August 26, 2007
Boy Meets World and the greatness of Trini

Okay, I admit it — and I hope it isn’t too obvious — this article completely derailed somewhere in the writing process and only partially resembles my original plan/vision for it. So much so, in fact, that I’m tempted to hold off posting it until I’ve gotten some sleep and had a chance to revise it more fully. Why am I posting it, then? Because, honestly, it reminds me in many ways of the old school Scary-Crayon articles, which more/less wrote themselves. Recent articles have been somewhat more structured and organized due to the way I went about writing them: first I took the photos and/or screencaps for the article, placed the specific images that I wanted to use on the html template, and then wrote the article around the images in accordance with what they depicted. Back in the day, however, I’d collect the images, then write the article off the top of my head — and usually late at night, when I tend to be at my most creative (if a little unhinged) — and finally place the images in accordance with the text. With Boy Meets World and the greatness of Trini, however, I started with no screencaps — save those used as the preview images for the video clips — and sort of (but not really) used them as a rough guide for the article text. As you can see, the piece still kind of got away from me as I penned the latter half of it in the early AM, but I’m okay with that. After all, this is Scary-Crayon, not “Boy Meets World”. Just be glad I spared you the tangent in which I blamed Cory for Trini’s disappearance and potential murder! After all, he was the last person to see her alive…

And yeah, do let me know what you think of the video clips. I saved them at a relatively low quality setting in order to keep the space down. They’re still roughly 4MB apiece, but if you think the quality is too low for them to be enjoyable and would prefer that they be larger, do post a comment to that effect below. I’m not saying that I’ll necessarily follow along, but I do take suggestions and stuff into account. Also, how do you feel about the combination clips — the ones with multiple scenes compiled from a single episode. Do you prefer this format, or would you rather have several shorter clips? And even though you readers of the SC blog have likely already seen it, do comment on the philosophy class clip as well. 🙂

OH! And before I go, I wanted to plug a couple of pages — Popho.com, which is kind of like an E/N review/commentary blog of sorts, and Warehouse8, a kickass new (well, not that new, really) gaming site. I haven’t included them in the links yet because I’m super anal about those columns on the main page lining up, but yeah. Check ’em out!

Mmm’kay, lates — and apologies for any typos. I’ll correct them when I’m more awake. No extensive editing of the core text, though! 😉

-posted by Wes | 6:31 am | Comments (14)
14 Comments »
  • good stuff, wes.. – the embedded video clips are a real nice touch.. – can’t wait to see more articles with video content included.. – and of course, i enjoyed the waking life and madballs references.. – i’ve never seen a full episode of the show.. – i was a big fan of the wonder years, though.. and people have told me i’d probably like it, too..

  • Greg says:

    RTW: “Boy Meets World” is what you would get if “The Wonder Years” was written by the guys who did “Full House”

  • Wes says:

    More or less, but I think the earlier episodes of “Boy Meets World” had far better writing than “Full House”. The later eps, however, were pretty much akin to “The Wonder Years” by the writers of “That’s So Raven” or some horrible WB/UPN/CW sitcom. 🙁

  • RADIX says:

    I see…

    Well, it was made for teens, right? Sooner or later, it had to descend into a “shit” stage to keep the teens interested (who, naturally, are NOT the show’s original audience, but idiotic newgens who can’t grasp onto the concept that–GASP!–life is not perfect). That seems to be the fate of every syndicated live-action “kid’s show”. Kids can’t fathom the depth of shows like “Boy Meets World” once was, and prefer shallow mindlessness over something that may have some bearing in their actual lives. It’s sad, but not nearly as sad as when these brats finally get theirs, and realize, perhaps too late, that LIFE AIN’T FAIR. At the very least, if the parents won’t try and prepare their progeny for these awful moments in life, they could let them watch something like “BMW”, pre-sitcom.

    ‘Sides, the show needed more Trini. 🙁

  • (Sean Connery voice) You have bested me, my friend!

    You might wonder what I meant by that. I’m referring to the fact that you remembered Trini, and I didn’t. But, yeah She was a great character. I also missed Minkus.

    I’m glad someone besides me noticed the way they completely rewrote the character’s personalities after a certain point. The worst defacement being Topanga, given that they totally erased the wonderful offbeat weirdness that made the character so cool to start with. Not to mention the absolute rewrite of the Corey/Topanga relationship. But this is nothing you didn’t cover in the article so I’ll end this paragraph now.

