Everybody loves watching their favourite sitcom characters gown up for an evening of mischief — however one of the best Halloween episodes are those that dare to suppose exterior the field.
Boy Meets World’s “And Then There Was Shawn” suits that mould. The season 5 episode, which aired in February 1998, was directed by Jeff McCracken and written by Jeff Menell and marked a inventive change in course for the sometimes formulated household comedy sequence.
The story follows the aftermath of Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga’s (Danielle Fishel) breakup, which leaves their greatest good friend, Shawn (Rider Robust), reeling. When a spat a couple of pencil with classmate Kenny (Richard Lee Jackson) escalates, the trio — together with Angela (Trina McGee), Eric (Will Friedle), Jack (Matthew Lawrence) and Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) — discover themselves locked inside the varsity after a day of detention with a killer on the unfastened.
With real leap scares, bloody deaths and countless references to ‘90s horror flicks, “And Then There Was Shawn” took Boy Meets World to a spot no different community sitcom had gone earlier than.
“I keep in mind considering it was essentially the most bonkers factor on this planet,” Robust informed Leisure Weekly in August 2022, noting that whereas the present had achieved a “few episodes that went form of loopy” — like their crossover with Sabrina the Teenage Witch — he was by no means a fan of “breaking the principles” of the present’s construction till studying the script for “And Then There Was Shawn.”
“I keep in mind loving this one from the get-go. We simply thought it was hysterical,” he stated. “I’m an enormous fan of horror movies. I used to be a fan of Scream and the revival of horror movies that was occurring at that second. So I simply keep in mind loving it.”
One thing else the episode had these different sitcoms didn’t? A cameo by Friedle’s then-girlfriend, Jennifer Love Hewitt, who had not too long ago starred in horror blockbuster I Know What You Did Final Summer time.
“Love and I had been relationship for some time by that time,” Friedle defined to EW about how her position happened. “I believe that was a yr and a half or two years into our relationship. I do know [cocreator] Michael Jacobs needed to have any individual from the horror franchises. … So he requested me if I might ask her if she can be on the present. We had been very shut on the time, so she knew all people on the forged, clearly, and all people knew her nicely, so it appeared like match.”
Whereas the precise killer seems to be (spoiler alert!) Shawn himself — a reveal the forged felt was barely too “tacky” of an evidence to suit into the episode’s spookier narrative — Robust, Friedle and Fishel nonetheless keep in mind the expertise as their “greatest” time on set throughout Boy Meets World’s run. McCracken, nonetheless, might have had a distinct expertise as director.
“Directorially, this episode was a catastrophe for Jeff. He was so sad with us,” Robust quipped. “It’s very onerous to do single-camera jokes and results with a multi-camera crew. He clearly was attempting to do particular photographs and particular homages and peculiar little tilts, and I believe it was only a nightmare. We didn’t assist by always making one another snicker and never taking the job significantly. I believe it was a extremely robust episode for Jeff.”
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