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Family Matters Appreciation Thread

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The sitcom that went from wholesome family show to nerd sci-fi fantasy fest.

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Watch Urkel being his annoying self for a decade.

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Or watch Urkel turn into Stefan.

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Or the creatrion of Urkelbot?

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Witness little Laura turning into a voluptuous woman. :)

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Meow. Sparks start flying when Urkel's girlfriend is introduced. Pity about her in real life. :(

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Poor little Judy...

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Enjoy the exploits of the completely ordinary Eddie Wislow.

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Fortunately, there was always Waldo as a backup.

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Maxime wasn't too bad either... :)

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And the rest of the family.
 
What did happen to Judy?
And I think the last episode was when Steve came back to earth after that mission.
 
The show had always had some weird sci fi stuff with all the experiments Steve did. But it got really out there in later seasons. I remember when they went to Paris...Because Steve created a device that could warp you wherever you wanted to go. But that wasn't enough for them. The ep ended with Steve being tossed off the Eiffel tower, the way he was saved was Carl hitting the warping device just as Steve fell near it and it warped him back to their house.
 
The funniset thing is seeing reruns of it now, and realizing just how "conservative" shows were back in the 90's. Steve almost killed Carl and he wanted to curse but because it would ruin the show's rating he would say other things like "you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (which of course became one of Carl's famous phrases)

BTW, Didn't they change Harriette's actress in one of the final seasons? Or was that Fresh Prince? Or both? :lol
 
flsh said:
The funniset thing is seeing reruns of it now, and realizing just how "conservative" shows were back in the 90's. Steve almost killed Carl and he wanted to curse but because it would ruin the show's rating he would say other things like "you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (which of course became one of Carl's famous phrases)
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I don't think Family Matters is truly representative of the 90's. It and Perfect Strangers seem to have been made to be specifically family-safe. These shows had a kind of innocence rarely seen on sitcoms of their day.

I was reading somewhere that the episode where they used Urkel's transformation machine and turn into Bruce Lee's to take on a street gang was the only episode of the series rated PG, as if it was a big deal.
 
I definitely watched my fair share of this show! Hated the "cue sappy music, here comes a moral-of-the-story moment" stuff, but over all it's enjoyable.

Off the top of my head, my fave episode is the 40s gumshoe detective muder mystery spoof episode. The one with the drums beating to Laura's every over-sexed, hip-switching step :lol

*Shudder* at the "Do the Urkel" rooftop party dance though
 
Waldo was hilarious.

I didnt know judy was gone until a few years after teh show ended :lol


Remember when Urkel teamed up with Gran mama to beat Eddie in bball :lol :lol
 
Remember the episode when Urkel wasn't allowed on the basketball team, but in the big game, they were short one player. So they let Steve on the team who has a jet-pack.
 
I don't know if this is true, but I heard they were making a spin-off of the show for Nick at Nite called, The Family Table. And it would star Steve and Laura, like 10 years after the show has been over. They are married with like two kids or so or something of the sort.

Anyhow, it was a cool show. Though the final season was pretty much unknown once it moved to CBS then it changed the mother than the ending never came but eh
 
*PM's Mikazuki*. Whatever happened at the end of the show?
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Final episode. Laura realizes she actually loves Urkel, who's in outer space. Urkel messes something up and the entire crew almost gets killed, but he manages to fix the problem. When Urkel arrives back on Earth, they agree to get married. We never got to see a wedding though. ;_;

The last season was horrible. I couldn't get over them replacing Harriat. Seeing Carl kiss an entirely different woman was disturbing after enjoying Family Matters for so many years. Ironically, the "new" Harriat was the same woman who played a new neighboor and attempted to seduce Carl years before! :lol This is also why I quit watching Passions years ago...

The earlier sessions I can watch forever, and even some of the far later seasons were funny. Eddie and Weasel are getting up the nerve to talk to this one girl in the mall. Weasel goes up and yells "YO YOU WANNA BUY ME LUNCH?!" :lol
 
Penguin said:
I don't know if this is true, but I heard they were making a spin-off of the show for Nick at Nite called, The Family Table. And it would star Steve and Laura, like 10 years after the show has been over. They are married with like two kids or so or something of the sort.
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Maybe it was an idea up in the air, but Jaleel White has vowed never to play Urkel again.
 
What the fuck! How the hell did they work space traveling and sci fi stuff in that show?Time Warping!? ! HOW DID IT HAPPEN?! WHAT HAPPENED?!?! :lol
 
the actress that played Urkel's girlfriend is the one that is dead. She died of cancer a few years back. She was actually married to Theo huxtable in real life.
 
Naked Shuriken said:
What the fuck! How the hell did they work space traveling and sci fi stuff in that show?Time Warping!? ! HOW DID IT HAPPEN?! WHAT HAPPENED?!?! :lol
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They didn't try to explain it, they just did it. Much like they had Steve clone himself so he could have Stefan around all the time.
 
God, this show was so awful in the later seasons. It stopped being "Family Matters" and became "The Urkel Show". The focus on Urkel killed the entire purpose of the show and it just got worse and worse as the series went on. The first two or three seasons are totally watchable now (sans the slightly cheesy moral of the story format) and a few choice episodes here and there in the later seasons but most of the show is just unwatchable. Step By Step by comparison is a very watchable show into its later seasons even though the cast changed quite radically.
 
How many of you know that Carl Winslow came out and said he was GAY?

Shit caught me by suprise...no less still one of my favorite shows...especially during the TGIF days.
 
Anyone remember the sandwiches that Carl would make? They were fucking ginormous! Whenever my friends or me see a large sandwich we call it a Carl Winslow.
 
