upworthy

Evan Porter

Canva Photos & Disney Plus

Young girl watching TV,; Cory and Shawn from Boy Meets World

TGIF can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. A celebration of the fact that the weekend is just around the corner, a pretty solid casual restaurant or happy hour spot from the early 2000s, etc. But to elder millennials, TGIF refers to only one thing: an epic evening of television featuring iconic sitcoms like Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and of course, Boy Meets World. Can you believe those bangers used to all be on back to back to back?! We truly didn't realize how lucky we were in the 90s.

Boy Meets World, in particular, was an incredibly important show for me. As a curly haired, middle-class kid, it was easy for me to see myself in Cory Matthews, the flawed protagonist of the series. Cory was always worried about fitting in and being popular. He was jealous that his cool older brother and best friend had great hair and knew how to talk to girls. He was constantly screwing up and finding ways to make things right. It's what television was meant to be, and it taught me lessons that I took into my own friendships, my first relationship, and more.

As I get closer to my late-late-late 30s, I decided that I wanted to see if Boy Meets World still had the same magic I remember from when I was young. The twist is that now I have a daughter about Cory Matthews' age, a Gen Alpha kid, and I wanted to see how she'd respond to the characters and storylines that resonated with me so deeply way back when. For reference, a LOT of books, movies, and shows of my youth have completely failed to connect with her and her more modern sensibilities.

So, I sat her down and more or less forced her to watch the first season, or 22 episodes, with me. To my surprise, she wanted to keep going.

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsIm Right Here Look At Me GIFGiphy

Upon rewatch, it's not hard to see why. If you look past the baggy clothes and landline telephones, the lessons (and laughs) underneath are timeless. I was not expecting the show to connect with a representative from Gen Alpha, who are decidedly different from millennials when we were that age, in many many ways. But I think it works not because it reminds her of other things she likes, but specifically because it doesn't.

Here are five things Boy Meets World brings to the table that my 10-year-old is not used to seeing in her media:

1. Lessons (so many lessons)

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsThis line from "Cult Fiction" is better than anything on YouTube or TikTokGiphy

By the end of every episode of the show, Cory has had to learn a very tough lesson. He has to learn how to be more honest, how to be a better friend, or even when it's good to break the rules.

And that's just the regular episodes, to say nothing of the Very Special Episodes. After much consideration, I say: Bring back Very Special Episodes!

Are they cheesy? Absolutely. Are they a little simplistic and surface level? Sure. But they do something not a lot of kids media does anymore which is challenge young people with complex ideas. They are great discussion starters, especially as a parent watching alongside.

In one episode, Cory and Topanga fall asleep at the school while staying late to finish a project. The next day, everyone at school thinks Cory is "the man" for, presumably, hooking up with her. The show leaves certain things unsaid, or to the imagination, but it gave us a peek into sexism and reputation that my daughter hasn't been exposed to in the usual shows she watches.

And then, of course, there's the famous episode "Cult Fiction" where Shawn joins a cult called The Center. "Daddy, what's a cult?" is not a question I expected to field from my 10-year-old, but here we are! It was challenging, in a good way, to try to explain what they are and why they're harmful, which the show itself only vaguely touches on. These episodes were successful at piquing her curiosity and forcing her to ask questions, which is exactly the point.

A lot of the media my daughter watches just lacks this substance, even if it is simplistic at times in Boy Meets World. Shows she's enjoyed like Henry Danger or Sam and Cat come across as more purely silly—and both receive dismal scores from Common Sense Media for categories like "Positive Messages" and "Educational Value."

2. An honest-to-God plot

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsA simple plot is still better than no plot at all.Giphy

Boy Meets World isn't known for convoluted plot twists or reinventing the narrative structure. But at least it's got a story to offer.

Gen Alpha doesn't spend a lot of time engaging with plot-based media. My daughter and her friends love to read, and to watch the films and TV shows based on their favorite books, but as a whole, younger people are getting a lot of their entertainment from YouTube and TikTok. They spend a lot of time watching Get Ready With Me videos, Try Not To Laughs, Mr. Beast stunts, or people playing video games on livestreams.

