Things Only Adults Notice In Family Matters

Family Matters was an institution on ABC's TGIF lineup from 1989 to 1997, when it switched over to CBS for its ninth and final season in 1998. For an entire generation of kids, Steve Urkel and the Winslow family were celebrated sitcom icons. While the popular TV show aired for 215 episodes in the end, making it one of the longest-running series with a predominantly black cast, it never really disappeared after going off the air. Syndication meant that Family Matters would continue airing reruns for years, while an entirely new generation of kids could later tune in through streaming services.

However, now that the show's OG audience are adults, it's changed quite a bit. Through a combination of advanced age, wisdom, and perspective, there are several things about Family Matters that have left us all asking questions. For instance, how did we react to characters inexplicably leaving or changing? Did we ever notice how creepy Urkel was, how strange the show had become before the end, or how ahead of its time it might have been? Since the answers are probably "no," here are some things only adults notice in Family Matters.

Children are probably more forgiving (or just don't care as much) about inconsistencies on TV, but when a character disappears entirely from a show without any mention, we adults can't just let it slide. That's what happens to Harriette and Carl's youngest child, Judy Winslow, who goes upstairs at the end of season four and inexplicably never comes back down. Not only does she physically vanish from the show, she's never mentioned again and her absence is never explained.

If you ask the actress who played Judy, Jaimee Foxworth, where she went, she might tell you, "I'm still up there in my closet, putting on my clothes" (via People). According to co-creator William Bickley, the decision to cut Judy was "a budget consideration." As for the lack of explanation, he told People, "The official name is denial, hoping the audience won't notice." Well, he might have gotten his wish through the show's younger audience members at the time, but adult viewers surely spotted it and now the rest of us are cluing in. Sadly, Judy's erasure has since gone even further than just on-screen, as Foxworth has also been left out of reunion photoshoots and any discussion of a potential series revival.

While Family Matters made household names out of a few of its stars, the show also hosted plenty of other big name actors on its set over the years. Now, you wouldn't have recognized these A-listers during the sitcom's original run, because many of them were total unknowns at the time. However, landing a gig on Family Matters undoubtedly helped launch a number of careers. 

Just two years before starring in I Know What You Did Last Summer, Freddie Prinze Jr. made his acting debut as a "tough guy" on Family Matters, according to GQ. Meanwhile, the AV/TV Club reports that Gabrielle Union also got her start playing an uncredited mall girl on the show. As a child, Glee's own Naya Rivera landed a recurring gig as Gwendolyn, and later tweeted that "getting to ride into a scene in a Power Wheels Jeep on Family Matters" was one of her fondest memories from her childhood acting days. Want us to go on? Terrence Howard was still a relative newcomer to the industry when he played John in the episode "Opposites Attract," while Vivica A. Fox landed a small part in "Jailhouse Blues" long before becoming a recognizable name. Family Matters also cast both Trina McGee before she hit it big on Boy Meets World and Michael McDonald prior to his MadTV days. Phew! That's a lot of future star power.

Considering the fact that it featured a predominantly black cast, Family Matters was bound to explore racism at some point — but what makes this topic noteworthy, especially for adults tuning in today, was how unreserved this lighthearted comedy was when tackling the matter. In "Good Cop Bad Cop," the show takes on racial profiling by police officers after Eddie is pulled over for matching the description of a carjacker. When Carl confronts the cops in question, who both happen to be white, their weak defense is, "It's dark. It's a black guy," and "[He was] in the wrong part of town." Similarly, daughter Laura Winslow receives a racist note which tells her to "go back to Africa" during Black History Month in "Fight the Good Fight." She later sees that someone has spray-painted the N-word on her locker.

For a sitcom aimed at young people, these were startling looks at systemic and blatant discrimination. Of course, Family Matters didn't delve into these issues in depth very often. To do so would be difficult, as the AV/TV Club suggests, "within the boundaries of the heartwarming, blue-skies tone that had become Miller-Boyett's house style." However, episodes like these gave many young viewers their first exposure to the ugliness of racism, even if they may not have truly grasped what they were seeing at the time.

Perhaps because of the time period in which Family Matters aired or because of its younger audience, but many viewers used to accept that while Steve Urkel was often unbearable in his pursuit of Laura, he was ultimately non-threatening and therefore harmless. However, looking back at it now, it's pretty shocking that audiences tolerated this type of creepy behavior. Of course, Urkel wasn't the only so-called "adorkable misogynist" seen on-screen, as the Pop Culture Detective dubbed characters of his ilk. The likes of Sixteen Candles, Revenge of the Nerds, and The Big Bang Theory have all played with this ugly trope. 

For his part, Urkel virtually preys on Laura for decades. Since Kindergarten, she constantly thwarts his advances in ways that don't hurt his feelings, but when she takes on a firmer stance with him, such as in "Marriage 101," Urkel is made out to be the victim. As highlighted in a piece by The Mary Sue, it's only when the tables are turned and a female chases a male — in this case, Myra Monkhouse pursuing Urkel himself — that the audience sees just how gross this behavior is. We may have overlooked it as kids, but as adults, we can't help but notice just how uneven the show was in its treatment of women and stalking.

If you rewatch Family Matters from beginning to end, you might realize just how strange the show gets during its final years, when its descent into the realm of science fiction is pretty steep and even a bit clumsy. Sure, there were strange story lines early on, like when Urkel builds a predatorial robot in "Robo-Nerd," but things later changed dramatically. In fact, Key and Peele once poked fun at the series' progressive craziness with its own "Family Matters" skit, in which Carl confronts the show's producers for these off-the-wall plots, saying, "In the next episode, Steve turns Carl into a giant sandwich and accidentally eats him. This is supposed to be about me and my family."

It's true. Family Matters begins as a blue-collar family sitcom and ends up devolving into a science fiction show about Steve Urkel and his weird inventions (via Bustle). By the series finale, he's lost in space. However, this phenomenon didn't go unnoticed by some of the actors. "Jaleel came in and it was fun to have him there and all, but of course it did the same thing Happy Days did [with the Fonz character]," Jo Marie Payton told TV Series Finale. She added, "The show was kind of running out of air, what they call 'jumping the shark.'"