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Unless you're up before seven and tuned in to Nick at Nite, there's little reason to remember Family Matters, the sitcom that began in 1989 as a slice of working-class Chicago life. If it's remembered at all, it's for Steve Urkel, the nerdy teen who ended up taking over the show and turning it into a weird science-fiction show that ended in outer space.

Just this year, Urkel "took over" this site for April Fools' Day; the show's "dad" figure, Carl Winslow, has popped up in a Christine O'Donnell meme; and the theme song was covered in the styles of blues, a cappella and indie.

However, for some, Urkel is more than a meme. Some people on the Internet have longer memories for off-the-rails situation comedy than others, and – at least for a moment – Urkel was the star of his own fan page, UrkelNet. It, along with the comprehensive Wikipedia page and brilliantly tangential Facebook pages for Family Matters, is a fascinating document of fandom, particularly because it seems like something Urkel would set up in a free moment between destroying the Winslows' house and building a spaceship.


I spoke to André Meadows, whose current project is the suitably Urkellian BlackNerdComedy, and who founded UrkelNet while in college. "I was a big fan of the show. I didn't go to parties until TGIF was done. I didn't go to many parties," he laughs.

And that dedication shows! His fan page, which remains a testament to the series and to web design circa 1999, includes features named for each character, including "Carl's Cast and Crew," "Eddie's Episode Guide" ("Laura goes to the biggest polka fest with Steve only to find out he has done a lot in the community through polka, and has become more attracted to him"), and "Mother Winslow's Photo Album," with its nine pages of publicity-shot bliss.

"The last time I updated it was probably when the grandmother [Rosetta LeNoire] died," in 2002, says Meadows. But the site pays a strange sort of dividend, in an enduring quasi-fame as the go-to man for Urkel ephemera. Meadows sent his tape of the series's final six episodes to A&E for the "Biography" episode on Family Matters patriarch Reginald VelJohnson. The network lost the tape, but sent Meadows an Urkel doll they used in the episode. He also taped a segment for MTV's "FANatic" about the show's female lead, Kelly Williams, which never made it to air as Family Matters was cancelled and Williams was no longer an MTV-worthy star.

No matter – Kelly Williams was never truly the star of Family Matters. Urkel lives on in a Wikipedia entry whose particulars are subject to rigorous debate: "I removed a few sentences that said Urkel's parents abused him, but there was no real evidence of this." The Steve Urkel page on Facebook has 59,610 fans, who have uploaded terrifying Urkel-as-monster art, and fans posing as the nerd himself, both convincing and not.



A less popular Facebook page, for "Steve Urkel" seeks to be the official resource: "Our goal is to make this Community Page the best collection of shared knowledge on this topic," reads the Facebook-page copy, and the site absorbs all Urkel-related posts – not just fan art but quotes ganked from either memory or early-morning viewings. One user also posted surprisingly useful instructions for making an Urkel Mii.

Steve, unsurprisingly, is at the center of the Family Matters fandom discussion, but the margins are where the fun happens. On one of the wiki site UrkelPedia's 17 entries, the "Carl Winslow" entry was changed from "He hates Urkel" to "He likes Urkel but is in denial." On July 3, someone added "Judy Winslow," the written-off-into-oblivion third daughter, to Harriet Winslow's biography.

It's not every early 1990s sitcom that spawns not only its own insanely detailed Wikipedia entry (check the mega-long episode guide for proof). Something about "Family Matters" speaks to the nostalgists online. Perhaps it's empathy with Urkel.

After all, there was that persistent online rumor (debunked by Snopes) that Jaleel White had died. Meadows receives emails about this sporadically. "I would say, 'Look, he's on television right now! He can't be dead.'" (This was during the era of White's short-lived follow-up series, "Grown Ups.")

Urkel was the ur-nerd for a generation of comedians. Meadows's BlackNerdComedy is made up of "these weekly video blogs and sketches. It's about retro nerdy culture. In that sense, Urkel is an inspiration, because he's a reference to go to for my humor."

White himself, whom Urlesque interviewed in April and who is playing himself in a web series, "Fake It Til You Make It," hasn't been contacted by Meadows, whose current site is far more personal than UrkelNet – perhaps he's moved on somewhat. "Being in L.A. I can be really cool about most people, and I know [Jaleel White] loved playing Urkel, I think he's over talking about it. I think that he'd hate me!"