Reginald VelJohnson, Jaleel White and the Rest of the ‘Family Matters’ Cast Then and Now: Photos 

From 1989 to 1998, Family Matters left viewers falling in love with the Winslow family and the show’s hilarious cast of characters. Jaleel White, Reginald VelJohnson and more of the sitcom’s stars had breakthrough performances in the nine-season series. Today, many alums of the iconic program are continuing their acting careers with other big projects. 

The Family Matters cast reunited in 2017, nearly 30 years after the show debuted on ABC. It was clear that many of the castmates formed lasting friendships after working together on the long-running series. 

“There’s just something really magical about this cast and the real feelings that are here. It wasn’t just for the screen,” Telma Hopkins told Entertainment Weekly in September 2017 during the reunion. “Family really did matter and still does.”

At the time, there were rumors that the show was going to be rebooted, with several of the original stars interested in returning. 

“Jaleel and I were talking just a little while ago and he said, ‘You know, we can do this,’” Jo Marie Payton said of a possible reboot. “And I said, ‘If they dropped a script at our feet when we walked out of here, we would come back in tomorrow and the next day we’d have a show shot.’”

In March 2022, many of the actors were still holding out hope that the Winslow family would appear together on TV screens at some point in the future.

Jo Marie later revealed that she would only join the cast of a Family Matters reboot if the character Judy Winslow was written back into the series. The youngest Winslow family child was shockingly written out of the show during season 4. To this day, many still have questions about the sudden disappearance of the character, portrayed by Jaimee Foxworth.

“The producers felt that they could do it and no one would notice. They’d done it with previous shows they had. They figured no one would really care. My fans took notice of it,” she reflected on her surprising exit from the show during a September 2017 interview with The Root. “They figured they could just throw me away, no explanation at all. Some of my cast members knew before I did.” 

Jaimee went on to add that if the opportunity to join a Family Matters reboot was presented to her, she would be interested in joining. Fans are hoping to see the cast reunited on TV one day, but for now, it looks like reviving the show is not set in stone. 

Keep scrolling to see where all of the Family Matters cast members are now.