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If you watched re-runs of later seasons of Family Matters, you might occasionally have seen episodes featuring a Steve Urkel look-alike without his famous glasses, high-pitched voice, and suspenders. This smooth-talking Steve Urkel double is none other than Steve’s transformation into Stefan Urquelle. Stefan, as seen in later episodes, is a clone of Steve himself. It’s pretty mind-blowing that a show initially centered around a suburban Chicago family in the 90s incorporated so many science-fiction stories.
However, these transformation/cloning plots weaved into the normal sitcom stories of the show are so sporadic, even the characters can’t fully grasp the insanity of these episodes. The Winslow family and their friends seem to forget about Steve when his DNA is Stefan’s or later fail to remember that a Stefan clone even exists in the Family Matters universe. There are a lot of moral dilemmas prevalent in Stefan’s character that remain unaddressed throughout the duration of the series. Let’s dive into the twisted story line and ethical issues the complicated character of Stefan Urquelle brought to Family Matters.
Before Stefan Urquelle, There Was Steve Urkel
Despite its title, the nine-season long 90s sitcom Family Matters quickly shifted its focus onto a character outside the Winslow family. Who can forget the super nerdy, suspender-wearing, snorting, Steven Q. Urkel? Jaleel White‘s portrayal of Winslow’s neighbor, twelve-year-old Steve Urkel, stole the show as a character originally meant for only one episode of the first season.
Steve developed a close relationship with the Winslow family over the span of all nine seasons. Crucially, Steve’s own family neglects him and despises him, even moving away to Russia without telling their own son in later seasons. Carl Winslow eventually acts as a surrogate father to Steve and tells him how he loves Steve like a son. Eddie, the eldest Winslow, functions as Steve’s only friend and an older-brother type to Steve. Laura Winslow accepts Steve’s marriage proposal in Season Nine of Family Matters (which comes as a result of years of Steve’s relentless obsession with Laura and presents problems of its own).
Steve is clumsy and obsessive yet charismatic and likable. Overall, Steve’s good intentions trump his flaws and give the audience a plethora of laughs every time he comes onscreen and says, “Did I do that?” Without Steve Urkel, Family Matters would have been overlooked as just another TGIF Friday night comedy show. The show uniquely tackled the science-fiction genre due to genius-level-IQ-Steve’s crazy contraptions.
Who Is Stefan Urquelle And What Is His Purpose On Family Matters?
When Steve Urkel isn’t constantly destroying the Winslow house, running away from Laura’s dad Carl in fear for his life, or being kicked out the house by his parents, Steve invents many unusual creations in the laboratory basement at the Urkel home. Usually, these experiments explode and break something in Carl Winslow’s house (and the Winslows somehow have enough money to perpetually repair their home). In the fifth season episode of Family Matters, Steve successfully invents a formula to win the heart of his beloved, Laura Winslow.
Strangely, Steve’s invention brings about a character that tries to erase Steve Urkel’s character: Stefan Urquelle. After Laura tells Steve that his reckless behavior warrants a change, Steve decides to drink a formula that will erase all of his nerdy genes and replace them with “cool genes” to impress Laura. This poses an ethical issue itself, as Steve thinks he needs to entirely change who he is for the sake of a girls’ affection. All previous seasons show how Steve is comfortable in his own skin and contradicts Steve’s character traits. In turn, Steve transforms into another version of himself in the same body, self-dubbed “Stefan Urquelle.”
The birth of an unnecessary character (also played by Jaleel White) on Family Matters begins in the eighth episode of Season Five, “Dr. Urkel and Mr. Cool.” Laura falls head over heels for the “handsome” Stefan, never mind the fact that Stefan’s body is Steve’s body without glasses and an outfit change. Laura goes through an uncharacteristic change herself in the presence of Stefan. Sadly, Laura’s take-charge-independent nature morphs into a ditzy, surface-level one that obsesses over Stefan until she realizes Stefan’s narcissistic, boring personality doesn’t exactly mesh with her idealistic expectations.
The mere idea of Steve Urkel only being loved and accepted by his parents after he undergoes a fake personality upheaval undermines the family values promoted on Family Matters. Jaleel White states that the character of Stefan Urquelle helped people see his flexibility as an actor. While Stefan Urquelle served a personal purpose for Jaleel White, the character presents questions of ethics in terms of Stefan’s purpose on the show. When Stefan sauntered onto the screen, none of the Winslows seemed to care or even wonder if Stefan would ever transform back into Steve.
