Family Matters

1989 • ABC

4.7

786 reviews

TV-UNRATED

Rating

Eligible

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Seasons 1-4 episodes (96)

1 Season 1, Episode 1 The Mama Who Came to Dinner

9/21/89

Season-only

Mother Winslow asserts a little too much authority when she comes to live with her son Carl and his family.

2 Season 1, Episode 2 Two Income Family

9/29/89

Season-only

The Winslows must cut costs when Harriette loses her job as an elevator operator.

3 Season 1, Episode 3 Short Story

10/5/89

Season-only

The Winslow family members have mixed reactions when they realize they are the characters in a story Rachel has sold to a magazine.

4 Season 1, Episode 4 Rachel's First Date

10/12/89

Season-only

Desperate for some time alone with Harriette, Carl encourages Rachel to start dating again.

5 Season 1, Episode 5 Straight A's

10/19/89

Season-only

Eddie thinks he must be getting smarter when he comes home with perfect marks until he learns the truth--his friend Rodney has played a joke on him.

6 Season 1, Episode 6 Basketball Blues

11/2/89

Season-only

Carl pushes a reluctant Eddie to try out for the high school baskeball team. Aunt Rachel experiments with gourmet recipes.

7 Season 1, Episode 7 Body Damage

11/9/89

Season-only

Carl is chosen to drive an antique police car in the Columbus Day parade, but Rachel wrecks the car and has to fix it before Carl finds out.

8 Season 1, Episode 8 Mr. Badwrench

11/16/89

Season-only

While Carl unsuccessfully tries to install a shower, Rachel tries to convince everybody that her baby boy really can talk.

9 Season 1, Episode 9 Stakeout

11/23/89

Season-only

Harriette becomes jealous because Carl's new partner is beautiful, shapely -- and likes to bowl!

10 Season 1, Episode 10 False Arrest

11/27/10

Season-only

Carl arrests the Winslow family's favorite television star.

11 Season 1, Episode 11 The Quilt

12/7/89

Season-only

Laura has a garage sale and mistakenly sells Mother Winslow's priceless 200-year-old quilt.

12 Season 1, Episode 12 Laura's First Date

12/14/89

Season-only

Laura's first date turns into a nightmare when three boys arrive to take her to the school dance.

13 Season 1, Episode 13 Man's Best Friend

1/4/90

Season-only

The children bring home a stray dog that has a habit of chewing on things--and Carl changes his mind about pets.

14 Season 1, Episode 14 Baker's Dozens

1/11/90

Season-only

Policeman Carl Winslow's recipe for lemon tarts leads to a family business venture.

15 Season 1, Episode 15 The Big Reunion

1/18/90

Season-only

Carl is too embarrassed to attend his high school reunion because of the weight he's gained.

16 Season 1, Episode 16 The Party

2/1/90

Season-only

Things get out of control when the Winslow children are left alone for the evening.

17 Season 1, Episode 17 The Big Fix

2/9/90

Season-only

Eddie talks his sister Laura into going on a date with Steve Urkel, the school nerd.

18 Season 1, Episode 18 Sitting Pretty

2/16/90

Season-only

The Winslow home fills with children when Laura starts a baby-sitting service.

19 Season 1, Episode 19 In a Jam

2/26/90

Season-only

While Carl Winslow auditions for a job as a television traffic reporter, Eddie helps Steve with a school bully.

20 Season 1, Episode 20 The Candidate

3/16/90

Season-only

Eddie runs for president of the freshman class because he thinks it will make him more popular with girls.

21 Season 1, Episode 21 Bowl Me Over

4/6/90

Season-only

Battle lines are drawn in the Winslow family when the women challenge the men to a bowling match.

22 Season 1, Episode 22 Rock Video

4/27/90

Season-only

Eddie Winslow starts his own band but becomes a little too "star-struck."

23 Season 2, Episode 1 Rachel's Place

9/20/90

Season-only

After Steve accidentally burns down the local hamburger joint, he suggests Rachel buy it and run it herself. With the help of Carl, Harriette and Mother Winslow, she does.

24 Season 2, Episode 2 Torn Between Two Lovers

9/20/90

Season-only

Steve Urkel mistakenly believes Rachel is romantically attracted to him as she prepares a candle-lit dinner--for her loan officer.

25 Season 2, Episode 3 Marriage 101

9/27/90

Season-only

To her horror, Laura gets paired with Steve for a class project in which the participants pretend they are married. Harriette is depressed because Carl takes her for granted--until he recognizes the error of his ways by hearing how Steve treats Laura.

