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On September 24,
1993 we were introduced to the Matthew Family and Boy Meets World
which stared Ben Savage (as Corey Matthews), William Russ (as Alan
Matthews), Betsy Randle (as Amy Matthews), Will Friedle (as Eric
Matthews), Rider Strong (as Shawn Hunter), Danielle Fishel (Topanga
Lawrence), Lily Nicksay (as Morgan Matthews), and Lee Norris (as
Stuart Minkus). Danielle Fishel however is not in a “starring” role
in Season 1, as she does not appear in the opening sequence, it was
not till season 2 that she became a full "star". The series ran
through May 2000 with an impressive 7 year run producing 158
episodes. Boy Meets World aired Friday Nights on ABC as part of
TGIF, the series originally being aimed at those too young date to,
hence being home on Friday Nights. The show is possibly TGIF’s
greatest success. ABC relaunched the programming block TGIF recently
with family friend shows such as George Lopez. Boy Meets World has
only been off the air for 4 years, but strives in syndication on the
Disney Channel and ABC Family.
Season 1 includes
… Pilot, On the Fence, Father Knows Less, Cory's Alternative
Friends, Killer Bees, Boys II Mensa, Grandma Was a Rolling Stone,
Teacher's Bet, Class Pre-Union, Santa's Little Helper, The
Father/Son Game, Once in Love with Amy, She Loves Me, She Loves Me
Not, The B-Team of Life, Model Family, Risky Business, The Fugitive,
It's a Wonderful Night, Kid Gloves, The Play's the Thing, Boy Meets
Girl, I Dream of Feeny
Packaging
You have your standard fold out packaging. The main color of the
packaging is a nice cranberry/dark red color. The cover features the
logo with pictures of Corey, Topanga, Shawn and Eric (see for
yourself at the top of this page). Once you slide out the fold out
part, you see the same picture format as on the main cover, yet with
a few different pictures ... if you flip that over you see a nice
full color shot of Corey and Shawn flexing their muscles. I was a
tad disappointed that there was no book or anything included which
gave episode descriptions. My mind sometimes fails me in remembering
back 10 years. On the back of the case you'll find a few pictures
from season 1 along with a description of the DVD.
When you first open it you see two sides which look like notebook
paper, on the left is a bunch of photos from season 1 and on the
right is is a short note by Michael Jacobs. When you open it all the
way you have the three DVD’s and on the far left you have listing of
all the episodes with a nice cast photo, with asterisks indicating
those episodes for which audio commentary is available. DVD #1
features a head shot of Corey, while #2 features a head shot of
Shawn, and #3 has a shot of Topanga. Each DVD also lists on the
cover all the episodes included on it. Behind the DVD's are shots
are random shots from season 1 in a purple and gray scale somewhat
faded.
Menus &
Functionality
You pop in the DVD and are greeted by the Boy Meets World Logo,
with a spinning globe and soccer ball. On the top of you have
various characters from the series going up and down (Corey, Shawn,
Topanga, Eric, and then Amy and Alan), almost like a jack in the
box. When all this is going on, you are hearing the theme song in
the background. If you leave this up for any extended amount of
time, it loops. On the main menu you have options to “Play All”,
“Episode Selection”, “Bonus Features” and “Setup”. I won’t comment
further on the Play All function. Episode Selection bring you to a
screen with, you guessed it, the episodes included on that specific
DVD (3 are included). The episode selection screen has a darker red
background with screenshots of each of the episode with the title
below, and the episode number on top of a baseball. Clicking on an
episode brings you to that specific episode, unfortunately no
episode descriptions of original air date information is present on
the actual DVD. The basic “Set Up” screen allows you the option to
turn English Closed Captioning ON or OFF and also gives you the
option to “Register” your DVD (a computer is required), registration
allows you to get support and help if you should run into trouble
with your DVD. Bonus Features brings you to a screen which includes
bonuses on that particular DVD. For example, on DVD #3 you see
Episodes “Boy Meets Girl” and “Hair Today Goon Tomorrow” (a Bonus
episode from Season 4). You then have the option to choose audio
commentary (which I discuss in “Special Features”) ON or OFF. To
watch the bonus episode, “Hair Today”, you need to go into the Bonus
Features section and click OFF on Audio Commentary to watch this
episode normally. Little Pencils indicate your selections.
Audio & Video
Quality
Boy Meets World isn’t all that old, so you would expect the
video and audio quality to be pretty good. I’m glad to say, you
won’t be disappointed. As originally seen on TV the video is full
screen. The picture is crystal clear, vivid color, and extremely
clean. I would say, near perfect. The audio features as Dolby
Digital 2.0 Surround track. The audio is great as well, no
complaints on my end. Each episode runs approximately 23:15 and the
set is rated TV G.
Special
Features
Some of you are going to be mighty disappointed. Previous
reports and rumors listed blooper reels, and a featurette as part of
this release .. but no. Upon looking at the back of the box, Bonus
Features are listed as “Audio Commentaries” and “Bonus Episode –
Season 4”. About 4 of the 22 episodes included have Audio
Commentary. Ben Savage, Rider Strong, Will Friedle, Michael Jacobs
and Matthew Lawrence provide the commentary. In some releases the
commentary is great and in other releases it’s a bit tedious. I have
to say it was well done for Boy Meets World. While there are a few
gaps of silence, it is cool listening to the stars and producers
talk various aspects of the show and that particular episode, to get
a behind-the-scenes point of view. The bonus episode from season 4
was a nice sneak peak into future releases, but it seemed a bit
random to include it. Why not an episode from season 2?
Final Thoughts
& Recommendations
This release comes just in time for the series 10th
anniversary. Having watched the series through the end, it’s kind of
odd for being seeing the beginning again, everyone is just so young!
Of course I was disappointed with the lack of special features, but
I have a feeling we’ll see something in future season releases.
Buena Vista isn’t fooling around with future releases either, Season
2 is schedule for release on November 30th. Any Boy Meets
World Fan is going to want to have their own copy of Season 1 so
they have a good start on their collection.
...
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4.5/5
4.0/5