Presumed Urkel is the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of Family Matters, which aired on ABC on February 4, 1994. It was directed by John Tracy and written by Felicia D. Henderson.
Synopsis[]
Accident-prone Urkel is accused of blowing up the school's science lab. With his academic future on the line, Laura defends Steve against someone who seems a little too eager to have him expelled.
Plot[]
During chemistry class, Urkel is working hard as usual, but Eddie would rather look at a magazine. Disgusted, Steve asks Mr. Sweeney for extra time during lunch for his newest science fair project and Mr. Sweeney says it's fine. When the bell rings, everyone else leaves, except for Urkel's rival, Dexter Thornhill, who challenges him with hard questions. After a few minutes, Thornhill leaves dejected and more hateful towards him than ever. Minutes later, Steve goes into the storage room and the lab explodes. When he comes out, Mr. Looney, the school's elderly Janitor, asks Urkel if he caused the explosion and Urkel says he didn't.
However, the student body doesn't believe Steve and blames him for blowing up the science lab. The administration and the student body decide to put Steve on trial and give him a chance to prove that he wasn't responsible for what happened, or he'll be expelled.
The only one who does believe his innocence is Laura and, after consulting with Harriette at home, she agrees to defend him for the trial, not caring if she ruins the party the students will throw on the day Steve is expelled.
With his academic future on the line and the school cafeteria as a courtroom, Steve is on trial with Laura representing him as his defense attorney, Principal Shimata as the Judge, Dexter as the prosecutor and Waldo as the bailiff. Principal Shimata reads his charge and Steve maintains his innocence. He sits down next to Laura. Before the trial can officially continue, a frantic Myra runs into the cafeteria and claims that she blew up the lab, not Steve. The student body, including Thornhill, Steve and Laura, are shocked by what she had just said. She even puts the blame on herself, claiming she's more than willing to be expelled from Vanderbilt High to protect Steve's standing at school. Steve takes her to one side and reminds her that she wasn't in school that day because she was at home with her family waiting for the cable installer. After a few shocking moments, he finally convinces Myra that she needs to let Laura do her job and clear his name.
Dexter's willing to do anything in his power to ensure Steve is expelled from Vanderbilt. He calls Mr. Sweeney to the stand and questions him. After he is done, Laura questions Mr. Sweeney about witnessing the lab explosion, and he admits that he didn't see the explosion, or who caused it. Next, Carl is called to the stand by Dexter and he admits to almost all the things that happened to him and his home, due to Steve's clumsiness. However, he doesn't call it major because he mentions that he still has his health. Laura questions Carl about the whole thing as well. Carl admits that Steve always took responsibility for his actions. She asks Carl why Steve has denied the lab explosion, and he says Steve didn't do it. Dexter tries calling out an objection claiming it's making him look bad. Mr. Shimata sustains it and the prosecution rests.
Laura calls Steve to the stand to tell his side of the story. Steve tells her about working on his new project for this year's science fair and treats his chemicals with respect, which he spells the word out. Waldo and Weasel sing to "Respect" by Aretha Franklin, until Shimata calls them to their seats and restores order to the court. During that time, Mr. Looney came in and they talked. The Janitor seemed interested in the subject of cotton vs. sponge on mops. After an enlightened conversation, Steve went into the storage room to get a bigger and better beaker for his project. The Lab exploded while he was in there. However, Dexter isn't convinced and tells Steve that cheese was found near his lab station and coerces him to tell everyone what his favorite food is, and he replies it's cheese.
Mr. Looney is called next, and he tells Laura about him and Steve having the conversation about mops, but he didn't seem to care. He remembers Steve going to the storage room to get a bigger and better beaker and he decided to heat his cheese sandwich on the Bunsen burner, and he used prongs to remove the beaker on it. Just before his cheese melted, he was paged to clean roadkill out of the parking lot. He put the sandwich back in his lunchbox and left. A few minutes later, the lab exploded. Laura asks him why he didn't come forward with the information. Looney admits that he was afraid if he got in trouble, he would get kicked out of the school's production of Carousel, because he's portraying Billy Bigalow, the main character. Laura tells Mr. Looney that she has no further questions for him, and Dexter has none either, so he returns to his seat.
After Mr. Looney sits down, Laura calls Dexter to the stand. She questions his hate for Steve (calling him "Yuckel") and asks about the three years of winning 2nd place at the science fair. He admitted that Steve always took 1st place, and has hated him ever since. Laura asks Dexter if he hates Steve enough to blow up the science lab and frame him for it. This brings a shocked expression to the court, which Dexter denies. Laura then explains what really happened: Dexter entered the science lab while Steve was in the storage room and Mr. Looney left to clean up the roadkill. He hastily put Steve's graffiti solvent back on the Bunsen burner and added explosive chemicals to it before turning the Bunsen burner up high. Then, Dexter disappeared from the scene and the lab exploded. He denies Laura's claims and challenges her to prove it.
She proves it very well by using a black light to detect chemicals that can be on human skin for days, maybe even weeks. After the lights are turned off, she asks him to reveal his hands in the black light. He reluctantly reveals his hands with the chemical stains on them, due to the chemicals getting on them after he burned his hands trying to move the beaker and everyone is shocked. After the lights are turned back on, he loses it and finally confesses that he was behind the lab explosion. He was sick of being in second place of last year's science fair to Steve and deserved to win first place, even mentioning that he's tired of staying up until 4 AM to outdo his rival, who glances at a page and gets straight A's. He condemns Steve for being better than him, both in school and at the science fair.
Per Laura's recommendation, Mr. Shimata drops the charges against Steve, while Dexter is expelled and possibly arrested. In the end credits, Mr. Looney is cleaning out the cafeteria and starts singing "Frere Jacques", with Urkel joining in.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Reginald VelJohnson as Carl Winslow
- Jo Marie Payton as Harriette Winslow (credited as Jo Marie Payton-Noble)
- Rosetta LeNoire as Estelle Winslow (credit only)
- Darius McCrary as Eddie Winslow
- Kellie Shanygne Williams as Laura Winslow
- Bryton James as Richie Crawford (credited as Bryton McClure, credit only)
- Jaleel White as Steve Urkel
- Shawn Harrison as Waldo Geraldo Faldo
Guest[]
Recurring[]
- Clyde Kusatsu as Principal Edgar Shimata
- Michelle Thomas as Myra Monkhouse
- Shavar Ross as Alex "Weasel" Park
- Tom Poston as Mr. Alfred Looney
Cameo[]
- Patrick Cornin as Mr. Sweeney
- Robert Laughlin as Dexter Thornhill (credit as Robert DeCrevel)
Gallery[]
.jpg "Jaleel White (Presumed Urkel).jpg (138 KB)")
Trivia[]
- This episode marks Clyde Kusatsu's final appearance as Principal Edgar Shimata.
- This episode also marks Shavar Ross' final appearance as Alex "Weasel" Parks.
- This is the first episode in the series to use archive footage from previous episodes.
- Thornhill states that Urkel won the last three science fairs. If this is an annual school science fair, there would be just four fairs that Urkel could have attended, one for each grade.
- This episode marked the first appearance of veteran actor Tom Poston as Alfred Looney.
- Jaleel White has said at various convention appearances that he does not have have any clear recollection of this episode.[1]
References[]
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