26 Season 2, Episode 4 Flashpants

10/4/90

Season-only

Harriette and Carl Winslow compete in a dance contest with Carl's police captain and his wife. Both men injure themselves but insist on continuing.

27 Season 2, Episode 5 The Crash Course

10/11/90

Season-only

Steve Urkel faces a future in military school when, to win Eddie Winslow's friendship, he falsely confesses to crashing the Winslow family car.

28 Season 2, Episode 6 Boxcar Blues

10/18/90

Season-only

While Carl Winslow chases a suspect, he gets trapped in a moving boxcar with Steve Urkel. Steve's uncertainty about choosing a career leads Carl to the realization that he should no longer pressure his own son to become a cop.

29 Season 2, Episode 7 Dog Day Halloween

10/25/90

Season-only

Carl must save Steve and Laura, who have been taken hostage during a Halloween robbery.

30 Season 2, Episode 8 Cousin Urkel

11/1/90

Season-only

When Steve goes out of town, his look-alike, sound-alike, act-alike cousin Myrtle, the belle of Biloxi, arrives and falls madly in love with Eddie.

31 Season 2, Episode 9 Dedicated To The One I Love

11/8/90

Season-only

Harriette becomes jealous when a pretty neighbor becomes attracted to Carl. Steve Urkel, meanwhile, gets a girlfriend--and it's not his beloved Laura.

32 Season 2, Episode 10 The Science Project

11/15/90

Season-only

Laura's happiness at getting Steve to be her partner for a science project turns to terror when she has a nightmare about him building an atomic bomb.

33 Season 2, Episode 11 Requiem For An Urkel

11/22/90

Season-only

Steve amazes everyone when he challenges the school bully to a fight after he learns that Laura's honor has been insulted.

34 Season 2, Episode 12 Fast Eddie Winslow

11/29/90

Season-only

When Eddie loses $250 to a hardened pool hustler, he's rescued by Steve, who challenges the hustler to a game.

35 Season 2, Episode 13 Have Yourself A Merry Winslow Christmas

12/20/90

Season-only

Christmas is never more wondrous for the Winslows than when they see that Steve's belief in Santa Claus may not be misplaced.

36 Season 2, Episode 14 Ice Station Winslow

1/3/91

Season-only

Carl's decision to take his reluctant son ice fishing almost ends in tragedy when the ice on the frozen lake gives way.

37 Season 2, Episode 15 Son

1/10/91

Season-only

Harriette acts as peacemaker when a fierce argument between Carl and Eddie threatens to tear the family apart.

38 Season 2, Episode 16 Do The Right Thing

1/17/91

Season-only

A guilty conscience plagues Carl when he finds a diamond bracelet; Steve faces his own conscience when he has a chance to ruin Laura's latest boyfriend, the new basketball player at school.

39 Season 2, Episode 17 High Hopes

1/31/91

Season-only

Steve finds an unorthodox way of curing Carl of his fear of heights. Rachel and Harriette argue over just who won a car on a radio contest.

40 Season 2, Episode 18 Life Of The Party

1/31/91

Season-only

Aunt Rachel rescues Steve when his punch is spiked at a party.

41 Season 2, Episode 19 Busted

2/14/91

Season-only

Eddie dents the family car and tries to get the money to secretly repair it by going gambling with Steve. The boys are arrested and bailed out by a Carl, who is feeling sheepish because he accidentally threw away a relative's ashes.

42 Season 2, Episode 20 Fight The Good Fight

2/21/91

Season-only

Laura starts a campaign to have a black history course taught at her school.

43 Season 2, Episode 21 Taking Credit

3/14/91

Season-only

Steve and Carl both learn a lesson about when to take credit for their achievement.

44 Season 2, Episode 22 Finding The Words

3/21/91

Season-only

Harriette's and Rachel's father--whom they had believed was killed in the Korean War--comes to the Winslow home and wants to make amends for abandoning his daughters.

45 Season 2, Episode 23 Skip To My Lieu

3/31/91

Season-only

Steve Urkel gives Laura Winslow a bracelet, and Lieutenant Murtagh goes on a date with Rachel. Both are bluntly spurned, leaving Urkel consoling Lieutenant Murtagh.

46 Season 2, Episode 24 The Good, The Bad And The Urkel

4/24/91

Season-only

Carl dreams that he is facing "Two-Gun Urkel," the most annoying gunslinger in the West.

47 Season 2, Episode 25 I Should Have Done Something

4/24/91

Season-only

Carl Winslow experiences guilt over a hostage who was shot a year ago while he was on duty as a police officer. Steve Urkel bribes Laura Winslow to go out on a date with him.

