She's great. I really yeah, I liked it. I thought Tony was the best he's been in this episode. I mean, this was, like, I think, the best mister Turner I've seen. I agree. I agree, relaxed and really relaxed and casual. And I think also there was a little less um like we talked about with the Phoene stuff, there was less of the um. They they kind of dropped the idea that he's scared of mister Phoenie at all, and now they are just contemporaries. And so even the way they interact with each other makes him feel like he's aye more in a playful way. And maybe he has this playful relationship with her, and he has a playful relationship with the students. So it's just kind of that fun mister Turner instead of there being any anxiety like anxiousness around him. It was really great. I thought it felt really good. So Ingrid then comes over to Corey and she is soaking wet covered in its howel all the cool kids were talking about jumping in the pool, but then Ingrid actually jumped in. She didn't know that that wasn't cool to actually jump jump in as a story beat, Like, I just think it's so great in a weird way, I kind of wish that that this was a Topanga storyline or like, because that's like a really endearing, cool moment, like and I think that there's truth to that, right, Like here's the kids who just talk about it, and then there's like somebody who's like, okay, and take some for safe based value, and I'm going to do it, and then everybody makes fun of them for it. Why I love that idea. And and you know, obviously Ingrid's only here for the one episode. Natania was only there, so it doesn't last. But I really like that that's such a that could be such a great bonding character moment for Corey and somebody. Um In a weird way, I feel it was kind of a bummer that that good of a story beat was wasted on this, like right, you know, because it's you know, immediately gets reverted where she's like, you know, leaves him to us the second a guy comes. That didn't but that that through me. It wasn't a big I know why they did it, but that's where I literally wrote down, like, oh man, that was such a nice scene between her and Corey, like they're apologizing to each other and they're no, and then and she's like yeah, and as I know, she really she you know, and she she takes this character all the way through, right, I mean she has to play the sort of like nerd like over the top glasses pigtails thing in the beginning, and then she really inhabits this every version of this character she inhabits really well. And that it's a nice scene, and it's it's kind of you know, it is interesting, like we've seen this a lot this season. They bring in a girl for Corey for one episode and then it's not gonna be continued because of that Topanga girl. No, it's just interesting that you know, they weren't obviously, they weren't ready to really like have Sean have storylines with a girl, which you know, yeah, it was still so much about Corey that every every guest star that's going to have this intense of a storyline or this much of an arc has to be with Corey. When you know, I think later we start spreading those storylines out, so like Eric has girl girls say he's dating you know, better hopefully more developed than Desiree or whatever her name was. And then you know, Sean obviously has relationships, so but we're still in this like zone where we have to like put to Benga an old Brian the cool character, create this awesome storyline and then just bail onset and throw it away. Yeah yeah, And I do think how maybe this episode, like you guys said, was maybe the impetus for trying to get all of what happens in season three where they try to get you guys together a lot. It also, to writer's point, is a good this is a good episode for that where it's like, what's the storyline with Eric's state, what's the storyline with Sean's date, what's the storyline with Corey's date? And in this episode, unfortunately, there wasn't room. It was so focused on Corey's date. But late in later we can write episodes about all of your different relationships. It doesn't have to just focus around the world of Corey. But when you're still a newer show that's a success, it's a little hard to like break out of that mold and do now we're going to do an whole episode about Shawn's relationship. But what this is the show about Corey? And you get you get the network and the studio and all the people kind of point making that note, can this be about Corey? So yeah, you know, moving forward, we kind of we kind of branch out. So Ingrid says her her contacts fell out, and then Corey helps her put her glasses on so she can see, and Ingrid's date left with the popular kids. Corey apologizes to Ingrid for changing her into a cool kid, and then she apologizes for dumping him, even though she knows his intentions were selfish. Corey thinks they probably would have had fun if they had just come to the dances themselves, and then Ingrid leaves with another guy to dance who thought her jumping into the pool was cool, and I wondered if you know, I know you. We talked about whether or not we were a little bummed that she kind of just like threw it away even though they had this nice moment. But it's also kind of commentary on um, when you don't have a friend like Sean, what who would Cory be if he didn't have a Sean? Right? She founding around from social group to social group, chasing status constantly, instead of someone saying, you just be Cory and I'll just be Sean and that's all we need, and so she doesn't have that in this moment. I mean it's not not even just Sean, but Eric too. Like when the three of them sit down at this table together, it was so comforting. It was I remember this scene, but I don't want to sit there at that table. I want to be a part of that table. Character. Yeah, me too felt the same way. Yeah, it felt. It felt really good to see the three of us sitting there together. It did. It was like even in story him saying, yeah, you take a picture of us. Twenty years from now, we'll talk about We'll just say our dates were in the bathroom. And I thought, those those are the things, because that's exactly what life is. Take the picture because in twenty years you won't remember the date stories, but