    I will say that I actually *liked* the newer wacky crackhead (you know he was) version of Eric. Don’t know why, I just did.

    Actually, while I vastly prefer the earlier more-intelligent seasons, I do have some fondness for the later, dumber seasons. Primarily BECAUSE they are so bad. Seriously, the train-wreck, nose-dive path the show took was in of itself quite amusing.

    The episode where Corey and Shawn “break-up” and act like a broken up couple was a fine example of the “so bad, it’s good” factor coming into play. It was like they took someone’s bad Corey/Shawn yaoi fanfiction and made an episode out of it!

    Anyone else get what I’m saying?

    Also, bad or not I spent my whole school career wishing for a teacher like Mr.Feeny.

    Anyway, I doubt Trini would have really saved the show. They’d have just reinvented her into a clich? too. Same with Minkus (well he already was one, but still).

    Really, while the early seasons were well written and entertaining, I still wouldn’t say they resembled reality much. The ONLY show I’ve ever seen reflect reality was Daria.

  • Sorry for the double post.

    And sorry for being off-topic, but I’m worried.

    I’m worried that some of you aren’t getting your daily recommended amount of total bullshit in your diet! (The USDA recommends 3 servings a day, you know.)

    Well, fear not because I found plenty of grade A bullshit right here: http://www.davincimethod.com/d.....WAodAU58ZQ

    That’s enough USDA recommended bullshit to last anyone a week.

    (Honestly, since when do all these people (or any people) have the same personality? And, what the HFIL does Harry Potter have to do with any of this horse-shit?)

  • Dillon says:

    Hey, I really liked that show… Admittedly, I saw the later seasons way before the first ones, so that entire thing was really wierd for me, but still, that was a neat-o show.

    And come on, it’s William Daniels and shut. He’s all “Michael, bleh bleh bleh bleh” up in there.

  • Wes says:

    RADIX: Well, you know, I was thinking that maybe “Boy Meets World” had to descend into a shit stage not because of its audience, but because it was a sitcom. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of a single sitcom (“Saved by the Bell” notwithstanding, but then that’s because Zack offset that with his godlike powers) that wasn’t populated with goofy and moronic characters. “Seinfeld” was regarded as being relatively intelligent, but even it had George and Elaine — and especially Kramer — doing some utterly unrealistically ridiculous things.

    Tetsu: You don’t need to apologize for double posts when they are made days apart! You don’t even need to apologize for them when they’re made hours apart, really. Or at all, since it’s not like you can edit them here. This isn’t a forum. 😉

    That link was pretty ridiculous, though I’d totally have taken the test if it didn’t want my e-mail for the results. I can deal with a bullshit quiz, but I don’t need more bullshit spam in my inbox!

    Back to your earlier comment — I’ll admit that I fondly remember the later seasons as well, even if now I can’t help but throw my hands up into the air and wonder how the hell I sat through them without commenting on the changes before. That breakup episode (or at least one of the breakup episodes; there were many) was discussed in the article — it’s fitting that you mention yaoi, since that was pretty much THE episode that made me so acutely aware of all of the gay jokes they’d started throwing around by that point. It was just… weird.

    Anyway, Trini probably wouldn’t have saved the show if they changed her — but if they didn’t she totally would have ruled it. Trini forever! And yes, I too wanted a teacher like Mr. Feeny when I was in school — I think everyone did. No love for wacky crackhead Eric here, though. ;P

    Dillon: I really liked “Boy Meets World” too — it just wasn’t a very good show in the later seasons! I hate to say it (and if you’re reading this, Danielle Fishel, no offense — I still love ya!), but the show grew steadily worse in direct proportion to Topanga’s weight gain.

  • Well I found you don’t really need a valid E-mail address to get your results. I just used the word BULLSHIT (yes written all in capitals) as my name AND e-mail address, and the next page had my results.

    I also tried to buy the book with the word bullshit as all my info, (just to waste their time processing an order they couldn’t send out), but it turns out that while they can’t tell the word bullshit is a valid e-mail address they could tell it wasn’t a valid zip-code (they had no problem with it as the name of a city, state and street though).

    Anyway, you could think of Trini’s demise as a “mercy killing” as in she was eliminated before the show turned to crap and she became another sitcom stereotype.

    And, I love Seinfeld. Jerry and his friends being goofy idiots was the whole point of the show. Plus they were goofy idiots in a realistic way, I know someone just like George, for example.

