Family Matters propelled Jaleel White into pop culture as everyone's favorite nerd, Steve Urkel. But it was also a double edge sword as well.
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While the role brought White a lot of fame between 1989 to 1998, it also limited his career as White found himself typecast for the role. Over time, White also revealed that he felt like he was out growing the role even before the show ended.
White considered leaving the sitcom at various times. For one, playing Urkel became a painful process for the actor. He was quite literally getting too old to pull off the character's trademarks. Producers began to tell the star to wear looser jeans to hide his "bulge."
The told him to ditch his suspenders and high-waist jeans after Season 8. "Let's get rid of the suspenders. Lower his pants, too," White said. "Oh and ... It's getting a bit uncomfortable watching him in tight jeans. There's a, uh...bulge."
Jaleel White Outgrows Role
He had started the role when he was 13 and finished when he was 22 years old. He described taking off the character's jeans as peeling off a banana. White also said that it became physically painful for him to pull off Urkel's high-pitch voice.
Meanwhile, White previously said that other cast members didn't welcome him with open arms when he joined the show.
"I didn't see how I was stepping on anybody's toes, I was taking anybody's shine. It's very important that I say this: I was not very well welcomed to the cast at all, okay?" White said. "And I don't need to rehash that with the adults over and over again. They know what it is."
However, he quickly began to form a bond with the cast as things changed.
"It was what it was," he said. "They knew more than I did about the business... at that age. They understood how the dynamic was changing. But I do think they do deserve credit at times for having helped foster a more harmonious environment by season 3, by season 4, by season 5. And we did become very much a family."
White added, "Over time, Kellie and Darius became truly my brother, my sister. Even Reggie VelJohnson, I always liked to give him the credit that he deserves, that he came to realize that we were about to do this Jordan-Pippen thing and it was going to change his life and it was going to change all of our lives for the better."
