Family Matters/Awesome

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • When Steve Urkel finally told Laura Winslow off after he had taken her abuse trying to unfold the "roll-out bed from Hell" and she suggested he sleep in the bathtub. This was the result of a There Is Only One Bed episode.
  • Expect one for Carl in any episode where we see him on the job.
    • Probably the best is when a thief takes the cop bringing him in hostage while Carl is showing Richie's class around the station. He quickly shepards the kids into another room, then talks the man down by guessing that he's only a petty crook who isn't prepared to kill anyone.
    • In one episode, Carl and a partner take turns guarding Steve from a robber out to get him. It turns out the partner was disguised as the coworker and was alone in the house with Urkel. He prepares to shoot Urkel (who woke up from sleep and noticed him) when Carl breaks into the room and subdues the robber. How did Carl know that it wasn't his partner? The two of them had a 'See you later-Not if I see you first' exchange that the robber didn't repeat.
      • Added awesomeness because Carl had screwed up a possible collar earlier in the episode. He was beginning to think that he was losing his touch as a cop - only to pull off this CMOA.
    • In one (Halloween) episode, Steve and Laura end up as hostages during a bank robbery. One of the robber's demands is for a pizza. A short time later, in comes a short fat Jamaican pizza man. When the robber opens the pizza box, spring snakes startle him and Carl (who was in fact the pizza man) jumps the robber and takes him down.
      • This is also a Brick Joke since the snakes were the same that Steve used to scare Carl at the beginning of the episode. Carl also gives Steve credit for that and for being willing to protect Laura during the incident.
    • In one of the later episodes, Carl and everyone in the precinct are positive he will get the promotion to Captain; but the Commissioner transfers in his nephew for the position. He even has the audacity to ask Carl to help out his nephew, and Carl reluctantly agrees. Carl likes the new Captain because the guys is very friendly and values Carl's opinion. A situation comes up where two rival gangs are going to have a confrontation, and everyone turns to the Captain. Not knowing what to do, he asks Carl to tell him what actions to take; but Carl says that it's not his place to tell him since he's the Captain. Because lives are at stake, he asks Carl what he would do. Carl then starts laying out his plan, and the Captain authorizes it. When the Commissioner comes to congratulate them on a job well done, Cal gives the praise to the Captain. This in itself is a crowning moment of awesome for Carl to be humble. Another moment follows right after when the Captain tells his uncle that it was Carl's plan and that he's not cut out for it. He just likes being where he was and states the best man for the job is Carl. So, the Commissioner promotes Carl.
    • After a extortionist rips Eddie and Waldo off, Carl is able to simply arrest the guy for serving alcohol to minors and turns every argument/excuse the guy uses against him.
  • Harriette tells off her ex-boss in the second episde (Two-Income Family"), when he isn't too keen on rehiring her (for a different job).

Mr. Seeger: Quite frankly, this job is way out of your league.
Harriette: Oh really Mr. Seeger? For your information I have management experience coming out of my ears.
Mr. Seeger: Heh, it's not on your resume.
Harriette: Yes it is. Right there, see? It says Mrs. Harriette Winslow. I worked here full time and I was a full-time mom. You want to talk management? I managed a home, a household budget, and a family. And Mr. Seeger, I'm talking about a job you can't call in sick for, you never get a raise or overtime, and you can't take vacation. Everyday I'm a leader, an organizer, and a mediator! Those are my qualifications. You want references?! Call Eddie, Laura, and Judy Winslow and ask them about my work. You know the number.

    • She later gets the job.
  • In Life of the Party Rachel tightrope-walks over a clothesline, risking her own life to rescue a drunken Steve who was hanging from a rooftop. (It's a long story.)
  • Eddy and Steve fall victim to a pool shark. They are rescued by Mama Winslow, who proceeds to mop the floor, er, table with him, but not before warning another mook not to stand directly behind her pool cue.
  • Steve has his fair share as well:
    • Loudly smacking Willie Fuffner across the face with a mitten and demanding satisfaction for insulting Laura and himself, in the episode "Requiem for an Urkel," stands as one of his all time best.
    • Even though it was All Just a Dream, no one can deny the awesomeness of him taking down a bank robber while dressed as Superman.
    • In one episode, Carl and Steve end up sharing a hospital room after Carl got shot and the man who shot him had snuck into the hospital to finish the job. Steve, who was in the bathroom, takes the guy down from behind with a tray to the head.
  • Two words: Bruce Juice. Steve and Carl are turned into Bruce Lee clones and take down an entire gang inside of the police warehouse.
    • In a later episode Bruce Juice is used again as Steve with Ritchie and 3J protect a park from another gang.

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