“Boy Meets World” stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong are opening up about their past relationship with an actor who guest starred on the series.
Friedle, Strong and co-star Danielle Fishel used Monday’s episode of their rewatch podcast “Pod Meets World” to address their relationship with series stand-in Brian Peck, who Fishel said began appearing on the children’s sitcom during Season 5 in 1997.
“We knew this deserved a more detailed discussion, especially even since we as hosts are still unpacking everything involved, and we know the discourse around this subject has culturally ramped up,” Fishel said.
Peck was arrested in August 2003 on a charge of lewd acts with a child, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department. The arrest stemmed from a 2001 incident in which the actor allegedly molested a child he was coaching over a six-month period. Fishel noted during the episode that Peck was subsequently “convicted and spent 16 months in prison.”
Despite being his in late 30s at the time of production, Friedle and Strong said Peck quickly befriended the young actors.
“I didn’t go to parties. I didn’t really do that stuff. But I was working a lot after ‘Boy Meets World,’ and this guy had so ingratiated himself into my life, I took him to three shows after ‘Boy Meets World,'” Friedle said. “This was the type of thing where the person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job and you wanted to hang out with.”
Fishel, who said she didn’t develop a close relationship with Peck, speculated that Peck’s status as an openly gay man may have factored into why the actor’s behavior was overlooked at the time, due to the “rampant” homophobia in the ’90s.