Steve Urkel - Family Matters

Jaleel White was best known for his role as Steve Urkel on Family Matters. Urkel was a stereotypical geek/nerd, with large, thick eyeglasses, "high-water or flooding" pants held up by suspenders, multi-colored cardigan sweaters, and a high-pitched voice. Urkel was originally a one-shot character on Family Matters, but, because of audience and ratings reactions, he became a main draw to the show. He owns a 1960's BMW Isetta, (a car given to him by one of his relatives in exchange for not visiting him).

His main interactions on the show were his love for Laura Winslow, his close friendship with Eddie and his perpetual annoyance of her father, Carl and her baby sister, Judy. Amongst the rest of the family, Harriette, Richie, Rachel, and Estelle "Mother" Winslow were more accepting and caring of Urkel. Estelle was always delighted whenever Steve comes over and calls her "Estelle, my Belle". She also considers him as her surrogate grandson and was the only one who knew how much his parents hated him. Richie has considered Urkel like an uncle to him. Harriette treats him as a surrogate son to their family and was always appreciative of him for helping out their family when they needed him.

Steve intended to go to college at MIT, but after one semester he returned to Chicago and attended (fictional) Illinois Occidental University (IOU) with Laura.

Steve's parents, Dr.and Mrs.Roberta Urkel(never made an actual appearance on the show) has never loved him in a day of his life and they went through great lengths to avoid him at all costs. Dr.Urkel was a brain surgeon and both ended up disowning him when he decided to live with the Winslows instead of going to Russia with them. The closest thing that they came to loving him, was when he was Stefan Urquelle(his alter ego) and they introduced him to his grandparents. Most of his relatives also refused to have any involvement with him and paid him a great deal of money to not visit them.

Despite that, Steve has three relatives who cares about him and his well being. His uncle Ernie, who owns a horse trailer. His cousin Myrtle, who has a love for Eddie and she was close to him like a sister and his aunt Oona(portrayed by Donna Summer) from Altoona, who was his favorite aunt and she was close to him like a mother figure. He had an uncle called Big Daddy Urkel, that had a big disagreement with Eddie. He also had problems with his other cousin in Detroit, Cornelius Eugene Urkel because he kept going by his nickname, Original Gangsta Dawg and he always asked him for money(which he refused to give him, despite knowing his problems with Fresh Squeeze and told him he can't even be in the Winslow house while he here and away). The latter was ignored when he entered the house against Steve's wishes.

Urkel also created an alter ego, named Stefan Urquelle to impress Laura. While Urkel is clumsy and unpopular with the people around him, Urquelle is popular and suave, especially with women. Steve originally made the "transformation" to Stefan to woo her, She and the other women encountered are enamored by him. He created a formula called "Cool Juice" to transform into Stefan. Even his parents was so impressed by the new him that they brought his grandparents to meet him. Originally, the effects of the transformation were only temporary; Stefan would change back into Steve after a certain amount of time (originally a week). In his first appearance, however, he was very narcissistic, cold-hearted, and shallow, which quickly turned Laura off. She decided she wanted the real Steve back because he, unlike Stefan, cared about others. He agreed and ate a tablet that reverted him back to Urkel, which made her happy.

Steve later improved the formula to limit the effects it had on his personality, and re-dubbed the formula "Boss Sauce". He also invented a "transformation chamber", which allowed him to turn into Stefan for extended periods of time. However, this time, Urquelle was more likeable and caring towards others, but still cool. As the show went on, Steve enhanced the "Boss Sauce" even further, completely removing the change-over from Stefan back into Steve. Stefan could only change back into Steve by drinking an antidote. He was also able to alter the nature of his "Boss Sauce" to induce other personalities, such as morphing himself into a martial arts master using hair samples from legendary martial artist Bruce Lee (he referred to this altered "Boss Sauce" as "Bruce Juice" It was used in season 6, Episode 14: The Substitue Son, Season 7, Episode 15: Random Acts of Science and Season 8, Episode 8: Karate Kids). Eventually, his transformations to Stefan became limited, when he started dating, his girlfriend, Myra Monkhouse. Whereas, Laura and everyone else finds Stefan very cool and popular. Myra sees him as a joke to her and thinks that her "Steviekins" was perfect the way he is.