48 Season 3, Episode 1 Boom!

9/19/91

Season-only

Steve Urkel steals an orangutan from a lab, hiding him at the Winslows' house. Lieutenant Murtagh forces Carl to use a state-of-the-art treadmill to get in shape, not realizing that one of his enemies has wired it with a bomb. Carl is forced to keep exercising or be blown up.

49 Season 3, Episode 2 Brain Over Brawn

9/26/91

Season-only

Carl finally proves his prowess as a handyman by fixing his roof, but while gloating, he falls off of the roof. Steve challenges a "suitor" of Laura's to a rope climb: The loser must stay away from Laura forever.

50 Season 3, Episode 3 The Show Must Go On

10/3/91

Season-only

Laura is cast as Juliet in the school play. When the leading man gets sick, Steve plays Romeo and Laura must kiss him. Lieutenant Murtagh forces Carl to do his personal errands for Carl's annual performance review.

51 Season 3, Episode 4 Words Hurt

10/10/91

Season-only

When Steve's sleepwalking disturbs Carl, the Winslows hire a hypnotherapist to cure him. Under hypnosis, Steve reveals that he thinks Carl hates him. Carl insists he doesn't, and Steve hooks him to a polygraph to verify that he's sincere.

52 Season 3, Episode 5 Daddy's Little Girl

10/17/91

Season-only

Carl gets a new rookie partner, Mike, who idolizes him. When Laura meets Mike, she develops an attraction to him and makes a fool of herself. And Carl unknowingly helps embarrass her.

53 Season 3, Episode 6 Citizen's Court

10/24/91

Season-only

Steve purchases an expensive beetle, but when it escapes in the Winslow house, Carl smashes it, not knowing it's Steve's pet. The two go on television to settle the case on "Citizen's Court."

54 Season 3, Episode 7 Robo-Nerd

10/31/91

Season-only

Steve builds a robot that looks and talks--and chases after Laura--just like him.

55 Season 3, Episode 8 Making The Team

11/7/91

Season-only

When Laura is disliked as the new girl on the cheerleading squad, she asks Steve for help on how to cope with being unpopular. Steve then leads the basketball team to victory with Laura cheering him on.

56 Season 3, Episode 9 Born To Be Mild

11/14/91

Season-only

When a local gang intimidates the customers at Rachel's diner and beats up Eddie, Carl and Steve team up. Steve goes undercover to join the gang.

57 Season 3, Episode 10 The Love God

11/22/91

Season-only

Eddie arranges for Vonda, a girl with a reputation for granting sexual favors, to be tutored by Steve. But instead of bestowing her affection upon Eddie, Vonda wants to thank Steve. Carl dresses up as a woman for a police undercover operation.

58 Season 3, Episode 11 Old And Alone

11/28/91

Season-only

On Laura's fifteenth birthday, Steve chases a boy she likes away from her by claiming she has a highly infectious disease. Laura doesn't want Steve around her, but she changes her mind after she dreams that she's ninety years old and all alone.

59 Season 3, Episode 12 A Pair Of Ladies

12/5/91

Season-only

Steve loses the money he saved to buy an accordion when Carl's boss beats him at poker. But then Carl feels bad and personally refunds the money, and Steve uses it to play poker again--this time beating Lieutenant Murtagh.

60 Season 3, Episode 13 Choir Trouble

12/19/91

Season-only

Steve comes to church with the Winslows and decides to join the choir. When Rachel, the new choir director, discovers he's tone deaf, she won't allow him to participate. Then she alienates the choir members until everyone quits.

61 Season 3, Episode 14 A Test Of Friendship

1/9/92

Season-only

Carl sleeps on the couch while his house is being robbed! Eddie convinces Steve to help him cheat on a chemistry test, but when Steve is caught, Eddie refuses to admit that he was the one cheating.

62 Season 3, Episode 15 Jailhouse Blues

1/23/92

Season-only

Eddie and Steve land in jail when Eddie's smooth-talking cousin Clarence steals a Ferrari.

63 Season 3, Episode 16 Brown Bombshell

1/30/92

Season-only

Carl struggles to deal with Steve's pen pal, a woman who has just been released from prison. She is in love with Steve, but Steve had sent her a photo of Carl. Mother Winslow tries to relate family history to her uninterested grandchildren.

64 Season 3, Episode 17 Food, Lies And Videotape

2/6/92

Season-only

Steve takes a cooking class.