Maybe it makes me sound old, but I'll say it anyway: Story still matters! Plot is good for your brain because it forces you to put yourself in the shoes of different characters. You have to imagine what one character might be thinking in a scene that leads them to do whatever it is they do next. Characters don't always say exactly what they mean (subtext) so your brain has to fill in the gaps and try to decipher when they're lying or withholding information or their true emotions.

Not all screen time is created equal. Watching a story is an active process. It's important for our brains, and helps build empathy and social intelligence. It elicits emotion. That's definitely something that's missing from a lot of the Gen Alpha media diet.

It also keeps kids like my daughter coming back because she wants to know what's going to happen next, not because the algorithm's got her hooked with easy bursts of dopamine.

3. Extremely outdated references, fashion, and technology

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsKids today don't understand how much of an icon Shawn Hunter was.Giphy

The clothes and the landlines in the show are a serious walk down memory lane, but Boy Meets World feels old in more ways than that. (Seriously, at one point the Matthews family receives a telegram, which was a stretch even for the 90s.)

Boy Meets World, at this point, almost represents a completely different way of life. Shawn carries around a "black book" of all the girls he's dated with their phone numbers written down. The celebrity cameos are completely lost on my daughter, and often on me (I mean, the Love Boat guys, really?). But it's fun to get to explain these aspects of my own childhood to her, and she gets a kick out of it, too. The strange elements are challenging, in a good way.

As a side note: The baggy jeans are the one thing that don't look out of place anymore on the show. They're so back, baby!

4. Brave choices

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsRemember Cory and Topanga getting hitched and living in the 'married dorm'?Giphy

BMW was not afraid to pull at the heart strings, and while the plot was usually pretty formulaic, the writers were capable of shocking you.

For example, one of the main teachers, Mr. Turner, nearly dies out of nowhere! Shawn's dad abandons him to go chase after the love of his life. And a fresh-out-of-high-school Eric finds himself dating a young, single mom. Of course, one of the most memorable and shocking moments in the show is when Cory cheats on Topanga with another girl on a school trip. Can you imagine that happening in a so-called kids' show today? It's character suicide by today's standards. But they did it anyway and somehow pulled it off. That episode is heavily debated among fans to this day.

The show also played into sitcom tropes and cookie-cutter themes and lessons, but it also wasn't afraid to wade into grey areas sometimes. One of my favorite early episodes of the show to rewatch is an episode where Cory's dad lets him stay up late to watch a big baseball game with him, and a very sleepy Cory flunks a test at school the next day. Cory's dad and teacher, Mr. Feeny, then trade jabs over whether it was right or wrong. There's no clear winner, no exact right answer, just a lot to think about. I like my daughter being exposed to the idea that there's not always a clear cut solution, and I get the sense she's enjoyed that about the show, too.

Boy Meets World, contrary to its squeaky clean reputation, also has a few episodes that Disney has subsequently banned for being too racy or controversial, including Shawn shoving his girlfriend after having too much to drink. I'd like to see any modern family-friendly show have the guts to go there and turn it into a teachable moment.

5. Good adults—mostly

boy meets world, tgif, 90s tv, 90s nostalgia, television, disney, disney channel, gen alpha, millennialsAlan Matthews belongs in the TV Dad Hall of FameGiphy

Alan, Amy, Mr. Feeny, and Mr. Turner were anything but caricatures. What strikes me most rewatching as an adult is how much I relate to and still admire the core adults in the show.

Even in a lot of modern adult sitcoms, the adults are all idiots. In kids shows, it's worse, with the buffoon dad merely there for comic relief and the mom too busy and frazzled to have any idea what's going on.

Crucially, during our rewatch of BMW, I realize that every single one of the main adults screws up at some point and has to apologize for it. They do their best, they're mostly wise and responsible, but they make mistakes, too. It's so important for kids to see that, and for my daughter to know that my wife and I are the same way.

Not everything in Boy Meets World has aged well. Even I can admit that the show has its warts.

Cory's behavior isn't always great. He can be very jealous and controlling of Topanga, and there's also this running thread in the show that they are "soulmates" and "absolutely have to be together" under any circumstances. That's an idea we would likely consider harmful or toxic today. Topanga even gives up a chance to go to Yale so that she can go to the state school with Cory, which is probably not the decision I'd like my own kids to make. The boys on the show can also be a little girl crazy, to the point that it borders on misogyny or just plain gross-ness. It also leans so heavily on nerd/jock stereotypes that it ends up perpetuating them.

