So Cory's dancin his way away over at Chubbie's with a girl that we've seen before. The actress's name is Hillary Tuck, and she played Sarah in On The Air. But for absolutely no reason that I can come up with, her name is Kristen now. Why is this? It doesn't make any sense at all, there would be no problem if it was the same girl from On The Air. I would say it's laziness, but lazy would have been keeping the same name! I just don't know how this happened.
They take a seat in a booth and Cory lays down the smooth moves. Apparently he's been serial-dating recently. They smooch, and Cory calls her "Topanga" afterward. Stay classy, Boy Meets World.
In Turner's classroom the next day, Cory and Shawn discuss Cory's new plan to re-date Topanga since he's clearly not over her. Turner begins class and we learn the results of some environmental essay writing contest. The winners who will be receiving a trip to Walt Disney World are Kristen, some dude who's not nearly as cool as Shawn named Ronnie "Lips" Watterman, and Topangarino. So Cory's plan to woo her is over before it begins. Later than night, Eric's advice is to just run off to Disney World ASAP to chase after her.
Well.... I don't know how to feel about this. It goes without saying that he is in fact going to run off to Disney World. So are we okay with it? Surely the writers know this is ridiculous, and they just wanted to use their "One Disney World/Land Episode" voucher that all the sitcoms got in the 90s. I can't wait for the stock footage, yum yum.
But don't worry. Eric's got a plan.
This is actually one of my favorite gags. Once again Eric's got the episode on his shoulders.
I just want to point out again that they already took their final exams. Why are they still in school? Just air that episode later, for crying out loud, this stuff is so simple.
Shawn comes along with two plane tickets to Florida. He got them from his "Uncle Mickey". So I guess Shawn is coming too. Cory tries to save them both the trouble by spilling his heart to Topanga before she leaves. How incredibly rational. But she gets pulled away for a minute, and in that small window Kristen manages to sneak in.
She promises to patch things up when she gets back from Florida and kisses him, but Topanga sees and gets pretty upset. I guess we're going to Disney World.
AW YEAH BABY look at all this delicious stock footage. Got an aerial shot, the monorail, the Epcot golf ball thing, Cindy's castle, the works. Was there a law that said every show had to do this in the 90s? I guess it's just the law of "show our park on your show and we give you money". Shawn and Cory arrive, apparently those tickets were for a cargo plane, which is slightly more believable than otherwise. They don't have much of a plan here, just "find Topanga". Back at school, Eric's plan is working, as he receives praise from an offscreen teacher.
That is hysterical. A lot of it is in the way Eric says "thank you", so it's somewhat lost in the gif, but god damn, it gets me every time.
Mr. Feeny sees Eric stuff the dummy into his locker, and in the spirit of the running joke, thinks it's actually Cory. They have a really funny exchange, and ultimately Feeny does not find out about the dummy. So this plan is lookin pretty rock solid.
There's some bull shit with the essay winners and some dolphins and the dolphin trainer, and because this is a TV show, Cory and Shawn arrive on the scene. Buuuuuuuuuuut Kristen sees Cory before Topanga does, and she thinks he's there for her. This is girl is fuckin FRUIT LOOPS people, just complete wackadoo. But it wouldn't be a sitcom without these ZANY MIXUPS WEEEEHEHEHEHOOOOO. Kristen kisses Cory after proclaiming her love for him (re: fruit loops) and Topanga's lookin piiiiiiiiiiiissed.
Shawn and Cory spend the night in the log flume ride. There's some more stock footage and a little montage of Cory and Shawn asking Beast and Mouseketeer Goofy for directions or if they've seen Topanga or something, I don't know, the only sound over this footage is some whimsical flute montage music. You know what I'm talking about. Then we get another montage of Cory showing up wherever Topanga and Ronnie "Lips" Watterman are.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz but hey, I'm sure they got paid a lot of money to give us this many different shots of Disney World. Either way, Cory's hard work isn't paying off. Topanga tells him to stop chasing her, quite sternly.
Hey. Fezzes are cool.
Anyway, Topanga thinks they're all just meaningless gestures, since every time she turns around, Cory's got Kristen's tongue in his mouth. And right on cue, Kristen shows up behind him. Once again, Topanga storms off.
Are you fucking me right now? Did that really just happen? I am so ready to be done with this.
Anyway she chases after him like "oh Cory I heard what you said blah blah blah, thank goodness I was suspiciously spying on you in this random unsupervised and likely off-limits location." And then they kiss in front of some fountains because that was literally the only way this was gonna end.
During the credits, we're at the Matthews house. Cory gets grounded for a month, and Morgan gets her first genuinely funny joke, perhaps the only one, of the series.
It's bleeped over, obviously, and she's probably just making random sounds, but it kinda looks like she's saying "ass shit cunt". Either way, definitely unexpected, definitely funny.
And finally Mr. Feeny finds a body in a shallow grave in his garden.
