Telma Hopkins

I'll start. I just think it's great how she kept her career going after TOAD. I jus to remember that for years it seemed like she just kept popping up in one thing after another. Yet I can't name a single one. She was the female black Robert Urich.

[quote] Yet I can't name a single one

Family Matters.

Rachel’s Place underpaid their workers. Bitch.

She also did the backing vocals of “Shaft” including the “shut yo mouth” and also Johnnie Taylor’s “Disco Lady”. She still tours with Tony and Joyce (Dawn) during the holidays.

Holy Cow! I thought TO was dead.

Bosom Buddies

I remember reading a very upsetting post here that Rosetta Le Noire or Helen Martin cast a black magic voodoo spell on Thelma or Jakee Harry.

I always liked her.

She was on Gimme a Break right?

She was in a short-lived series with Cindy Williams that was a "Kate & Allie" knockoff. I can't tell you the name of it though. I think she left "Family Matters" to do it.

I was surprised to read she had a son. That kid stayed out of the spotlight.

Addy? Your daddy?

The other side of Dawn.

The last time I saw her was in a recurring role in the first season of the Christina Applegate series, Dead to Me. I have not watched the second season, so do not know if she shows up again. She was pretty underutilized in the first season. They did have her character sing karaoke, and she still sounded pretty good.

As a kid, I know her most from Bosom Buddies (which was not a bad show for the time) and Gimme a Break. I was pretty little when Tony Orlando and Dawn was on but used to wonder which woman was Orlando and which one was Dawn, I figured out who Tony was.

Was she ever on Broadway? She should have an EGOT.

Love when Telma shows up in some unexpected movie or TV show. She's beautiful and she has charisma. Why did she never record a solo album? Doesn't post much these days, but her presence on Instagram is endearing.

I sang Summer Lovin’ with her at a Karaoke bar. Fun memory. She was warm and smart. Funny. Just what you’d hope.

Was anyone here a fan of Half & half

Ok I think that's 8 tv shows so far

Love Telma. Although I preferred Angie on Gimme a Break, Addy was a great foil/friend/frenemy for Nell. I love the Christmas episode where Nell and Addy go to war over a man. She and Nell Carter had great comic timing, and could do physical comedy very well.

For some reason, I thought she was on Family Matters for most of its run, but she was only on for a few seasons. Yet Bryton, who played her son on the show, remained well after she left. And strangely, she never came back, even for a single appearance.

Sounds like a lot of shit went down behind the scenes at Family Matters.

Family Matters became the Urkel show after season two and it annoyed many of the older cast members. It's very much like Good Times becoming the JJ show. Not only did Telma leave but Jaimee Foxworth who played the youngest daughter was fired, JoMarie Payton and Rosetta LaNoire left also. JoMarie was supposed to be the star of the show actually as it was a spinoff of Perfect Strangers. They recast Harriet with a light-skinned woman who looked and sounded nothing like her. Very similar to the Aunt Viv scenario.

R21, are you sure about that, re: Jo Payton? I believe she only left during the series last season, I didn't realize they re-cast Harriet for one year.

The problem is that on Perfect Strangers, Harriet was feisty, salty and very funny. They neutered her character when they brought her to Family Matters. And then Urkel came on and Harriet got sidelined, which is too bad because Payton is very funny.

*Harriette

She was fired from the CBS Cosby show and replaced with Phylicia.

Consider that a bullet dodged, gurl!

R22 Yes JoMarie left in the last season but after season three, Harriet became irrelevant to the plots as Urkel, Laura and Eddie and other characters like Waldo and Myra got more focus. Carl still got minor focus because of slapstick humor, the bumbling fat guy at the receiving end of Urkel's accidents. Harriet basically went from sarcastic, strong-willed and a major character to the voice of reason who minded everyone's nonsense and gave a lecture at the end. Rachel and Judy were phased out. Judy just disappeared actually. Rachel got written out and at least returned for some guest spots. But Rachel's son Richie still stayed and he replaced Judy as the cute little kid. Until they replaced him with Orlando Brown in the last season. I do like that Mother Winslow stayed as long as she could, she was great comic relief and reminded me of Sophia from The Golden Girls.

I loved Family Matters before it became the “Urkel Show”. One of my favorite episodes was when the kids were complaining about dinner and Mother Winslow started telling them about growing up during the depression and the struggle meals she had the the kids should be grateful for what they had. It reminded me of my grandma.

I loved the rare times when Telma would sing on the show. She had such a great voice.

I also liked the show before it went full-on Urkel. I liked the Winslow family. I didn't really see them as a knock-off Cosby family. It was a sitcom much in the vein of TGIF and it was enjoyable. I found inserting Urkel into EVERY episode nauseating. I just didn't find him that funny. A little of him went a long way. I much preferred Eddie and Laura.

If anything, Waldo was a funnier supporting character than Steve.

