Jaleel White Says He Was ‘Not Welcome’ by ‘Family Matters’ Cast

Imagine being a trained actor and being upstaged by a 13 year old kid who says, “Did I do that?”

I get why they were salty.

Does he bring up the time that Donna Summer came on the show playing his aunt and he blasted her in TV Guide because she got better treatment than him?

I still remember that one quote when the reporter asked him about her talent: "Well she's alright. But she's no Boyz to Men!"

I've read this before--I wonder why he keeps harping on it.

The show was supposed to be a starring vehicle for Jo Marie Payton and Reginald VelJohnson--it was a spinoff from Perfect Strangers of her character on that show. Both she and Telma Hopkins became almost completely de-emphasized--the show really became about Jaleel White, with Kellie Shanynge Williams (as Payton's and VelJohnson's daughter Laura) and VelJohnson. I would have been pissed off too, although it certainly wasn't White's fault. His character really clicked with child audiences for some reason I've never understood, since he was so deeply annoying. but I felt Payton especially really got the short end of the stick in all that.

It's fortunate for him he grew up to be attractive and that he was always in bizarre clothes for Urkel--you would pass him ont he street and have no idea he used to play Urkel.

R3 it got so bad that Payton left the show and was recast later in the show

R1 Jaleel was already an established child actor before he took Family Matters.

He made appearances on shows like The Jeffersons, and he was a cast member on Gladys Knight's Cosby Show ripoff sitcom.

This happens all the time, when a minor role takes off and ends up eating the show. The ultimate example is Fonzie on Happy Days. Usually , two things happen: the ratings go up, and the quality goes down. I think the older shows handled it better: when Edd Byrnes' character Kookie broke out, they used him a lot more, but not to the extent he took over. Same thing with Ken Osmond's Eddie Haskell on Leave It To Beaver.

And those people probably got paid for seven more seasons because of him, before being canceled.

He ended up being the highest paid out of them too.

But he is why the show had 9 seasons. Honestly. The show didn’t take off until he came.

I've met Jaleel, he's a nice guy.

His career is better than I thought post Family Matters -maybe not the best work, but work.

Anyway, it's funny how so many people still know who he is because Urkel was such a memorable (if annoying) character.

I remember when he was on Arsenio Hall and he was talking about how fit and good looking his dad was which was sort of odd.

R6 Joan Collins on Dynasty.

R7 except for the poor daughter who disappeared from the show and wound up doing porn.

They had to do budget cuts because of his pay raise so they cut Judy from the show.

I don't even remember Mary Jo Peyton from Perfect Strangers. Not that I watched it religiously but I saw it enough.

Two others come to mind: Dr. Smith on "Lost In Space" and Barnabas Collins on "Dark Shadows". Like White, both were supposed to be short-term characters.

I'm taking ownership of this thread.

But MJFox was a main character. Not a Guest star who exploded

Why didn't Brian Bonsall explode?

Miles O'Brian

Lenny & Squiggy

Larry on 3's Co.

WHET to Laura Winslow?

She’s married with children. I think he’s a Pastor? Idk.

Huge 10 lb penis! He's yummy!

I Luuuuuuuv guys with sleep eyes. So damn cute.

I've never found him blazingly hot, but he's good looking especially when cleaned up and with a little facial hair.

Yeah, I often forget that Family Matters was basically a spin-off of Perfect Strangers.

The cast should have been more grateful since White and Urkel made the show a huge hit. However, it was annoying that Urkel was stuffed down our throats EVERY episode.

But the show would never have lasted if they had just focused on the Winslows.

Darius McCrary used to be cute. White has aged really well.

The Winslows were boring cookie cutter self-righteous sad sacks.

Urkel was a breath of fresh air in every episode he was put in.

I ran into him my first year at UVA at the Tree House snack bar next to Observatory Hill dining hall. He was sitting by himself eating pizza from Pizza Hut.

