Family matters why did judy leave

Premiering in , Family Matters was originally designed as a star vehicle for actress Jo Marie Payton, whose Harriette Winslow had first appeared on the hit sitcom, Perfect Strangers. Reginald VelJohnson had also appeared a few times as her husband Carl. Of course, what one intends to happen as the result of a creative endeavor is often not what actually occurs.

Family Matters entirely changed with the introduction of neighbor character Steve Urkel Jaleel White , who was intended to be a minor one-off guest but ended up becoming the series' focus.

What had been developed as a sitcom focusing on the Winslow family had now effectively made them supporting players in Urkel's wacky story, full of science-related mishaps and general silliness. Still, Family Matters became a hit, and ran for nearly a decade, keeping the non-Urkel cast gainfully employed and presumably well-paid, if nothing else.

Well, almost all of the non-Urkel cast. Poor Judy Winslow fell by the wayside partway through season 4, and the show dealt with it in a particularly strange way. The youngest Winslow child, Judy was age 9 when Family Matters began, and when she disappeared during season 4, she was canonically The character was played by Jaimee Foxworth, who was new to the world of acting at the time and didn't go on to do much in Hollywood after.

As the youngest member of the family, her character had been endearing and relatable to younger audiences, while her siblings Laura Kellie Shanygne Williams and Eddie Darius McCrary served as models of how to grow into high school. Judy, though, became an odd hanging chad of unanswered questions in the pre-internet sitcom era. Where did she go, and why? Did the actress die?

Why no gracious write-off for her character? A stunt like that today just couldn't go over like it did then, with the proliferation of fan forums, hashtags, and simultaneous social media reaction to broadcasts.

Here's why Judy up and vanished from Family Matters all those years ago. At the time, Foxworth told The Root that she only found out about the celebration through her former co-star Shawn Harrison, who portrayed Waldo.

The people in the picture are more important than the picture itself. It was a slap in the face from Entertainment Weekly.

In fact, Family Matters acted as if she never existed. They figured no one would care.