you will remember those friendships and those moments, and those are going to be the things that means something to you. Um. And so it did. It was just everything you guys said. It's so. It was comforting and warm, and I loved it and I wish we had more of it. I wanted I just want to see that. Um. And then Shan woks up again, saying he heard about Corey and Ingrid and his date is in the bathroom. Corey asks if it was the Women's Network, and Shawn says, no, I was standing right here, so it was the Okay. This is the moment where he says that yeah, yeah, the runner pays off in the end. No, I was just standing right here, which is so cute. And then Eric wanders by shocked that Corey was dumped three times at the dance, but then admits his date's old boyfriend came back into town, so she he doesn't have a date either. Corey, Eric and Shawn take a group picture to remember the dance and if twenty year and in twenty years, if anyone asks, their dates were all in the bathroom. And then the picture of you guys appears on screen and I love that you have to say dumped, dumped, and Sean says, you know, geez, and the picture how the episodes of Boy's World end, and then how many episodes end in freeze frame that turns into a picture. I'm genuinely curious. This is like no, I mean, and then I love that it's this happy Holidays from Boy. It's like so um meta, I don't know, it's just really really interesting, like and and it takes you back to the network television days, right, like when it was just going to air once and you aired it on this date to say happy Holidays from our show. It was like sort of message into the television waves like it just doesn't this doesn't happen anymore, you know, and it sho so nice. It's just such a nice, warm blanket of sitcom. Yeah and again, but for something that at the end of the day had nothing to do with the holidays at all. Not a holiday dance. No, it was just regular show. Put up a Christmas tree. Happy Holidays, that's all. Kin kind of like it too. I like it all holiday beamed stuff. I'm such a socker for that stuff like that. I just love Christmas lighting and I love it all so for me, Like I was like, yeah, this feels warm and fuzzy. I like, I'll take it for me too, me too. I love it. So we end the show in the Matthews living room. Eric and Corey return home from the dance and see that Alan and Amy fell asleep in the same shoulder massaging position when the kids left. Eric steals a cookie from their wine plate and throws it at Alan. He realizes he was massaging her for six hours and that's the end of our episode. Oh man, um, really really fun episode. I feel like we've really hit a great groove of episodes me too. We've had a row now that are that are great. Yeah, I I'm loving season two now. And I'll tell you I didn't think I was going to say that, miss and I missed it again for this episode. It's been a few now. I feel like I am starting to miss the Poenie wisdom a little bit. He's just he's he's Bill's not in it as much as he was. So other than that, I think we're all starting to hit our groove. I think we're starting to partner up the way we're supposed to. I think the writing's really crisp. But I'm kind of going like, starting Miss Fenie a little bit, starting Miss Phenie a little bit. He's not a defence hasn't been a defence line anymore in a little while. He hasn't, you know, the classroom is we haven't had the boy's bedroom for a long time either. That set was already gone because I mean, obviously when you're changing, like she could have been coming out of the bathroom in the boy's bedroom. But the fact the Wolf wasn't that long and Corey Wolf was the last one, right, Yeah, it was a couple three or four episodes. Yeah, yeah, it's three or four two o eight and we're on two twelve, so yeah, yeah, it has been a while. But I'm starting to miss Phenie a little bit. That makes sense. You're right, I can see really come back as strong as he did, though I don't know. I think maybe that first season is kind of that was the pinnacle of Poenie. You know, he and then he's there and he's always a presence. But will he have those kinds of like he's actually changing the storyline or engaging with the central the a story to that degree. The only thing I'm wondering is when they get a horrible way to say it, but when they get rid of Tony's character and get rid of Alex's character and Bill is once again the only teacher teacher, maybe they bring it back then, But by that point four or five is that when, yeah, so does he become the teacher again in high school. I've never seen the show. I can't I honestly don't remember. Oh hear send all your emails directly to Daniel Fishell. But he's the dean of the college. I'm right, but I can't remember if he's just stays the principle or if he becomes the teacher again, I have no idea. Well, no, he's the principal at this high school, and this high school is all with your high school. So yeah, we don't change, so he doesn't go. I don't think he needs I don't think he becomes. Although we did see him teaching us last week, right or two episodes ago. Yeah, yeah, he teaches the class too. Okay, I'm wonderfu'll see that more. Well. Join us for our next episode, season two, episode thirteen, Serano, which originally aired January sixth, nineteen ninety five. Thank you all for joining us for this episode of Pod Meets World. You can follow us on Instagram pod Meets World Show. You can send us your emails pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com. And we have merch It's March, it's Greg. It's great. That's from a different episode. Yes, we can't do that. We'll do it scary podcasworldshow dot com. Thank you guys for listening. Writer send us out. We love you all. Pod dismissed. Pod Meets World is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Will Furnell and Ryder Strong executive producers, Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman Executive in charge of production, Danielle Romo, producer and editor, A suit Box producer, Jackie Rodriguez engineer and Boy Meets World superfan Easton Allen. Our theme song is by Kyle Morton of Typhoon. You can follow us on Instagram at Podmeats World Show or send us an email at pod Meets World Show at gmail dot com.