| Family Matters | |
|---|---|
 Family Matters title card |
|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | William Bickley Michael Warren |
| Developed by | Thomas L. Miller Robert L. Boyett |
| Starring | Reginald VelJohnson Jo Marie Payton (1989-1997) Rosetta LeNoire (1989-1997) Darius McCrary Kellie Shanygne Williams Jaimee Foxworth (1989-1993) Telma Hopkins (1989-1993) Bryton McClure (1990-1997) Jaleel White Orlando Brown (1996-1998) Judyann Elder (1998) Shawn Harrison (1991-1996) Shavar Ross (1992-1993) Michelle Thomas (1993-1998) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 9 |
| No. of episodes | 215 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Thomas L. Miller Robert L. Boyett William Bickley Michael Warren (seasons 2-7) David W. Duclon (seasons 3-8) |
| Running time | 25 Minutes (approx.) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC, CBS |
| Original run | September 22, 1989 – July 17, 1998 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Family Matters is an American sitcom about a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago. The series aired from September 22, 1989 to May 9, 1997 on ABC and, with a network change, moved to CBS on September 19, 1997 to July 17, 1998. The show, a spinoff of Perfect Strangers, originally focused on the character of Harriette Winslow, and her family: husband Carl Winslow, a police officer; rebellious son Eddie Winslow (so much so that he was grounded practically every other episode); smart daughter Laura Winslow; and youngest child Judy Winslow. They had opened their home to Carl's street-wise mother Estelle Winslow as well as Harriette's sister Rachel Crawford and her son Richie Crawford after the death of Rachel's husband. The Winslows' nerdy next-door neighbor Steve Urkel was introduced midway through the first season, and quickly became the focus of the show. It was part of ABC's TGIF from 1989 until 1997. Having aired for 215 episodes, Family Matters is the second-longest running comedy with a predominantly African-American cast in the history of American television, surpassed only by The Jeffersons.
Contents |
History
Early years
Removing the recurring character of Harriette Winslow from Perfect Strangers in the fourth season, Harriette was given her own series in Family Matters, which expanded on her home life. Her husband Carl had originally appeared on Perfect Strangers in the fourth season episode entitled "Crimebusters". However, in giving the Winslow family their own series, some continuity problems arose. On Perfect Strangers, Harriette and Carl (and at least Eddie as well) lived in the same apartment building as Balki Bartokomous and Larry Appleton; however, this detail was completely ignored on Family Matters to the point that it is revealed in later episodes that the Winslows had lived in their regular house since before Eddie was born. Family Matters was originally planned to include the "Sergeant Al Powell" character from Die Hard, and be set in Los Angeles. The show was also to contain occasional cameo appearances of New York Detective John McClane who would visit the family for the holidays. This idea was scrapped after Twentieth Century Fox would not sign over the rights to the Die Hard characters, and was re-made into a working-class version of The Cosby Show, featuring an extended family. Many of the shows' characters are analogues of The Cosby Show characters: eldest Winslow child Eddie (Darius McCrary) was adapted from Theo Huxtable, middle child Laura (Kellie Shanygne Williams) was reminiscent of Vanessa Huxtable, and little Judy (Valerie Jones in the pilot, Jaimee Foxworth thereafter) was derived from Rudy Huxtable. It is also interesting to note that Michelle Thomas, who played Myra Monkhouse in later seasons, had a role on The Cosby Show as Theo's girlfriend, Justine. The kids, along with their policeman father Carl (Reginald VelJohnson), elevator operator mother Harriette (JoMarie Payton), aspiring writer Aunt Rachel Crawford (Telma Hopkins), and her young son Richie (twin infants Joseph and Julius Wright during the first season, Bryton McClure thereafter), and Carl's feisty mother Estelle Winslow (Rosetta LeNoire), found themselves in typical sitcom-family situations. Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) was the most famous character on the show. Introduced midway through the first season, the bespectacled Urkel, complete with high-pitched voice and suspenders, was the ultimate nerd; he was highly intelligent, but was very clumsy. His trademark line, "Did I do that?" (whenever he caused an accident) became a catchphrase imitated by the show's viewers. When Urkel caused someone else to have an accident, he would say "Look what you did!" If Urkel was frustrating Carl, Carl would tell Steve to "Go home, Go home, Go home!" in which Steve would reply "I don't have to take this, I'm going home." Another aspect of the Steve Urkel character that made him famous was his snorting laugh. ABC even hosted contests, in which viewers were asked to send in their best impression of Urkel to win a grand prize. Originally intended to be a one-time-only character, White's portrayal of Urkel caused the entire studio audience to erupt into chants of "Urkel! Urkel!" during the filming of the original episode. With the series struggling in ratings in the first season, the Steve Urkel character was hastily re-written into several already-completed episodes. By the second season, Jaleel White had joined the show as a regular cast member. The show's original theme was the Louis Armstrong classic "What a Wonderful World", but was scrapped after the first episode. "As Days Go By", written by Jesse Frederick, Bennett Salvay, and Scott Roeme, and performed by Jesse Frederick, would be the theme for the majority of the series until 1995, when the theme was cut. A longer version of "As Days Go By" can be heard in the first three seasons. The first-through-third-season version of the opening credits features a scene showing the family riding their bicycles across a bridge over the Chicago River; an allusion to Perfect Strangers, which featured a scene of Larry and Balki riding a tour boat underneath the same bridge in its own opening credits.
