[2] Midway through the first season, the show introduced the Winslows' nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), originally as a one-time appearance.

Jo Marie Payton played Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator at a newspaper where Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous also worked.

Reginald VelJohnson, who was coming off of growing fame from his role in Die Hard, made an appearance on the show as Harriette's husband Carl Winslow, a Chicago police officer.

ABC and the producers loved the character Harriette for her great morale and quick-witted humor and decided to create a show that would focus on her and her family, husband Carl, son Eddie, elder daughter Laura, and younger daughter Judy (who appeared until the character was retconned after season four as having not existed).

As the show progressed, episodes began to center increasingly on Steve Urkel, and other original characters also played by White, including Steve's suave alter-ego, Stefan Urquelle (who is similar to Jaleel White's real-life self), and his female cousin, Myrtle Urkel.

[6] ABC then promised to pay Miller-Boyett Productions $1.5 million per episode for a ninth and tenth season of Family Matters.

Jo Marie Payton's contract had just expired and she was reluctant to continue, feeling the show had jumped the shark years prior.

She agreed to stay to keep continuity[7] but left midseason shortly after nearly getting into a physical altercation with White in what would be her last regular episode; in that episode, White (playing a gangster instead of his usual Urkel) was attempting to insert material that violated Broadcast Standards and Practices.

While Family Matters continued to lose viewership compared to previous years, it was initially a modest success on CBS, beating the show that replaced it, You Wish.

After the holiday special season, CBS replaced Meego with Kids Say the Darndest Things, and with that show's child-centered focus, it was placed in Family Matters' 8/7c time slot.

The ratings for Family Matters fell even further in this later slot, and the entire block except for Kids Say the Darndest Things was canceled in spring 1998, with the remaining episodes burned off in the summer.

Family Matters is set in the same fictional universe as several other TV shows related to ABC's TGIF or CBS's Block Party.

Before Family Matters, Harriette Winslow was originally the elevator operator at the Chicago Chronicle newspaper office in the third and fourth seasons of Perfect Strangers.

In September 1993, Warner Bros. Television Distribution began distributing Family Matters for broadcast in off-network syndication; most television stations stopped carrying the show by around 2002, though some stations in larger markets such as WTOG in Tampa, Florida continued to air Family Matters until as recently as 2005 and New York's WPIX as 2006.

The entire series is also available for digital download on Amazon.com and the iTunes Store, all but season 6 remastered in both SD and HD.

A Steve Urkel Story) was planned to air on Cartoon Network as part of the block ACME Night in 2022.

However, on August 22, 2022, it was announced the film will not be moving forward on HBO Max and would be shopped elsewhere due to the Warner Bros.