r/FamilyMatters

Ain't Nothing but an Urkel (Season 6, Episode 17). Steve is studying hard to get accepted into his dream college M.I.T. and even has an interview with a recruiter to get in. But Steve is worried he's not smart enough to get in and needs to figure a way to get in. He figures if he can transform into Albert Einstein that he will be a shoe in. Steve goes through his celebrity hair collection and finds his Albert Einstein hair strand to mix in with his formula, but as he gets up he accidentally knocks over his book with the other celebrity hairs he has on hand and he's not sure if he has Einstein in his hand or Elvis Presley, he thinks he has the correct strand of hair in his hand with Einstein but nope, he did mix them up, so when he gets in the transformation chamber he comes out as Einstein but quickly transforms into Elvis Presley. Unfortunately talk about timing, the chamber malfunctions so Elvis Urkel cannot transform back into Steve. The recruiter comes over later and Steve was hoping the Elvis personality would have worn off by now but it's gotten worse and he puts a full-on Elvis show for the recruiter. The recruiter is less than impressed and leaves. At the Winslow house, Pastor Fuller comes over and asks Harriette and Carl if they could help counsel an engaged couple he's about to marry so they can know about what marriage is like. They agree to help and right before the couple, Larry and Marilyn,, come over Carl notices that Harriette smells really good. He asks where she got the perfume from and Harriette mentions that it was a gift from a male co-worker. Carl gets upset, but before they can talk it out Larry and Marilyn come over. Carl is still upset and he and Harriette argue in front of Larry and Marilyn and it makes them debate if being given perfume from a person of the opposite sex is a good or bad thing and they disagree and are now threatening to break up. Carl and Harriette stop them and tell them that married couples fight and it's ok, they'll work it out and Carl was just scared because he loves Harriette, she's beautiful and he's scared of losing her. Larry and Marilyn see how much Carl and Harriette love each other and decide to stay together.

FAVORITE QUOTE:

LAURA: You all set, Elvis?

ELVIS URKEL: Uh huh!

LAURA: Myra, thanks for fixing the chamber.

MYRA: Oh, my pleasure. Lucky I'm a well-rounded gal. I can discifer genetic code, install a computer chip and do a mean ramba! (TRANSFORMATION CHAMBER DINGS) I added a turbo charger. (STEVE COMES OUT OF THE CHAMBER BACK TO NORMAL) Welcome back, Stevie.

STEVE: What happened? Where's the recruiter?

LAURA: He's gone.

STEVE: Well, how did I do?

LAURA: Well, the bad news is you didn't get into M.I.T.

STEVE: Oh! Oh!

LAURA: But the good news is Caesar's Palace wants to book you for a month.

FAVORITE MOMENT:

It's small but silly, I always get such a laugh when Carl is watching the bikini contest and they are playing the "2001: A Space Odessey" theme and his smile goes from small to big and wide to the beats of the music.

OPINION:

They definitely are really taking advantage of that transformation chamber as much as they can. I don't blame the creators, they probably looked at this as an opportunity for more characters and for Jaleel to relax his Urkel voice. Either that or Jaleel did a random Elvis impression one day and the creators were like "That's amazing! We gotta get that into an episode somehow!". That being said, yeah, Jaleel's Elvis impression and performance is top notch. Even though this plot is really out there, which I loved Laura's "does this sound as crazy as I think it sounds?", I do get a laugh out of the situation. Jaleel really put his heart into that Elvis performance and it paid off. I'd like to think that there's a dream cross over here with Full House, if you watched Full House you know how they had Steve come over to the Tanner house when Stephanie got her glasses? And Uncle Jesse was teaching Steve how to walk? I think there's a Family Matters episode missing where Uncle Jesse and Elvis Urkel go to Vegas for a double Elvis show. Laura was really an incredible friend in trying to help Steve out in this episode. You can tell how much she cares for Steve by trying her best to explain the recruiter what happened which yeah, it sounded that crazy. I always get such a giggle out of the line when Elvis Urkel asks where's Lisa Marie, Laura says "you don't want to know", at the time referring to her marriage to Michael Jackson 🤣 If you were alive at that time, you know how crazy that era was. Speaking of eras, this is the end of one, this is the last time we will see Steve's basement/lab because we will be seeing soon Steve moving in with a certain family. But we'll cross that bridge soon.

