Jaleel White exclusively told Us Weekly which 'Family Matters' costars he reached out to about his 'Growing Up Urkel' memoir — biggest revelations
Family Matters, which aired from 1989 to 1998, was a spinoff of the Perfect Strangers that followed a middle-class Black family living in Chicago. The hit sitcom starred Reginald VelJohnson, Jo Marie Payton, Darius McCrary, Kellie Williams, Jaimee Foxworth, Bryton McClure and Michelle Thomas.
In his book, out Tuesday, November 19, White offered a candid glimpse into his experience as a child star on the set of Family Matters. Despite pulling back the curtain on the highs — and lows — of playing Steve, White didn't want the entire memoir to be about the drama. 'If I worked out, I would have cut off at least two to three years off the show. Being tall and wiry was one thing-being almost six feet tall and beefed-up was another,' he recalled. 'When you think of it financially because the real money didn't come in until the final seasons of the show, if I decided to let myself fill in, I would have cost myself something like six or seven million dollars in salary.
White wanted to provide some interesting behind-the-scenes insight for readers, adding, 'There was a part of me that wanted to give you a peek behind the curtain of television production nuances, the schedules, the demands, the things that feel unfair and the things that feel fair. Then there was a part of me that also just wanted to write something coming of age and gave you all the feels of the '90s.
Elsewhere in the book, White alleged that Payton would often be late for table readings. There was a specific time when Payton allegedly told her costars she was tardy because her rearview mirror fell off her car so she drove back home to get her other Mercedes. 'If Jaime were as funny in the role of Judy Winslow as she was in our studio classroom, she would have never left the show. It has always amazed me how certain actors' natural timing and humor will simply disappear the moment a director yells 'Action!' And that was Jaimee Foxworth,' he wrote. 'The Judy Winslow character appeared in 95 episodes out of a total 215. In four seasons on the show, until 1993, Judy Winslow was never given a single storyline.
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