I don’t know what the hell he was doing there, as he wasn’t a student. Perhaps he was visiting a friend who needed a break and sent him out for a few hours?

It was hilarious and strange.

He was friendly and had no shyness about confirming who he was.

This was 1993. I remember it like yesterday.

Michael J Fox played a MAGAt before we even knew what MAGA was.

It's odd that Harriette on Perfect Strangers, a sarcastic, middle-aged, blue-collar black woman, would appeal to the whitebread schlock factory of Miller-Boyett as the subject of a spinoff. Jo Marie Payton could have maybe been a black Roseanne, but not without better writers. Telma Hopkins and Rosetta LeNoire were also wasted.

Jimmy Walker's meteoric popularity threw Good Times way off balance

Recently Jaleel White has been appearing on Meredith Vieira's word game show "25 words or less" and he has been a really good player

r31 Telma and Rosetta got better material on Gimme a Break.

[quote] but his character took off with viewers

How do they know this? Before the internet and Twitter, how did they measure online chatter and popularity?

Focus groups.

Q ratings. And it was evident. He had a buzzword "Did I do that?", he became synonymous with nerdom.

The world existed before the internet and social media. Things were tracked, assessed, quantified. As easily? Probably not. But it happened all the time.

Would you rather start every sentence you say for the rest of your life with Urkel's catchphrase, "Did I do that?," or be Siamese twins with Sharon Stone for a year?

Definitely talkin’ like Urkel.

R35, that's why water coolers were invented

I meant to sign that...

Julianna Marguiles... I mean, she was suppose to die in the first episode and ended up becoming a huge star pissing Sherry Stringfield off

Stefan was annoying. The bug eyed look did not make him suave or handsome, just sleazy.

Racism!

Originally Betty White was only supposed to be in a few episodes of Hot In Cleveland, but she was so popular the show kept her on, but always wrote storylines that made it look like Betty would leave the show. And when she really decided to leave the show, the show got canceled.

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I used to call this show 'Urkel' when I was a dumb kid.

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Nothing unusual about the rest of the cast's attitude. For the most part actors are a petty, self absorbed lot. There's a reason why they say "never work with children or animals".

Talk about another show stealer -- Jackée Harry of 227. She was originally hired to perform only occasionally on the show, but when they realized how immediately popular her character became, they changed her contract to appear in nearly every episode.

Sadly, this eventually caused friction between her and Marla Gibbs, the star of the show, with Jackée eventually leaving a year or so before the series finally ended. Thankfully, the two actresses have since reconciled, and have even worked together in later projects.

I sort of get why Esther Rolle and John Evans were ticked. They thought they were hired to do something important, but the character who was a stereotype was the character who broke out, pulled focus, and who made the show popular. Marla Gibbs should have understood Jackee and her situation better, since she was in the same situation over at The Jeffersons.

The Urkel thing is just stupid. Urkel was not a stereotype and it gave the show a hook and set it apart from all the other wholesome family shows. I get actors and their egos, but that silly kid gave them a 10 year gig + residuals.

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R50 Gibb's character on 227 was a bore, so it was easy for Jackee to steal the show.

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This explains it.

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R56 there were black writers.

Believe it or not, not all black people are stereotypes with crazy names.

R55 yea. It’s known he snapped numerous times over the course of the show because of Urkel. Reginald was angry and bitter about it until the end.

Marla Gibbs stole every scene as Florence on The Jeffersons, so she shouldn't have been pissed off when Jackee Harry did it on 227.

And Marla got a doll, did Jackée?

Is Reginald gay?

When I think of Reginald Vel Johnson, my first thought is Die Hard - at least he's recognized for something outside of being overshadowed by Urkel on Family Matters.

I completely understand the bitterness, and I get the impulse to be cold to the actor, but it's not Jaleel's fault. And who would expect someone to turn down that money. Plus, as others have pointed out, Urkel is why the show went on so long and why they were employed so long.

It was the same for me

The actors in Family Matters should not be complaining as previous posters have mentioned. Show was extended because of Urkel.

