What The Cast Of Family Matters Is Up To These Days
Mention “Family Matters,” and there’s a good chance anyone over 30 will get nostalgic about one particular Chicago family and its geeky, often annoying neighbor. (Meanwhile, anyone younger will probably be left wondering what on Earth a TGIF lineup is.) A spin-off from fellow ABC sitcom “Perfect Strangers,” this nine-season Friday night staple was a golden child of the ’80s and ’90s. Much like its fellow TGIF mainstays “Full House,” “Step By Step,” and “Boy Meets World,” it offered a reliable place to watch precocious kids come of age, with their loving families and wacky sidekicks helping them solve all their problems within 30 minutes each week.
“Family Matters” is undisputedly a culturally significant piece of sitcom history, and its cast was naturally catapulted to stardom. With the Winslow family’s three children (or were there only two?), unexpected cultural phenomenon Steve Urkel, and standout supporting characters like Myra Monkhouse and Waldo Geraldo Faldo, the show offered a plethora of memorable faces. But what has the cast been doing recently, and what might those born post-1998 know them from?
Reginald VelJohnson (Carl Winslow)
Before “Family Matters,” Reginald VelJohnson had already made a name for himself playing police officers in Hollywood movies like “Ghostbusters” and “Turner & Hooch,” and most notably as Sgt. Al Powell in “Die Hard.” As the LAPD patrolman who believes John McClane’s innocence and assists him in thwarting Hans Gruber’s terrorist plans, VelJohnson is a huge part of the movie’s heart. After “Family Matters,” VelJohnson continued to let himself be endearingly typecast, guest starring on several popular TV crime dramas, including “Monk,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Bones,” and “Diagnosis: Murder.” He even reprised his role as Sgt. Al Powell for a Christmas episode of “Chuck.”
In recent years, VelJohnson has held recurring TV roles on “I’m in the Band,” “Tron: Uprising,” “Hart of Dixie,” “3Below: Tales of Arcadia,” and “Lazor Wulf.” He’s also gotten more opportunities to revisit his iconic characters, reprising the role of Sgt. Al Powell in the video games “Die Hard: Vendetta” and “Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza,” as well as the Funny or Die short “A Die Hard Christmas Party with Reginald VelJohnson.” In 2021, he returned as David Sutton on the Disney+ “Turner & Hooch” series, the only member of the original cast to make an appearance.
In short, Reginald VelJohnson’s career has kept on rolling since the end of “Family Matters,” though fans briefly worried it wouldn’t — in 2017, he was forced to publicly confirm via Twitter that he was not dead after an internet hoax announced that he had suffered a fatal cardiac arrest.
Jo Marie Payton (Harriette Winslow)
Jo Marie Payton continued to find steady TV work in the years following her time as Harriette Winslow. In Season 2 of “Will & Grace,” she had a small but recurring role as Mrs. Freeman, the personal assistant to Will’s boss, Ben Doucette. Then, from 2001 to 2005, Payton voiced Suga Mama Proud on Disney Channel’s animated series “The Proud Family” and its companion TV Movie “The Proud Family Movie,” earning NAACP Image Award nominations in 2003, 2005, and 2006 for her performance. She returned to the character in 2022 for the revival series “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” on Disney+.
A 2015 TV movie, “The Flight Before Christmas,” reunited Payton with her “Family Matters” husband Reginald VelJohnson. Payton’s other credits include a live-action fractured fairy tale adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” (not the Disney one, though), Matthew McConaughey’s “The Beach Bum,” and a three-season run as family matriarch Lorraine Mann on the sitcom “Mann & Wife.”
Strangely enough, Payton left the final season of “Family Matters” halfway through. Many speculated that it was due to tensions and clashes with co-star Jaleel White, but she clarified at Entertainment Weekly’s “Family Matters” reunion in 2017 that she simply wanted to embark on other creative pursuits. Harriette Winslow was thus played by Judyann Elder for the remaining eight episodes — the theater veteran has many stage acting and directorial roles to her name and was conferred an NAACP Trailblazer Award in 2005.