  • Wes says:

    I think one could make a very good case that the main characters being goofy idiots is the point of most sitcoms, which is probably why I find that I can’t stand the vast majority of them. Like with “Seinfeld”, I’ll step back and grant that at least some of their stupidity is realistic in that there are people who behave as they do. From what I’ve seen of the show (not much, mind you), I do know people who act like George — but I also fucking hate those people, which is why I find it difficult to sit through a Seinfeld episode. So maybe what I find unrealistic about shows like that is not solely that these characters are goofy idiots, but that they’re consistently goofy idiots and nobody gets fed up with their idiocy and massacres them for it! Or maybe I resent these shows’ depiction of the reality that goofy idiots have successful and rewarding lives as they stupidly trample and mistreat the rest of us. 🙁

    And that is why I <3 Trini!

  • Actually, the Seinfeld characters (George in particular) quite frequently get their “just deserts”. Most of the humor in the show is actually derived from their own stupid schemes blowing up in their face (especially George).

    Well, Kramer is usually the exception to this, but sometimes even his insane antics backfire in (IMO) hilarious ways. So, I wouldn’t say they have successful and rewarding lives at all.

    Also some episodes do have the other characters getting fed up with them. Hell, the series ended with them *going to jail* for being jerks. Every minor bit character they’ve ever screwed-over showed up to testify!

    Not that I’m defending sitcoms in general, but there’s a few I think are great. (But, yeah pretty much *all* sitcoms are about goofy idiots. You’re right there.)

    There’s, of course, nothing wrong with not liking Seinfeld, but I don’t think all the reasons you stated really apply to it.

    _______

    I also think realism may be getting a little overrated in this thread. I don’t think a show has to be “realistic” to be good. I know we both like sci-fi shows and anime and they’re hardly realistic at all.

    Perhaps “believable” is a better word than “realistic” because even in sci-fi and fantasy settings believability is important. But it’s not the same thing as realism.

    And, I think we can both agree that sadly believability is sorely missing from the later seasons of “Boy Meets World” along with most other sitcoms.

  • Fauna says:

    Ah, what is it about us creative types that always admire the unique, caring character of a show? So many times have I sided with the “normal-but-kinda-quirky” character on a cartoon (most recently with Alice on “Bakugan”)
    Haven’t been able to see Boy Meets World in a while, but Trini seems quite cool.

  • Wes says:

    Tetsu: Well, I’ve only seen a few episodes of “Seinfeld”, so I can’t say anything about it beyond that — and it does sound kind of cool that the characters went to jail in the final episode for being jerks. But if the characters were such jerks that they went to jail on their own show, I can see why I didn’t like it! I find it pretty much impossible to sit through a show with characters I wouldn’t be able to tolerate in real life.

    And by “realistic” I didn’t necessarily mean directly realistic, but rather comparable — or relevant — to real life and real issues. Like I wouldn’t criticize “Buffy” in this respect because while a young woman sleeping with her boyfriend for the first time might not expect him to lose his soul and start trying to kill her and all of her friends, she might legitimately be concerned that he’ll be a jerk to her afterwards and stop calling. I think I also used the terms “sincere” and “genuine” a few times in the article, because in the earlier episodes the characters on “Boy Meets World” had a kind of earnestness about them that they completely lacked later on — namely when they became ridiculous goofy idiots.

    If there’s any emphasis on realism here, it’s only by negation — my problem is less that the characters and/or plot devices are not realistic, but more that their characterization is over-the-top stupid and unrealistic. And what’s most unrealistic about it is that other characters actually put up with that shit without, well, having the goofy morons sent to jail or something. 8)

    Fauna: If Trini seems quite cool in these clips (the clips did work, yes?), then Trini seems quite cool period — these clips literally contain the entirety of all of the scenes in which Trini appeared.

    Never heard of “Bakugan” — any good? The Wiki article about it kinda makes it sound like Yu-Gi-Oh. 😛

  • Ok, I get what you mean.

    That’s kinda what I meant by “Believable” instead of “Realistic” but, yeah both words work really well anyway.

    “Sincere” is a good word too, now that you mention it.

    After all, my favourite show is “Code Lyoko” because of the realistic/believable/sincere way they depict their main characters (a group of friends in their early teens) while placing them in a fantasy of battling an evil virus in a digital world. (God, I love that show!)

    And, I think I might want to see the episode of Buffy you refer to (and I normally hate the TV version of Buffy).

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