Will Friedle is planning to stage one of the “biggest” Boy Meets World reunions at his upcoming 50th birthday party.
“[The guest] list is final,” Friedle, 50, began the Thursday, August 13, episode of his “Pod Meets World” podcast with former costars Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong, who played Topanga Lawrence and Shawn Hunter on the hit sitcom. “We have … the whole layout of where everything’s going to be. I moved where the bar was going to be and where the prom [style] photo station is going to be. We’re at about 170 guests.”
He continued, “There were 53 people at my wedding [to wife Susan Martens]. There’s more than three times the amount of people coming to my 50th. Every time I get down on myself where I say to Sue, ‘This is ridiculous. Why am I doing this?’ She’s like, ‘Hey, you haven’t had a birthday party since you were 12. This is every birthday built up. You deserve this.’”
Among the guests at Friedle’s milestone birthday will include a number of his former Boy Meets World colleagues.
“It’s gonna be a ton of fun,” he gushed on Thursday’s episode. “Sue and I’ve been talking about the little pockets of people that are going to be there because I have people that I grew up with, then some of the cast of Don’t Just Sit There in New York I did when I was 11 are going to be there. My summer camp best friend from, like, seventh grade is flying in. And, other than [producer and writer] Matt Nelson’s funeral, this might be the biggest gathering of Boy Meets World cast and crew since the show ended.”
Boy Meets World ran from 1993 to 2000, following Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) throughout middle school and beyond with his friends and family by his side. Friedle notably starred as Cory’s older brother, Eric Matthews. The cast was rounded out by Fishel, 45, Strong, 46, Betsy Randle, William Russ, Matthew Lawrence, Maitland Ward, Trina McGee and William Daniels.
“Most of the writers [and] producers [will be coming too]. There’s gonna be a whole group,” Friedle teased, noting that Daniels, 99, and his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, would also be in attendance for a dose of major nostalgia thanks to Mr. Feeny and onscreen wife Dean Lila Bolander’s appearance. “It’s gonna be the biggest Boy Meets World group since Matty’s [memorial] — and it’s for a good thing.”
Friedle, who did not disclose the rest of the guest list, and the BMW crew have been distanced from Savage, 45, in the years since the beloved sitcom wrapped. (Savage, who has never publicly addressed the apparent falling-out, has since taken a step back from Hollywood.)
“Ben refused to do the [‘Pod Meets World’ recap] podcast, but we still communicated with him, still on friendly terms, we thought,” Strong claimed in the cast’s Boy Meets World documentary, which premiered in June. “He unfollowed us on Instagram and blocked our phone numbers. I feel sorry that he’s missing out on the experience that Danielle and Will and I are having.”
While Savage seemingly separated himself from the BMW cast, he remained close to show creator Michael Jacobs.
“They’ve always been … creative partners,” Strong exclusively told Us at the doc premiere. “I mean, I think Michael saw himself in Ben, you know, and then was writing a lot of his own childhood through Ben, and they just had a great relationship.”
Jacobs, 70, later created the Girl Meets World spinoff on Disney Channel, which ran from 2014 to 2017, and brought back Savage, Fishel, Friedle and Strong to reprise their roles.
