The mid-’90s was something of a golden period for family-centered sitcoms, with programs like Full House, Home Improvement, and Step by Step focusing on the trials and tribulations of large, rowdy broods with hapless fathers, angsty teens, and wacky neighbors. Family Matters, which aired on ABC from 1989 until 1997 (and then on CBS from ’97-’98) was centered nicely into the niche left by The Cosby Show, and just to the right of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
It focused on policeman Carl Winslow, his wife Harriette (a character from Perfect Strangers), their three children, her mother, and the irrepressible Steve Urkel. “Urkel” and his many zany catchphrases and geeky oddness became the focus of the series as time went on, allowing for more bizarre storylines like cloning and possessed puppets. Over the course of nine seasons, many of the plot points introduced were never touched on again, to varying degrees of absurdity (like completely forgetting about the third Winslow child). Perhaps certain storylines might have been resolved in Season 10, but we never got it.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JUDY WINSLOW?
In the first season of Family Matters, Carl and Harriette Winslow are shown to have three children; Eddie (the eldest), Laura (the middle child), and Judy (the youngest daughter). Halfway through the first season, Steve Urkel appears, and while he wasn’t supposed to be a main character, takes over much more screen time, relegating Judy to being a background character.
By season four, she’s seen walking upstairs, but we never hear her speak. By season five she’s gone altogether, with no explanation, at age 13. Harriette and Carl act as though she never existed and they only had two children, with Urkel taking her place in the household since he almost never seems to leave.
STEVE URKEL’S RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS FAMILY
Amidst all the antics and hijinks that Urkel gets up to bothering the Winslows, it’s sometimes easy to forget why he’s over at their house so much in the first place. In later seasons it’s hinted at that he doesn’t have the best relationship with his family, who he indicates actively dislike him. His parents are never seen, and we’re introduced to his cousin Myrtle Urkel who doesn’t live in the state.
At one point during the series, Steve’s parents up and move to Russia, causing the Winslows to take pity on him and move him into their household. We can imagine that was beyond difficult for Carl and Laura, but what about Steve? His feelings and reactions to being abandoned are never really explored.
URKEL’S ABILITY TO BE “COOL”
One of the most blatant running gags in Family Matters is that Steve Urkel isn’t considered “cool”. With his dorky clothes, annoyingly high pitched voice, and ability to make a bad situation ten times worse, it’s reasonable to see why Eddie, Carl, and Laura wouldn’t want him around. But there’s a few members of the Winslow Family that like Steve, and these members happen to be people unconcerned with Steve’s popularity status.
In the episode “Higher Anxiety”, while consoling Eddie about his two-timing girlfriend, Steve actually gets invited to a cool kid’s party, and later in the series, he saves his high school’s basketball team from losing by busting out some insane Michael Jordan type moves. You’d think instances like that would remind people that Steve wasn’t just a dorky loser.
HARRIETTE WINSLOW’S POLICE EXPERIENCE
An interesting fact about Family Matters is that it was actually a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, and based around the character of Harriette Winslow, an elevator operator at The Chicago Chronicle. She operated the elevator for the third and fourth seasons of the show before becoming the matriarch on its spin-off Family Matters and being fired from her job at the Chronicle.
A graduate from the Chicago Police Academy, Harriette had extensive police experience, having only quit the force because she became pregnant with Eddie. Yet soon after she was fired from the position of elevator operator, she becomes the director of security for the Chronicle. The series never explains why, with all her qualification, she didn’t get that position to begin with, rather than a much less lucrative one.