On-going Themes/Gags
It did not take long for the show to develop an idiosyncratic set of on-going plot elements, which certainly added both tension and comedy, even if they did so at the expense of credibility. Not surprisingly, the sheer absurdity of the episodes only increased as the series went on. A curiously large number of episodes threw the major characters into life-or-death situations, such as Carl falling into a frozen pond; Steve nearly falling out of a hot-air balloon; Eddie and his friends hanging precariously from a fire escape; Carl discovering a bomb in a treadmill, and to get off the treadmill without causing the bomb to explode. These key events were usually resolved within a few minutes. Another recurring theme was the humor derived from gratuitous property damage. Whether Urkel was knocking over a lamp; breaking the Winslows' windows (on several occasions); taking the blame for crashing the Winslow's family station wagon into the living room, even though Eddie was the driver; completely destroying Carl's garage shelves; or having inventions going wrong, and ending up destroying various parts of the house, breaking something was a tried and true way to get a laugh.
Science Fiction
Critics claim the show "jumped the shark" in the later seasons that introduced many outrageous inventions from Steve Urkel; turning it from a down-to-earth family show into a science-fiction-based show. These plotlines helped to bend the reality of the show, as it seemed hard to believe that the lives of the characters would continue so normally with the discovery of such groundbreaking inventions. These inventions included: Steve's UrkelBot, an intelligent robot that fell in love with Laura, and briefly became a police officer; Steve's "transformation chamber" that turned him into Stefan Urquelle as well as other odd characters; Steve's weight-shrinking machine; and his teleportation pad.
These stories strained credulity more and more in the show's final seasons, and the series gradually developed a self-aware sense of humor on the subject. In the Season 8 episode "Father Time", Carl casually shrugs off Urkel's invention of a time-travel device, citing all of Steve's previous impossible creations, and insisting a time machine is "no big deal" in comparison.
Comical show, serious issues
- See also: Very special episode
While most of the episodes were wildly comical (some likened the show to a "black" version of Laurel and Hardy), there were episodes on serious topics, such as teen alcoholism; dysfunctional families; racism; sexism; cancer; death; dyslexia; school bullying; and gun violence (this episode resulted in a short school shooting, where one of Laura's friends was shot. The cast gave a public service announcement (P.S.A.) after this episode's conclusion. Ironically, this episode aired years before the school shooting rage of the late 1990s, and the show itself was off the air less than a year when the Columbine shootings took place. Several episodes also focused on Carl's job as a policeman, and the dangers inherent in such a career. There was also an early episode centered around Harriette and Rachel's father (portrayed by Paul Winfield), who tried to re-unite with his daughters after abandoning the family when they were very young (their mother had told them that their father was killed when his fighter plane was shot down over Korea).
