‘Girl Meets World’ loses one of its cast members; Teo Halm not moving forward

There is a big change coming to the highly anticipated new  Disney Channel series “Girl Meets World”: We are no longer going to be seeing the character of Riley, daughter of Cory and Topanga, have a brother on the show.

In what is an important change to the original plan on the show, actor Teo Halm confirmed on Twitter that he was not going to be a cast member moving forward. Danielle Fishel (Topanga) later addressed the move herself, wishing him the best and complimenting him on his acting ability. “Girl Meets World” will premiere on the House of Mouse’s flagship cable channel next year, and the hope is to capture the fun of the original “Boy Meets World” while also appealing to a new audience. And yes, we’re still worried about the show being too “family” even given the network that it is on since the original series did tackle some real world problems that pre-teens and teens face.

So does this little move have us terrified about the show’s production? Yes and no. It does certainly have us a little worried that this couldn’t have been figured out earlier, but sometimes you don’t quite know until you get actors together and start reading scripts. While we feel awful for Halm, who clearly had himself quite a break here, we tend to have a belief that with comedies, it’s best to start with a tiny cast, and to maybe expand outward from there in future seasons. “The Big Bang Theory” is a great example of that, as it started with just five characters before later coming out and adding more to the mix. Its sister Chuck Lorre show in “Two and a Half Men” is rather similar.

What do you think about this move, and do you subscribe to the theory that less is sometimes so much more when it comes to start-up comedies? Be sure to share what you think below! Meanwhile, take a look here if you missed the initial announcement on the series order.

Photo: Disney Channel