Boy Meets World Stars Allege Disturbing Behavior From Guest Star

Peck was convicted of eight counts in 2004, including a charge of committing a lewd act with a child under the age of 14 and oral copulation with a child under the age of 16. One of the victims was an unidentified Nickelodeon star who did not want their identity to be released. For his crimes, Peck served 16 months in prison after pleading no-contest to the charges, which was addressed by the former Boy Meets World actors.

Friedle and Strong discussed how they were drawn to Peck immediately after he walked onto the set, despite Peck being two decades older than the teen actors. The young cast members didn’t care about Peck’s sexuality (Peck was openly gay), and the two spent some time with Peck off the Boy Meets World set. While Fishel says that Peck did little to get to know her and never contacted her after the show ended, Strong and Friedle maintained ties with Peck after the show’s conclusion in 2000.

Friedle explained on the podcast how Peck contacted the young actor in tears in 2003, right after Peck had been accused of the crimes that ultimately put him behind bars. Friedle went into detail, revealing that Peck spun the accusations as the veteran actor being the victim of manipulation, successfully turning Friedle against Peck’s accuser. In Friedle’s defense, neither he nor Boy Meets World co-star Strong knew at the time just how serious the offenses committed by Peck were.

Peck allegedly told Strong that he was the victim of “jailbait,” and that he had no idea that his accuser was underage. This prompted some sympathy from the Boy Meets World actors, who felt indebted to Peck for their post-sitcom successes. Both Strong and Friedle, at the request of Peck, penned letters of support for Peck to the judge, an act that both actors regret.

Both Strong and Friedle confessed that the topic is certainly an uncomfortable one for them to discuss publicly, in part due to the guilt that each of them feel for supporting Peck more than two decades ago. Friedle stated that there “was a real victim here,” and that Peck was able to turn both he and Boy Meets World co-star Strong against that person. Strong agrees but adds that there are a “lot of layers,” and that he is conflicted with continuing to ruin a man’s life even more, 20 years after the fact.

Peck had a long career in the industry, with a good number of film credits as an actor leading up to his criminal misconduct, and even credits as late as 2018. He co-starred in the horror cult classic Return of the Living Dead, the hit ABC sitcom Growing Pains, and the film Good Burger before ever walking onto the set of Boy Meets World. Peck also worked behind the scenes as a producer and as a dialogue coach for multiple films and TV shows.

The podcast episode was recorded ahead of the release of the documentary Quiet on the Set, which explores the illicit behaviors on the sets of several of the network’s shows.