Would the cast of the 90s sitcom Family Matters ever get back together for a reboot?
Well, Jo Marie Payton would be more than happy to return to the small screen with her former television family– but only under one condition.
1. Jo Marie Payton wants Judy Winslow to be written back onto the show
While appearing at ’90s Con in Hartford, Connecticut with her fellow Family Matters castmates Reginald VelJohnson (Carl Winslow), Darius McCrary (Eddie Winslow), and Kellie Williams (Laura Winslow) on March 13, Jo Marie Payton opened up about the possibility of doing a reboot of the hit sitcom.
Though she is open to playing Harriet Winslow again, Payton says that she would only do a reboot if her on-screen daughter Judy Winslow was written back into the show.
For those of you who don’t know, the family’s youngest child Judy Winslow, played by actress Jamiee Foxworth, mysteriously disappeared in the fourth season without so much as an explanation.
2. During 90s Con, Payton shared that she was “personally hurt” when Judy was 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, via People. “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.’”
“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,’” Payton continued. “So for me, that’s one of the other things that I [wouldn’t be] excited about, going back into it.”
3. Jo Marie Payton says she would only do a reboot if Judy Winslow was brought back in the first episode.
If a reboot was to ever happen, Jo Marie Payton says “the very first episode has to be that [Judy] comes down those stairs” for her to ever consider playing the Winslow family matriarch again.
“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!” Payton shared.
Well, we guess we’ll just have to wait and see if a Family Matters reboot will ever come to fruition.