Steve was annoying. He was always creepy towards Laura who made it clear she wasn't into him. He always walked into the Winslow house uninvited (ok granted that's a sitcom cliche to have an unlocked front or back door). And annoyed Carl who was just minding his business. Yet Laura and Carl are supposed to be the "bad guys" for not wanting him around. And eventually we all have to love Steve and his unfunny antics as he ends up taking up most of the show's plots and screentime.

On a semi-related note, I never got why Kimmy from Full House was so hated by the Tanners. I completely get Steve being hated by the Winslows. But Kimmy was polite, always behaved, was invited to come over by DJ her friend and she never caused any trouble. In fact DJ was always getting into problems with her overdramatic and selfish attitude. Michelle Tanner is just as annoying as Steve Urkel. Full House became The Michelle Show after season 4. The humor got more and more cutest and childish (it was never edgy but the first few seasons were more about the three guys raising the girls and adjusting to it while also juggling work and being bachelors. Uncle Jesse in particular was portrayed as promiscuous before Becky came in).

Kimmy was funny, and Full House wisely knew to keep her in small doses. Family Matters made the mistake of putting Steve in EVERY episode. But I guess it worked since the show ran for a number of seasons.

Here in Canada, Family TV is re-airing the show and it's fun to watch the first season when it wasn't so Steve-centric.

some people watch too much tv.

I found Jaleel much funnier as Myrtle Mae Urkel the Southern belle.

[quote] Uncle Jesse in particular was portrayed as promiscuous before Becky came in

I was aging out of these shows when they were on, so did not watch this regularily and could have just missed the development of the couple and chemistry, but I never thought Jesse and Becky really clicked or made sense as a couple. I was surprised when they tied the "heart throb" of the show into one girlfriend and then husband and family man. She was kind of a boring character and did not bring much and it seemed early in the shows run to bring in a wedding and then new babies. I am guessing most viewers wanted it, otherwise Becky would have been written out at some point.

Did Laura end up falling for Urkle at the end? If so, nice message, if you stalk someone for years and years you will eventually wear them down. I am not a fan of the annoying sitcom characters (Luthor on Coach or any Jerry Van Dyke character) that we are supposed to find endearing but in real like would be considered to have serious mental health issues and in some cases a sociopath. Mallory had Skippy on Family Ties, but he did not consume the show and after about 4 seasons finally gave up.

Eddie Haskell might be the one creepy friend that worked, since they did not try to make him lovable or a moment when the audience was supposed to feel bad for him when the other characters rightfully rolled their eyes at him. Osmond also nailed the part. I will occasionally catch an episode of Leave it to Beaver on MeTV. Ward and June have a real great dry humor and good rapport and chemistry that I am not sure I picked up as a kid.

R33 They did pair Laura and Steve together in the last two seasons. But Laura had an on and off thing with Steve's suave alter ego Stefan who even ended up as a separate person. They made some convoluted, cartoonish plotlines in the last few seasons that it ended up unrecognizable from the beginning. I do like Carl and Eddie got some focus episodes once in a while and were the only episodes that resembled the early seasons. The message of Steve x Laura was awful. He didn't respect her boundaries and how many times did she have to state she wasn't interested. The whole thing reeks of male entitlement. And I actually preferred Steve with Myra. Myra was a creepy stalker too but she was adorable, pretty and very devoted to Steve. He didn't deserve Myra or Laura.

As for Jesse and Becky. I agree no chemistry. I felt Becky would have actually would have made more sense being with Danny. As she was a good mother figure to the girls and she like Danny was bland but mature. Making Jesse settle down so early felt forced, he was a womanizer in his early 20s and an aspiring rock star. I liked his contrast as the rebel to responsible Danny and goofy Joey. Of course they paired him with Becky. And made him a family man with two blond twins who managed to be more bratty and annoying than Michelle. Having them Jesse and his family live in the attic was absolutely ridiculous, no young couple with twins would want that

She was harassed. TO repeatedly made her tie a yellow ribbon around his old morning wood.

[quote] I felt Becky would have actually would have made more sense being with Danny.

I agree, I thought initially that the direction they would ultimate go when she was first introduced as his co-worker.

R19, she did come back after she left as a regular because I remember. She came back quite a few times; that's probably why yoy remember her being on there for the show's entire run.

My bad. I thought she didn't return. But I'm surprised she didn't come back full time.

Hopkins first appeared on “Gimme a Break” the same season as Joey Lawrence- Season 3. That’s when it got a new, very 80s synth theme song and the stories got less dramatic, the grandma and fat uncle vanished and it didn’t focus on the girls as much.

Anybody remember the episode of “Bosom Buddies” when Hopkins’s character Isabelle had a nightclub act and kept knocking herself out with the microphone?

She was in the first episode of the HBO show “Getting On” and was cursing!

Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent joined Tony Orlando for his farewell performance last month. Telma and Joyce look fantastic.