Once the characters become bored with the fact that Stefan has zero personality beyond being “cool,” Stefan turns back into Steve Urkel and everyone goes back to just tolerating Steve. This whole ordeal becomes lost to the ordinary episodes in Family Matters, until Stefan returns to create even worse morally unsound dilemmas.
“Stefan Returns” (Unnecessarily)
The Season Five finale of Family Matters returns to the Stefan plot after not mentioning Stefan’s existence for almost twenty episodes. Suddenly, Laura craves her one true love again and Steve is more than happy to satisfy Laura’s wishes. Prior to Stefan, Steve dealt with Laura’s rejection of his love from their elementary school days but found contentment in the never-ending chase for her to return his affections. The addition of Stefan’s storyline negatively skews Steve and Laura’s hilarious dynamic audiences appreciated over the last five seasons. Stefan Urquelle’s character throws aside five years of friendship and individual growth for Steve and Laura with aspirations to…undo their personalities?
Here, the plot of Family Matters starts to diminish the core moral foundations of the show: Steve invents a transformation chamber to completely rearrange his genes to become a better version of Stefan Urquelle. Though Steve’s physical body remains the same, his DNA is now Stefan’s DNA. Steve creates a world-changing device that alters DNA just to make Laura like him. Again, the real ethical issue that prevails is beyond Laura’s obsession with Stefan’s body (it’s Steve’s body still!), is the problem of the erasure of Steve Urkel’s existence as the transformed Stefan Urquelle.
When Stefan inhabits Steve’s body, does he have Steve’s memories? Does anyone care that Steve no longer attends high school? Even Carl, who has a heart-wrenching love/hate relationship with Steve, only sings the praises of the new and improved Stefan. Carl’s ultimate compassion and concern for Steve’s well-being accounts for some of the best scenes in Family Matters. So it’s ethically perturbing to watch Carl so excitedly interact with the over-the-top, one-dimensional Stefan Urquelle. Steve ambiguously ends the fifth season with a monologue claiming to find a way to make Stefan permanent after the transformation chamber formula wears off — and he does, without consequence.
Stefan + Laura + Steve + Myra
Before Stefan Urquelle and Steve Urkel simultaneously exist in the strange world of Family Matters, the character of Myra Monkhouse illustrates some huge moral questions. Steve randomly continues to use his transformation machine to turn into Stefan Urquelle to satisfy Laura’s lust after the Season Five episode. Each time unforeseen circumstances occur, Stefan must leave Laura to deal with nerdy Steve, who loves Laura just the way she is. Importantly, Steve had been dating Myra Monkhouse (played by the beautiful, late Michelle Thomas) before the creation of Stefan Urquelle. Strangely, the subsequent Stefan episodes ignore Myra’s wonderful character altogether, even though her maniac obsession with Steve usurps Steve’s obsession with Laura.
Myra loves Steve and transfers schools just to be with him after falling for Steve on a blind date in the fourth season. The show largely ignores Myra’s character, only alluding to her hatred of Laura because of Steve’s pining for Laura instead of Myra. In the first episode of Season Five, to get Myra and Laura to stop fighting, Steve astonishingly agrees to date Myra even though he tells her that his heart belongs to Laura. Problematically, Steve only says Myra can date him until Laura someday loves him, and Myra seems content with the arrangement.
Late in Season Six, Steve travels to a mediocre inventors competition hosted by Walt Disney World to present his life-altering transformation machine. Laura sabotages the machine onstage before Steve steps inside to demonstrate his invention because she needs Stefan around for a few days at Disney World. Somehow, Stefan ends up proposing to Laura at Cinderella Castle (who knows how he planned this in two days), who earnestly says yes. Steve left behind Myra on the rip entirely, though Myra is Steve’s girlfriend and biggest supporter. Myra finds Steve as Stefan, forcing Stefan to question his own ethics when she conveys her extreme discontent with how the engagement leaves Myra without Steve.
Even before Stefan Urquelle, Steve’s puppy love crush with Laura began to move into controversial ethical territory. No one thinks to question the morals of these characters. Laura never expresses romantic interest in Steve except when he transforms into Stefan and Myra exhibits a disturbing willingness to settle as Steve’s second best. Furthermore, Myra, who cares about her “Stevie-kins” more than anyone on the entire show, mysteriously remains unmentioned in multiple sporadic episodes involving Stefan.
