Boy Meets World Star Says Female Stars Were Treat Like Meat By Disney

Maitland Ward called out how young actresses were treated while filming Boy Meets World, saying it was the way it was back then.

Recent times have shone a light on some dubious casting processes and uncomfortable on-set behavior in some well-known TV shows of past decades. It seems that one such incident of this happened in Boy Meets World, the ABC series that has previously seen stars of the show call out some of the more uncomfortable times spent filming. In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the star of the series Maitland Ward discussed her time working on the series and how specific issues caused by "the Disney machine" at the time made it hard to work on. She explained:

"Even though there were issues with Disney and production and my character and relationships, I do remember it as an innocent time, though, with a cast that was very much family. And I mean that in all possible ways because it's like with family. You fight with family, you have issues, but you still were connected. And I think a producer from the show told me no matter what, after all this time, we're always going to be connected in this way. You can't change that. And I think that's special and good...The issues mainly came from Disney, and that it wasn't so much with the cast members. It was more the whole Disney machine back then, especially back in the late '90s and early 2000s when girls were treated like meat. You had to be virginal, but you also had to be sexual."

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Although every show goes through changes, Boy Meets World seemed to have two particular instances of characters being cut from the show very unexpectedly. Anthony Tyler Quinn played Jonathan Turner in the show for over 51 episodes, but many viewers were shocked when he vanished partway through season 4. Speaking about his sudden departure last year, Quinn explained that after initially being given a strong storyline for season 4, he was told that it was all being cut for the show to go in a new direction. He said:

"So, I just go, 'What happened?' and he goes, 'So the network and the studio came at us last minute with some change. They said the kids are going into high school now and we wanna explore that whole dynamic, so we're going to change it up. It was kind of unexpected [and] last minute, so there was nothing we could do to save it. He goes, 'It is what it is,' and that was it."

Another strange incident of a cast member not making it to the end of the show was actress Trina McGee, who played Angela Moore, who failed to appear in the series finale despite being in the penultimate episode. While speaking on a rewatch podcast, McGee said that her exclusion came at the request of her co-stars. She said:

"I was told, in kind of a weird, off-handed way by a very important person, that you guys all went to [showrunner] Michael Jacobs, and you said, ‘We don't want her in the last episode. She's somehow taking our light.’ [That] was the gist of it. I was told that after I shot what was the show before the last episode, which was called ‘Angela's Ashes’ when I left. "

While the show certainly had its share of issues, it did not impact the series' popularity at the time, but it is clear that not everything would have been done in the same way if it was being made now.

Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. As well as keeping up with the lastest entertainment news and writing about it for MovieWeb, he works as a video editor, voice over artist and production designer. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script.