Being greenlit for one too many seasons. When it happens, you get either a Cousin Oliver scenario or a Harlem Globetrotters vs. Robots scenario. In away, I (kind of sort of) respect the show for going towards the latter.
The sudden, runaway popularity of the Urkel character is what prolonged the show which probably would have been cancelled and been remembered if at all as just another obscure, anonymous short-lived ABC family sitcom, but it just dragged on and on with increasing buffoonery involving wacky mad-scientist gadgets. Jaleel White ended up being paid a (for the time) almost obscene amount of money per episode at one point, if I recall correctly.
It's strange seeing the really old episodes, before Urkel was even introduced as a character. Going from that to this and it really feels like two completely different TV shows.
cog, change the tag to Reginald VelJohnson so it links up with more of this legendary man's body of work. everyone else: submit more Reginald VelJohnson clips cause that's still pretty sad tag right now
This used to give me nightmares. Well I remembered the original episode with that scary ass Chucky-Urkel. But I had NO idea they had brought him back with a Carl sidekick.
I remember loving Family Matters as a kid, but I don't think we watched it this late in. We stopped watching before characters randomly started disappearing off the show. I think that began in the 5th season.
I remember a few absurd moments in this show (like when Urkel made a machine that changed him from a nerd to a suave ladies' man, and when some kids spraypainted "Nigger" across Laura's locker at school) but nothing, and I mean NOTHING comparable to this.
Family Matters was dead for a few years, before CBS bought new seasons of this and Step by Step for million:
http://articles.latimes.com/1997-02-03/entertainment/ca-24939_ 1_family-matters
The previous season, CBS bought JAG from NBC. If Family Matters did well on CBS, as JAG did, I'm sure those puppets would have ten seasons of their own sitcom by now.
Urkel invents a new, powerful hallucinogenic that causes permanent insanity. Laura makes a volcano for her school project, and Eddie gets killed in Iraq. Next, on Family Matters!
I watched this show in the first season and they had a couple of really amazing episodes about African American heritage. I stopped watching after that and holy shit did it ever get awful.
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