This past Tuesday, Samuel L. Jackson paid tribute to the 1990s sitcom Boy Meets World by performing a slam poem on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Even if you’ve never seen the sitcom, it’s hysterical. Watch the slam poem here. Unfortunately, the actual sitcom was never this funny, at least not the billiards episode “City Slackers” (1996) from the third season.
For the uninitiated, Boy Meets World is the ABC sitcom kid brother to The Wonder Years. That show, which ran from 1988-1993, starred Fred Savage navigating adolescence, high school tribulations, dating and love (to Winnie, played by future heartthrob Danica McKellar). Boy Meets World ran from 1993-2000, with Cory (Ben Savage — literally Fred Savage’s younger brother) navigating adolescence, high school tribulations, dating and love (to Topanga, played by future heartthrob Danielle Fishel).
In “City Slackers,” most of the episode concerns Cory (Fred Savage) and his unsupervised weekend to trip to the mountains. But, it’s the second story line, featuring Cory’s suave and popular brother Eric (Will Friedle) that is relevant to this blog.
Eric has the hots for Bianca (Julie Benz) who is known to only like jocks. To woo her, he claims that his sport of choice is pool, in which he is a “grandmaster.” His charade, however, hits a wrinkle, when he is challenged to play by a fellow high school student. Bianca indicates that she would love to see that grandmaster play, cooing that “it would make [her] very happy.”
The use of pool to ‘charm/win the girl’ is a familiar trope in billiards movie and television (cf. Kiss Shot), so this is not inherently a bad set-up. Unfortunately, it is badly executed. Both Eric and his opponent are unable to make a single shot, causing onlookers to eventually clap (??) when the same game has hit the three-hour mark without any balls going in the pockets.
Bianca, of course, leaves, but Eric and his opponent continue to play pool. It’s at that point the billiards table appears to become possessed, spitting balls out of pockets, causing balls to swerve impossibly, having balls sit on top of one another, and even, causing balls to explode. This generates a couple raised eyebrows, and a more than generous amount of forced laughs.
In the episode’s final scene, after “15 straight hours of someone yet sinking a ball,” after all the high school patrons have abandoned the pool table, and even after Eric’s opponent has had to leave for choir practice, Eric has the table to himself. He walks over and makes a variation (using 12 balls) of Robert Byrne’s famous 15-balls-in-one-shot trick shot. It’s a great ending to the episode. Too bad the rest of the episode wasn’t similarly enjoyable.
“City Slackers” is available to rent or own via various online channels.
