Boy Meets World Fan-Favorite Star Finally Reveals Why Their Character Disappeared in the Middle of the Show

One of the biggest questions from 1990s sitcoms is finally being answered and explained: what happened to Mr. Turner on Boys Meets World? 

Jonathan Turner was a standout teacher at John Adams High, where he started as the homeroom teacher of freshman students Cory (Ben Savage), his best friend Shawn (Rider Strong) and girlfriend (and future wife) Topanga (Danielle Fishel). Actor Anthony Tyler Quinn grew Turner from generic teacher into a new age foil for elder teacher George Feeny (William Daniels). Mr. Turner had several key story arcs in the show – most notably arcs that brought him close to Shawn and his Shawn’s family, going so far as protecting Shawn’s mom from his dad, and almost taking on guardianship of Shawn at one point. 

The mystery of Mr. Turner came in Boy Meets World Season 4. In the episode “Cult Fiction” (S4E21) Mr. Turner gets into a motorcycle accident and is left recovering in the hospital. The incident is traumatic enough to pull Shawn out of an emotional spiral that nearly had him join a cult. However, Mr. Turner (and Quinn) was never seen again in the show – only receiving an occasional reference, culminating in his presence being acknowledged  in a Season 5 episode set near graduation. 

Anthony Tyler Quinn would eventually return to the franchise as Mr. Turner in the Girl Meets World sequel series. His character backstory was filled in with the explanation that he married the nurse that helped him recover from his accident, and he became superintendent of the New York Board of Education. Turner’s importance was rekindled with the reveal that he got an older Cory Matthews his history teacher job at John Quincy Adams Middle School. 

That all said, it’s only now, thanks to the  podcast that Anthony Tyler Quinn is explaining why he was booted from Boy Meets World when his character was such a key part of it. 

What Happened to Mr. Turner in Boy Meets World? 

I saw [series creator] Michael Jacobs across the stage, and I want to say congratulations and [ask] what do you think about how my character’s developing and how he’s interacting with everybody? He goes ‘Great. We think it’s all great. We’re very excited and can’t wait for Season 4. He shared a little bit with me about what he wanted to do with me for Season 4. They wanted to dive a little deeper into our relationship, Rider… So, I was very excited for Season 4,” Quinn explained.

However, as can be the case in Hollywood, the tides quickly changed for Quinn and his role on Boy Meets World: 

…In June of ’96 I get a phone call from Michael Jacobs and he’s like ‘Okay. I got some bad news.’ And I was ‘Okay. Uh-oh.’ He’s like ‘so, you’re not coming back for Season 4. Maybe sparingly like five or four episodes. But definitely not Season 5. You’re not coming back.’ Now, I get the concept that in show business there’s no such thing as job security, but this just seemed like a radical reversal. Cause we just had a conversation two months ago that everything was great. So, I just go, ‘What happened?’ and he goes, ‘So the network and the studio came at us last minute with some change. They said the kids are going into high school now and we wanna explore that whole dynamic, so we’re going to change it up. It was kind of unexpected [and] last minute, so there was nothing we could do to save it. He goes, ‘It is what it is,’ and that was it.”

Anthony Tyler Quinn would have even more trouble after that, as Disney gave him a hard time getting him out of his contract in order to pursue other projects – even though he wasn’t being used for Boy Meets World anymore. But again, patience has become a virtue in Hollywood, in this age of reboots, revivals, and direct sequels. Quinn got to come back for Girl Meets World, and close the circle of unfinished business in the series. 

You can stream Girl Meets World on Disney+.

Pod Meets World via CinemaBlend