You can't just shut down your ego. All the money in the world can't make you feel better about yourself when your ego is pissed about a minor detail of how you got that money. People rarely laugh all the way to the bank. Their ego is the reason for that.

I could tell you some stories...

[Quote]Is Reginald gay?

R62 I could've sworn that I read something about him affirming that he is gay, but I can't find it now. Did he have a change of mind, and have it erased from the internet? I don't know, but I'm sure he is gay, and that he once made mention of it publicly.

R51 much like good times Marla had an unusual tv role for a black woman. Her character was intelligent in no way a stereotype. In a stable marriage with a sweet child that was not rolling her eyes or sassing her every breath. You didn't see that a lot on tv back then.

I can understand why jackee's popularity irritated her. But in my opinion they play off each other well.

R55 That video is fucking funny! I love how dark it turns at 3:49, when Urkel says "It all could've been so simple, Carl. Just say your lines and TAKE THE MONEY." Then it takes a direction into the Twilight Zone for a sinister ending.

He was annoying , predictable, and unlikable. Just like JJ and his cringe inducing "Kid Dynamite" brain cell killing tripe.

"I can understand why jackee's popularity irritated her. But in my opinion they play off each other well."

I totally agree. Yeah, Sandra stood out more, but Mary was a good character and I don't think she was completely put to the side or anything.

Jaleel White is why Family Matters even lasted beyond the first season. If you watched the first season it is very dry and boring. A Cosby Show clone but with a working class family. JoMarie and Telma are hilarious and talented but the writing really didn't do either of them justice. Once Urkel proved so popular that he got bumped up from a recurring to a main character. It extended the show to last 8 more seasons. I think that FM should have ended after maybe season 5 or 6. Also, it was always odd how they wrote off the youngest child Judy. I get they didn't know what to do with her actress but it felt very unfair and just lazy on the part of the writers. Once all the other cast members started to leave like Telma and JoMarie, it really became The Urkel Show. The same thing happened with other TGIF shows. Step by Step became The Cody, Dana and TJ show and Full House became the Michelle Tanner show.

Jason Bateman taking over Valerie and the producers killing her off is a good example of one character dominatiing a sitcom.

Also they snubbed Jaimee Foxxworth in a Family Matters reunion special that was a few years ago.

Jaimee, like too many other child stars, up with a very fucked up aftermath after the show. Very similar to Jodie Sweetin in fact. She recovered thankfully but I can't imagine how sad it must have been to be fired from a sitcom because the writers just wanted to make room for more Urkel, Myra and Laura antics. Jaimee also had a typical stage mom who used her as a meal ticket.

Jaimee did some porn films in the early 2000s to make ends meet. She was a drug addict and living in her poverty and did what she had to do. She got clean and moved on from her past. It really seemed awfully puritanical and self-righteous to not invite her to the reunion. She was just as part of the show as everyone else.

Jackée has also admitted that the fame from 227 got to her head and she perhaps was not as gracious as she could have been. I don't think Alaina Reed Hall or Helen Martin were thrilled with her, either, so it wasn't just Marla Gibbs' jealousy.

The odd thing about Jo Marie Payton's departure from Family Matters was that she left midway through the last season, when the show moved to CBS. Her replacement (Judyann Elder) only did 8 or 9 episodes before the show was canned. She must have been very unhappy to refuse just a few more eye rolls and exclamations like "Carl!" I'm sure Reginald VelJohnson was pissed.

Throwback

"Jaleel was already an established child actor before he took Family Matters."

I don't think that really compares to the experience over decades the rest of the cast had. Being a child actor is very different than being an adult one and he didn't transition.

R14, I watched Perfect Strangers as a kid and remember Mary Jo Peyton since she was the only black person on the show. She worked the elevator.

They were right to be wary of Jaleel. He did take over the show and as a result everyone became dumb and the plotlines followed suit. Telma and Lenora deserved better. Of course they made money from him helping to keep the show going for years but it still must have stung when they thought they were signing on for one thing and ended up on something else.

