‘Girl Meets World’ Creator Michael Jacobs Teases Shawn and Angela’s Unexpected Reunion at ATX Festival 2015

As one of the many adults who watch Girl Meets World because they grew up on Boy Meets World, I was genuinely excited when I learned that Trina McGee-Davis, who played Shawn’s first love Angela, would be making an appearance on the Disney Channel continuation.

To this day, the pair stands out in my mind when I think about examples of interracial relationships portrayed to my generation on TV and, outside of that, I loved the realness their relationship portrayed, juxtaposed against Cory and Topanga’s (usually) perfect relationship. These things said, I was definitely a bit disppointed when I began watching the show to see that Shawn is being set up to be paired with Maya’s mother, because I knew that meant Angela’s return would simply be a walk down memory lane as opposed to anything substantial.

After having the pleasure of speaking with both shows’ creator Michael Jacobs, I have a better understanding as to why the decision for Shawn and Angela to not end up together was made. During the Boy Meets Girl Meets World panel that was held at this year’s ATX Festival, Jacobs teased to fans, “You guys are going to kill me for what I did to Shawn and Angela.”

When FanBolt had the chance to sit down with Jacobs, Ben Savage, Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter, the show’s creator had this to say about the star-crossed lovers that are Shawn and Angela:

“…Let’s go to Shawn and Angela. Am I supposed to have them get married and have a perfect happy TV ending? Am I really supposed to do that? Would I be grossly irresponsible if I did and diminish the rare and precious relationship that Cory and Topanga have. I have one set of friends, one, who met in high school and married. One. If I had 2, it would diminish it for me.

Now, but there’s another issue. We had the most beautiful New York Times article about Boy Meets World having…the first relationship that never spoke of it [being interracial]. Never mentioned it! Because there were plenty of relationships on television across the board, we never mentioned it! We didn’t want to exploit that.

Shawn found Angela from a purse that contained items that he loved and so he fell in love with this girl in high school. The relationship lasted into college. But it could not have been more clearly defined that Angela had a choice. That Shawn wanted to ask Angela to marry him, which would have been wrong. When they were sitting in the apartment with the dog…and they had the New York Times and a cup of coffee and the sun streaming in, and they realized that [the situation] was Cory and Topanga, who were living in that horrible college dorm. [Shawn and Angela] were artificial. It wasn’t so!

So the question is “what are we doing?” And I say to the writing staff “if Shawn and Angela do not end up together, we’re going to get tremendous heat and backlash. Why?” and the answer is because Boy Meets World is still on the air. You are re-living a romance 6 hours a day!…Let’s pretend it wasn’t on. Let’s pretend it’s gone for 15 years. Shawn and Angela clearly haven’t seen each other for 15 years. Shawn and Angela weren’t together for 15 years. Angela went on a life with her father and it was a military existence. Shawn tried, and failed, to do so.

The easiest thing for me to do would be to satisfy an audience and say “Sure it happened. Pixie dust over everything.” It didn’t happen, because that’s not what’s real. Are they happy? Remains to be seen. Is what becomes of them both satisfying? I believe so because it’s real. It’s what will happen to Riley and Lucas, it’s what will happen in a succession of friendship in this world and it’s why the show’s worth watching.”

Judging from the promo pic below, I’d say guess that the big obstacle that keeps Shawn and Angela from re-igniting any old flames is the fact that she’s married…look at her ring finger on her left hand:

Sorry Boy Meets World fans, the news made me sad as well, but we totally respect Jacobs’ stance on the pair not getting their happily ever after…it just isn’t realistic.

Angela’s Girl Meets World debut happens during the episode “Girl Meets Hurricane”, which premieres Friday, June 19 (8:30 PM – 9:00 PM ET/PT), only on Disney.

Let us know what you think of the pair’s (non-romantic) reunion in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Disney Channel