Rider Strong reveals “Girl Meets World” storyline that ‘genuinely disturbed’ him: ‘So inappropriate’

Daysia TolentinoThu, August 27, 2026 at 5:09 PM UTC

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Rider Strong; Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter on ‘Girl Meets World’Credit: Cindy Ord/Getty; Eric McCandless/Disney ChannelKey Points -

Rider Strong said he was “genuinely disturbed” by season 1 episode 2 of Girl Meets World.

In the episode, Cory (Ben Savage) preaches an anti-phone life, then enlists Maya (Sabrina Carpenter) to spy on his daughter Riley (Rowan Blanchard) with a smartphone.

Strong said he “can’t believe this got through” Disney Channel.

Rider Strong is not a fan of this Girl Meets World episode.

As he and his Boy Meets World castmates Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle dive into their recap of the 2014 spinoff Girl Meets World, Strong shared his feelings about season 1 episode 2 of the show.

In the episode titled “Girl Meets Boy,” Riley (Rowan Blanchard) is taught a lesson about screentime by her dad and teacher Cory (Ben Savage). Throughout the episode, he limits her, her best friend Maya (Sabrina Carpenter), and their classmates’ access to their phones. However, Cory begins to waver in his anti-technology stance once he sees Riley getting closer to her crush Lucas (Peyton Meyer).

Despite preaching an offline life, Cory secretly meets Maya in the library and gives her a smartphone to spy on Riley for him. Upon recalling that scene, Strong said he was “genuinely disturbed” by the storyline.

“This is so inappropriate,” he said on the Pod Meets World episode on Thursday. “I just think it’s so creepy.”

Strong elaborated on his stance, saying that it’s unsavory to depict an adult asking a child to keep a secret.

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Ben Savage, Peyton Meyer, and Sabrina Carpenter in ‘Girl Meets World’Credit: Disney Channel/Bruce Birmelin

“There’s like this very simple rule,” the actor, who shares son Indigo with wife Alexandra Barreto, continued. “If an adult asks you to keep a secret, I told my son that it’s like very basic parenting thing. Like, if any adult asks you to keep a secret, don’t trust that person or come tell me.”

The 46-year-old said that it sent the wrong message as well as contradicted all of the lessons that Cory had tried to impart about limiting phone time.

“Here is the teacher asking her to keep a secret,” he said. “And that secret is to keep an eye on his daughter. And he’s giving her a phone, which is anti-everything that he’s been this entire time.”

While the dramatic irony was not lost on Strong, he said that the hypocrisy was done “not in a funny way,” but instead “in a really horrible way.” He said he was surprised Disney Channel approved of the story.

“I can’t believe this got through because it’s truly a weird message,” he concluded.

Listen to the entire episode of Pod Meets World above.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”