65 Season 3, Episode 18 My Broken-Hearted Valentine

2/13/92

Season-only

Steve asks Laura to be his valentine, but she declines, favoring instead the offer of Daniel Wallace. Maxine warns Laura that Daniel will try to seduce her, but Laura doesn't believe her until it's too late.

66 Season 3, Episode 19 Woman Of The People

2/20/92

Season-only

When Laura runs against a friend for student council president, the girl tries to blackmail Laura by threatening to publish a photo of Steve and Laura in an apparent embrace! Carl becomes jealous when the neighbors ask Harriette to run a neighborhood watch program.

67 Season 3, Episode 20 Love And Kisses

2/27/92

Season-only

Desperate for Laura's attention, Steve promises to introduce her to soul singer Johnny Gill in exchange for a kiss. After 20 years of marriage, Carl and Harriette finally have a honeymoon, but with some unexpected problems.

68 Season 3, Episode 21 Stop In The Name Of Love

3/12/92

Season-only

Harriette and Carl agree that Mother Winslow's vision is too bad for her to keep driving, but neither wants to tell her. Laura tries to help Waldo gain some confidence, but Waldo thinks she's in love with him.

69 Season 3, Episode 22 The Urkel Who Came To Dinner

4/3/92

Season-only

When his parents go on a vacation without him, Harriette invites Steve to stay with the Winslows.

70 Season 3, Episode 23 Dudes

4/23/92

Season-only

Eddie, Waldo and Steve are contestants on a television dating show where Steve professes his eternal love for Laura, embarrassing her. Carl lies, claiming he does not want a birthday party this year.

71 Season 3, Episode 24 Robo-Nerd II

4/23/92

Season-only

Steve's robot look-alike, Urkelbot, returns to fight crime. The Winslow women try a new line of hair products and go bald.

72 Season 3, Episode 25 Farewell, My Laura

5/7/92

Season-only

Rachel and Laura read a story that Steve wrote. In the story, Steve is a 1940s detective whom Laura hires to protect Rachel, but when Rachel is killed, Steve must investigate all the suspects and deduce her murderer's identity.

73 Season 4, Episode 1 Surely You Joust

9/18/92

Season-only

When Carl becomes angry with his obnoxious neighbor Steve, they arrange to fight it out--on national television.

74 Season 4, Episode 2 Hot Wheels

9/25/92

Season-only

Carl buys Eddie a used police car so they can refurbish it together. Steve glues himself to Laura just as she is supposed to go out on a much anticipated date.

75 Season 4, Episode 3 Dance To The Music

10/2/92

Season-only

Laura is impressed when Steve arranges a great date for her--with another guy. Carl is jealous when Harriette takes piano lessons from a handsome young man.

76 Season 4, Episode 4 Driving Carl Crazy

10/9/92

Season-only

When Laura says she will go steady with the next boy to ask her out who has his own car, Steve acquires a car and persuades Carl to teach him to drive--seriously aggravating Carl's problem with anger management.

77 Season 4, Episode 5 Rumor Has It

10/16/92

Season-only

Ted spreads the rumor that he had sex with Laura, and Steve decides to reveal the rumor as false--at any cost.

78 Season 4, Episode 6 No. One With A Bullet

10/23/92

Season-only

Steve is hospitalized for an appendectomy, and Carl is happy to be rid of him. But when Carl is shot, he must share a hospital room with Steve.

79 Season 4, Episode 7 Whose Kid Is It, Anyway?

10/30/92

Season-only

Eddie promises to take Richie trick-or-treating, but he leaves Richie with Waldo, who loses the boy.

80 Season 4, Episode 8 An Officer And A Waldo

11/6/92

Season-only

Eddie insults Waldo, who then joins the army. Eddie and Steve go to rescue him and are mistaken for army recruits--possibly the worst recruits ever.

81 Season 4, Episode 9 Just One Date

11/13/92

Season-only

When Laura refuses, for the thousandth time, to go out on a date with Steve, he climbs onto the Winslows' roof and vows to stay up there until Laura agrees to go out with him.

82 Season 4, Episode 10 The Oddest Couple

11/20/92

Season-only

After Eddie gets in a huge fight with Carl, he moves out and shares an apartment with Steve.

83 Season 4, Episode 11 It's A Mad, Mad, MadHouse

11/27/92

Season-only

The Winslow household suffers when Harriette, upset with her family's lack of cooperation, refuses to cook and clean. When Eddie's teacher arrives to see Eddie's home life, she gets a horrible impression.

84 Season 4, Episode 12 It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Urkel

12/11/92

Season-only

Laura's guardian angel arrives and shows her a world where Steve's and Laura's roles are reversed--Steve is sauve, while Laura is socially inept.

