Boy Meets World costumer Julie Yang Silver is lifting the lid on some of the show’s problematic wardrobe choices for Danielle Fishel.
Yang Silver joined the costume department during season 3 and remained with the hit sitcom until it concluded with its seventh season in 2000.
Appearing on the Monday, March 2, episode of the iHeartRadio “Pod Meets World” podcast hosted by Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong, the costume supervisor claimed there were often “heated discussions” about Fishel’s wardrobe, particularly in the final season. (Fishel was absent from Monday’s podcast episode.)
“I related to her because she was a female and just a young teenager growing up,” Yang Silver told Friedle and Strong, noting that she and producer Karen MacKain often defended Fishel in conversations about wardrobe with the show’s bosses.
Friedle, 49, then noted, “I put on a bunch of weight towards the end [of the show]. Danielle put on a little bit of weight towards the end, but of course it was all about how she put on ‘so much’ weight.”
The actor, who played Eric Matthews, recalled Fishel, 44, telling him that she was allowed to help pick Topanga’s wedding dress for her character’s season 7 wedding to Cory Matthews (Ben Savage), “but none of them were allowed to be sleeveless.”
“She thinks that one of the reasons why that was because certain powers-that-be thought that she looked too heavy to show her arms bare,” Friedle said.
“Yes,” Yang Silver claimed. “It was [a] constant conversation.”
“And the thing was, Danielle was not heavy. That’s what I was trying to explain to them: ‘She’s still a size 2. I don’t know what you guys are talking about,’” the costumer continued. “She had bloomed outwards. Danielle wasn’t very tall, so if you are bustier and you’re not very tall, you’re going to look larger. But she wasn’t. You guys saw her every single day. She was not large at all.”
According to Yang Silver, Boy Meets World’s season 5 prom episode was also another point of contention.
“Trina [McGee] was seven months pregnant and we were trying to hide that. And it was the same thing for Danielle, where [they said] she needed sleeves,” she said. “I was like, ‘No, that’s going to look ridiculous for prom.’ We did a shawl.”
“Karen and I [were] just like, mostly Karen, ‘We don’t want to hear anyone ever say anything to Danielle about this,’” Yang Silver said.
Friedle then asked whether Fishel was ever made aware that her body was being discussed among the show’s executives.
“I think she knew,” Yang Silver said. “But we really tried to hide that from her … because she’s a teenager. That’s going to get in her head. That’s what Karen and I were both saying: She is a young woman and that can do so much psychological damage, and it’s so not worth it. We were treading very, very lightly.”
During an August 2024 episode of “Pod Meets World,” Fishel opened up about her and Friedle’s respective weight gain being written into a season 7 episode of the ABC sitcom.
“They called me into the office to tell me they were going to [write about it] — it wasn’t really like they asked,” she said, per People. “Obviously, it was Will and I. Will had gained some weight. I had gained some weight. [And the writers said], ‘Obviously, you guys have gained a little bit of weight, so we’re gonna write an episode about it. And we just wanted you to know. And here’s what it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be really funny.’”
Fishel added, “Will very much was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m totally fine with it.’ Just immediately. Which, I know now, he was very insecure, and it was really painful for him. And for me, it was more like, ‘Oh, wow.’ Like, I didn’t … no one had said anything to me about it. I had been aware that I had gained weight, but I was still, you know, I was a size 4.”
