Family Matters: The Complete First Season

One of the most popular situation comedies of the 1990s, ABC's nine-season FAMILY MATTERS (1989-98), was the brainchild of William Bickley and Michael Warren, who created the program as a spinoff of the earlier PERFECT STRANGERS (1986). It originated with the character of Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton), a Chicago-based elevator operator who worked at the newspaper that employed STRANGERS protagonists Larry and Balki. In the fall of '89, Harriette got her own show, which followed the various adventures of her extended family - her policeman husband Carl (Reginald Vel Johnson); her children Laura (Kellie Shanygne Williams), Judy (Jaimee Foxworth) and Eddie (Darius McCrary); and her widowed sister Rachel (Telma Hopkins), who had an infant son, Ritchie (Joseph and Julius Wright). The real star of the series, however, emerged mid-way through Season One, when Jaleel White turned up as consummate "nerd" Steve Urkel, a socially-inept, klutzy brainiac who pined unsuccessfully for Laura's affections - and elevated series ratings to an unforeseen level with his nutty antics. This package presents all original 22 episodes from Season One (1989-90).