Long before Adam Scott’s memorable work in Dismissalfor which he earned two Emmy nominations last year and earlier Party down and Parks and recreationhe appeared in several episodes of the 1990s TGIF sitcom Boy meets world. Not that he remembers well. Not at all.
Scott explained this on Monday’s episode of Pod meets worldthe rewatch podcast hosted by his former co-stars Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle.
“It was the first time I was on a real set built on a stage,” said Scott, who played Senior in a second-season episode, which aired in 1994, and then Griff in three more episodes that aired in 1994. 1994 were broadcast. 1994 and 1995. “When I came back later, it was the same thing, where I just couldn’t believe how perfect everything was, and the air was so perfect all the time, like a crisp, cool temperature, and there was food everywhere. Everyone was so nice. And so I just had, you know, no idea how to behave… It was a totally strange environment. I was just so nervous and freaking out all the time, but at the same time, I thought, ‘Wow, this is really, like high livin.’ … I remember a lot of it very vividly because it was such a brand new environment.
Scott had previously appeared in a 1992 REM music video and in the short-lived 1994 series Dead at 21but not as big as Boy meets world.
He was in his early twenties and most of his co-stars were teenagers. Still, Scott acknowledged he had been too nervous to approach them and say hello.
“Do you remember when I was around?” Scott asked, explaining that he had two different “awkward interactions” on the show that showed he just “had no idea how to act” at the time.
“Literally, this has been pulling on me for 29 years,” Scott said of the first. He recalled being backstage, with co-stars Ethan Suplee and Blake Soper, as they watched the final scene of the second season being filmed.
“The scene ends… everyone just bursts out and starts cheering. Blake and Ethan high five and hug, they come over to me and high five and just cheer,” Scott said. “Then Blake and Ethan go up to you, Rider, and they give you a high five and hug you and then I say, ‘Hey, congratulations, buddy,’ and I give you a high five, and I go in and hug you. And as I do, you push me off and you look at me like, ‘Wait a minute, who the hell are you?’ and then you ran away.”
The story was a crowd pleaser. Strong said he couldn’t remember the encounter, and it didn’t sound like him because he’s generally a cuddler.
“To some extent, that means it wasn’t a traumatic experience for you,” Scott burst out. “But I remember thinking, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no! I’m sorry! What just happened? No, no no.'”
Looking back, Scott said, he could understand the then-15-year-old’s reaction to a stranger. However, Fishel disagreed, pointing out that Scott had made several appearances on the show by then, so he was no stranger.
“Once again I had no idea what to do,” Scott said. “It seemed like we were all supposed to be happy and hug each other, but oh god, it was horrible.”
Due to this incident, Scott was surprised to learn that the show wanted him back for a Season 3 episode.
He also recalls scouring the internet for any mention of himself around the same time. One of his discoveries was a message board post from someone claiming that they knew Topanga (Fishel) and that according to her no one liked Scott.
Fishel assured Scott that wasn’t coming from her.
“First of all, that just wasn’t true. No one didn’t like you, that wasn’t the situation,” she said. “The second reason was that I didn’t talk about it Boy meets world at school. If someone asked me a question I would, but being away from school all the time wasn’t super cool. And I was in a new school, I would have been in seventh grade then.”
That didn’t surprise Scott Boy meets world stopped calling after its fourth appearance, even though the show continued for over four more years.
“As a self-hating actor,” said Scott, “I just thought, ‘Oh, they’ve finally figured out I can’t do this, and I’m terrible,’ and just never asked any questions.”
Later in the decade, Scott had a recurring role on another teen show, the drama Party of Five. His breakout role would come in the 2008 Will Ferrell movie Stepbrothers.