Original characters leave the show
As the focus of the show began to center more and more around Urkel (and occasionally Stefan), other original characters were shunted to the periphery of the show. By 1993, the actresses who portrayed two members of the Winslow household, namely Judy (Jaimee Foxworth) and Rachel (Telma Hopkins), left the show. Hopkins (as Rachel) left the series after the fourth season to focus on her own series (Getting By), but made guest appearances until 1997, but no explanation was ever given for Carl and Harriette's youngest child, Judy, mysteriously disappearing. Judy was never popular with fans, and rarely had an entire episode centering on her character. In the third and fourth seasons, she was little more than a background character, appearing in episodes merely to fulfill contractual obligations, and often not getting a single line. Foxworth explained to audiences on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Tyra Banks Show that her mother demanded that her character be developed, in order to receive more money, and the demands were denied. Foxworth was let go, and the producers felt no need to hire another actress to replace her. The producers admitted that they did not think audiences would notice Judy's disappearance, which is why her absence was never explained. A few seasons later, Harriette briefly mentioned to Carl in passing that Judy was upstairs cleaning her room, but there was no other mention of Judy, as if she never existed. In fact, later episodes even have the Winslows acknowledging they only have two children.[1] In later seasons, other characters also disappeared. Shawn Harrison's character, Waldo, was said to have gone off to culinary school, giving his character some closure. Waldo had been mentioned a season later by Maxine, who received a poorly addressed letter from Waldo. Bryton McClure, who played Richie, started to appear less once 3J was introduced, and disappeared by the last season. Rosetta LeNoire, who played Mother Winslow, was gone by the last season as well. JoMarie Payton-Noble, the original actress who played Harriette (originating the character on Perfect Strangers), left in December 1997 before the last season, as she disliked how the show placed so much emphasis on Steve Urkel and his sub-characters (Stefan, Myrtle, O.G.D., etc.). Many believe this is a case of the series jumping the shark. According to a Parade viewer question asking why she was replaced, JoMarie Payton-Noble also wanted to write or direct an episode, but never could. She was replaced by Judyann Elder. In the Season 9 Christmas episode "Deck the Malls", Estelle Winslow and Richie Crawford appear for the last time. It is also JoMarie Payton's last appearance as Harriette.
Cancellation
During its final season, the show moved to CBS. The show never had a proper series finale. The tenth season, which was supposed to feature the marriage of Steve and Laura, never entered production. The ratings had been on a steady decline for the last couple of years, and CBS decided to cancel the show (as well as Step by Step) after only one season on the network; at the end of the season, the show was not in the top 100. After the season ended, the sets were dismantled, much to the surprise of the cast and crew. The ninth season finale, a two-part episode, ended up becoming the de-facto series finale. Although not an official finale, it did succeed in featuring several types of plots prominent throughout the years. It was not only a very special episode, but also put equal emphasis on Steve and the Winslows, featured a comic storyline, and incorporated an outlandish plot centered around Urkel and his inventions: Steve goes into outer space with a pair of NASA astronauts to test one of his inventions, and Harriette, attempting to protect a newly-deputized Eddie, arranges for him to be given a beat reading parking meters - which puts him in the middle of a shoot-out.
Nielsen Ratings
1989-1990 Season: #32 1990-1991 Season: #15 1991-1992 Season: #27 1992-1993 Season: #35 1993-1994 Season: #30 1994-1995 Season: #34 1995-1996 Season: #42 1996-1997 Season: #50 1997-1998 Season: #108
Characters
- Reginald VelJohnson as Carl Winslow
- Jo Marie Payton as Harriette Winslow (originating on Perfect Strangers in 1987, 1989-1997 seasons 1-8 and the first half of season 9)
- Judyann Elder as Harriette Winslow (season 9)
- Darius McCrary as Eddie Winslow
- Kellie Shanygne Williams as Laura Winslow
- Jaimee Foxworth as Judy Winslow (season 1-4)
- Rosetta LeNoire as Estelle "Mother" Winslow (season 1-6, sporadic appearances in 7, 8 and 9)
- Jaleel White as Steve Urkel/Stefan Urquelle (season 5-9)/Myrtle Urkel (sporadic appearances in season 2,7,8, and 9)/Original Gangster Dawg (O.G.D.) (season 9)
- Telma Hopkins as Rachel Crawford (season 1-4, sporadic appearances in 6, 7, and 9)
- Bryton McClure as Richie Crawford (second actor, season 2-7, sporadic appearances in 8 and 9)
- Orlando Brown as 3J (season 7-9)
- Michelle Thomas as Myra Monkhouse (season 4-9)
- Shawn Harrison as Waldo Geraldo Faldo (season 2-8)
- Cherie Johnson as Maxine (season 3-9)
Production notes
- The house depicted in the opening and closing credits is located at 1516 W. Wrightwood Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Mapquest
- The closing shot in the end credits with the family at the piano comes from the pilot episode "The Mama Who Came to Dinner".
