Love was in the air at those TGIF after parties.
During the TGIF-themed panel at 90s Con in Hartford, Conn., on Saturday, March 29, hosted by Jenna Leigh Green, the Sabrina the Teenage Witch star kicked off the conversation by asking Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Soleil Moon Frye and Jaleel White about the televised parties that aired during commercial break on Friday nights.
“On ABC in the commercial breaks, we were just having fun parties,” explained Green, 50. “We were absolutely working, but it was made to look as though we were just rocking out live on Friday night with NSYNC.”
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Strong, 45, then chimed in, “Yes, that’s the one where Danielle [Fishel] met Lance [Bass] and started dating him,” to which Green replied, “Danielle and Lance dated?!”
“Oh God, for a year,” said Strong. “They went to prom. It didn’t work out.”
Fishel, 43, who played Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World from 1993 to 2000, did in fact date the singer, 45, but the two eventually broke up. Bass came out as gay in 2006. He’s been married to artist and actor Michael Turchin since 2014, and Fishel has been married to producer and podcaster Jensen Karp since 2018.
In 2022, Fishel revealed on the “Pod Meets World” podcast that she and Bass were at work on a movie inspired by their brief romance.
“Lance and I are actually working on a movie about our love story and about our prom experience,” Fishel explained on the episode, which featured the NSYNC singer as a guest. “I dated Lance for about a year while I was on Boy Meets World. It was my senior year, and Lance came with me to my high school prom.”
Related: Matthew Lawrence Reveals His Favorite ‘Boy Meets World’ Episode Ever
Bass said that going to prom with Fishel was a big part of his coming out journey.
“The reason we wanted to make this prom story into a film, I think so many people can relate to that story; so many people in the LGBT community, their prom night was the night they were like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. This can’t happen anymore,'” he said. “This was the catalyst for me that made me start to accept myself, which took a long time after that, but that was definitely the first little straw that broke.”
Though there hasn’t been any recent updates on Fishel and Bass’ project, Lauren Lapkus and Mary Holland were reportedly attached as scriptwriters.
90s Con is taking place March 28-30 at the Connecticut Convention Center.
Related: Will Friedle Gives Update on ‘Boy Meets World’s Mr. Feeny, William Daniels, Ahead of 98th Birthday