Carl and Harriette, another Carl gets crazy jealous storyline and makes weird excuses later. But was Carl wrong in this situation? So Harriette smells good, Carl asks her if she had bought a new perfume and she tells him that her co-worker, Lance, bought it for her. Harriette thinks Carl is overreacting that he's upset about this. Here's the thing, we got on Carl for accepting the underwear that the one neighbor, Loretta, had bought for him as that's an intimate gift. But you could say the same thing about the perfume for Harriette. Now if they had thrown an extra line in that Lance works in the perfume department and Harriette complimented one of the perfumes he was selling, I could honestly let it go as he knew she liked it and it would make a great gift. But there's no line like that and it would come off a strange to me too if my husband told me a woman co-worker bought him cologne. Either one, they are insulting you and telling you that you stink or two, they plan on smelling you. Bottom line is, we are human, we are still animals and part of our attraction to others can be smell. Was Lance planning on smelling Harriette? Perfume can be considered an intimate gift. So in some bizarre world, I actually am siding with Carl on this one. BUT I do not like the line that Carl uses "When you're married to a beautiful woman like Harriette, you're always worried that somebody will take her away from you." It can come off as manipulative and an excuse for bad behavior. I could be misinterpreting it and taking it too seriously. I think because now I've seen some abusive relationships in my life that I can recognize when they say something that may come off as sweet and caring, but in reality it's translation is "You're mine and no one else can notice you!". Please let me know if you disagree with my take and I would love to hear opinions on this one.

We got quite a guest star cast here. Johnny Brown who plays Pastor Fuller had a wonderful career with 58 credits to his name including a starring role on the hit TV show Good Times as Nathan Bookman. He passed away of cardiac arrest on March 2, 2022 at the age of 84. Spencer Garrett who plays Larry Johnson and we will see him again one more time on Family Matters has had an incredible career so far with 236 credits to his name! He is one busy actor: Air Force One, The West Wing, 21, Dirty John, Yes Man, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his resume is insane! He still has projects coming up as well. And Richar Kline as Mr. Fleming the M.I.T. recruiter has an impressive resume with 89 credits to his name including being Larry Dallas, John Ritter's best friend, on Three's Company.

But I do get a kick out of this episode, this is one of those guilty pleasure episodes because it's really out there and we are more in Steve's scientific experiments gone crazy time, how will he get out of this one? But like I said, you gotta love the effort that Jaleel put into these roles.

GUEST STARS:

• Johnny Brown as Pastor Fuller (RIP in 2022)
• Spencer Garrett as Larry Johnson
• Richard Kline as Mr. Fleming
• Heather Morgan as Marilyn

Wedding Bell Blues (Season 6, Episode 16). Alfred Looney, the singing janitor, has met a woman at the grocery store and has proposed marriage. He wants Steve to be his best man for Carl to give him away at the wedding, but Carl offers to be an usher instead. At the wedding, Alfred's fiancé Sharon is walking down the aisle but recognizes the piano player. Turns out they are former lovers and they are noticing how good each other look and decide to leave the wedding together to get a cup of coffee. Alfred is devastated and is threatening to jump off the bell tower, Carl and Steve go up to talk Alfred back down onto the ground but Alfred is too upset and won't budge. The bell starts to ring and as it's swaying back and forth, it knocks Carl and Steve who loose their balance and are now having to jump onto the bell to not fall over, but now they have to jump back onto the ledge. They are successful and Alfred is so touched that they risked their lives to save him that he says he'll come down. As they start to walk, a fellow officer of Carl's comes up, Beth, to check up on them. Alfred is shocked to see Beth, turns out they were former lovers and are noticing how good they look and offer to go get a cup of coffee together. Meanwhile at home, Laura and her friends have bought tickets for the Seal concert. But the concert is in city that is a little far away so her friends want to get a hotel room to stay overnight. Carl and Harriette say absolutely not. But when Laura finds out that they are letting Eddie go camping with friends he hardly knows for several days, Laura asks why they won't let her go with friends they've known for years. Carl and Harriette admit it's because she's a girl and don't feel comfortable with her being on her own just yet. Laura is really hurt by this. Harriette later apologizes and says she can go to the concert but that she has to bring a cell phone with her.

FAVORITE QUOTE:

CARL: (SLEEPING WHILE THE BASKETBALL GAME IS ON, REAPEATING THE ANNOUNCER'S PLAY) Heck of a game.

EDDIE: (SEES CARL REPEATING THE TV AND JOINS IN) You love your son Edward.

CARL: (SLEEPING) Love Edward.

EDDIE: You're always happy to loan him money.

CARL: (SLEEPING) Loan money.

EDDIE: Lots of money!

CARL: (SLEEPING) Lots of money.

EDDIE: (SLAMS DOOR PRETENDING HE JUST WALKED IN) Hey, Dad!

CARL: Hey, Son!

EDDIE: Sorry I woke you.

CARL: You know son, I got this strange urge to tell you that I love you.

EDDIE: I love you too, Dad.

CARL: For some reason, I feel I wanna talk about money.

