1 9 8 9 – 1 9 9 8 (USA)
215 x 30 minute episodes
A spin-off from Perfect Strangers, Family Matters focused on the middle-class African-American Winslow family, who lived in a suburb of Chicago.
Carl, a heavyset policeman, always blustering about one thing or another, was played by Reginald VelJohnson. His sharp-tongued wife, Harriette, was played by Jo Marie Payton, who had attracted attention on Perfect Strangers as a sarcastic elevator operator.
The Winslow children, Eddie (aged 15), Laura (13) and Judy (9) were played by Darius McCrary, Kellie Shaygne Williams and Jaimee Foxworth.
Grandma Winslow was played by Rosetta LeNoire, while Harriette’s recently widowed sister, Rachel Crawford, was played by Thelma Hopkins, and Rachel’s infant son, Richie, was played by Joseph and Julius Wright, and, as he grew older, by Bryton McClure.
The real star of the show, however, was nerdy teenager Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), who didn’t actually show up until episode nine but immediately became extremely popular.
Steve had a mad crush on Laura and was constantly dropping in on the Winslow home.
Steve Urkel’s oversized glasses, his too-short trousers which he wore up by his chest, his high-pitched nasal voice, and his awkward, grasshopper-like walk, had viewers doubled over with laughter for the entire seven years the series was on the air.
In 1995, Urkel moved in with the Winslows when his parents left the country without him.
When Family Matters came to the end of its run in 1998, Urkel and Laura (who were 20 years old by that time) had miraculously become engaged.
Urkel had helped Carl get a promotion to Captain on the police force, and he had become the first student astronaut after he won a contest.
When he blasted off in a shuttle to outer space, the mission went wrong, but Steve performed a spacewalk, removed a satellite that had crashed into the shuttle, and saved the day.
The theme song was What A Wonderful World, sung by Louis Armstrong when the series first aired, but in 1989 it became As Days Go By.
Carl Otis Winslow
Reginald VelJohnson
Harriette Winslow
JoMarie Payton
Edward ‘Eddie’ James Arthur Winslow
Darius McCrary
Laura Lee Winslow
Kellie Shanygne Williams
Judy Winslow
Jaimee Foxworth
Steven Quincy Urkel
Jaleel White
Estelle ‘Mother’ Winslow
Rosetta LeNoire
Rachel Crawford
Telma Hopkins
Richie Crawford
Joseph Wright (1)
Julius Wright (2)
Bryton James (3)