But the core elements of the show: the lessons, the way it never talks down to the kids watching it, the beautiful portrayals of friendship and first love. Those are absolutely timeless.

There just aren't many shows left that even attempt to do what Boy Meets World did and the way it grew up with its audience. The closest modern equivalent I've seen would have to be Bluey. Maybe that's why the show is so beloved, because it understands what made the TGIF formula work so well and has perfectly adapted it to the modern age. It hits all five of the points above, with admirable adult characters, complex lessons, and even flashbacks to the 80s!

A skeptic might say that my daughter doesn't really care about the show, she just likes getting to stay up late and spend time together. But, now that we're deep into Season Five and showing no signs of slowing down, I can safely say that the magic is still there.

Community

Watch 900 New Yorkers gather for one epic, insane game of musical chairs

A random 50-year-old woman from Tennessee walked away as champion.

Canva Photos

The grown-ups are taking back one of their favorite games from childhood: Musical chairs.

If you've never played musical chairs, well, you must not have gone to Physical Education in the 90s. Along with parachute day, duck duck goose, and the now-banned-almost-everywhere dodgeball, musical chairs was a staple game for all elementary school kids.

For the uninitiated, the rules are simple: some number of participants stand around a circle of chairs. The problem is, there's one fewer chair than there is people. Music plays and the players walk, dance, or skip around the chairs in a circle. When the music stops, you've got to find a seat as fast as possible—before someone else does! If you're the odd man left standing, you're out, and the game continues with the remaining players. A new chair is removed each round until one winner remains.

The game is frantic and intense, with bouts of quiet tension in between. It's also extremely silly and sure to draw fits of laughter from everyone playing. Sounds fun, right? So why should kids be the only ones who get to enjoy it?

Bryant Park in Manhattan, New York City recently played host to, if not quite the biggest game of musical chairs in history, certainly one of them.

musical chairs, games, kids game, play, adults, adulting, play for adults, fun, joy, happiness, communityMusical chairs can get pretty ruthless.Giphy

Eat your heart out, Mr. Beast.

Nine hundred adult New Yorkers showed up one recent evening for a chance to take home a commemorative chair and a $500 gift card. But mostly, they showed up to have a good time and in that, they were all winners.

Contestants were broken into smaller groups of 30, where they competed in semi-final heats. Each group would have one winner, who would then go on to compete in the "Winner's Circle." During the contest, full-grown human beings hopped, skipped, and chicken-wing-flapped their arms as they circled the chairs, then frantically tried to find a place or face elimination.

In a recording of the event, all you can hear is laughter, gasps, and raucous giggles as these adult strangers run and topple over with glee.

According to The Times, the ultimate winner was 50-year-old Amy Beron, who had come from Tennessee to visit her daughter in New York. "[Beron] claimed the title in the absence of friends in the crowd, as camera flashes lit up her shocked face. She had seen on social media that the event was taking place, showed up alone and walked away a winner."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Officially, the largest game of musical chairs took place in Singapore in 1989. It featured 8,238 contestants and took over three hours to crown a winner.

But that's got nothing on the world's biggest pillow fight, which took place in 2018 with nearly 8,000 participants.

Here's the thing about adults: There's a part of all of us that deeply misses being a kid. We're nostalgic for the memories and the way things used to be, yes, but we also miss when our main purpose in life was to have fun and experience joy. When we were carefree and a little reckless. Many of us are always trying to recapture just a bit of that, whether it's through art like coloring books, adult summer camp, or large-scale and completely absurd competitions like Bryant Park's musical chairs.

And though it looks like things got a little competitive in some of the musical chairs heats (in the video above, you'll see a guy get knocked over as a woman fights for his chair!), this kind of thing is generally very good for us. Playing with others helps us feel like we belong, just as it did when we were kids. It boosts our mental health and provides a much-needed escape from a world that feels like it's doing its best to beat us down.