- The only cast member to appear in every single episode was Reginald VelJohnson as Carl Winslow.
- Family Matters was produced by Miller-Boyett Productions in association with Lorimar Television in the first few seasons, and later (seasons 3-9) it was produced by Bickley-Warren Productions & Miller-Boyett Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, which absorbed Lorimar, a sister company under the Warner Communications banner, in 1993.
TGIF Universe
Family Matters is set in the same "TV universe" as several other TV series related to ABC's TGIF:
- Perfect Strangers — Before Family Matters, Harriette Winslow was originally the elevator operator at the Chicago Chronicle newspaper office in the third and fourth seasons of Perfect Strangers. Family Matters was a spin-off series given to this character in 1989. In the second episode of Family Matters, Harriette was fired as elevator operator at the Chronicle, but was soon re-hired as "Chief of Security", which explained her absence from dealings with the Perfect Strangers cast.
- Full House — In the 1991 episode, "Stephanie Gets Framed", Steve Urkel helps Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) deal with her anxiety after she has to get glasses.
- Step by Step — In the original ABC broadcast, the ending gag of Family Matters' third season episode "Brains Over Brawn" is crossed over with the opening of Step By Step's second episode, "The Dance". Urkel's jet-propelled flight pack causes him to fly through the Winslows' roof as one show ends, and crash-land in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where the Lambert-Foster family is enjoying a barbecue as the other show opens. Urkel goes on to help his science-fair pen pal, Mark Foster (Christopher Castile), and lifts Al Lambert's (Christine Lakin) spirits after her potential date dumps her just before a school dance. He reprises his "Do the Urkel" dance in the scene where Al gives the guy who dumped her his comeuppance. Urkel also makes a brief cameo in the 1997 episode "A Star Is Born", snapping a clapperboard on the set of the movie Al was cast in over her two sisters.
- Boy Meets World — Urkel once received a chain letter, and thought he'd send it on to his friend, Cory Matthews, (Ben Savage) who lived in Philadelphia. The two never actually appeared together on any show.
- Hangin' with Mr. Cooper — also a cross-over with Full House.
- Meego — Jaleel White makes an uncredited cameo as Urkel in the first two episodes of this short-lived CBS sitcom (which starred Bronson Pinchot of Perfect Strangers).
References in popular culture
- In the episode of The Simpsons, "Bart Gets Famous", Bart is worried about becoming an obnoxious fad with his catchphrase on the Krusty the Clown show. Homer tries to reassure him by saying that the same thing was said about Urkel. Then he proceeds to comment that he finds Urkel to be a snot-nosed little punk that he'd like to smack.
- In "The Springfield Files" episode of The Simpsons, Homer compares an alien he encounters to Steve Urkel.
- In another episode of The Simpsons, "Helter Shelter", Marge is seen trying to purchase a box of Urkel O's cereal (a product that was actually available in supermarkets in the early 1990's).
- In the South Park episode "Chickenpox", Cartman has a Steve Urkel sleeping bag.
- In the American Dad! episode "Stan of Arabia", a man showing Hayley around in a Saudi Arabian restaurant wears a shirt that has a picture of Steve Urkel, and under the picture is the word "Urkel".
- In a Married...with Children episode, Al Bundy states: "Hey, Family Matters is on! I love this Urkel guy. Everything you need to know about life, you can learn from him."
- In Big Fat Liar, Jaleel White stars as himself starring as a cop named "Fowl". Many references are made to his "Urkel" days from Family Matters, with Marty Wolf repeatedly referring to him as "Urkel".
See also
External links
- Family Matters on IMDB.com
- Family Matters on TV.com
- Family Matters at Tvguide.com
- UrkelNet - a large fan site for Family Matters
- Short Episode Guide for Family Matters
