‘Family Matters’ Star Jaleel White Reacts to Fans Saying He’s Their Childhood

• During a panel at 90s Con in Hartford, Conn., Jaleel White reacted to fans often telling him “you’re my entire childhood”
• White famously played the love-lorn Steve Urkel in the sitcom Family Matters from 1989 to 1998
• The actor opened up to the panel audience about how his childhood was shaped by his many years filming the show

Jaleel White is reflecting on his status as a ’90s icon for many kids who grew up during the decade.

While taking part in a panel at 90s Con at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, the 48-year-old actor reacted to fans frequently telling him “you’re my entire childhood.”

“Reality of it was, you’re my childhood too, but in a different way,” said White, who was joined on the panel by Rider Strong, Will Friedle and Soleil Moon Frye.

White was a ’90s TV mainstay, famously portraying the awkward, love-lorn Steve Urkel in the hit sitcom Family Matters, which aired from 1989 to 1998. While the actor was originally supposed to make a one-time guest appearance, he ended up starring in more than 200 episodes of the show — and playing several additional roles, including Urkel’s alter ego Stefan Urquelle and other members of the Urkel family.

During the panel, White went on to share how his own childhood was shaped by his time on the long-running TV show — and how he juggled his academics alongside his filming schedule.

“I went to public school the entire time,” he recalled. “We’d shoot three episodes and I’d go back on hiatus. I was constantly popping back in, and in the spring I’d be there the entire time. I played on the high school basketball team, [and] they changed the entire shooting schedule [to accommodate me].”

“I was learning these life lessons backwards, on a social level,” White continued. “But I was interacting with adults on an insanely high level.”

As for the deep nostalgia fans have for the decade and its many notable pop-culture moments, White said, “I never could imagine people would still be so emotionally connected to the ’90s.”

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He also noted how when it came to family shows at the time, “a child becoming the star was an accident.”

“They became iconic figures for people growing up,” he added of the child actors who succeeded in having breakout roles.

Recently, White revealed how the accident-prone Urkel’s unforgettable catchphrase “Did I do that?” — delivered in a distinctive, whiny tone — came to be.

“They tried a million darn catchphrases,” he said on an episode of the Boy Meets World re-watch podcast Pod Meets World in January. “The first one that they ever tried really was Steve would just bump into inanimate objects — an end table or a lamp, knock it over and say, ‘Excuse me.’ That was it.”

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He recalled how producers then tried incorporating “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up” into scripts as a potential catchphrase for the accident-prone Urkel — but it just didn’t land the way “Did I do that?” would.

“We did about three of them, and ‘Did I do that?’ just stuck,” White said, noting how the live studio audience ultimately solidified the choice.

“It’s one of those things,” he continued. “You lob them out to the audience, and, you know, back then it was completely about the immediate audience reaction. You had that live studio audience to tell you in real time what was working. There was no social media.”