Rider Strong and Will Friedle Detail Alleged Manipulation and Grooming by ‘Boy Meets World’ Guest Star Brian Peck

‘Pod Meets World’ took a break from recapping “Boy Meets World” with their latest episode.

During the Feb. 19 podcast, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong and Will Friedle were joined by family therapist Kati Morton for an important discussion around Brian Peck, a Season 5 guest star on “Boy Meets World.” Per the episode’s official description, the group talks about “the difficult subjects of grooming, childhood sexual abuse and their effects on victims.”

The episode began with Fishel explaining that since they all agreed to be open and honest, even when uncomfortable, about their experiences, the story of Peck was one they felt necessary to share. Additionally, she noted that Friedle and Strong were recently contacted for a statement about Peck. While she didn’t explain why, that is likely because Peck is part of the upcoming “Quiet on Set” docuseries that looks at past alleged abuse that occurred on multiple Nickelodeon sets.

Instead of releasing one statement, the podcast co-hosts decided to tell their stories in a full episode, since Peck would come up soon. Each episode of “Boy Meets World” they recap, the co-hosts list the guest stars — and in Season 5, Peck appeared on two episodes.

In 2004, four years after “Boy Meets World” ended, Peck was convicted of sexually abusing an unknown Nickelodeon child actor. He spent 16 months in prison after being charged with eight counts of sexual abuse.

Friedle says that he became close with Peck right when he joined the show.

“I didn’t really go to parties. I didn’t really do that stuff. But I was working a lot after ‘Boy Meets World,’ and this guy had so ingratiated himself into my life, I took him to three shows after ‘Boy Meets World,’” he explained. “This was the type of thing where the person he presented was this great, funny guy who was really good at his job, and you wanted to hang out with … I saw him every day, hung out with him every day, talked to him every day.”

For Strong, they often hung out “all the time” outside of work as well, despite the fact that Peck was nearly 20 years older.

According to the hosts, while they sometimes wouldn’t remember the name of a stand-in, that would be because there were boundaries separating them from the main cast and crew. However, Peck had managed to blur those lines, making it difficult for them to recognize the warning signs of his behavior.