Originally, Family Matters was really about unrequited love (and I for one, cheered Steve on.) It was also about, as the name implies, family- and how important it is for relatives to stick together. Later, it just became silly, with stupid sci-fi plots. Shrink rays? Robots? Transformation machines? I thought was series was supposed to be about people and relationships. It just became pathetic to me.

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I'll admit, regardless of how corny and by the numbers Family Matters may have been, I sort of grew up with this show during the days that it was on ABC's TGIF. I was just about thinking the same thing when it comes to the plots as they progressed. Some may say that the show "Jumped the Shark" when Judy, the youngest Winslow kid suddenly disappeared without an explaination.

But I would say that things really started to go down-hill when a stronger emphasis on sci-fi themes (especially centering on Urkel and his gadgets/inventions) was getting more and more in our faces. From that point, Family Matters got more and more contrived and shameless as episodes got more campy. It was as if the initial focus was so lost at that point, that the humor was getting even more forced and unnatural than before.

I totally agree. The show was really good until every episode began with one of Steve's (dumb) experiments. I stopped watching it for about the last season cuz it got way too unrealistic and cheesy.

Alright, you people are my kind of people!!!!-lol. I completely agree with everyone else. I liked the 1st 6 seasons the best. The thing that started the Sci-Fi trend in the series was when that machine was made into Stephan Urquel. That started the whole thing. Perfect Strangers, it's mother series never did anything that stupid. Maybe they wanted it to go downhill. Maybe they wanted to give it a slow death. What do you think?

maybe they realized that when they did the Sci-Fi Shows, That they still got good ratings! :-)

Originally posted by JWillhight:
maybe they realized that when they did the Sci-Fi Shows, That they still got good ratings! :-)

I can't believe that people were still tuning in! Maybe they were sympathetic viewers? j/k. http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/smile.gif Anyway, I LOVE sci-fi but not when a non-sci-fi show turns to sci-fi like Family Matters did.

Here's what I think. I don;t think that the Sci-Fi jazz really bogged down "Family Matters", I think that Steve's inventions and stuff gave the show a comic relief moment. You had the serious stuff on one hand, and you had the comedy and lighter moments on the other hand. I think "Family Matters" just wanted to be the unforgettable show with all of its sight gags and everything. I don't think the show was tarnished at all, I think it was enhanced.

When Steve Urkel started getting clumsier and clumsier with every episode. Noone can be that treacherous around everything. I'll never forget one of the later episodes when he and Myra started dating and he demolished her backyard. It was pointless. I had to stop watching it for a while.
Because as Jaleel White got older and began to develop muscles, his extreme, extreme clumsiness began to befuddle me.:(

Im sure some of you have seen the site
http://www.jumptheshark.com anyway on this site it has what people conisder the downhilll point for lots of shows.

Family Matters was unique in the fact that it did almost everything to stay on the air eventhough everything around it was changing. My personal opinion is that it started to go down hill when Steve started to become Stephan more and more often.

I wonder if it's any coincidence that the ratings started to tank after the 5th season. Which also happens to be about the time when Stephan was appearing more and more. And silly thing like Steve and Carl getting shrunken by his transformation chamber...and then blowing up the cat to 20 feet tall.

Yeah. It did start to get very corney when these things started to happen. I guess the writers ran out of ideas....

Season 7 and on was when things started to go very wrong. At that time Steve moved in and he started inventing more and more outlandish things: the cloning machine which led to Stefan becoming his own person the teleporter, the time travel band and he was using that chamber like every other episode turning into Bruce Lee along with Carl, it just went on and on and it became just too unbelievable. Also Mother Winslow and Richie were hardly seen, Harriette was a background, Rachel was gone, they adopted 3J. They should have pulled the plug after the 6th season.

the last season was nice i think. it finally started the long overdue realtionship of laura- steve that everyone had been wanting to see. it was BS how long it took, but everyone knew it would happen eventually.
some of the seasons were pointless, such as 6 and 7, 8 was a good season i think, but the fake stuff certainly made it worse. like with steve going in space, making robots, etc.

and why do people always complain about judy being gone forever? she was never a big character, she was pointless in my opinon, she brought nothing to the show all she would do is say stupid pointless comments , some were funny yes, but most were just corny and dumb.

she should have never been on the show anyways, but since they did she should of been gave an explanation why she just was gone. possibly she got in trouble and had to move somewhere away. i dunno.

I agree with the making all the inventions, like a robot of himself, cloning himself, making him into stephan, famous people like Bruce Lee, Elvis Presley, teleport, using gagits that got him into his own science lab at high schooland college, and a research centers.

I also think it when down hill when they had Steve himself(yes he was a writer on the show) had him play not only Steve Urkle, Stephan, Murtle, and his bad cousin from Detriot, that stayed with the Winslows while Steve was trainning to go into space, also the fact that Jo Marie Payton was forced off the show since no one listend to her ideas and she even in fact said one time in an interview that the show became a self centered show for Jaleel White whit all his inventions and all the characters he played while everyone else took a back seat or was not even shown.

Also the fact that Rachael, Richie, and Mother Winslow, and Judy disapeared.

Also it centered around the last couple of seasons about Steve trying to get Laura.

The first 5 season were good up until season 6 where Steve made himself inot Stephan.

i actually liked the last season. this might be because im watching it now on UPN, or because its the first time in along overdue time steve finally got close to laura and they both liked each other. also because its the most recent ones, and you can see what they look like recently, not 15 years ago.

EDIT: By the way does anyone realize that the guy that started this thread, probably never uses the site anymore, and posted this almost 4 years ago??

