‘Family Matters’ ‘ Jo Marie Payton, Reginald VelJohnson Acted Like Parents Off Set: ‘They Did Not Play!’

“What y’all were watching on the show was real. It was real … She was a real mother to me,” Kellie Williams, who played Laura Winslow, said during a panel at 90s Con on Sunday
Jo Marie Payton and Reginald VelJohnson, stars of the beloved ’90s sitcom Family Matters, took their roles as parents just as seriously behind the scenes as they did on camera!

During an appearance at 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut, over the weekend, the show’s matriarch and patriarch were joined by Kellie Williams and Darius McCrary, who played kids Laura and Eddie Winslow on the iconic sitcom, to discuss all things Family Matters more than 20 years after the show ended its impressive nine-season run.

Speaking to an audience, as well as former Even Stevens star and panel host Christy Carlson Romano, Payton, 71, got the conversation rolling after revealing that she and VelJohnson took an active role in parenting the young stars as though they were their own children.

“I was older than some of their parents are, and I was due respect, and I demanded it,” Payton said.

“The adults on our show…they took personal responsibility for us,” Williams, 45, explained. “What you saw on camera, she did not play. They [Payton and VelJohnson] did not play with us. Whoever was doing what…when one of them would talk to you, you listened. And our parents backed them up.”
Added McCrary, 45: “We couldn’t get away with anything.”

“Jo Marie, and all of our parents, and all of the adults on the show — it didn’t matter if you were an actor, or a director, or a producer, or a craft services person, whatever — we had respect, ” Williams said, offering just one example of how Payton laid down the law behind the scenes with her.
“One time I was cuttin’ up on my mother, Jo Marie got me in that corner and said, ‘Look, baby, we don’t do that,’ ” she explained. “So they would walk around like a little gang, right? So we knew not to cut up because they really took care of us. What y’all were watching on the show was real. It was real … She was a real mother to me .”

Continued McCrary: “They were there at our high school graduations. They were involved in our learning, our day-to-day. In our discipline, absolutely.”
The cast also addressed whether or not they’d be game to participate in a Family Matters reboot so it ever comes to fruition. Payton emphasized that she would only do it if the role of Judy Winslow, the family’s youngest child who mysteriously disappeared in the fourth season, was written back into the show.

“Don’t think for a minute that we didn’t go in,” Payton said, adding that she was “personally hurt by” actress Jamiee Foxworth being written off the show.

If she were to ever consider playing Winslow family matriarch Harriette again, “the very first episode has to be that she comes down those stairs.”

Payton added, “The worst feeling in the world for a parent is not to know where your child is, so if [a reboot were to happen], and Judy comes back, I will do Family Matters again!”

Although only part of the cast of Family Matters appeared at 90s Con over the weekend, they were in good company at the event, as cast members from other iconic ’90s shows and movies were also in attendance during the three-day convention.