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"She wasn't supposed to be on forever."
If you're a certain age, you probably watched a lot of Boy Meets World as a kid.
ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
Try to imagine the show without Topanga, who was played by Danielle Fishel. Impossible, right? She was a pretty important character!
ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
Well, Fishel revealed at this year's 90s Con (via People) that Topanga was initially only supposed to appear on the show for a short time — like, a really short time.
Paul Archuleta / Getty Images
During a panel discussion, her former costar Will Friedle (who, you surely recall, played Eric Matthews) revealed that Fishel's casting was initially supposed to be temporary.
ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
"She wasn't supposed to be on forever," Friedle said. "And then you came in and killed it, and then it changed the whole show."
Danny Watson / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
"Yeah, it was only supposed to be, I think, one episode — possibly a recurring — and then she basically became the rest of the show," Fishel confirmed.
Scott Humbert / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
Fishel also revealed that there are dueling narratives about how "Topanga" got her name.
TV Guide / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
"I think the truth is there was a woman who created the character of Topanga — she was in the writers' room — and I think she wanted the character to be a flower child," she said.
TV Guide / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
"And she picked the name Topanga because in the San Fernando Valley, where the show was filmed, there is an area called Topanga Canyon, and that canyon was kind of a known hippie hangout in the '60s and even still is a kind of flower child-y area."
But she also revealed that show co-creator Michael Jacobs claims he came up with the name while driving on the freeway.
Steve Fenn / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
"The story that Michael Jacobs tells is that he was in the car on the freeway when the writers called and that he needed a name for this character, and he was at the Topanga Canyon offramp on the freeway," she explained.
Touchstone Television / courtesy Everett Collection
"So the joke he made is that had they called him two minutes later, she could have been named De Soto. It's really funny, but I don't know that that's the true story, so there's both!"
Craig Sjodin / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
Whichever story it is, it's a good thing that Fishel stayed on the show. Boy Meets World just wouldn't be the same without Topanga.
Touchstone Television / courtesy Everett Collection
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