Steve foregoes their previously mentioned agreement every time he turns to Stefan for Laura. Overly energetic Myra Monkhouse’s absence leaves viewers morally mystified about her whereabouts when her lovable Steve changes his entire genetic structure just to lock lips with her archenemy. Only in later seasons do we watch a distraught Myra reappear when Steve debates transforming into Stefan Urquelle forever. Ultimately, the show reconciles Steve’s character when Steve decides that he shouldn’t have to change who he is just to make Laura happy. Steve seems to regain his moral values by standing up for himself until Stefan’s character slinks back onto Family Matters.
Stefan Urquelle = Steve Urkels’ Clone
As if Stefan Urquelle’s intermittent appearances failed to perplex audiences as to why his character was necessary in the first place, Steve finds a way to have both himself and Stefan exist at the same time. Steve, like the unaddressed genius he was, decided to build an entire cloning machine, just for fun. At this point in the seventh season, Steve lives with the Winslows. Steve ends up duplicating himself and causing more trouble than usual, since two Steve Urkel’s now run amok, much to Carl’s chagrin. At this point, viewership for Family Matters had dropped down so far, so why not have a cloning machine on a family sitcom?
Against an overjoyed Myra’s wishes, Laura decides that transforming the Steve clone into Stefan by means of the transformation machine obviously proves as the best solution to the cloning issue. The ethical dilemmas of the situation began the moment Steve created an artificial life. Stefan inhabiting the life of the clone appears morally sound, as opposed to killing the clone. But, now that Stefan exists in the world to function as Laura’s love interest, how is Stefan supposed to live as a normal person?
The existence of both Steve Urkel and Stefan Urquelle heightens the moral instability of the characters on Family Matters. Steve creates an “Urkpad” transporting device for the family to travel to Paris. There, Stefan decided to pursue a career in modeling in Europe and maintain a long-distance relationship with Laura. In the same episode as its invention, Laura and Stefan forget about the Urkpad’s transporting feature that got them to Paris in the first place. Stefan’s decision nixes all of Steve’s efforts to create an entire Stefan persona for Laura. Also, where was Stefan living without a social security card, credit card, or even a birth certificate since he’s a clone, after all?
Just like the earlier seasons, Stefan Urquelle morphs into a side note to the daily antics of Steve Urkel and the Winslow family on Family Matters. Laura barely mentions Stefan and goes on a few dates with another guy without informing the dream guy Steve made for her. Unfortunately, every episode with Stefan shows the increasing flatness of Laura’s character. Steve eventually broke up with Myra after the writers of the show unrealistically forced a romance between Steve and Laura in the last season. Eerily missing, Laura and Steve forget simple moral codes of conduct while Laura dates both Stefan and Steve simultaneously, neither of them telling Steve’s clone about the relationship.
Go Home, Go Home, Go Home, Stefan!
The final season attempts to have the character arcs of Steve and Laura come full circle when both Stefan and Steve ask for Laura’s hand in marriage. Laura finds herself struggling with who to pick, even after Steve — who’s loved Laura his whole life — pours his heart out to her. His sweet proposal reminds viewers of Family Matters how much Steve Urkel truly valued his relationship with Laura as a person. Ultimately, Laura chooses to marry Steve because of ethics more than what’s in her heart. Realistically, she knows that Stefan doesn’t have much to offer, since he’s not even a real human and that Steve will love her like he always has.
If Season Ten of Family Matters ever aired, Stefan would have died in the two-part episode, “Death of a Stefan.” The Stefan Urquelle clone would have malfunctioned and disappeared back into Steve, combining their personalities and looks. I can’t comprehend what the visuals would have entailed in this scene. What would Steve have been like if he had the DNA of both Stefan and himself? His moral compass may have been non-existent and Laura may not have liked Steve anymore because of his dual personalities. It’s best not to think too much about the logic and ethical problems with that particular plot device that thankfully never surfaced on film.
What happened to Stefan’s life directly after Laura broke up with him remains forever unexplained. People loved the moral goodness and the relationships between the Winslows and Steve Urkel in Family Matters that Stefan Urquelle episodes severely lacked. Where Steve had memorable catchphrases and a caring heart, Stefan was just… “cool.” Regardless of the ethical questions raised by the character of Stefan Urquelle, Jaleel White broadened his acting skills. Family Matters‘ heartwarming value is what keeps audiences revisiting it, even over twenty years later.
