Did Jo Marie Payton Actually Hate Playing Harriette On 'Family Matters'?
When most of the people look back at the sitcom scene from the ‘90s, there are a select few presentations that all the time seem to be introduced up at the beginning. For example, folks constantly talk about displays like Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Seinfeld to this present day. Of path, given how fashionable all of those presentations were and proceed to be, it makes absolute best sense that they get numerous credit. However, there are lots of classic sitcoms that are arguably better than any comedy shows on television today and a few of them which aired throughout the ‘90s deserve extra credit score.
Unfortunately for everyone involved in the production of the classic ‘90s sitcom Family Matters, the display doesn’t get talked about nearly enough nowadays. Worse but, some other folks think that Family Matters hasn’t aged well due to their perception of Steve Urkel in retrospect. On peak of that, some Family Matters lovers have even come to imagine that collection star Jo Marie Payton hated working on the display which begs an evident question, is that true?
The Rumored Feud With Jaleel White
As any individual who follows the leisure business must know via now, there are numerous actors in Hollywood who seem to have very subtle egos. Since so many stars appear to be very delicate, it is smart that there were such a lot of co-star feuds over time. After all, it is rather clear that there are a large number of stars who simply can’t take care of it after they feel like any other actor is pushing them out of the highlight.
As longtime Family Matters fans may already know, the show was once a spin-off primarily based across the personality Harriette Winslow that Jo Marie Payton first delivered to life as a part of the sitcom Perfect Strangers. With that in thoughts, it for sure makes sense that Payton and her co-stars Reginald VelJohnson and Telma Hopkins assumed Family Matters would center of attention on their characters. Then, Jaleel White made his Family Matters debut a number of episodes into the primary season and abruptly a large number of other folks concept the sitcom become the Steve Urkel show.
After Family Matters began to basically focal point on Steve Urkel, there were rumors that Jo Marie Payton and some of her co-stars resented that fact. When he spoke to Entertainment Weekly in 2021, Jaleel White stated that there was some reality to the rumors. "I didn't see how I was stepping on anybody's toes, I was taking anybody's shine. It's very important that I say this: I was not very well welcomed to the cast at all, okay?"
In 2010, Jo Marie Payton talked to an interviewer for the website online tvseriesfinale.com. During that interview, Payton expressed her appreciation for Jaleel White whilst additionally admitting that Family Matters’ alternate in focus used to be a surprise. “We had been all satisfied to be operating, and he made the show cross, and we’re all still happy about it at this time. We’re nonetheless guffawing to the bank with the residuals. So it may have caused a bit warfare, just because… it was once an actual shocker to all folks, you realize what I mean? Because he was this little persona”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Jo Marie Payton brought up the fact that she co-starred with White for many years which she cited as proof that rumors of tension between them was silly. It could also be value noting that in the aforementioned Jaleel White Entertainment Weekly interview, he mentioned that over time, he grew close with all of his Family Matters co-stars together with Payton. “But I do suppose they do deserve credit at times for having helped foster a more harmonious atmosphere by season 3, via season 4, by season 5. And we did transform very a lot a family."
Did Jo Marie Payton Hate Starring In Family Matters?
Even though Jo Marie Payton and Jaleel White have both thrown water on the idea that there was long-lasting tension between them, that doesn’t negate the possibility that she hated starring in Family Matters. After all, it is extremely notable that Payton ceased starring in Family Matters halfway through the show’s final season which forced her character to be recast. During the aforementioned 2010 tvseriesfinale.com interview, Payton called starring in Family Matters a “blessing” and expressed her appreciation for the show’s legacy and her co-stars. However, when she took part in a 2017 Family Matters reunion, she made it clear that Payton wanted to leave Family Matters years before she did because she had grown restless in the role.
“I actually made the decision to leave the show two years before I left. I was unhappy about a lot of things; I was going through a divorce, I wasn’t happy on the show — it didn’t mean I did not want to perform as an actress or an artist. The way I explain it is that, when you’re a baker, you don’t always want to bake cakes or cookies; you want to bake pies, you want to bake bread. I wanted to do something else.”
Based on all of those quotes, it seems clear that claiming Jo Marie Payton hated starring in Family Matters would be a huge overstatement. Still, there is no doubt that Payton was over the show in the end and she even told tvseriesfinale.com that Family Matters should have ended earlier. “I think that maybe my leaving, like I said, it kind of upset a few people but like I said, you know, it was time for me to go. It was time for the show to go, I wish we could’ve gone down maybe a little bit earlier”
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