Actors William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett, who've been married 68 years, are no strangers to working together. The pair each won Emmys for their work on the 1980s hospital drama "St. Elsewhere."
And some of their most beloved onscreen moments together were on "Boy Meets World," on which Daniels played strict-yet-caring teacher Mr. Feeny and Bartlett guest-starred as his love interest, Pennbrook University Dean Lila Bolander.
The longtime couple looked back on some of their most memorable moments filming the '90s sitcom in an interview with TODAY.
Daniels remembered his touching scene in the series finale.
"They all leave the classroom," he recalled. "And Mr. Feeny, who's been kind of a hard-nosed guy, is alone in the room. And he looks over at the empty desks. And he says, 'I love you all.' And I thought that was a really nice way to end it."
He added that the advice Feeny offers Cory (Ben Savage), Topanga (Danielle Fishel), Shawn (Rider Strong) and Eric (Will Friedle) in that scene — "Believe in yourselves. Dream. Try. Do good." — is his favorite wisdom imparted by the character.
Bartlett said she particularly liked the scene in which she told off Fred Savage, who guest-starred as Stuart, a Pennbrook professor who acts inappropriately with Topanga.
"I gave him hell because he was playing — Fred is a good villain — he was playing an obnoxious teacher. I said, 'You don't have one ounce of teacher in you like this man (Feeny) does.' Anyway, it was a good episode for me."
Daniels said it was important for him to portray Mr. Feeny respectfully.
"I wanted to make sure the producer understood that I didn't wanna make fun of a teacher. They're too important to this country and they're underpaid. So I wanted him, Mr. Feeny, to be written with respect, which they were kind enough to do. And so I was happy to do that. And it worked out very well."
Daniels, who recently reunited with the "Boy Meets World" cast at the Boston Comic-Con Fan Expo in August, enjoys getting together with his former onscreen students — and receiving warm feedback from fans.
"When you do any kind of play or film or whatever, you never really know how it's going to turn out until you hear the audience reaction. And so it's been a pleasant surprise for me, that the show has had such kind of repercussions with people — that they still talk about it."
The pair's latest project together involved serving as guests of honor at the launch of ArtSquared, a video exhibit in New York's Times Square, presented by the COllective heART.
"One minute of every hour, they show a new artist's work," Bartlett explained. "And it's all hard work, good messaging. It certainly sounded like a Mr. Feeny thing. And that's sort of why we did it."