Jo Marie Payton Says She Will Only Do a ‘Family Matters’ Reboot

“I was personally very hurt by that,” Jo Marie Payton told fans of Judy Winslow’s mysterious disappearance from Family Matters during the cast’s reunion at 90s Con on Sunday
The cast of Family Matters seems eager to get the Winslow family back together — but Jo Marie Payton has some conditions if a reboot were ever to come to fruition.

Payton (Harriette Winslow) was joined by fellow cast members Reginald VelJohnson (Carl Winslow), Darius McCrary (Eddie Winslow), and Kellie Williams (Laura Winslow) at this weekend’s 90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut. When the cast was asked if they would ever consider reviving their iconic characters from the hit 1990s sitcom, Payton said 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 did not go in,” Payton, 71, told fans on Sunday, adding that she was “personally hurt by” actress Jamiee Foxworth being written off the show.
“I said, You guys need to tell me something that is not only creative, but also politically correct to straighten out this situation because there’s nowhere in the world a family … You gave me three kids, you took away my baby,” she recalled of her conversation with the producers at the time. “If you had taken away my oldest child, we could have always come up with [various excuses in the episodes] that she was at the mall or with her friends. You took away my baby, and when I asked you, ‘Why did you take away my baby girl?,’ you said, ‘Nobody would notice.’ ”
Payton continued, “I said, ‘You know what, when we’re walking down the street, nobody’s gonna notice you because they’re not going to ask you, they’re going to ask me what happened to Judy.’ So for me, that’s one of the other things that I [wouldn’t be] excited about, going back into it.”

If Payton were to ever consider playing Winslow family matriarch Harriette again, “the very first episode has to be that [Judy] 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!”
Following Payton’s response, Williams noted that the actress has always been very passionate when it comes to her fellow Family Matters cast members. “I just want you guys to take in that amount of love and passion,” Williams said. “I mean, y’all always asking … That’s what it was! That kind of love, that kind of compassion, that kind of mothering — and fathering — it was a real thing. You feel it? She meant every word of that!”

Overall, the cast members who reunited at 90s Con seemed excited about the idea of coming back together as the Chicago-based family constantly pestered by nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel (played by Jaleel White, who was not present at the convention).
“You need to contact Bob Boyett and Netflix and tell them,” Williams told fans of reviving the series, which aired for nine seasons from 1989 to 1997.

“The possibilities are endless today,” added McCrary. “You guys have so much more power in your hands than you did. There was three networks, four networks — NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. Now there are so many platforms … you guys can start an online campaign. Get on Facebook, talk, share … if you guys had this much power in your hands, Judy would have never got left at the mall.”