Trivia: William Daniels plays the principal of John Adams High School. Daniels played John Adams in, among other projects, the Broadway musical 1776 and its 1972 film adaptation.
Trivia: Betsy Randle revealed on the Pod Meets World podcast that her recurring role on Home Improvement is what secured her getting the role of Amy Matthews for this show.
Trivia: Danielle Fishel and Matthew Lawrence dated around the filming of season six. Fishel said they both kept the relationship quiet, as they didn't want it to be a big deal on the set.
Trivia: Danielle Fishel revealed in 2022 to an incredulous Rider Strong that she had a crush on him through the show's first two seasons.
Trivia: The friendship handshake between Cory and Shawn was created by Ben Savage and Rider Strong themselves. Strong said they created it as a handshake for their real-life friendship and didn't intend for it to end up on the show as well.
Trivia: In May 2024, Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel, Betsy Randle, and William Russ had a sleepover at the real-life house whose exterior was used for establishing shots of the Matthews' house.
Trivia: Despite playing his older brother, in real life Matthew Lawrence is two months younger than Rider Strong.
Trivia: Larisa Oleynik, who had three guest appearances on this show, originally auditioned for the role of Topanga. When she didn't receive it, she said she sat in her mom's car, shoveling ice cream into her mouth and exclaiming that her career was over.
Trivia: During a panel at the 2021 FanX event in Salt Lake City, Will Friedle revealed that due to his unusual accent, several cast members mistakenly believed that William Daniels was English for the first few years they knew him. At the same panel, Daniels said he developed the accent from being around other stage performers when he was around 15 years old.
Trivia: The first time the "Feeny call" was directed at William Daniels in public, which he says was by some students getting off a bus on 8th Avenue in New York City, he got spooked by it and ran away.
Trivia: Eric Matthews is often viewed as an example of Flanderization, when a character's becomes dominated by a single personality trait over time. As the series progresses, Eric becomes more and more "wacky" and does stupider things.
Trivia: Will Friedle used to think some of the audience members attending tapings were inmates, even writing about it in his journal.
Trivia: According to Adam Scott, during a season 2 wrap party, he witnessed Rider Strong hugging Ethan Suplee and Blake Soper. Scott then went over and hugged Strong, which caused Strong to aggressively shove Scott away and then take off in the other direction. Scott kept this to himself for nearly 30 years, finally revealing it during his appearance on the Pod Meets World podcast. Strong, Soper and Suplee have no recollection of the incident. The aforementioned individuals have speculated that either Suplee or Soper, who were known to be pranksters on-set, may have grabbed Strong's butt during the hug and caused him to think Scott did it.
Trivia: Blake Soper and Ethan Suplee wrote and pitched a Catcher in the Rye-inspired script to producer Michael Jacobs. He told them they wouldn't buy the script, but offered them contracts to be regular cast members moving forward. They subsequently never heard from him nor appeared on the show again. Suplee admitted to having a drug problem at the time, and thinks that may have been the reason he didn't return.
Trivia: Late professional wrestler Vader, who played a fictionalized version of himself and Frankie's father, once told Ethan Suplee about the time one of his eyes was popped out of its socket during a wrestling match, which he himself then popped back into place. Suplee said he thought Vader was just pulling his leg when telling him the story.
Answer: I learned the answer to this one today. It is "Tree of Life" by Garé Barks.
Phaneron ★