So there we go, there's our 22 minute Disney World advertisement. Where magic happens, or whatever. I wonder what happened to Kristen? I mean she did sort of tell Cory that she's in love with him. She's probably gonna hook up with Ronnie "Lips" Watterman on the rebound, poor girl. That dude's a real douche.
Plot: 0.25 - Disney World/Land episodes are notoriously terrible. I don't need to explain why this story was ridiculous.
Character Development: 1.0 - Cory and Topanga are back together.
Humor: 1.0 - Humor was definitely on point today. Every scene with Eric was hilarious, Shawn had some good stuff, so did Cory when he wasn't being an emotional wreck. AND MORGAN. Never thought I'd say that.
Life Lesson: 0.25 - If you actually love someone, you should give it a honest try, but for fuck's sake don't chase them to Orlando if they're coming back in a few days.
2.50 out of 4.0. It's worth watching just for the humor. The delivery adds a lot to the jokes, so it's significantly better in video than in gif.
See you Wednesday for the season finale.
If I read correctly, I think all of the TGIF shows on ABC were doing Disney episodes that week, because Disney had acquired ABC when these episodes were being filmed, so they were kinda forced into it by ABC and pressure because all of the other shows were doing it I'd imagine.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, the premise is still stupid as shit, but they put a really good effort with what they had, and I personally think this is one of the funniest episodes in the series when it tries to be funny, but eh that's just my two cents.
That sounds reasonable. And yeah, this episode is definitely hilarious.
DeleteI'm not sure how things were at your high school, but there are generally two sets of finals: one at the end of the fall semester and then at the end of the spring semester.
ReplyDeleteOh, for sure, but this is DEFINITELY spring time. The finals I'm talking about were in 3x18, and remember the New Year's episode was 3x10. So spring finals definitely happened already.
DeleteThis was probably a case of executive meddling. ABC possibly aired the episode out of order and 3x18 was meant to be the season's penultimate episode. In any case, the Disney World thing would be less flimsy if they at least had that occur in the summer. Hell, a lot of the events of the past few episodes could have taken place over the summer.
DeleteWell, except "Brother Brother" begins at the start of summer vacation, which is an important plot point, so that has to be the last episode. Anyway, I think it's just an error. The last three episodes of the season all feel like end-of-season episodes - focusing on Shawn's storyline, then Cory and Topanga's, then Eric's. I'd have put "Life Lessons" after Teenage Spy, certainly, but not before the other ones.
DeleteThat said, it's not like you take finals and immediately go on summer break. I think we tended to have at least a week after we took finals but before we went on break. But then, it's hard to cram in a whole Disney trip in there.
Just a Fun Fact, Lips was played by, I believe, Andrew Keegan who was also in the movie Camp Nowhere with that chick from a previous episode. He was also in 10 Things I Hate About You and got punched by....wait for it....Larisa Oleynik. BMW basically had EVERYONE under the sun appear at least once.
ReplyDeleteNot a single word on the lamest crossover of TV show history starring Dana Foster?...
ReplyDeleteNobody watched Step By Step, except by accident.
ReplyDeletePreeeeeeeeeeetty much
DeleteWas there a law that said every show had to do this in the 90s? I guess it's just the law of "show our park on your show and we give you money".
ReplyDelete^ Disney owned ABC, and had all of the 90s ABC sitcoms go to Disney World.
But I'm sure you know that by now.
I do, though I continue to try to forget
DeleteAbout the name change of Hillary Tuck's character, my guess is that she was cast after the part of "Kristen" had already been set in the script, and no one on the production staff had the idea or thought it was important to change the character's name to "Sarah" to smooth out continuity. In those days it was very common for actors to play multiple one-shot characters on tv shows, so it makes sense that no one in the casting process would take notice of this.
ReplyDeleteSome Jerk with a Camera, an internet reviewer/comedian who reviews everything theme park related (really), did a series of episodes on 90s ABC sitcoms going to Disney World, including this episode. The BMW review ended up being one of the more positive reviews in the series. It's very funny and also provides a good look at the series from an outsider's perspective. Just to warn you though, his delivery style is abrasive and he uses a lot of random and surreal humor.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ0W4ff8VBI
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ReplyDeleteWhen I rewatched the series this was the episode I most looked forward too. I would say I still have nostalgia goggles for this episode but they are no longer rose-tinted. I'm such a suck for this disney world romance crap(I acknowledge that it's crap but that won't make me stop liking it) and it just amplifies when it happens on a show I already enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest thing about the Eric/dummy "Thank you" scene is that the off screen teacher isn't just praising Cory, he is praising him for an excellent oral report. Which means Eric and the dummy gave an oral report to the class. Too funny
ReplyDeleteShawn thanking his "Uncle Mickey" would be a great joke, if not a bit on the nose, but unfortunately he pretty clearly says Nicky.
ReplyDelete