EDDIE: Well, let's talk about money.

CARL: You owe me $100!

EDDIE: Aw, man!

CARL: "When you wake up, you'll loan him some money." Amateur!

FAVORITE MOMENT:

When Sharon is walking down the aisle to marry Alfred but sees the piano player and they decide to run off together to get a cup of coffee.

OPINION:

So this will be Alfred Looney's last appearance. It's interesting how a few episodes ago in The Looney Bin, Steve offered for Mr. Looney to stay with him but we had never heard about that again. Well, I guess he was still staying with Steve? There's no confirmation but at least they say that Mr. Looney is moving on with his life so I'd have to assume he got his own place again. Still, this wedding story is a hilarious one. But seriously, did anyone buy that Sharon (who is a pretty attractive younger woman) would fall for someone like Alfred Looney? But still I love when Carl, Harriette and Steve are asking Alfred about his bride but he doesn't know anything about her. Alfred asking Carl to give him away or pay for the wedding, Carl offers to be an usher. As I mentioned, I love the scene where Sharon sees the piano player and how they interrupt the ceremony to say how they look good and when he offers a date she says "well, uh, I'm kinda in the middle of something here" and Steve gives her this look that she's about to get married. That whole bell tower scene is also so good and exciting. But I always think to myself, I'd personally just hang onto the bell while they get other police officers to help and a machine to get me down instead of risking jumping onto a 1 inch wide ledge. But we gotta having something exciting with Carl and Steve risking their lives. Still I always get a laugh when Alfred breaks the bell handle and tells Carl to help Steve get onto the ledge. Alfred seeing his ex-girlfriend Beth which plays similar to Sharon leaving him at the alter always makes me laugh when Alfred is so excited to see her that he almost knocks over Steve and Carl trying to get to her.

Laura's story of going to the Seal concert, I love me some Seal, especially the 90's. Crazy, Killer and Kiss from a Rose, I will blast my Seal CD all day every day. So I don't blame Laura for being upset that Carl and Harriette said no to her staying overnight with her friends. But do I blame Carl and Harriette? Honestly, no. I know that sounds crazy because Laura brings up a great point to Carl and Harriette that she's going with friends they've known for years vs Eddie hanging out with friends they hardly know. So first of all, they say Laura is 16 years old (BTW in season 3 she turned 15, so tell me how that math works), so she's still a minor, Eddie is supposed to be around 19 at this time I'm thinking? So, Eddie is an adult. Second, Eddie is going camping, they're in the woods and Eddie has gone camping before so he has experience knowing the area. Laura is going to a concert where you are surrounded by tons of people and you're not sure if one of those people are going to try to mess with her. Yes, Laura is very responsible, but all it takes is one bad person to notice her and possibly do something to her or her friends. And third, I agree with Carl and Harriette, being a female, especially a beautiful female, can attract some scary people and without her coming home right away, I'd understand why they were scared. This was before everyone had smart phones, so it was a lot harder to be in touch with someone. That being said, in defense of Laura, yes, she's very responsible and at least she is with her friends and they can look out for each other and it is one night. But at least Harriette was sweet enough to realize that and even got Laura a cell phone to be safe. Although the ending credit sequence shows her calling during the concert, Harriette, let the girls enjoy the concert and call later. How did they even hear each other? It's Seal, I guarantee there was a lot of cheering and singing.

A few little tributes. So Tom Poston passed away of respiratory failure April 30, 2007 at age 85. He has 110 acting credits to his name and was in a lot of popular shows and movies: Home Improvement, Christmas with the Cranks, Will & Grace, Mork & Mindy, Newhart just to name a few. He was always nice to see on screen and was definitely one of those "I know him from somewhere" actors. Channing Chase who played Beth has quite a resume with 57 credits to her name with Mad Men, ER and Days of Our Lives to name some very popular shows she was on. She was 79 years old when she passed on October 6, 2018. And Lewis Dauber who played the minister had 66 credits to his name, he was in The Island, Jingle All the Way, Seinfeld and Married with Children. He passed away from liver cancer on October 3, 2019 at the age of 70. Many thanks for all the contributions to entertainment, may they all forever rest in peace.

This was definitely a very fun episode and had some real exciting moments to it. Even if it's ever a weaker story with Carl and Steve, you know you're always in for a treat when these 2 have to do something crazy.

GUEST STARS:

• Cherie Johnson as Maxine Johnson
• Tom Poston as Mr. Alfred Looney (RIP in 2007)
• Channing Chase as Beth (RIP in 2018)
• Sondra Currie as Sharon
• Lewis Dauber as Minister Barnes (RIP in 2019)
• Susan Dawkins as Rebecca