List of Family Matters characters

Jo Marie Payton originally appeared on Perfect Strangers in 1987 in the recurring role of Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator for the Chicago Chronicle.

[2][3] While Payton, VelJohnson, and Telma Hopkins (as Harriette's widowed sister Rachel) were initially the stars of the show, centered around the Winslow family, Jaleel White was introduced as nerdy neighbor, Steve Urkel, during the middle of the first season in the episode "Laura's First Date."

Urkel, the lovesick pursuer of Laura Winslow (portrayed by Kellie Shanygne Williams), quickly became a popular breakout character with audiences.

In the 1996–1997 season, Orlando Brown was added to the cast as Jerry Jamal "3J" Jameson, a troubled youth mentored by Urkel, who later becomes the foster child of the Winslows.

Although Steve is relentlessly annoying and has cost the Winslow family large amounts of time and money with his own clumsiness, he has shown he is more mature than Eddie in accepting responsibility.

Once, after damaging the family car in the Season 2 episode, "Busted", he was caught illegally gambling at an underground casino, hoping to win money and pay for repairs without telling his parents.

In the season five episode "Money Out the Window", after getting into gambling debt once again, he attempts to sell Carl's rare stamp, hoping to buy it back before being caught by his father.

She tried to start a babysitting business when she was a child, sneaked out of the house to burn herself out studying for a test despite her parents' insistence to rest and worked a graveyard shift to save money to buy a car.

She eventually got accepted to Harvard University in season seven's "Twinkle Toes Faldo," but decided to decline the offer because her parents could not afford the tuition, though she told them it was because she could not live so far from home.

Laura began as quite vain, often in pursuit of popular good-looking boys, being dismissive towards Steve and showing little respect for her academically challenged older brother.

[7] She can be seen in archive footage on season 6 episode “ What’s Up Doc ?” A major factor in Jo Marie Payton's increasing unhappiness on the series involved her close relationship with Foxworth and the feeling that Judy was the show's "baby" and it was hurtful when she was written out; Payton also made it clear she resented the fact that the rise of the Steve Urkel character resulted in Judy and other key characters losing focus in the series, as his popularity made him the engine of the show's long-term success.

Foxworth discussed the damage done to her career and life when she was fired and essentially erased from Family Matters on the VICE TV series "Dark Side of Comedy".

As the quintessential nerd, he has large, thick eyeglasses, "high-water" pants held up by suspenders, a high-pitch nasal-tone voice and a snorting laugh.

As a nerd, he gradually grows to become an inventor, and soon, his ill-conceived inventions form a large bulk of the accidents which he does to the Winslow house, causing Carl to yell at him.

He has also created numerous inventions that were otherwise considered impossible, such as a machine which turned him into his suave alter-ego, Stefan Urquelle, as well as alter his personality into other celebrities whose DNA he inexplicably collected, such as the crime-fighting Bruce Lee Urkel.

While some of the main characters are more welcoming towards him, it is Carl, Eddie and Laura who are the most tormented by his shenanigans, because they are the ones he most wants to be closest to and be himself around, resulting in extremely little formality and respect.

And while hie is usually aware of how much grief he causes the Winslows, and how much he damages their home, his immediate response is always to keep doing whatever he is doing, until they give up ordering him to stop.

While Steve is mostly known for having a strong sense of integrity and general responsibility (succeeding at school, refusal to cheat, obeying the law), his social lifestyle remained largely uncompromising, incapable of accepting "No" for an answer, and undisciplined, completely unfamiliar with consequences for his actions.

By the end of the series, Steve has made it plain that he considers Carl Winslow to be his "real father" and that he doesn't care if his actual family is part of his life anymore.

He enters their home and eats their food without any permission, frequently disobeys their orders, stalks their daughter, and admits to using electronic devices to spy on the whole family.

This behavior is usually plays for laughs by portraying Steve as the "wacky neighbor" whom the Winslow family basically comes to accept because they have no choice.

She is the mother of Richard "Richie" Crawford and the daughter of Jimmy Baines, who appeared in the season two episode "Finding the Words" to reconcile with her and Harriette, after he walked out on them when they were little.

[8] His street-wise, smart-mouthed demeanor is a cover for his loneliness and desire to have a stable, permanent family; his birth mother had given him up for adoption shortly after he was born and frequently moved around.

His extended family includes cousins such as American Gladiator Sabre (who, as a favor to settle a dispute between Carl and Steve, got them to compete against each other on the show), a short-statured but good-natured cousin named Babalabadingdong (whom he'd set Laura up with on a blind date), one of the members of the R&B group Portrait (who'd made Waldo promise to not reveal that they were related when the group was performing at a school dance), his aunt Bababababara-Ann (Babalabadingdong's mother), His aunt Velveeta and her husband, Jalapeño and another uncle whose head is in a jar in a science lab at Harvard University.

In the season five episode "A Matter of Principle," Myra transferred to Vanderbilt High School to be closer to whom she affectionately calls her "Stevie-kins".

However, since Laura does not really show any attraction for Steve, Myra is willing to accept a truce, although the Laura-Myra relationship remains testy and adversarial, even in the most banal, non-Urkel situations.

She and Myrtle Urkel became enemies immediately upon their first meeting in season seven's "She's Back," and several episodes that follow centered on their battle to win Eddie's love.

Carl was initially cold to him and disliked his mother dating anyone due to his attachment to his late father, but eventually warmed up to him after learning to fix his behavior.

Steve soon improved his alter-ego's personality, and originally intended to become Stefan permanently, but found himself juggling between accepting his true self or receiving his long desired love from Laura.

Like Stefan Urquelle, Myrtle was conceived as a way to give Jaleel White material to play where he wouldn't have to do the standard Steve Urkel voice.