While Sandra Clark stole the show on 227 she was nothing without Mary to play off of. That's like being the Jack or Karen to Will & Grace. The funny one always gets the glory but they couldn't carry the show by themselves and few would want to watch a whole half hour of them.

Reginald VelJohnson voices himself on the Amazon series Invincible as all the students go to Reginald Vel Johnson High. I also see he's doing a "Turner and Hooch" series. He's very likely openly gay but "Luther Vandross" gay. He'll never admit it publicly but privately he's out. Darius McCrary was asked if he was and danced around the question but didn't say he wasn't.

I think about the Cybill situation. It wasn't Christine Baranski's fault that the audience responded to her.

Christine Baranski was main cast. But she truly was incredible.

He's hot now. I'd hit that.

I recall maybe 10 years ago there was thread here on DL that said Reginald VelJohnson lived with a partner for many years and the partner passed away. Reginald did play a gay character on the short lived TBS sitcom Clipped. George Wendt played the husband of Reginald's character.

[quote]Jaimee did some porn films in the early 2000s to make ends meet. She was a drug addict and living in her poverty and did what she had to do. She got clean and moved on from her past. It really seemed awfully puritanical and self-righteous to not invite her to the reunion. She was just as part of the show as everyone else.

I agree, she should have been invited to the reunion. A few years ago, Jaimee was on Mo Rocca's Mobituaries podcast. The episode was about sitcom deaths and disappearances. Jaimee said that on her last day on the Family Matters set that the other cast members were very nice to her and hugged her after taping. Later on, she got fired and realized that her cast mates knew she was getting canned, but didn't want to say anything.

There were rumors back in the day that Reginald Vel Johnson and Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince were a couple.

Regarding Jackee, she let fame go to her head after winning the Emmy, which eventually led to her departure from 227. Jackee was supposed to be a full time cast member on the last season of Designing Women but battled with Dixie Carter so much during taping of her two part episode that she was written out afterwards. It wasn't until after that she realized that her attitude was doing her no favors. By the time of Sister Sister, she was saying in the press how she was much more humble about her career.

In real life Jackee Harry is a big ol' butch lesbo. Her real voice is quite masculine.

[quote] battled with Dixie Carter so much

Jackee probably questioned why Dixie needed yet another pointless musical number.

R85, whose musical numbers brought more to their shows...Dixie Carter or Linda Lavin?

How do so many of your remember the minutiae of this sitcom?

[quote] whose musical numbers brought more to their shows...Dixie Carter or Linda Lavin?

Nell Carter!!!

[quote] do so many of your remember the minutiae of this sitcom?

Millions of us grew up on TGIF TV. It was huge in the late '80s/early '90s.

Full House and Family Matters were cheesy but they had millions of fans.

Can we agree Richie ('Little Richie') was precocious as fcuk.

[quote]There were rumors back in the day that Reginald Vel Johnson and Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince were a couple.

I still remember the end of that episode where James Avery crashed the set of Family Matters.

[quote]Millions of us grew up on TGIF TV. It was huge in the late '80s/early '90s.

[quote]Full House and Family Matters were cheesy but they had millions of fans.

Yeah, i grew up during that time period and I watched those shows and the other sitcoms that were on the TGIF lineup. Full House has been constantly aired on syndication and I don't care to watch it ever again. I'll sometimes watch episodes of Family Matters, Step by Step, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Hulu when i'm in the mood for mindless fun entertainment.

The annoying part was the catchphrase. It was like Gary Coleman on Diff’rent Strokes. “What choo talkin’ ‘bout” was funny in the beginning but then they had to shoe horn it in to every episode and it became stupid and Todd Bridges became depressed and Dana Plato went batshit crazy.