The young actress(at the time) that played Judy was mistreated by her mother, all the income she gained from being on the show is gone because her mothers spending habits. The young lady that played Judy, moved on to a life of sex in the porn industry to make ins meet.
 
I remember the episode where eddie's in the locker room getting pressured to have sex with this one girl. Then he bursts out:
"SEE ME. I GO FOR QUALITY NOT QUANTITY!"

then there's that episode with urkel and the rocket pack at the basketball game. at the end homeboy rockets himself all over the TGIF universe for crossovers with full house and step by step. as a kid, that was the shit.
Also in the episode I think laura as a cheerleaders has some funky chant like
"Give me an S. YOU GOT YO' S YOU GOT YO S"

Ah the memories :lol
 
flsh said:
The funniset thing is seeing reruns of it now, and realizing just how "conservative" shows were back in the 90's.
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It wasn't all shows, just the ones from the TGIF line up like Family Matters, Full House, etc. Completely non-offensive, family entertainment that didn't appeal to me at all. :P
 
loved family matters. when i was in kindergarten the bus broke down, and i cried because i might miss family matters.


i loved familly matters.
 
Thank God on weekdays the show is on for two hours. The first hour is older episodes on ABC Family and other hour newer episodes on Channel 36 (forgot what the station was called). Gives me something to see during boring summer.

I can't wait for the series to hit DVD. I loved the episode where Rachel's Place was trashed and where Carl said he HATED Steve. :lol The boxing match between Myrtle and Greta was also class.
 
My absolute favorite line from the show went down like this:

It was about one in the morning, and Eddie wasn't home yet. Carl, naturally, was furious. He had Urkel to talk to, though. Carl was telling Urkel how Eddie's curfew was like 11 or something. Suddenly Carl has an interesting thought: "Steve," Carl said, "don't you have a curfew?" Urkel replied:

"Well sure I do, I'm not allowed home til after midnight"

I nearly woke up the whole damn family laughing so hard at like 7 in the morning when the rerun was playing.
 
Mikazuki said:
Final episode. Laura realizes she actually loves Urkel, who's in outer space. Urkel messes something up and the entire crew almost gets killed, but he manages to fix the problem. When Urkel arrives back on Earth, they agree to get married. We never got to see a wedding though. ;_;

The last season was horrible. I couldn't get over them replacing Harriat. Seeing Carl kiss an entirely different woman was disturbing after enjoying Family Matters for so many years. Ironically, the "new" Harriat was the same woman who played a new neighboor and attempted to seduce Carl years before! :lol This is also why I quit watching Passions years ago...

The earlier sessions I can watch forever, and even some of the far later seasons were funny. Eddie and Weasel are getting up the nerve to talk to this one girl in the mall. Weasel goes up and yells "YO YOU WANNA BUY ME LUNCH?!" :lol
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What really sucked about Harriat leaving was in a way she started the show to begin with. It was her character that was a spin off from Perfect Strangers that created the show Family Matters. So it was sad to see her not end the show.
 
mdm said:
My absolute favorite line from the show went down like this:

It was about one in the morning, and Eddie wasn't home yet. Carl, naturally, was furious. He had Urkel to talk to, though. Carl was telling Urkel how Eddie's curfew was like 11 or something. Suddenly Carl has an interesting thought: "Steve," Carl said, "don't you have a curfew?" Urkel replied:

"Well sure I do, I'm not allowed home til after midnight"

I nearly woke up the whole damn family laughing so hard at like 7 in the morning when the rerun was playing.
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:lol I remember that
 
What the fuck was up with that kid "Threejay"? Where did he even come from?
 
Ninja Scooter said:
the actress that played Urkel's girlfriend is the one that is dead. She died of cancer a few years back. She was actually married to Theo huxtable in real life.
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Were they married? She also played Justine Theo's girlfriend, on the Cosby Show.
 
android said:
Were they married? She also played Justine Theo's girlfriend, on the Cosby Show.
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I don't think they were married.

I'm not even certain they were dating by the time of her death (though they were obviously friends since he was with her at the hospital).
 
I never knew Family Matters was a spin-off. I really loved the Christmas episodes of that show.


edit: And the "going to Disneyland" show that I guess every TGIF show had to have. Where Eddie and Waldo's car gets stolen by some girl who wants to go skinny-dipping.
 
Funniest Family Matters moment for me (funny back when I was in grade 4 or whatever):

Carl and Eddie are working on cleaning up the garage. At the very end of the exhausting process, Steve shows up, much to Carl's chagrin. There's a beach ball lying on the ground.

"Carl, you missed the beach ball."
"I know, there's no more space up there on those shelves we put in."
"Sure there is, I see a spot right over there."
"Steven, those shelves have enough weight on them already. Enough is enough. We'll put it elsewhere."
"Nonsense, if the shelves can support all that, they can take an additional .5 lb object."
"I don't it up on the shelf, Steve."
*Steve throws it up anyways...nothing happens*
"Seen, Carl?"
"all right Steve. let's get out of here."

*everyone walks out*
*as carl finishes slamming the door, the sound of the shelves buckling and falling apart tears through the neighborhood. The three manage to open teh door and get back in the garage. Carl looks around with a manic look on his eyes before finally training them squarely on Steve.

"steve...STEVE...STEEEVE"

Hahah. I probably added half the shit above; it's been years since I saw that episode.
 
What was with that time travelling episode where Carl goes into the past and buys, I think it was, Microsoft stock and then travels into the future and he's corrupt or something? Was that actually supposed to have happened or was it a "What if...." thing?
 
Hahah. I probably added half the shit above; it's been years since I saw that episode.
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Steve also mentions that Carl was just hanging/climbing on the shelves, which makes it even better when the ball ends up collapsing them. :lol
 
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