You can watch the entire competition pretty much from beginning to end, including the dramatic moment that Amy Beron officially out-duels the last competitors, here:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Most large-scale community gatherings like this suffered a cruel and sudden death in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Once the worst was over and the masks mostly came off and we were free to mingle with strangers again, it still didn't feel normal to congregate like this. It's so heartwarming to see strangers coming together again, hear them laughing again, and watch them enjoy the outdoors together—even if it is in the most ridiculous way possible.

NBC6 & Canva Photos

John Morales stopped his report to educate viewers on what budget cuts really mean.

I hardly ever watch the news on television, especially not for the weather. It's just so much easier to pick up my phone and check Google or The Weather Channel. I just want to know how warm it's going to be or how likely it is to rain. These days, I can find that out in about 10 seconds and go about my day.

But when there's potential danger—hurricanes, storms that might knock out the power of topple over trees, tornado warnings, or threats of ice and snow—my trusty local meteorologist or weatherman is always there. All of that said, I've never once considered that I might not be able to get my weather forecast from either source, at least not accurately. It's 2025—our weather modeling should be better than ever, state of the art, right?

John Morales, a meteorologist and hurricane specialist with NBC6 in South Florida, was reporting on an upcoming storm when he suddenly shifted gears, right in the middle of the broadcast.

weatherman, weather, meteorologist, news, tv news, news anchor, viral videos, trump, doge, governmentWithout good data, we can't accurately predict the paths of hurricanes. Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Morales explains that in his 34 years of presenting the weather, he's always been able to confidently tell his viewers when a hurricane might hit, or when it might turn away. He's always been able to stand behind his data, modeling, and forecast in order to help protect the people of South Florida.

"I am here to tell you that I am not sure I can do that this year."

Why? "Because of the cuts, the gutting, the sledgehammer attack on science in general."

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Morales then pulled up a graphic instead of his usual weather map. It laid out some stark realities about severe understaffing of the National Weather Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Between brutal layoffs, employees accepting the recent DOGE buyout, and straight-up resignations, the agencies responsible for collecting weather data have lost hundreds and hundreds of valuable experts.

He also explained that due to federal government budget cuts, there's been a sizeable decrease in weather balloon launches across the country. Weather balloons are instruments that take crucial measurements of the upper atmosphere and send data that helps with forecasting. With less data available, and lower quality data, Morales say that "the quality of forecasts is becoming degraded."

That's a pretty scary thought, especially in a place like South Florida. What do you do when your local meteorologist can't predict what a powerful hurricane will do next?

"This is a multi-generational impact on science in this country," Morales warns.

Watch his passionate plea here:

Almost nine million people viewed the powerful clip on X. It was reshared over 26,000 times. Morales' message is definitely getting the attention it deserves.

It's not just the National Weather Service that's bleeding. In the name of efficiency, The White House has slashed budgets at the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and more. Trimming the federal budget sounds well and good until you realize that we won't be making any major cancer breakthroughs any time soon without funding the research. And we won't be able to protect people from hurricanes and tornadoes without complete weather data.

(And yes, even the Weather app on your iPhone needs a database to pull from.)

Meanwhile, we're spending $1 trillion—yes, trillion— per year on our military. This is the anti-science, anti-expert sentiment Morales is talking about. It's been building for years and is just now coming to a head in the worst way.

We still need meteorologists and weather experts like Morales. We still need scientists.

weatherman, weather, meteorologist, news, tv news, news anchor, viral videos, trump, doge, governmentWe still need human scientists and experts that can compile and read maps like this one. Photo by Brian McGowan on Unsplash

ChatGPT can pull weather data from Google and tell you if there's going to be a thunderstorm, but can it tell you when the data behind that forecast is incomplete or unreliable? That's the reality we're facing right now, and we might not know the forecast isn't reliable until it's too late in some cases.

TV weathermen who live in our communities and can put crucial context behind the weather and help keep us safe still matter. Not only that, but they are ambassadors for science, and they still have a big platform in many communities around the country. Morales is making sure he makes the most of his.

Science

A scientist created a 'utopia' for mice and then they all started dying

The results are fascinating, but are they relevant to humanity?

Canva Photos

How could Mouse Heaven go so terribly wrong?

In 1968 John Calhoun, a scientist and animal behavioralist, decided to create a "utopia" for mice. It would have unlimited food and water, with beautiful nesting spaces and plenty of materials for the mice to make cozy homes with. Sweet experiment! the mice were probably thinking. Much better than the Maybelline trials we're used to.

