Family Matters is an American television sitcom that debuted on ABC on September 22, 1989 and ended on May 9, 1997. However, it moved to CBS, where it was shown from September 19, 1997, to July 17, 1998. A spin-off of Perfect Strangers, the series revolves around the Winslow family, an African-American middle-class family living in Chicago, Illinois. Midway through the first season, the show introduced the Winslows’ nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) who ended up being the focal and main point of the show, who was originally scripted to appear as a one-time character. However, he quickly became the show’s breakout character (and eventually the main character), joining the main cast.
Running for nine seasons, Family Matters became the second-longest-running live-action U.S. sitcom with a predominantly African-American cast, behind only The Jeffersons (11 seasons). It aired for 215 episodes, being ranked third, behind only Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (334+ as of 2023), and The Jeffersons . Family Matters was the last live-action scripted primetime show that debuted in the 1980s to leave the air; the only scripted show that started in the 1980s and lasted longer in continuous production was The Simpsons.
In September 1993, Warner Bros. Television Distribution began distributing Family Matters for broadcast in off-network syndication; most television stations stopped carrying the show by around 2002, though some stations in larger markets such as WTOG in Tampa, Florida continued to air Family Matters until as recently as 2005 and New York’s WPIX as 2006. In 1995, reruns of the series began airing on TBS Superstation, where it ran until 2003. TBS would air two episodes of Family Matters each weekday afternoon from October 1995 to September 1999. From 1999 to 2003, TBS only aired the series once per weekday typically playing in the early mornings. The series would return to TBS 17 years later on February 3, 2020, and airs in the early morning time slots paired with George Lopez.
From 1997 to 2003, reruns of the series aired on WGN America. In 2003, ABC Family picked up the series and aired it for five years until February 29, 2008. From 2004 to 2006, UPN aired the show for 2 years. BET aired reruns briefly in December 2009 and began airing the series on a regular basis on March 1, 2013; the series returned to BET in mid-February 2023. MTV2 also began airing reruns on September 7, 2013. The show aired on Nick at Nite from June 29, 2008, to December 31, 2012. ABC Family and Nick at Nite airings cut the tag scenes at the end of all episodes, despite the fact that many episodes during the series have tag scenes during the closing credits. The series also currently airs on TV One since 2019. In Canada, the series also aired on CTV, CBC and currently airs on Family Channel.
On September 29, 2017, Family Matters became available for streaming on Hulu.In the UK it aired on Sky One whilst Perfect Strangers aired on BBC One.
Reruns of the series also started airing on Cartoon Network’s ACME Night block on September 19, 2021.
On October 1, 2021, Family Matters began streaming on HBO Max after its streaming rights expired from Hulu, but has since returned to the Hulu platform.
International airings
In France, it aired as La Vie de Famille (Family Life) as part of the show Club Dorothée on January 1, 1995, and on RTL9 (from August 28, 1995), France 2 & M6 (from June 1, 2000).
In Italy, it aired as Otto sotto un tetto (Eight under one roof) on Canale 5, Italia 1 in 1992, with subsequent airings on Fox Retro & Sky Atlantic.
Home media
Warner Home Video has released the first four seasons of Family Matters on DVD in Region 1 while the remaining five seasons were released by the Warner Archive Collection. On February 4, 2014, Warner Home Video released season 4 on DVD, but consumers complained when it was found that the season 4 set contained syndication edits rather than the original broadcast masters. Warner Bros. responded to the complaints, offered a replacement program to receive corrected discs, and reissued the set with corrected broadcast copies on April 4, 2014. All episodes are in the original broadcast form, except for the episode “Number One With a Bullet”, disc 1, episode 6. The entire series is also available for digital download on Amazon.com and the iTunes Store, all but season 6 remastered in both SD and HD.
There is going to be a Complete Series DVD boxset expected to be released on September 26, 2023