Did I Do That? A Look Back At Family Matters

White’s Fraught Relationship with Urkel

White may have accepted the role of Steve Urkel when he was still an awkward teen himself, but by the time the series ended in 1998, he was 22 years old and completely tired of the role. He had to avoid physical activity and shave every day to maintain his character’s appearance.

In 1999, shortly after the series was canceled he said, “If you ever see me do that character again, take me out and put a bullet in my head and put me out of misery.” He later came to terms with the character, and told Vanity Fair in 2011, “I loved playing those characters […] but the fact is that I was maturing. […]I was retarding my own growth as a man in order to maintain the authenticity to what I thought that character should be.”