At the end of the seventh season, Steve creates a cloning machine, which he uses on himself, briefly duplicating himself. However, the two Urkels began fighting over Myra and a fed up, Laura, quickly difuses the situation by grabbing both their ears. She tells them how she truly feels about what happened and how he created a monster. Urkel is disheartened that there's no possible solution to the problem. She comes up with a real good solution and tells him to send the clone into the transformation chamber to be a permanent Stefan. That way they can meet each other in real life, which would help them out. Her solution to the problem made Myra real happy that she gets to keep Steve. The chamber does it's trick and the clone comes out as Stefan. He then became Laura's boyfriend, while Urkel remains loyal to his girlfriend.

In one episode, the Winslows go to Paris. Stefan decides to stay there to work as a fashion model, and the two begin a strained long distance relationship. A few episodes after, Stefan couldn't resist the fact of missing Laura, and decides to move back to Chicago, where he sees her from the stage at a New Edition concert. The two are together again until one of Laura's former boyfriends, Curtis, returns to the show. Eddie tells him thatshe still loves him as a prank to get back at her. Curtis tries to get her to come back to him, but when he realizes Stefan is her boyfriend, he gives him a warning that if he ever breaks Laura's heart, he'll get what he deserves. He, unfortunately, believes that will never happen. Near the series finale, Stefan proposes to Laura, but at the same time, so does Steve. Carl had wanted Urkel and Myra to get back together and favored Stefan over him. In the end, Laura chooses Steve over Stefan, finally ending their long-distance relationship (that went on until Stefan was finally a real person). To that, Stefan leaves, and the rest of the series goes on without him.

He had been around Susie as a one time girlfriend (in Season 2). However the relationship quickly ended when he decided he wants Laura for himself.

He had dated Myra Monkhouse(from seasons 4-9). However, there were some things about her that really disgusted him, (despite the fact she accepted him for who he was with complete honesty and never cared what others though about her). First of all, she was overly too possesive of him and he knew that wasn't cool of her to do that, when he wanted to hang out with his friend, Laura. Second, she was jealous and quick to falsely accuse her of scheming to take her "Stevie-kins" away from her, when she in real life never wanted him. Third, she demanded his full loyalty of her, which he tried to do despite his love for her. Fourth, she hated his alter ego, Stefan and the fact that Laura always got whatever she wanted, that she decisively damaged the transformation chamber as revenge against her for her misery. Unfortunately, her plans backfired when she found out Carl was in there, not Stefan. She finally realizes what she did wrong when Carl Urkel came out and explained herself to them for tampering the chamber. Lastly, Urkel wanted to change himself and she was quick to refuse it because she didn't want him to turn his back on her. She tried to tell him he's terrific the way he is and he ignores her by going through with it, much to chagrin. In Season 9, Episode 13: Breaking up is Hard to Do, Myra pretends to break up with Steve by telling him she never wants to see him again, as an attempt to make him reconsider leaving her. However, Steve ended their relationship for good and is free to be with his true love, Laura. This was until a week later, Myra returned to the Winslow house telling him she changed her mind. However, she was upset to watch them eloping in front of her. After that, she gave in to her insanity and swored to destroy their relationship until Urkel realizes that he should've stuck with her. She teamed up with Stefan to break them apart and she installed a spy cam on his new glasses. Urkel learns that Myra has violated his privacy by spying on him with a camera attached to his new glasses and breaks them. Then, he tells her to renounce her love for him immediately because there's no way he'll ever take her back. She refuses and dressed up as her rival as an attempt to get him to take her back. She manages to fool Laura into believing she wants to forgive her. However, he was no fool and tells her off that she violated his privacy by stalking him. He tells her to leave him alone forever because he told her flat out he doesn't love her anymore and she needs to get a life. She eventually does leave him alone, after her last attempt to win him back failed in Lost in Space.