Family Matters
American television series
Family Matters is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC for eight seasons from September 22, 1989, to May 9, 1997, then moved to CBS for its ninth and final season from September 19, 1997, to July 17, 1998. A spin-off of Perfect Strangers, the series was created by William Bickley and Michael Warren, and revolves around the Winslow family, a Black middle class family living in Chicago, Illinois. Midway through the first season, the show introduced the Winslows' nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel (Jaleel White), originally as a one-time appearance. However, he quickly became the show's breakout character (and eventually one of the show’s protagonists), joining the main cast.
Running for 215 episodes over nine seasons, Family Matters is the third-longest-running live action American sitcom with a predominantly African-American cast, behind The Jeffersons with 253 episodes over 11 seasons and Tyler Perry's House of Payne with 400 episodes as of 2026. Family Matters was the last live-action scripted primetime show that debuted in the 1980s to end its run; the only scripted shows that started in the 1980s and have lasted longer in continuous production are The Simpsons and The Bold and the Beautiful.
History
The series was a spinoff from the ABC sitcom Perfect Strangers; both shows aired Friday nights as part of the network's family-oriented "TGIF" lineup. Jo Marie Payton played Harriette Winslow, the elevator operator at a newspaper where Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous also worked. Reginald VelJohnson, who was coming off of growing fame from his role in Die Hard, made an appearance on the show as Harriette's husband Carl Winslow, a Chicago police officer. ABC and the producers loved the character Harriette for her great morale and quick-witted humor and decided to create a show that would focus on her and her family, husband Carl, son Eddie, elder daughter Laura, and younger daughter Judy (who appeared until the character was retconned after season four as having not existed).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Family Matters” as american television series. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as american television series. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q593838. Authority coordinates are 41.929, -87.667. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989, 1997, 1998 and 2026.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Family Matters” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.