’90s TV Star Stunned By How Show Handled Weight Gain Storyline
By Movieguide® Contributor
’90s TV stars Danielle Fishel (BOY MEETS WORLD) and Candace Cameron Bure (FULL HOUSE) are opening up about how their series’ handled their changing adolescent bodies.
“During the seventh and final season of BOY MEETS WORLD, one episode titled ‘She’s Having My Baby Back Ribs,’ focuses on Fishel and [Will] Friedle’s characters, Topanga and Eric, going on a diet after noticing they’ve gained weight. Topanga’s husband Cory (Ben Savage) also speculates that his wife is pregnant after she struggles to fit into her jeans,” per TODAY.
“They called me into the office to tell me they were going to [do it],” Fishel told Bure of how the show’s creatives approached her about the episode. “It wasn’t really like they asked. They just kind of said, ‘We just want you to know…Obviously you guys have gained a little bit of weight. So we’re going to write an episode about it. And here’s what it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be really funny.’”
“Do you see my jaw on the floor right now?” Bure replied. “What?”
“I remember that being the hardest part for me was that meeting, because Will very much was like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m totally fine with it.’ I know now he was very insecure, and it was really painful and painful for him,” Fishel continued.
Even though she felt insecure about it, she agreed to do it because she didn’t feel like she had any other option.
“I had been aware that I had gained weight, but I was still, you know, I was a size 4,” she said. “And so, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, these people think I’ve gained enough weight that we have to write an entire episode about my weight gain.’”
Bure could relate as she endured similar insecurities on FULL HOUSE.
“That’s when girls really change,” Bure said. “I think that, for me, 15, 16, and then having episodes, like, talk about, your weight.”
“You meet people, and they’re always, like, ‘You’re so much thinner in person,’” she continued, “And you’re just like, is that all people see? Do they just see my chubby cheeks? And so of course, as a teenager, you feel that insecurity whether you’re on television or not. But it gets magnified when you are.”
Bure lost 20 pounds between the end of one season and the beginning of the next. The showrunners decided to make that the focus of one of the episodes.
“Bure explained her character in the episode went on a crash diet to try to lose weight in a week so she wouldn’t ‘feel bad’ about the way she looked, but then ‘passed out’ at the gym,” Fox News reported.
“Those are things that…many of us struggle with,” Bure added.
Overall, though, Bure is grateful for her time on FULL HOUSE. Movieguide® previously reported:
Candace Cameron Bure is “grateful and blessed” that her early experiences as an actress didn’t damage her love of the entertainment industry.
“I took time off from acting,” Bure explained during an episode of the “Full House Rewind” podcast. “I didn’t act for 10 years. Once I had my kids, I was like, ‘That’s it. I’m a full-time mom and supporting my husband’s career to go to games and cheer him on.’ You just do it. All the ladies, we just do it…”
However, as her kids got older and the family was more settled following Val’s retirement, Bure started making moves to return to the entertainment industry.
“I’ve loved the industry, and I credit you, Bob, John, and Jeff Franklin, and hundreds of other people who were our FULL HOUSE family,” she told podcast host and former co-star Dave Coulier. “You guys gave us the best experience. I know there’s tons of horror stories out there, and I am so empathetic and feel for everyone that has had a bad experience. However, I am so grateful and blessed that those aren’t our stories. It made me want to stay in the business.”
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