Full House was easily the worst of the TGIF lineup. It's basically only watchable if you're a kid. Family Matters and Step by Step at least had more of an edge and adult humor that teenagers and adults could enjoy and laugh at. Full House actually started out with more an edgy quality as it focused on the three grown men raising the girls and their clashing personalities and juggling responsibilities. But once Michelle learned to walk and talk, it became a show for little kids and their parents in the room and everyone else became obnoxious and one-note gags. Boy Meets World and Sabrina though aged the best and are modern classics imo, both those shows had character development that is overlooked.

[quote]In real life Jackee Harry is a big ol' butch lesbo.

Did her husbands know?

[quote]Jackee probably questioned why Dixie needed yet another pointless musical number.

We all asked that.

Reginald Vel Johnson reaction in R91's clip is why TV could be so much fun back then. And James Avery looked pretty cool and easy going. How he put up with Will Smith for so many years I'll never know.

Helen Martin was apparently the real piece of work on 227. She was supposedly the cast member who called Countress Vaughn fat to her face. And Jackee called her an "old bitch" in an interview several years back. She escalated a lot of the Marla/Jackee beef while Alaina Reed played peacemaker.

Despite that, the cast is still very close. Jackee gave Regina King several lovely shout outs when Regina was winning awards for Beale Street, and when Alaina passed, gave a lovely tribute saying she was like a sister to her. Jackee and Regina both appeared on Andy Cohen's show a couple of years back. Marla guest starred on Southland playing a dementia patient who keeps referring to Regina King's characters as Brenda. And Marla, Hal and Jackee worked together on The First Family series recently.

After Jaimee Foxworth was fired and the money stopped coming in, a judge ruled that her trust fund could be used to pay off her mother's debts.

R95 is FAKE!!! You can tell by the signature. I am the REAL STAH , STARLET MARIE JONES REYNOLDS LUGO, ESQUIRE!!! BITCH!

I'm sorry, but it tickles me that Helen Martin was a bitch and egging on fights. Old broads are the best.

Jackee appeared on Jonny McGovern’s Hey Qween and spilled the tea on all her 227 co-stars. She’s semi-humble and admits she was at fault for a lot things but still manages to throw some shade. It’s an entertaining interview and I didn’t even watch 227 regularly.

Part 1:

Jackee Part 2:

Jackee Part 3:

Miss McGovern is just plump and juicy these days, ain't she?

[quote]In real life Jackee Harry is a big ol' butch lesbo. Did her husbands know?

Did Jackee know her ex-husband Elgin Charles was a big ol' kween? He finally came out as bi a few years ago

[quote]I am the REAL STAH , STARLET MARIE JONES REYNOLDS LUGO, ESQUIRE!!! BITCH!

Allegedly.

Jackee was also fantastic on Everyone Hates Chris as Vanessa - the gossipy friend of Rochelle (Chris's mom).

Jackee knows how to give a great interview. Loved her comments about Constance Ford and Helen Martin.

Incidentally, ,Jaleel White, Brian Austin Green, and Jonathan Brandis were in the original pilot for GOOD MORNING, MISS BLISS, which was later retooled as SAVED BY THE BELL.

'Steve Urkel' was and early '90s pop cultural phenomenon! He had a popular catchphrase, his geeky looks/manner of speaking became very recognizable and often imitated for laughs, and who could forget the Urkel dance craze?

Here, Jaleel and Bea Arthur teach you how to to do the Urkel.

You couldn’t go into a toy store without them selling something with his face on it.

Yeah, I remember Steve Urkel dolls and lunchboxes.

[Quote]I'm sorry, but it tickles me that Helen Martin was a bitch and egging on fights. Old broads are the best.

R101, go to r103 to relisten to Jackée talk about what a bitch ole Helen Martin was! (At 8:33) I enjoyed listening to that tea, along with how Alaina Reed was also a bitch, even though they did end up being friends until Alaina's death.

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Does anyone remember Urkel-O's breakfast cereal? My parents wouldn't buy it, because we were only allowed to have plain corn flakes, oatmeal, or cream of wheat.