Of all of the "ships" that have been seen on TV over the last few decades, one of the most beloved romances is arguably the one between Cory Matthews and Topanga Lawrence from Boy Meets World. The two characters, played by Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel, were friends long before they finally started going out, with their chemistry only growing each season. Cory and Topanga's first kiss was even Savage's first TV smooch, too. The two characters were married in the appropriately named Season 7 episode “It’s About Time,” and, now, Fishel is explaining why she doesn’t think it should have happened.
Cory and Topanga were quite young when they started discussing their nuptials, as Topanga proposed to Cory during their high school graduation at the tail end of Season 5. It was quite a shocker but a sweet surprise, and the final two seasons partially focused on the pair's wedding preparation and eventual first year as husband and wife. Danielle Fishel, however, revealed on an episode of the Boy Meets World rewatch podcast, Pod Meets World, that she thought the pair should've made a different decision regarding a wedding:
I think I might have her still do the proposal, and maybe he still says yes, and we go through the whole planning, and then we end up deciding it's maybe not the right choice for us right now. And we still stay together. We don't have to be broken up, but maybe we just save the marriage aspect for the end of the show and not spend the last, like, full year of the show married.
It's honestly fair to say that Cory and Topanga, who were the central couple on the show, didn't necessarily have to get married. Even if they hadn't actually exchanged vows before the end of the show, fans surely could've assumed that they would (off camera) somewhere down the line, given how tight their bond was. As for why the writers wanted them to wed, that remains unclear, but it may have been due to the fact that they simply wanted viewers to see them as husband and wife before the show ended. Despite that, one can definitely see where Danielle Fishel is coming from.
What I will also say is that having the BMW characters get married (like Zack and Kelly from Saved By the Bell) towards the end of the series, either in the series finale or TV movie, would have made sense as well. That also would've spared viewers from having to see the early struggles that Cory and Topanga faced after tying the knot. During the podcast, the Topanga actress went on to say that she wasn’t particularly a fan of those tribulations either:
I know from my just my memories of it, after we were married, feeling like, well, now we're married, and they had to come up with new, like, upping the stakes for us. And I remember not loving those stakes.
The couple went through a lot throughout the series, and the characters even broke up at one point. And, as mentioned above, their problems didn’t go away after they married each other. By the end of the Philadelphia-set TV series, the two opt to move to New York alongside good friend, Shawn Hunter. I do wonder how different Boy Meets World would have been if Cory and Topanga didn’t get married until the end, or perhaps even off camera after the series ended. Nevertheless, the Girl Meets World spinoff sequel series, which was canceled after three seasons, ultimately revealed that they built a good life for themselves and their children.
At this point, it's been nearly 25 years since the wedding episode aired and, even though it's sealed into the continuity now, it is hard not to ponder what could've been. Danielle Fishel's thoughts are sure to keep me thinking on the matter as time goes on. Still, I suppose that, if anything, fans should simply be grateful that Cory and Topanga did receive their happy ending in the follow-up show after going through those painful ups and downs as young adults.
If you're a fan with a Disney+ subscription, you can relive their love story by streaming both Boy Meets World and Girl Meets World on the platform.
