‘Boy Meets World’: Danielle Fishel Wasn’t Allowed to Be Sleeveless for an Infuriating Reason
What To Know
- Danielle Fishel, who played Topanga on Boy Meets World, was not allowed to wear sleeveless shirts in later seasons.
- Costumer Julie Yang Silver revealed there were frequent, heated discussions about Fishel’s wardrobe, despite Fishel remaining a size 2 and not being considered large by the costume team.
- The costume department tried to shield Fishel, then a teenager, from these body-related discussions to protect her psychological well-being.
Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel wasn’t allowed to wear sleeveless shirts while playing Topanga in later seasons, according to a costumer for the coming-of-age ABC sitcom.
During the March 2 episode of the Pod Meets World podcast — hosted by Fishel, Will Friedle (Eric Matthew), and Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter) — costumer Julie Yang Silver dished on the “heated discussions” about Fishel’s wardrobe. Yang Silver worked for the Boy Meets World costume department from Season 3 through Season 7.
“I put on a bunch of weight towards the end,” Friedle pointed out. “Danielle put on a little bit of weight towards the end, but of course it was all about how she put on ‘so much’ weight.”
The actor explained that Fishel told him she was allowed to help pick out Topanga’s wedding dress for her Season 7 wedding to Cory Matthews (Ben Savage), “but none of them were allowed to be sleeveless.” Friedle added, “She thinks that one of the reasons why that was because certain powers-that-be thought that she looked too heavy to show her arms bare.”
“Yes,” Yang Silver confirmed. “It was constant conversation.”
“And the thing was, Danielle was not heavy,” Yang Silver insisted. “That’s what I was trying to explain to them: ‘She’s still a size 2. I don’t know what you guys are talking about.'”
The costumer continued, “She had bloomed outwards. Danielle wasn’t very tall, so if you are bustier and you’re not very tall, you’re going to look larger. But she wasn’t. You guys saw her every single day. She was not large at all.”
When Friedle asked whether Fishel knew that her body was a topic of discussion among the executives, Yang Silver admitted, “I think she knew.”
She added, “But we really tried to hide that from her … because she’s a teenager. That’s going to get in her head. That’s what [producer] Karen [MacKain] and I were both saying: She is a young woman, and that can do so much psychological damage, and it’s so not worth it. We were treading very, very lightly.”
Boy Meets World aired for seven seasons from 1993 to 2000. In 2014, a spinoff sequel, Girl Meets World, premiered; it aired for three seasons and ended in 2017.
Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World, streaming on Disney+
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