Family Matters was one of the popular television shows that dominated TGIF on Friday nights. While everyone looked to get along while the cameras were rolling, looks were deceiving. Behind the scenes, there was more drama than anyone was aware of. Most of that drama was between the original cast members and Jaleel White which stemmed from a massive amount of attention being placed on White as a result of his popular character, Steve Urkel, who was only supposed to guest star on the show. The more famous White became and the more money he made from playing Steve Urkel, the more tensions flared which eventually led to a divide that was difficult for the cast as a whole to overcome.
The onset problems only continued to get worse when original cast members were let go to make way for a larger storyline for White, given he was becoming a famous child actor in the 1990s. As such, by the time Family Matters ended, White had little if any connection with his co-stars and it appeared that the rift would never be healed. But with time, comes introspection leaving fans wondering if the cast of Family Matters still has beef with White today.
Jaleel White Was Not Welcomed By The ‘Family Matters’ Cast
White was originally cast as Steve Urkel for a guest-starring role on Family Matters. As a result of his table read and seeing that there was more that could be done with his character, White was instead given a contract for an entire season.
This ruffled the feathers of the original cast and because of this, White claims he was not welcomed by the cast when he joined the show.
“I didn’t see how I was stepping on anybody’s toes, I was taking anybody’s shine. It’s very important that I say this: I was not very well welcomed to the cast at all, okay? And I don’t need to rehash that with the adults over and over again. They know what it is.”
That shunning came to a head when White was playing a secondary character, Myrtle Urkle, Steve’s cousin. He had to put on a dress and look the part of a teen girl, which did not go over well with Jo Marie Payton, who played Harriette Winslow, a role she grew restless with over the years, or Reginald VelJohnson, who played, Carl Winslow.
Instead of taking it to showrunners and expressing their sensitivity to “putting Black men in dresses,” according to White, they chastised him for doing what he was asked to do.
“And they heaped that on me, and they let me know I was not doing our race a service by putting on that yellow dress,” White said.
“But everybody has a default. Do you crumble? Do you wilt under pressure? Do you rise? Do you surprise yourself? My default tends to be to take it up a notch. That evening I felt like a girl… playing Myrtle Urkel. But I cried like a baby at the end of that take. I just broke.”
It was all of this negativity that pushed White to the brink. When he felt that he had no other way to express himself, White turned to threats in the form of fighting one of his co-stars.
Jaleel White Threatened To “Fight” One Of His Co-Stars
As the years went by and tensions ebbed and flowed on set, White was still starring on Family Matters, keeping the show popular, and playing other characters than Steve Urkel. Outside of playing a female cousin, White also played a “gangster” cousin.
Playing this character was something that White wanted to make as realistic as possible but some of what was pitched was not going to fly with the network. When this was brought to White’s attention by Payton, not only did White disagree with what she was saying, he threatened to fight her for changing the direction of the scene as well.
