Boy Meets World Pod Cut Fred Savage Allegation Comments, Afraid Brother Ben Would Be 'Angry'

"Everybody Loves Stuart," the episode in question, was from Season 6 in 1998 and featured series star Ben Savage's older brother in a guest role as a college teacher who made inappropriate sexual advances toward Fishel's character Topanga.

While they broke down the episode in detail, as usual, including Fishel's frustration at Topanga's lack of agency in her own storyline, they did not acknowledge the elephant in the room, which is that Fred Savage has faced similar allegations in his real life across multiple projects, including his very first as a child star when he led The Wonder Years from 1988 to 1993.

That first allegation came in 1993 when he and co-star Jason Hervey were accused of sexual harassment by a former costume designer on the show, Monique Long. Savage was just 16 at the time, with reps for both stars and the show denying the allegations. Long's lawsuit was ultimately settled.

Savage again came under fire in 2018 for his 2015-16 sitcom with Rob Lowe, The Grinder. A different costume designer, Youngjoo Hwang, accused him of assault and intimidation, filing a complaint alleging assault, battery, and gender discrimination. Savage denied these charges, Fox found no evidence in an internal investigation, and her case was settled in 2019.

In May 2022, Savage was ultimately fired as executive producer and director after an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct toward multiple women on the set of the The Wonder Years reboot series. Savage denied these allegations, as well.

While none of the allegations involved Boy Meets World or any of the stars of that show, the Pod Meets World hosts were nevertheless questioned as to why these allegations weren't even acknowledged when they did a deep dive into Fred Savage's guest appearance on their show. Certainly, they've been extremely vulnerable and honest to this point.

The question came during their season recap episode, where they invited their usual guests for a season recap, the hosts of fan podcast Bruh Meets World, Tony Curtis and Ceej. The duo asked why they didn't go there, when they had no problem in an episode last year getting serious about former dialogue coach Brian Peck, who was sentenced to prison for oral copulation and performing a lewd act with a minor, as an example.

As it turns out, it wasn't an omission, but a conscious decision. It was also one the trio admitted to debating extensively, with Fishel sharing that she felt extremely conflicted about going there.

"We talked about it and truthfully, out of respect for Ben, we decided not to comment on it," said Fishel, per Buzzfeed, clarifying that this was not something that came from Ben. In fact, the actors have still not heard from their former co-star in years, after he reportedly gave him their blessing to launch this podcast in 2022.

"We have still not spoken to Ben, but we know that Ben’s family are incredibly private. Even the reason he gave us for not wanting to be a part of the podcast was that he just didn’t think it was for him … I’m speculating, but I think a large part of that is because we’ve been very vulnerable, and we’ve been very open, and that’s not for everybody."

Strong also noted that they didn't feel they had anything new to add to that conversation, either, so it would seem odd to him to bring up for something that had no bearing on the episode or discussion, per se. "I wasn’t part of The Wonder Years team; I don’t know anything more than what I could Google," he said. "We weren’t gonna get any more good analysis of the episode out of talking about it."

Fishel further added that she felt it wouldn't do anything to the discourse about the allegations themselves for her to come out and say, "I never had a bad experience with Fred." She said she knows that her "experience with Fred doesn’t mean anything; who cares? That wouldn’t have added to the conversation in any way."

He explained that they did discuss whether to simply acknowledge the allegations, questioning if it would make sense to "acknowledge this for the sake of our listeners," but then questioned what they might "take away from" its inclusion as just a factoid.

Ceej countered with the approach that it would have continued for fans that sense that the actors were being "vulnerable" and authentic in sharing the story behind their show, suggesting they could have just had a quick tag, "'Hey, just so you know, this is attached to controversy, we’re not going to speak on it,' and that's kind of enough."

Fishel and Strong then revealed that they had actually recorded something to the effect of just acknowledging that the allegations against Fred Savage have put more attention on that particular episode of their show, but debated on whether or not to include it.

"It was like: ‘Is this being dishonest to not acknowledge it, or is it opening a can of worms for no reason because we’re not going to do much more than acknowledge it because we don’t have much more to say,’" he shared, "And does that change the analysis of the episode, really? And our discussion? Not really."

At the same time, he had to acknowledge the pushback from the Bruh Meets World hosts, agreeing, "There’s a kind of social contract we have with our listeners, right? That we will be ourselves and we will acknowledge our point of view, so maybe we should have done that."

Fishel then came out and said that she "felt the strongest about it" for a very personal reason: Ben.

"Out of respect for, not for Fred who I do not have a relationship with, out of respect for Ben, who said to us: 'Go do the podcast, I don’t want to hold you back,' but then obviously once we did it something very much changed," Fishel said. "I just didn’t want to add one more thing."

The cast has been open about the abrupt exit of Ben from their lives in 2020, shortly after he'd been present for the birth of Fishel's first child.

The whole cast had stayed close over the years, including co-starring in the Girl Meets World sequel series in the 2010s. But then, he severed all communications with him with no explanation, according to the actors, and they've not heard from his since.

"He just ghosted," Fishel told Variety in an interview in 2023, insisting there was no fight or issues between them. "He disappeared -- I wish I knew why, to this day."

On the latest podcast episode, Fishel said that they already talk so much about their experiences with Ben during the show, "and we think they are all positive, but he may or may not like that ... he might be thinking, 'Keep my name out of your mouth.'"

"So when I heard it and it was my voice," she said of the intro they had prepared, "I had a fear that Ben was going to hear it and he’s going to be angry at me for acknowledging this."

At the time, she said she sided with Strong that it wouldn't add to their conversation of the episode, but now also sees where the Bruh hosts are coming from, admitting, "You’re right that it probably wasn’t the right choice with the social contract we have with our listenership."

"We probably fumbled it where we should have at least acknowledged it," Friedle added, saying that the omission was a decision they all reached together, "but that’s all it would have been: acknowledging what everybody else knows from the news, because there’s literally nothing we could add to it."

You can listen to the whole Season 6 recap episode below: