Family Matters / YMMV

Accidental Aesop:
- Waldo's transition from Minion with an F in Evil to a Nice Guy gives credence to the lesson "Be careful of who you choose to be friends with". With Willie, Waldo got arrested for helping him spike Steve's punch and probably would've been headed down a life of crime. With Eddie and Steve, he finds his calling in life, gets a stable relationship with a great girl, and friends who while annoyed with his stupidity, want what's best for him.
- Steve impresses Laura not because of his pursuit of her, but rather he improves his flaws and becomes the best version of himself. This sends the message not to focus on getting a girl's attention but rather focus on yourself and the right girl will come.
Adorkable: Steve, with his glasses, suspenders, Annoying Laugh and high-pitched voice. He's extremely awkward and clumsy, and quite annoying, but you can't help but sympathize with him because of his good heart, determination and undying love for Laura.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Is Steve really a genuinely nice, misunderstood guy with No Social Skills, or a Stalker with a Crush who ruins everything in his path? Is it possible that he's on the autism spectrum (which might explain why he continues to behave so childishly well into his teens)? Or is he just a lonely kid who acts out to get attention and latched on to the only family he thought of as friends?
- One of the major reasons the Winslows put up with Steve's antics is that he has saved Carl's life so many times. However, while the times he saved the latter's life in his earlier appearances were plausible, they became increasingly less so as time went on to the point where accidents seemed to happen to Carl simply because Steve was there. So is Steve just a nice guy who is always there when you need him or is he a magnificent bastard who takes advantage of the accidents he caused?
- Steve's eventual romance with Laura. Did it happen out of nowhere due to Steve being an entitled nice guy who badgered Laura until she gave in? Or was there subtle foreshadowing of Laura developing real feelings for him in episodes where she would find herself missing him or jealous of his attention to other girls, or moments where she went out of her way to stand up for him at the risk of losing a prom date or her own popularity? Was Steve a selfish jerk who just wanted to claim a pretty girl for his own, or did he genuinely love her but was just too clueless and awkward to express it properly? It should be noticed that Steve is willing to support Laura dating other guys if that will make her happy. And while he's quick to jump on the opportunity if he discovers said dates are just slimeballs it's more because of how they're bad for Laura than because he's looking to benefit. This is best shown in the Season 4 episode "Dance to the Music"; Steve, despite his feelings for Laura, sets her up with popular jock Ted Curran, one of Laura's few dates who is not a jerk. When Ted asks why, because he knows of his feeling for Laura, Steve tells him that Laura wants to go with him and all he cares about is her happiness. In addition, Steve stopped being an Abhorrent Admirer during Season 6 (with the exception of "Cheers Looking at You, Kid", where he spies on Laura simply because he doesn't trust her new boyfriend), meaning it's more likely that Laura truly developed feelings on her own.
- Despite being an incredibly competent cop, Carl comes across as extremely accident prone. Yet that didn't come about until Steve was introduced. A lot of instances seem to be caused by Steve. For example, despite going camping for years, he forgot to safe guard his food after Steve destroyed the camp site. So is Carl really accident prone or does Steve infuriate him so much that he just can't think straight?
- Was Myra always a psychotic borderline Stalker with a Crush towards Steve? Or did Steve make her that way due to years of emotional abuse? One does have to look at the fact Steve was very upfront in telling Myra she was his second choice over Laura, and warned her many times the moment Laura showed any feelings for him he would dump her in an instant. That and the fact Steve would constantly hang out at the Winslow house and eventually move in with them which basically put Steve in constantly close contact with her romantic rival, one can hardly blame her for going off the deep end. And, in Myra's defense, she was right; Laura did eventually fall for Steve despite saying she had no feelings for him.
- Did Steve intend to emotionally abuse Myra, or was he completely clueless as to just how unstable she would turn out to be? Steve isn't the most socially savvy person; he could have taken her behavior for a joke or just typical jealousy, not realizing until it was too late just how much damage he was doing. On the other hand, it's still a pretty big dick move to tell your current girlfriend she's Option B and a placeholder until the one you really want comes around, mental stability notwithstanding. Not to mention when Steve finally dumps Myra for good, it was after being caught kissing Laura only two hours after Myra pretended to break up with him. Sure, Myra trying to manipulate Steve into begging for her back is wrong, but even if the break-up had been genuine, it can be seen in poor taste to move on mere hours afterwards especially with the woman who claimed for literal years she had no romantic feelings for your boyfriend.
Anvilicious: While not as noticeably as other shows that aired at the time, Family Matters still has a couple:
- In "Like a Virgin", Eddie reveals to his classmates that he's a virgin. The idea that Eddie and Steve would be the only two kids in their high school who have never had sex notwithstanding, are we really supposed to believe their classmates would ridicule them for it? Especially since after this episode, the issue was never mentioned once.
- "The Gun" has both an anti-bullying and anti-gun message.
Ass Pull: Stefan's elaborate proposal to Laura in "We're Going to Disney World". Yes, it's a very romantic and heartwarming way to end Part 1, but how he was able to get a horse-drawn carriage, cast members, costumes, fireworks, and a huge crowd of people for the event is never explained. It's at least possible that he was able to line up his proposal with a nightly fireworks show (which would explain the fireworks and crowd), but he still would've had to pull a lot of strings to put it together, especially in such a short amount of time.
Awesome Music: The first end credits theme.
Base-Breaking Character: Steve. Depending on who you ask, he's either the best thing about the show and elevated it from being just another family sitcom to greater heights than anyone could have dreamed of, or he's an obnoxious Creator's Pet who turned the series into a Denser and Wackier sci-fi show, by taking screentime away from the Winslows, the real main characters. Alternately, there are some who think that he's kind of funny, but works better in small doses and all his alter egos are overused.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
- The Urkel Dance in "Life of the Party". At some point during a party, Steve starts performing a choreographed dance, complete with vocals and instructions, with a bunch of classmates joining him to "Do the Urkel" for no apparent reason. This scene is just random, since he never mentions having dance moves in any other episode, and it is completely irrelevant to the plot. That being said, it's still one of the most iconic and beloved scenes of the series.
- "Beauty and the Beast" ends with Steve receiving a chain letter and deciding to send it to Cory Matthews, his friend in Philadelphia. It has no relevance to the rest of the episode, other than to confirm that Family Matters and Boy Meets World share a universe.
- The cast singing "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" in "A Pirate's Life for Me", after Steve and Carl claim to the pirates that the girls are "the daughters of the governor of Motown". It's a charming gag, but it does nothing to further the plot.
Bizarro Episode: "A Pirate's Life for Me" is one of the craziest episodes in the entire series; you can't get any crazier than the cast fighting off pirates in the 1700s! While time travel had been used in a previous episode, "Father Time", at least that story had a good message and further developed Carl's character. "Pirate's Life" seems to only exist as, well, the Pirate Episode.
Captain Obvious Aesop: In "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Urkel", after Laura tells Steve to get out of her life and her guardian angel shows her what her life would be like if she was a nerd, and essentially trades places with Steve, she realizes that yes, nerds have feelings too. Unfortunately, this is flawed due to Laura being justified in her anger at Steve in this episode; he breaks a glass vase she bought for her mother due to his clumsiness. Granted, it looks bad to tell someone to get out of your life around Christmas, but still.
Catharsis Factor: Any time Steve stops being a doormat and stands up to the people mistreating or using him. His castigation of Laura's ungrateful attitude toward him helping her get to a cheerleading practice is extremely satisfying to watch.
Character Perception Evolution: Steve was originally intended as a one-shot character, created for an early episode about Carl trying to find a tame guy to take his daughter Laura to a dance. Unexpectedly, he proved a hit with viewers, leading to the producers deciding to make him a regular. At first, he was seen as a welcome addition to the cast, with his quirky personality and bizarre inventions helping to give the show its own unique identity. However, as Steve went on to dominate the series, his reputation became increasingly polarizing, with fans of the show to this day arguing over whether he elevated Family Matters from being just another family sitcom or ruined it by turning it into a wacky sci-fi series centered around himself. The fact that some of his behavior towards Laura comes off as more creepy than funny nowadays has only given his detractors more ammunition, though his defenders will point to moments where he respects Laura's boundaries and decisions.
Common Knowledge: The infamous "Judy went upstairs and never came down again" is what everyone knows about Judy's disappearance from the show, and this is even mentioned in many articles that often claim that Judy was sent upstairs as a punishment (either by Carl or Harriette) and then disappeared. In reality, Judy's last scene is not her going upstairs. Instead, she's last seen as the flower girl in "Mama's Wedding". In fact, throughout Season 4, which is Judy's last season, there's not a single scene where she's punished or sent to her room at all.
Creator's Pet: Some fans believed Steve became this over time since he took up most of the show, leaving the Winslows out of the spotlight. Of course, the character was probably the only reason most were watching the show anyway, so it might have been a case of giving the audience what they wanted. There's also the fact that eventually everything he said and did was portrayed as good/wonderful/perfect, even when it clearly wasn't, and him always coming out the victor in every situation.
Die for Our Ship: Some Steve/Laura fans see Myra as Ax-Crazy. Some Steve/Myra fans see Laura as a shallow bitch.
Draco in Leather Pants: Compare how Myra is portrayed on the show (an insanely obsessive Yandere who goes so far as to install a spy cam in Steve's glasses, and even before Season 9, she does things like painting Steve naked without telling him, trying to force herself on Steve at the drive-in theater, having a Stalker Shrine in her bedroom, and viciously antagonizing Laura simply because Steve has a crush on her) to how Myra is seen by fans (a beautiful, smart, and loving girl who is not shallow because she loves a nerd the way he is, and is loyal to him no matter what).
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Eddie's friend Waldo was hugely popular, only to just never show up once they made the Channel Hop to CBS. Also worth noting is Waldo started out as a delinquent before becoming one of Eddie's best friends.
- Myra was introduced as a Romantic False Lead. Much like Steve before her, she charmed the audience and was promoted to the main cast.
Fair for Its Day: Steve's obsession with Laura has gone from being cute to downright creepy, as the obsessive Nice Guy is no longer seen as an acceptable archetype. It is especially annoying to see Laura give into this kind of behavior and hook up with Steve. However, this portrayal is a lot more nuanced:
- Steve has episodes where he does learn to respect Laura's wishes, avoids downright illegal behavior, and can show her genuine kindness. And there are times where he can drop his infatuation and tell off Laura when she acts downright disrespectful to him.
- Laura is consistently portrayed as a self-respecting, strong-willed girl who turns down thuggish, cruel, and entitled guys.
- On a different matter, Carl feigning a thick Indian accent while masquerading as a gas station clerk in "Robo-Nerd II" was funny in The '90s (the same decade that gave us Apu), but nowadays, it can come off as a stereotype.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Even if Steve ended up with Laura, there's a large segment of fans who preferred him to be with Myra, because she liked him for his quirks and not despite them. The fact that she ended up being a derailed love interest didn't help matters.
Fanon: Most fans consider the shift in Waldo's character from Willie's henchman to Eddie and Steve's friend to be a result of him deciding to ditch Willie after he got the two arrested at the end of "Life of the Party".
Fanon Discontinuity: A lot of fans like to pretend the series ended at either Season 8 (if they're more forgiving of the kookiness that took over) or around 6-7 (if they're not).
Fanon Welding: Fans often pretend that Carl is the unnamed police officers that Reginald VelJohnson plays in Ghostbusters and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. More morbid fans pretend he changed his name to Al Powell and that the child he shot in his Accidental Child-Killer Backstory was Urkel.
Friendly Fandoms:
- It's not uncommon for Family Matters fans to be fans of Full House, especially after Steve made an appearance on the latter show to help Stephanie get used to her new glasses. Both shows were among the two flagship series of the popular TGiF line-up in the '90s.
- Although they can spark a rivalry, many fans of this show also love The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, so much so that in "Scenes from a Mall", a young friend of Richie's named Little G lampshades how much Carl looks like Uncle Phil. During the end credits, James Avery, Phil's actor, makes a surprise cameo appearance.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The show was a massive success in Spain, and it still has reruns to this day. Steve was overall extremely well received by Spaniard audiences, helped by the fact that it had a Superlative Dubbing, particularly from Spaniard actress Pilar Coronado, who dubbed Steve and managed to reproduce Jaleel White's voice pitch and acting perfectly (she even managed to dub him as Stefan Urquelle pretty convincingly despite the difference in gender). The rest of the cast was of the same caliber, especially Salvador Aldeguer dubbing Reginald VelJohnson as Carl.^note
Genius Bonus: When Steve discovers the hidden glasses cam in Myra's room, he exclaims "What in the name of G. Gordon Liddy is this?!" Liddy was one of the major conspirators in the Watergate scandal.
Growing the Beard: Happened somewhere around Season 3, when they figured out how to use Steve without him sticking out like a sore thumb.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- "False Arrest" has Carl arresting a Bill Cosby expy named Buddy Goodrich for assaulting him and subsequently taking him to court where he's found guilty. Years later, the real Cosby would be convicted for sexual assault.
- In "Ice Station Winslow", Judy tries to tell Harriette and Rachel about acing a spelling test, but they're too busy making Richie a penguin costume and Judy walks away dejected, with Harriette not even realizing she's left. This and any other instance of Judy feeling forgotten or ignored becomes a lot sadder when Jaimee Foxworth was unceremoniously removed from the series and Judy basically retconned out.
- Judy actually suggested that the Winslows go to Disney World in the teaser for "Life of the Party". It seems all the crueler that the rest of the family eventually went without her in Season 6.
- At the end of "Higher Anxiety", Steve interrupts the Winslow's family TV time by plopping himself down in the middle of the couch, causing Judy, sitting on the end, to fall off the couch. This is followed by a close-up shot of her staring at Steve in disbelief. This ended up being Judy's second-to-last episode, and the gag feels like a metaphor for Steve's popularity being a factor in her dismissal from the series.
- Carl, often once he's at wit's end with Steve's antics, has boasted that he could shoot the latter and get away with it by simple virtue of being a cop. Back then, it might have been funny. Nowadays, nowhere near so much.
- Any time Myra, post breakup with Steve, makes any comment about not wanting to live without him. Michelle Thomas, Myra's actress, died at the age of 30 from a rare form of stomach cancer.
- In "Stop, in the Name of Love", while telling Laura that Waldo needs cheering up due to his troubles getting women, Steve states that Waldo's "so sad he could depress Richard Simmons." Flash forward 22 years to 2014, when reports surfaced that Simmons had been suffering from "paralyzing" depression due to a knee injury that sidelined him from his professional career as an exercise guru and the death of his beloved pet Dalmatian, Hattie.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: In "Father of the Bride", Carl has a dream where he wakes up in 2009, and discovers that Steve and Laura got married and had kids. Jaleel White's daughter, Samaya, was born in 2009.
He Really Can Act:
- Steve's transformation into Stefan is the moment where Jaleel White extensively showed his acting chops, making Stefan act and speak very differently from Steve.
- The same can be said for White's performance as Steve's cousin, Original Gangsta Dawg. Out of all of White's roles on the show, OGD is the most grounded and serious, being a troubled young man from Detroit who eventually learns to better himself (thanks to Carl).
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The Winslow family quilt was started by a family member named Amy Rose. This was mentioned a few years before Sonic CD introduced the character of the same name. The fact that Jaleel White voiced Sonic in three shows makes this even more amusing.
- "Boxcar Blues":
  - While they're trapped on a moving train, Steve teaches Carl how to do his Signature Laugh. In the two-part episode "To Be or Not to Be", Carl becomes Carl Urkel after Myra tampers with Steve's transformation chamber.
  - Carl tells Eddie that he doesn't have to be cop just to satisfy him as he has plenty of time to think about what he wants to do in future. In the final season, Eddie becomes a cop.
- In "The Science Project", Steve builds a real working rocket and Carl comments that he should use it to blast off into space. The two-part series finale has Steve going into space with a couple of other scientists.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), another show on ABC with Jaleel White as the main character, was cancelled partially due to Fox Kids putting up Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers against it. Two years later, in the Season 8 episode "Karate Kids", Jason David Frank, best known for portraying Tommy Oliver, would play a gang member who gets his butt kicked by Steve during his Bruce Lee transformation.
- Jo Marie Payton, Harriette's first actress, would end up voicing a grandma character not unlike Estelle, who also has an antagonistic relationship with her own adult son, if not more so. And there's also an Urkel-like character that was an Abhorrent Admirer (if briefly) with the grandma character's grandaughter.
- In "Scammed", some of the characters play a Mortal Kombat spoof titled Grandma Ninja. Guess who would become the owners of the franchise in 2009?
- Steve's inventions increasingly breaking the boundaries of science fiction seem less nonsensical after his appearance in Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, where Steve now coexists with not only Mystery Inc., but also Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash.
- In "Father Time," Carl goes back in time with Steve to retroactively plant stock tips in his house for when he first moves in. When he returns to the present, he learns not only that is he now a multi-billionaire, but that the President in this timeline is no longer Bill Clinton but Rosie O'Donnell. It's played for absurd laughs, but little would viewers guess that Rosie's sworn enemy - Donald Trump - would end up beating Bill Clinton's wife in a Presidential election nearly twenty years after the episode aired, with Rosie's name being brought up at two of the Presidential debates (granted, Rosie's feud with Trump would not actually begin until 2006, but that's where the Hindsight part comes in).
- "Life in the Fast Lane" ends with a Take That! towards CBS, with Steve and Laura falling asleep the moment they put it on. The show was moved from ABC to CBS for its final season.
Ho Yay:
- Steve's relationships with Carl and Eddie verge on this.
- Eddie and Waldo's relationship also has hints of it.
Hollywood Homely: In "Muskrat Love", when Eddie agrees to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with Melissa Robbins, his friends, particularly Weasel, badmouths her and calls her a dog. While Melissa initially dresses somewhat plainly, she still cleans up nicely for the dance and is pretty.
Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: You may remember this as simply "The Urkel Show". This was invoked in Norway, where the series was officially known as Steve.
Informed Wrongness:
- Steve's constant entry into the Winslows' home. Not once does he ever apologize for entering without permission and, like with Laura, he believes he's entitled to someone else's home for no other reason than he wants to. But the Winslows are always the bad ones for getting annoyed with his constant disrespect of their home.
- Pretty much any time one of the other main characters gets mad or annoyed at Steve when he does something stupid or insensitive, even if it's Innocently Insensitive. For example, in "Words Hurt", Steve accidentally trashed a model ship Carl had worked hard on. True, it was an accident but still, Steve, as usual, forced himself into the Winslow home without their permission. Through his usual lack of respect for their personal space, he ends up destroying a piece of Carl's property, causing Carl to grumble "You know, I really hate that kid." This upset Steve so much that he starts sleepwalking into the Winslows home and assaulting Carl out of resentment. And yet, Carl is made to feel like he's the bad guy even though it was Steve who was at fault.
- In "Citizens' Court", Steve takes Carl to court to sue him for accidentally killing Steve's pet stick bug. When asked to take the stand to explain himself, Carl's response is, "Ladies and gentlemen... it was just a stupid bug." Steve himself later takes the stand and simply explains why what Carl did was wrong; Carl said it was simply a bug and Steve, who treasured his friendship both with his pet bug and with Carl, says that he was so upset because Carl did not apologize for having killed his bug. Steve quickly forgave Carl when he sincerely apologized to him shortly thereafter; Carl killing the bug is not what upset him so much, it is that Carl viewed Steve's bug as so insignificant that he did not need to say that he was sorry that angered Steve so much.
- In "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Urkel", when Laura lashes out at Steve for smashing an expensive ornament she had just bought for Harriette, marking the second time something like this has happened. She points out that Steve always makes her feel guilty whenever she gets angry at him for violating her space and breaking things, telling him that it won't work this time. This prompts Laura's Guardian Angel to come down and make her see what it's like to be Steve, framing her as being the unreasonable one who needs to be taught the error of her ways. This disregards the fact that Laura had every right to be frustrated and was essentially correct that Steve constantly guilt-trips her, with this time being no different.
- In "Beta Chi Guy", the audience is supposed to feel sorry for Steve when Eddie is fed up with his antics and wants him to leave his apartment. This is completely ignoring that Steve crashed a party he wasn't invited to for no other reason than believing being Eddie's best friend entitles him to do whatever he wants. It's supposed to be an episode about how friendship matters more than popularity, but it falls flat because Steve is allowed to be a bad friend, whereas Eddie is supposed to be a jerk simply for not wanting Steve to ruin something for once.
Jerkass Woobie: Myra. She's a Clingy Jealous Girl of the worst kind, becomes increasingly batshit crazy in later years and eventually resorts to breaking the law to keep her hooks in Steve. And yet you can't help but feel sorry for her whenever you're reminded that underneath all the crazy, she really does love him and Steve was not exactly a good boyfriend to her, outright telling her that she is his second choice until his real love Laura changes her mind (which eventually happens) and trying to turn into Stefan forever so he can have Laura, without caring about Myra's feelings.
Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Myra is the main villain in the last season, but many viewers think that she deserves Steve more than Laura does. The reason is that Myra has always loved Steve's nerdiness, while Laura is often accused of being shallow, bitchy to Steve initially, only interested in jocks and popular guys for most of the show, and she never wanted to date Steve until he gives himself a make-over. Somehow, Laura's "shallowness" is seen as worse than Myra being a batshit crazy yandere. There's also the fact that Myra was not a villain until season 9 (despite her Clingy Jealous Girl tendencies), but the writers make her worse than ever in later episodes, in order to have Steve end up with Laura.
Just Here for Godzilla: Many people tuned in just to see what kind of antics Steve was up to this time.
Les Yay: At times, Laura and Myra seem to have this.
Memetic Mutation:
- Steve himself became something of a meme in the early '90s, thanks to recurring references in popular culture. David Letterman in particular made a lot of jokes about "that Urkel kid," which spread to other shows like Animaniacs and The Simpsons.
- Crossing over with Mobile Fighter G Gundam, the Super Robot Wars T rendition of the former series' second opening, "TRUST YOU FOREVER", works well with the intro sequence to this series, seen here.
Moral Event Horizon:
- Willie crosses it when he and Waldo spike Steve's drink, and he almost falls off the ledge of a building. It was brought on by Steve humiliating them. They were later arrested for it. Willie was sent to Juvenile Hall, while Waldo got better.
- Dexter Thornhill crossed it by sabotaging Steve's science fair project to blow up the science lab. Forget trying to frame Steve and get him expelled, he could have seriously hurt or killed someone and didn't care.
More Popular Replacement:
- Maxine, Laura's best friend from Season 2 onward, is better remembered than Penny, Laura's best friend in Season 1.
- Eddie's best friend in the first two seasons was Rodney. Waldo, his best friend from Season 3 onward, is a much more memorable character and even gets a Promotion to Opening Titles.
More Popular Spin-Off: Of Perfect Strangers, not only due to the popularity of Steve, but also because Perfect Strangers was Screwed by the Network.^note Another factor was that unlike many spinoffs, neither Larry nor Balki ever appeared on this show, so many people aren't aware of it having been a spinoff in the first place.^note
Narm Charm: The "Rappin' Winslows" music video in "Rock Video": it just oozes with '90s cheese, but that's what makes it fun.
One-Scene Wonder:
- "Woman of the People" gives us Estelle's friend Gloria, who gets one of the funniest lines in the episode:
  Gloria: Well last night, a strange man pounded on my door all night long.
  Estelle: What did you do?
  Gloria: I finally let him out!
- In "Christmas is Where the Heart Is", Steve and Carl are stuck on the El train in a power outage on Christmas Eve. Steve tries to get the irked passengers to cheer up by singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas". He gets to the final verse and clearly no one else has said a thing except him... then the guy who is passed out drunk wakes up just long enough to belt out a beautiful tenor "Five golden rings" before passing out again.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Ken Foree played High Top in "Stake-Out".
- Danielle Nicolet as Vonda Mahoney in "The Love God".
- Naya Rivera as Gwendolyn.
- Vivica A. Fox as Halawna in "Jailhouse Blues".
- Debra Jo Rupp as Miss Conners in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad House".
- Terrence Howard as John in "Opposites Attract".
- Freddie Prinze Jr. as Tough Guy in "The Gun".
Ron the Death Eater: Over the years, Steve has been portrayed as a deranged incel, since his "nerd pursues the popular girl" archetype has come under increasing criticism in recent years. This ignores that several episodes show him as a nice, self-sacrificing guy who learns (sometimes) to accept Laura's boundaries. There are also modern viewers who see Steve as a Manipulative Bastard who only pretends to be friends with the other Winslows (especially Carl and Eddie) just to get close to Laura as part of his Stalker with a Crush plan, even though there are many episodes that prove that his friendship with the Winslows was genuine.
Seasonal Rot: Most agree that, sometime in the fifth season (or, at the latest, the start of the sixth season), the show had officially lost its way. Several members of the Winslow family were either written off altogether (Judy) or given vastly reduced roles (Estelle, Rachel). Steve's inventions and alter egos had become front and center for a good portion of the show's plots, causing many fans to believe that it had lost sight of its core focus (on the Winslow family and their nerdy next-door neighbor). And the Laura/Steve/Myra triangle had become too drawn out and overblown for its own good.
Ship-to-Ship Combat: Steve/Laura vs. Steve/Myra. Those who prefer Myra believe that most nerdy guys would kill to have a girl like her throw herself at them. They didn't like it that Steve continued to woo stuck-up and uninterested Laura who only agreed to date him in the last season. Those who prefer Laura counter that Myra was rather batshit-insane.
So Bad, It's Good: Steve's Isetta.
So Okay, It's Average: This is what some fans thought of the show before Steve was introduced halfway through Season 1.
Special Effect Failure:
- The glaringly CG'd rotating sign for Rachel's Place.
- Season 5's "Hell Toupee" has Michelle Thomas and Kellie Shanygne Williams wearing some very obvious wigs, since their characters start dumping food on each other later in the episode. Ironically, this is also the episode where Carl tries on some toupees to impress Harriette.
- In "A Ham is Born", Steve and Richie create a miniature tornado that's powerful enough to blow Richie out of the kitchen; the wires carrying Bryton McClure for the effect are quite visible, and you even see a piece of paper get caught on one of them.
- In "Paris Vacation Part 3", Steve and Nicole ride on the back of a truck during an intense Chase Scene. In some shots, it's obvious that the actors' stunt doubles are riding the truck instead. The shots with the stunt driver are even more jarring, as the truck driver is supposed to be an old man, yet his double is a much younger fellow who looks nothing like him.
- "Lost in Space" has the CG space shuttle and satellite, which by today's standards look like old video game models. On the other hand, the scenes within the shuttle (which utilize practical wire work) look very good.
Strangled by the Red String: Steve was in love with Laura from the beginning, despite how she had never given him any hopes that he would win her heart. She was even rather mean to him during the first couple of seasons. And it was clear that she preferred the handsome Jerk Jock type, which was of course the polar opposite of Steve's nerdy appearance and personality. And for a couple of seasons, when Steve had a serious relationship with Myra and he had become friends with Laura, Steve's crush on Laura was almost forgotten about. But then we reached the 9th and last season, when it seems like the writers decided that Steve and Laura just had to end up together now, despite how they both were in serious relationships with other people.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some fans believe that Judy could have been a decent character if she was developed more. The problem is that the writers never gave her a chance and, for some reason, they were reluctant to give her more than one line per episode, even before her disappearance. And it wasn't just because of Steve's Spotlight-Stealing Squad: they kept adding more secondary characters in the later seasons. In particular, the Winslows end up adopting 3J well after she disappears.
Toy Ship: Richie and Gwendolyn.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: Carl gets doghoused by Harriette in "An Unlikely Match" for the furniture he bought at a police auction to replace their old stuff. While it was tacky and some had bullet holes in them, Harriette was very inconsiderate, dropping a $3,000 purchase request on him and acting like it was nothing. The Winslows were struggling financially even with being a two-income household, and with Laura and Eddie going to college soon, it's entirely understandable that Carl wanted to save some money when his superior, who got a Mercedes in good condition from one of these auctions, told him about it. His main fault was not telling Harriette ahead of time and taking her with him to ensure it was of good quality. Harriette never admits that she was expecting way too much from him, even if they did need new furniture.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Steve, which is what led to his Base-Breaking Character status. During the height of Urkelmania, audiences rooted on Steve's Dogged Nice Guy habits in his effort to woo Laura. In more modern times, this doesn't sit nearly as well with audiences because not only does Laura make it clear much throughout the series that she's not interested, Steve ends up coming off more like a Stalker with a Crush. It also doesn't help that when Myra starts displaying the same habits towards him (and Myrtle towards Eddie), it's viewed more in a negative light.
Unpopular Popular Character:
- Steve ended up being a zigzagged case. He played it straight at first, when fans loved him, while most of the other characters on the show, which included his own parents, disliked him. However, as the years went by, and Steve went through a great deal of Flanderization, more and more viewers started to look at him in a less sympathetic light.
- Waldo. Like Steve, although to a lesser extent, he's likely to annoy nearly everyone on the show, even Steve, but he still is loved by fans.
- Myra. Many fans like her more than Laura, despite the fact that the writers of the show did their best to portray her as the Abhorrent Admirer.
Values Dissonance:
- Steve's behavior towards Laura. There are times when he practically acts as if they're already together. The dissonance is that Steve is portrayed as the Dogged Nice Guy while Laura is framed as if she were a bitch for not reciprocating his affections. Except that she's incredibly up front that she wants nothing to do with him and never leads him on.
- Steve's comments about the treatment given to him by his parents and relatives are often portrayed as a Hilariously Abusive Childhood. Of course today, comments such as reminiscing about the time that his parents used him to break open a pinata, or while under hypnosis going back to his birth and acting out his father's apparent attempts to shove him back into his mother's womb, are completely horrifying. It's no wonder Steve latches onto and has such an idyllic view of the Winslows.
- In "Like a Virgin", Steve brags that he's still a virgin. He then reveals that Eddie is too. It's apparently supposed to be a positive message regarding abstinence, but Steve just revealed something that he had no business even knowing.^note And even if he did, he certainly had no business revealing it to a locker room full of people.
- In "Cheers Looking at You, Kid", Laura is trusted to travel alone to a cheerleading competition. Steve follows her to her hotel and spies on her, completely against her parents' wishes, to persuade her to "stay pure". But all Steve interrupted was a kiss. So, this episode teaches two things: kissing someone makes you impure (despite Laura has dated and kissed multiple boys prior), and stalking and spying on someone is completely okay if it's to "protect" their innocence. Even if you argue it's about preventing anything beyond kissing, Laura has already been shown in previous episodes to refuse guys who try to get sex from her, making the episode even more ridiculous.
- In "Teacher's Pet", Carl hires a maid to help out around the house and the woman he chooses happens to be very attractive. For some reason, Harriette says that it's wrong for him to hire a good-looking maid, even though she also says she's doing a good job. She then decides to teach him in a lesson by having one of her coworkers, who happens to be handsome, pretend to be the new housekeeper, which causes Carl to be jealous. In the end, Carl apologies for his chauvinistic behavior and they make up. So the moral of the story is attractive people deserve to be punished for their appearance regardless of whether they've actually done anything wrong.
- In "Requiem for an Urkel", Steve is having problems with a bully at school and a teacher suggests that the two of them settle their differences in the boxing ring. This, of course, leads to Steve getting utterly creamed because the bully is twice his size.
- Carl boasted at least once that he could shoot Steve and get away with it by virtue of being a cop. After a series of high-profile controversies surrounding killings by police officers in The New '10s, jokes like these would be a lot more out of place in a lighthearted, family-friendly sitcom, and Carl would look a lot worse for making such quips.
- In "Cousin Urkel", Laura tries to get back at Eddie for a prank earlier in the episode by tricking Myrtle into kissing Eddie in his sleep. While Eddie wakes up at the last minute, this would no longer be regarded as a revenge prank but more like an attempted sexual assault.
Values Resonance:
- "False Arrest" features Ron Glass as a Bill Cosby expy who turns out to be a Villain with Good Publicity. Harsher in Hindsight aside, it's a helpful reminder that playing a nice character on TV or in movies doesn't give actors carte blanche to do whatever they want, which has become more apparent as social media and eyewitness accounts reveal celebrities' bad behavior behind the scenes become more commonplace.
- "Good Cop, Bad Cop" still holds water today with the racial profiling and harassment of minorities by law enforcement in the United States, especially in regards to police brutality.
- In "Midterm Crisis", Carl and Harriette meet Captain Savage's new girlfriend, who Carl recognizes as a stripper. After a conversation with Harriette, Carl decides to tell Savage the truth, only to find out that Savage already knew of his girlfriend's profession, and is shocked that Carl would slut-shame her like that.
- Even though the Winslows are a two-income family, they are often shown still having a limited income to live off of.
- While Steve's pursuit of Laura is uncomfortably Played for Laughs, guys are who are outright abusive and controlling toward girls are never let off the hook for their actions. Steve himself does avoid crossing certain lines and learns to respect Laura's boundaries.
- "Pound Foolish" has Aunt Oona use one of Steve's machine to lose all the weight she had in order to win over a handsome minster because she thinks it will be the only way he'll like her. However, by the end of the episode, the machine malfunctions and she reverts back to her overweight self. Aunt Oona is worried the minster won't like her. To her surprise, he reveals that he prefers heavier women. The episode very much leans more for being proud of yourself regardless of your body type.
- Towards the end of the series, Eddie decides he's not getting anything out of college and in a rare Smart Ball, thinks long and hard about what he wants out of his life before dropping out, and decides he wants to be a cop. Once Carl gets over his hesitations, he's on Eddie's side 100%. This was a nice change of pace for a '90s show to not treat college as the only way to find success, a mentality that has become more heavily embraced in The New '20s.
The Woobie: Steve, even as annoying as he can be, doesn't deserve half of the crap he goes through.

YMMV / Family Matters

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