85 Season 4, Episode 13 Muskrat Love

1/8/93

Season-only

The "Sadie Hawkins Day" dance becomes interesting when Eddie refuses Melissa's offer to take him and then regrets it, while Laura's best friend goes with the guy Laura wanted to ask.

86 Season 4, Episode 14 The Way The Ball Bounces

1/22/93

Season-only

Both Eddie and Laura want to go to college. Laura works day and night studying for a big entrance exam, and Eddie decides to go to an easy college that wants him to play basketball for them.

87 Season 4, Episode 15 A Thought In The Dark

1/29/93

Season-only

Laura and Ted arrange a blind date for Steve with Ted's cousin Myra.

88 Season 4, Episode 16 Tender Kisses

2/5/93

Season-only

When Eddie can't get tickets to the big Tracie Spencer (HERSELF) concert, he sneaks into Tracie's hotel room to meet her.

89 Season 4, Episode 17 Heart Strings

2/12/93

Season-only

Valentine's Day brings romance into the Winslows' home as Laura agrees to be Steve's valentine and Gwendolyn tries to convince Richie to be her valentine.

90 Season 4, Episode 18 Higher Anxiety

2/19/93

Season-only

Carl becomes distressed when Mother Winslow goes camping with her boyfriend. Eddie's near-death exprience, shared with Steve and Waldo, helps him realize that breaking up with his girlfriend isn't so bad.

91 Season 4, Episode 19 Mama's Wedding

2/26/93

Season-only

Carl gives Mother Winslow and Fletcher a huge wedding, which gets even bigger when more than one hundred of Eddie's friends arrive by mistake.

92 Season 4, Episode 20 Pulling Teeth

3/5/93

Season-only

When Laura's best friend, Maxine, ends her relationship with her boyfriend, Laura, Steve, Eddie and Waldo all help get Maxine and Waldo together for a date.

93 Season 4, Episode 21 Walk On The Wild Side

3/26/93

Season-only

When Laura sneaks into a male strip club, Steve learns that Harriette is going as well, and he tries to warn Laura.

94 Season 4, Episode 22 Hot Stuff

4/30/93

Season-only

Laura successfully gets Steve romantically interested in Myra, who is infatuated with him. Eddie buys a new car stereo system and realizes that he got a good price because the equipment is stolen.

95 Season 4, Episode 23 Stormy Weather

5/7/93

Season-only

Laura attends the Junior Prom with Jimmy, who forbids her to speak to her intellectual friend, Steve. When Steve arrives at the prom with a gorgeous girl, Myra, all the students are shocked!

96 Season 4, Episode 24 Buds 'N' Buns

5/14/93

Season-only

Carl takes an extra job at a hot dog restaurant, working with his son, Eddie, but Eddie gets promoted and becomes his dad's boss. When Steve stops annoying Laura, she misses his friendship.

About this show

What matters most? Family, of course! Over its nine hit seasons, Family Matters brings us a hilarious slice of middle-class Americana — along with one of TV's wackiest characters, nerdy genius Steve Urkel. The extended Winslow family redefines the word "togetherness" as their home splits at the seams with chaos, confusion and laughter.

Ratings and reviews

4.7

786 reviews

Princess Magical

August 8, 2020

It's so amazing and beautiful how Steve knew all along that he & Laura belonged together from kindergarten. He told Laura in season 2 he would wait forever for her. It took Laura 15 years to finally realize Steve is the one for her after getting the double proposal & no man would ever love & adore Laura more than Steve, more than life itself. You clearly see it after watching the series that Steve's heart always belonged to Laura & they end up getting married even though it's not shown onscreen.

11 people found this review helpful

Bailey Spencer

July 7, 2015

I have to be honest... FULL HOUSE IS LIKE 10 TIMES BETTER! I mean, I love the show, but it's always the same thing. Steve breaks something or tries to win Laura's love, Carl eats junk food, and Laura tries to push Steve away... All while Eddie brags about his good looks and charm. But I do love Harriette's sassy attitude and Mother Winslow's stories about how she was such a "Party animal" back in her day.

96 people found this review helpful

Brittany Schettino

November 5, 2017

I loooovee looove love this show I grew up with this show!!!! I remember sitting in my family room watching it everyday. Its really such a crying shame that they can't and don't have shows like this anymore nowadays... It covered every important issue that everyone sweeps under the rug. Subjects that are so taboo today when really something should be done about these subjects. Amazing actors and actresses funny af has u peeing yourself because that's how funny they are.

99 people found this review helpful

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