‘Family Matters’ Season 3 Is a Perfect Season of Television

Cheers Season 1, Friends Season 1, Community Season 3, Seinfeld Season 4, Parks and Recreation Season 4—what do they have in common? They’re all absolutely perfect seasons of TV, moments when iconic shows hit their stride and raised the bar for what comedies could do on TV. Sometimes shows started out strong, like Cheers and Friends, and sometimes a series hit new heights later in the run (like Parks and Rec). But no matter when the peak happened, it still happened, and it vaulted these shows into the imaginary sitcom hall-of-fame that exists in my mind. After bingeing a whole lot of sitcoms scattered throughout TV history while sheltering in place, I’m ready to induct another season into these (completely made up) hallowed halls: Family Matters Season 3.

Yeah, a TGIF family sitcom from the Miller-Boyett factory that’s more remembered for it’s cartoonish breakout character (Steve Urkel) and his never-ending supply of catchphrases (from “Did I do that?” to “I’m wearing you dooooown“). Like Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Step By Step, Family Matters is accurately remembered as family-friendly fluff that made kids laugh on Friday nights in-between bites of Little Caesar’s. But—and I never expected I’d reach this point but I’m so glad I have—Family Matters Season 3 is not only better than you remember or better than any other stretch of episodes in TGIF history, it’s a legitimately funny and at times brave batch of storytelling!

I know! Whoda thunk? The season starts with an episode wherein Urkel befriends an escaped orangutan while Carl tries to defuse a bomb lodged in a treadmill by a guy named Nitro Newton… and then the show maintains that level of wackiness while never once selling out its heart. Season 3 is the show’s sweet spot, right as they’ve figured out how much Urkel isn’t too much Urkel, and right before the show sacrificed everything that made it a warm, family sitcom in favor of, well, too much Urkel.

Season 3 of Family Matters is the show at its most balanced. It feels like a real ensemble, which makes sense since there are 9 credited cast members (not counting all the recurring players). Yeah, Urkel gets to do Urkel stuff in every episode, but it never feels like he’s completely eclipsing the rest of the cast.

Carl gets his own mini-Lethal Weapon sitcom with his partner Lt. Murtaugh (yeah, he’s literally named Murtaugh) that gives the show plots about going undercover and defusing treadmill bombs. Mother Winslow gets plenty of time to shine, too, in heartwarming plots about her trying to pass on her family’s heritage to uninterested teens (her late husband was a Tuskegee Airman!), becoming an active senior with an active dating life, and setting Rachel in place after she takes control of the church choir.

The season also gets downright cinematic in a few episodes, crafting stories that feel dense enough to sustain a feature film but instead play out in 23 minute episodes. There’s “Born to Be Mild,” where the Winslows take on a violent street gang after they trash Rachel’s restaurant and badly beat Eddie; and there’s “Woman of the People,” where Laura’s bid for class president devolves into mudslinging when a snobby girl decides to play dirty.

Seriously, this season has all of that—and I haven’t even mentioned Waldo Geraldo Faldo yet! The writers knew they struck gold when they brought in Shawn Harrison for four episodes of Season 2 and wisely bumped the impressively stupid Waldo Faldo up to recurring status for Season 3. Appearing in 15 of the 25 episodes, Harrison’s Waldo is the incredibly rare example of a show creating a second unique breakout character that just makes the show feel whole. If lightning struck once with Urkel, it scorched that same spot with Waldo Faldo.

I can’t overstate just how funny Harrison is in his first full season on Family Matters. He’s the classic dumb-dumb archetype, but he plays Waldo with so much earnestness and humanity that you totally believe that he’s a culinary savant in “Food, Lies and Videotape.” The writers also clearly loved writing for Harrison, who could sell absolute, hands-down, Community-level weirdo non sequitur one-liners like nobody else. Take, for example, this moment where Waldo tries to let (a completely uninterested) Laura down easy after their disastrous date:

Laura’s baffled reply (BTW, Kellie Shanygne Williams is an under-appreciated genius at deadpan delivery): “Don’t you mean… Time heals all wounds?”

As if that’s not enough, this season also has iconic Urkel moments like his jetpack invention, two Urkelbot episodes, and the equivalent of an entire ’90s basketball movie squeezed into a half-hour with Steve Urkel as the very unlikely star. Urkel jokes are a pop culture punchline now, because the character was so ubiquitous in the ’90s and inspired so many scene-stealing knockoffs. But rewatching Season 3, it’s evident why Urkel was such a thing: Jaleel White is a physical comedy master up there with Lucille Ball and Dick Van Dyke—except he was a third their age.

Really, Family Matters Season 3 feels like a greatest hits album that you slowly realize is actually just an album where all the tracks became instantly iconic hit singles. It’s Rumours or Rhythm Nation or 1989. It’s everything you remember loving about Family Matters done pitch perfectly—and it’s an all-time great season of TV.

Stream Family Matters on Hulu