Danielle Fishel ‘Couldn’t Wait’ for Andrew Keegan’s ‘Boy Meets World’ Guest Role to End

Andrew Keegan was one of Danielle Fishel’s best friends in the ’90s, but their time together A boy meets the world was far from being their best memory.

Fishel starred on the hit ABC sitcom from 1993 to 2000 as Topanga Lawrence, the longtime love interest of Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his future wife. The duo became an official couple at the start of season 3, but broke up mid-season when they felt things were getting stale.

It didn’t take long before Cory realized his mistake and embarked on a mission to retrieve Topanga – a plan thwarted by Keegan’s Ronnie “Lips” Waterman, Topanga’s travel partner for a school trip to Disney World.

In his new book, Book Meets World: The Definitive Inside Story of the Hit Sitcom Boy Meets WorldFishel reveals that the cast traveled together to Florida for this episode, titled “The Happiest Show on Earth,” and that the school trip was something she expected to be a “blast” since her off-screen best friend Keegan would also be in tow.

But as the week progressed, Fishel says things turned out to be “much less pleasant than expected” due to increasing pressure to entertain Keegan, who was not part of the series’ regular cast.

“I had a strange feeling of being divided between my two worlds,” Fishel explains in the book, co-written by Rider Strong and Will Friedle. “No one else knew Andrew as well as I did, so Andrew felt like my friend, which meant I had to be with Andrew, entertain Andrew and make sure Andrew felt like he was a part of everything.”

When Fishel was at work, she explains, she wanted to spend time with Savage and Strong, “so there was a little awkwardness.”

There was also the problem that much of Keegan’s planned script was shortened “due to the nature of editing and meeting the challenges of filming on location in Orlando.”

And although Keegan’s involvement in the episode was completely out of her control, Fishel admits she felt “responsible” for the reduced role.

“I remember Andrew being disappointed that he didn’t have much to do,” she says in the book. “I felt bad for him and I felt guilty, like maybe I should do something about this. I couldn’t wait for these two worlds to be separated.”

Another layer to the situation? Keegan had a crush on Fishel – something he didn’t admit to at the time, but does now. Their relationship always remained “platonic”, in part because Fishel was totally happy on Strong during the show’s early seasons.

Strong, for his part, claims to have never known about his feelings, but admits that the couple shared a “very romantic” moment together while filming at Disney.

“I remember we were sitting in a van, waiting for the Florida rain to stop. I said, ‘Danielle, let’s go,'” Strong writes in the book, remembering how the teens jumped out of the vehicle, grabbed each other’s hands and turned around together in the rain. (Wow, Keegan never stood a chance.)

Fishel waited decades to tell Strong how she felt about him as a child, but finally confessed during a 2022 episode of Pod meets the world. She explained that after Strong complimented her during an acting class, she couldn’t help but think, “Oh my God, I love you.”

“You know one of my favorite things about Rider, and it still holds true today: Rider is very expansive,” she shared when explaining her crush. “He’ll tell you how he feels and he’s very free with his compliments, but he doesn’t throw them out willy-nilly. When Rider compliments you, it’s thoughtful, it has meaning. You can tell it’s coming from a very real place.”

Strong ended up dating Rachael Leigh Cook for much of A boy meets the worldwhile Fishel was on and off with Jonathan Taylor Thomas before dating new season 5 cast member Matthew Lawrence and, later, NSYNC’s Lance Bass.

Strong has been married to his wife Alex Barreto since 2013 and Fishel married producer Jensen Karp in 2018. Keegan has been dating Arista Ilona since 2013.

Book Meets World: The Definitive Inside Story of the Hit Sitcom Boy Meets World is out now.