Danielle Fishel Recalls How a Boy Meets World Episode Was Written About Her and Will Friedle’s Weight Gain

Not all of Danielle Fishel‘s Boy Meets World memories are positive.

The actress — who played Topanga Lawrence on the ’90s sitcom — recalled one of the show’s plot lines centering around her and costar Will Friedle‘s appearance after they had both gained weight.

On the August 12 episode of Pod Meets World, Fishel, 43, told her co-host Rider Strong and guest Candace Cameron Bure about the meeting she had when she was told that her weight gain would be incorporated into the show.

“They called me into the office to tell me they were going to [write about it] – it wasn’t really like they asked,” she claimed. “Obviously, it was Will and I. Will had gained some weight. I had gained some weight. [And the writers said], ‘Obviously, you guys have gained a little bit of weight, so we’re gonna write an episode about it. And we just wanted you to know. And here’s what it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be really funny.'”

Fishel said that the “hardest part” of the meeting was that her costar was so nonchalant about it.

“Will very much was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m totally fine with it.’ Just immediately. Which, I know now, he was very insecure, and it was really painful for him,” she recalled. “And for me, it was more like, ‘Oh, wow.’ Like, I didn’t – no one had said anything to me about it. I had been aware that I had gained weight, but I was still you know, I was a size 4.”

She continued, “And so, I remember thinking, wow, these people think I’ve gained enough weight [that] we have to write an entire episode about my weight gain… And I have to say I’m fine with it, because they didn’t even present to me another alternative. And even if they did, I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable being like, ‘Yeah. I don’t wanna do that.'”

Strong, 44, said that even if Fishel had spoken up, it likely would’ve turned out worse. “If you had canned [that idea] – if you had said, ‘I’m not comfortable doing that – that would’ve been the story,” he said. “It’s such a weird situation, so much pressure.”

Fishel admitted that the experience made it so thoughts of her body and her weight were “just in my head forever.”

The topic came up because Fishel asked if Bure had ever had an episode written about her weight on Full House.

“I had lost like 20 pounds from the end of one season to another,” Bure, 48, recalled. “I came in losing 20 pounds, but they thought it was so great, and they were like, ‘Oh, on the opening titles, why don’t we have you on an exercise bike? Just to promote that?'”

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“Looking back, I don’t think that was bad,” Bure said. “I mean, I really put a lot of hard work and effort into losing 20 pounds.”

The difference, though, was that the Full House writers talked to Bure’s parents and to her beforehand and asked, “Would you feel comfortable if we wrote an episode like this?”

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ But when you’re doing it, it feels a little awkward,” she admitted.