Family Matters: Re-focusing of a show

Family Matters: Re-focusing of a show

Not funny...

I remember watching this show in the first season (early in the season). The show was about just an Afican American blue collar family and their adventures. It is a nice sitcom-based concept right? By the way, most people aren't aware this was a spinoff from Prefect Strangers. Think of it in the same relationship as Different Strokes and Facts of Life.

Then halfway into the first season, they introduced a new character.

From TV Tropes, ((Midway through the first season, the annoying neighbor and Hollywood Nerd Steve Urkel was introduced, intended as a one-shot character revolving around Carl finding a tame guy to take his daughter Laura to a dance. ))

Yes, they intended for Urkel to be just a throwaway character for one episode and never to be brought back. I remember my friends talking about how cool Urkel was in that episode. One friend let me barrow his tape of the episode and I watched it. I really didn't get the hype. Of course, the studio and the producers knew they had a hidden goldmine and tapped it as much as they could by making Urkel a main character.

The show just got sillier and dumber by each episode as the focus of the family aspects were pushed aside for Urkel's sci-fi antics. It became more like Small Wonder than Family Matters. Jaleel White really wasn't that good, but he stole the spotlight. Similar thing happened on Good Times when JJ stole the focus of the show away from the family aspect of the show. They also added more side characters for White to play on the show!

I hated Urkel and I hated the cheesy sci-fi aspects of the show once he took over. Even the actress that played the mother on the show revealed some of the tension with the changing of the focus. The show was push aside to become the Urkel show and I'd be pissed. 

 Look, no Urkel.

This show went from one network to another, (ABC and CBS). This means the show was on long enough for one network to lose interest and another one wanting to make some change.

This is part of the reason why I really don't watch network TV with the exception of Agents of Shield and Community. 

He infected other shows...