I have never understood why ABC only released the first three seasons of Cory, Topanga and Shawn's awesome adventures through adolescence. I mean, those weren't even the best seasons. Things got really juicy when Feeny and the gang hit high school in Season 4. Just think about - that was the season Topanga cut all her hair off, Shawn and Cory turned Mr. Feeny's house into a B & B and Shawn dressed up in drag. And the show just got better after that. Season 5 introduced us to those legendary opening credits, not to mention the best episode in BMW history - "And Then There Was Shawn" - or as it might be called in Friends-speak, "The One With Jennifer Love Fefferman".
If you watched Boy Meets World then you know about "And Then There Was Shawn". It was an epic episode which veered outside BMW's the typical teenage situational dramedy curriculum and took a field trip to my favourite genre of the 90s: teen slasher flicks. The concept seemed simple enough - Cory, Topanga, Shawn and Angela get sentenced to late-night detention with Feeny. But it got scary-awesome after the lights mysteriously flickered off and the gang's classmate, Kenny got a pencil to the head (cue the timely "He killed Kenny!" jokes). The episode just got creepier (and in the mind of a certain I Know What You Did Last Summer-loving nine-year-old, cooler) from there (see: the shady janitor, the eerie music flowing out of the PA system, the hooded figure running by in the background, the random phone calls coming in from the hall payphone), but the highlight had to be the guest appearance by the scream queen of the 90s (and my tweenage idol), Jennifer Love Hewitt.
When Cory, Topanga, Shawn, Eric, Jack and Angela went into the hallway to investiage the creepy goings-on, they encountered John Adams' newest student, Jennifer Love Fefferman (also known as Feffy - which I always thought was a sly reference to that other teen drama that made 90s TV so freakin' cool - Buffy). Horror-themed hilarity and awkward Eric moments ensued - and the result was spoofy sitcom gold. I remember loving this episode so much that my friends and I would try and recreate it on the playground during lunch. While the other kids were playing soccer, tag and you know, being kids, we would hang out on the grass and pretend to be high school kids hiding from a masked murderer. I was always Feffy.
I could go on about Feeny and the divine Miss Fefferman for days - but I won't. Just watch the episode and feel the 90s love for yourself.
*Photo - Boy Meets World DVD*
Mood Music: Sabrina the Teenage Witch - The Album (Yep, I TGIF-ing love 90s nostalgia.)