Family Matters went downhill when Waldo left. I watched the show til the very end and it was never the same after Waldo left the show. The show was still watchable, but the last season was terrible. I don't think I could watch season 9 again even if someone paid me. :lol:

there were only 8 seasons.

edit: on a side not, what was wrong with the last season? it was the first time laura warmed up to steve, it took so long and way overdue

there were only 8 seasons.

edit: on a side not, what was wrong with the last season? it was the first time laura warmed up to steve, it took so long and way overdue

There were 9 seasons. 1989-1998. 9 seasons


Mother Winslow and the first Harriette were no longer around. I didn't like the second Harriette.

"and why do people always complain about judy being gone forever? she was never a big character, she was pointless in my opinon, she brought nothing to the show all she would do is say stupid pointless comments , some were funny yes, but most were just corny and dumb"

My Reply: I think it was the fact that they did not even bother to explain her disappearance. Also to add insult to injury they acted like she never existed. How hard is it to say Judy was acccepted to a special school in New York or whatever. They could have even had a goodbye episode for her. And when you think about her character was already established before Urkel came on the show. So when Urkel came on the show she had no purpose because of the writers, the writers just did not care to develop her character, which is messed up in my opinion. Instead of developing her character who was already in the family anyway they added unneccessary characters like Stefan, 3J and Myra. They could have at least tried but she was just ignored.

it was still pretty funny show to me, i think it got cut short and i wish theyll be a final REAL show with a reunion or something..

I can sum up the moment that the Fonz put on the waterskis (IE: The moment the show jumped the shark [IE: Lost it]) in two words:

Disney. World.

I can sum up the moment that the Fonz put on the waterskis (IE: The moment the show jumped the shark [IE: Lost it]) in two words:

Disney. World.
and why was the disney world episodes wrong?

and why was the disney world episodes wrong?


ABC was bought by Disney ...therefor Roseanne, FM Boy meets world and Full House had similar episodes

ABC was bought by Disney ...therefor Roseanne, FM Boy meets world and Full House had similar episodes
and Step By Step too.

There were 9 seasons. 1989-1998. 9 seasons


Mother Winslow and the first Harriette were no longer around. I didn't like the second Harriette.
The second Harriet sucked. :rolleyes:

Okay, the show changed over the years, but I can't say it was for the worse. I agree about Judy. They should at least have tried to give her some plots or something. However, Rachel and Mother Winslow disappeared because the actresses wanted to leave the show, while the girl who played Jody was fired.

I don't mind Steve's inventions one bit. What I mind is silly his undying obsession with that shallow bitch Laura. She doesn't want you, Steve, so kick her to the curb some time! And there was Myra, who was prettier and nicer than Laura and loved him as he was right away. To tell you the truth, I would have watched a thousand more sci-fi plots, if only Steve hadn't ended up with that terrible shallow bitch.

It was so sad when at Disney World, Stefan told Myra Steve won't be back, and she was crying.

It's normal for all family shows to lose steam once the kids become grown and move out and go to college. Not many family shows are expected to last much longer after that happens

It was so sad when at Disney World, Stefan told Myra Steve won't be back, and she was crying.
I don't remember her crying in that episode. I just remember her having Steve on her wallpaper, her cover and her night gown. :lol: But I bet it happened, if you say so.

Poor Myra... She was the only one in his age bracket, who actually liked him as he was. (The only other people, who really seemed to like him as he was, were old timers like Estelle or little children like Richie.) And she was still treated like dirt. :(

It's normal for all family shows to lose steam once the kids become grown and move out and go to college. Not many family shows are expected to last much longer after that happens
Yeah, that's true also. It seems like that there is more to do with teenagers than with 20-somethings, so that's how it goes.

Family Matters started to get stale in 1995. It seemed like it became predictable and boring. As a kid, I loved Urkel but looking at it from an adult standpoint, Urkel was overused and killed the original premise of the show. He at least should have been allowed to grow up like Screech did on Saved by the Bell.

Hmmm... Well, even Screech was more normal than Steve, I'm affraid. Screech might have been the geek on his show, but even though I haven't watched the show in ten years, I don't think he was as "cartoony" as Steve.

I know that Steve made the show leave its original premise, but if you think about it, was it really the wrong choice to let him do that? There were already dozens of family sitcoms out there in fall of 1989. "Family Matters" before Steve was okay enough, but nothing special at all. But when Steve came, they suddenly got their own uniqe touch. He became the show's gold mine. The show maybe would have been canceled after a year and as good as forgotten by now, if they hadn't brought in Steve and seen his potential.

You're right, but they could've let it be like season 2 with Urkel as important as everyone else. They didn't need to give him those sci-fi inventions, or make Judy, Richie or Rachel less developed. Notice how in the Christmas episode Steve spit in Judy's face?!

I know what you're saying. I'm not complaining at the science fiction stuff, not really, but I too would rather have had them develope Judy than invent Stefan or bring Myrthle back. Okay, the Stefan character was a good way for Jaleel to use his real voice, and the Myrthle character showed that he was also good at doing a girl's part, even if it was a nerdy ugly girl. But still, they should have been around in only a couple of episodes each and not almost become regulars on the show, so I can give you that.

Thelma Hopkins (Aunt Rachel) and Rosetta LeNoire (Grandma Estelle) chose to leave the show. Thelma Hopkins tried another show, and Rosetta LeNoire was old and her health was getting worse, so she just wanted to cut down on her work hours. It also makes sense for an aunt or a grandmother to get their own place after a while. However, it makes no sense to pretend like your child never existed, like they did with Judy.

The episode that takes place in the lighthouse, where urkel goes down the spiral to get to the bottom.

That's when the show truly went down spiral.