However, there was a catch, of course. There was one thing the utopia would be lacking, and that would be physical space. As the mouse population grew, overcrowding would become an issue, and Calhoun wanted to study the problems this would potentially cause. That sound you hear is the collective sigh of the disappointed mice who were stoked about the 24/7 all-you-can-eat buffet.

The experiment, dubbed Universe 25, began when Calhoun introduced four mouse "couples" into the utopian complex. A year or so later, it was overrun and the conditions had turned hellish, even though the mice had not run out of food or water.

mouse, mice, animals, science, research, studies"The conditions had turned WHAT?"Giphy

Initially, for just the eight original mice, the square box Calhoun built included 256 nesting boxes (or apartments) stacked on top of one another. Water bottles and food dispensers were located all along the nesting spots, and mice could travel throughout the complex at will via mesh tunnels. The starter mice were also screened for diseases and the population was obviously protected from predators. The climate was controlled and comfortable. Conditions were perfect.

The first mouse pups showed up a little over three months later, with the population of the colony doubling every 55 days. Nineteen months later, there were 2200 mice living inside the box. With such perfect surroundings, the infant mortality rate was practically zero, leading to the rapid rise in numbers.

mice, mouse experiments, scientific research, animal experiments, overpopulationJohn Calhoun poses with his rodents inside the mouse utopia.Yoichi R Okamoto, Public Domain


By month 19, this rodent utopia had become an overcrowded hellscape. Calhoun noticed three alarming trends, in particular.

In short, everything was devolving into chaos and the very society of the mice began to collapse at a rapid rate.

The "Beautiful Ones" and the "Dropouts": Mice have a complex social hierarchy ruled by dominant alpha males. Sam Kean of Science History Institute Museum & Library notes that, in the wild, non-dominant males (the ones who lose macho showdowns) can skip town and start over somewhere else. But in the close quarters of Calhoun's experiment, with nowhere to hide, they were forced to hang around and viciously battle with each other over scraps. Eventually, non-dominant male mice, which Calhoun called the "Beautiful Ones," withdrew from society completely and only ate, slept, and groomed themselves.

Though resources were unlimited, certain aggressive males hoarded them anyway: The alpha males ruled over everything in the once-utopian mouse society. They kept harems of females in the apartments to mate with and fought fiercely to defend their territory. But new waves of hungry young male mice kept coming and coming, and eventually even the most dominant alphas abandoned their posts. This led to more attacks on nursing females, which in turn led to more mothers kicking their pups out of the nest early.

Birth rate declined dramatically: With the non-dominant males giving up completely and focusing on #SelfCare, dominant males too exhausted from endless battles, and females sick and tired of it all (many became asexual hermits by the end), stopped mating and giving birth entirely. Once this happened, the society was doomed. Even with plenty of food still available, cannibalism was rampant.

Calhoun was not shy about drawing parallels between his research and humanity. "I shall largely speak of mice, but my thoughts are on man, on healing, on life and its evolution," he once wrote.


mice, mouse experiments, scientific studies, universe 25, sociology, overpopulationAlpha male mice, anyone? Photo by Kanashi on Unsplash

There are aspects of his wild experiment that certainly sound familiar.

We live in a world with plenty of resources for everyone, but a few select people hoard more than their fair share. When you think of the rodent "apartments," it's hard not to picture densely packed urban environments where people are stacked on top of each other at every turn. Maybe on some level some of us can relate to the “Beautiful Ones” and their urge to not participate in all the ugliness and just sequester and groom themselves. You can make an argument that when the mice stopped having to worry about food and shelter, it removed the element of challenge from their lives and left them lost–like many of us are lucky enough to not have to wonder where our next meal comes from, and maybe that has something to do with our never-ending search for meaning. Some even go so far as to link more people choosing to delay having children, or not have children at all, with the collapsing society of the mice.

But Calhoun's work has also been heavily scrutinized, with some claiming it's based on shaky science. And in the end, there’s the small matter that humans are not mice. We are infinitely more complicated, and so much better suited to adapting to our environments. Kean writes, "Ultimately Calhoun’s work functions like a Rorschach blot—people see what they want to see."

It's fascinating and thought-provoking nonetheless.