Family Matters Wiki
Register
Advertisement

The Brother Who Came to Dinner is the twenty-third episode of the eighth season in this television sitcom on Family Matters, which was aired from ABC on May 2, 1997. It was directed by Richard Correll and written by Reginald VelJohnson.

Plot[]

Carl's estranged brother Frank Winslow comes to visit with a devastating secret: He's in trouble with the law. Even worse, Carl is the one who's assigned to bring him into custody. Carl faces a big moral dilemma as he considers loyalty to his job or fixing a long-broken relationship with his brother. After accidentally breaking Laura's laptop computer, Steve and Eddie try to win $3,000 towards getting a new laptop at the carnival and Steve's latest invention might give Eddie a boost against "Butterball".

Synopsis[]

The episode begins with Steve playing a game on Laura's computer, until Eddie comes downstairs and says that he wants to use the computer to surf a new website full of women. Steve denies his request and the two get into a scuffle over the computer until the computer slips out of both of there hands and breaks near the fireplace. After it breaks, both of them use Steve's famous quote 'look what you did'.

After the theme song, Steve and Eddie must find out a surefire way to fix Laura's computer without her knowing that it broke due to their immature actions. Laura comes in and Eddie and Steve greet her at the door and they beat around the bush about it until Steve comes up with an idea about fixing her computer to the latest updated version which she agrees and says she needs it back by Wednesday.

Carl is at work at the police station and has a meeting with Commissioner Geiss. The meeting doesn't go over so well, as Guiss informs Carl that his younger brother, Frank, is in trouble with the law has for passing out thousands of dollars' worth of bad checks, and is tasking Carl to arrest him. The commissioner apologizes for the inconvenience of this happening and tries to dissuade him by sending an officer to do the job. Carl assures Geiss that he took an oath to put his job before his family and he will get the job done, even if it's with a heavy heart. Back at the Winslow residence, Frank appears on the scene dressed as a clown and surprises Harriette. He tells her that he's a traveling clown and is making good money from that job. She invites him to dinner, but he is reluctant to join because he hasn't seen Carl since their father's death. He leaves after giving out a pass to Harriette to come and visit his circus.

After the scene, Steve comes in with a new invention telling Eddie that it's a force field belt. This invention is a belt that had a force field around the body of a person and inflicting pain on another person if that person decides to take any violent moves against the person wearing the belt. Steve demonstrates by having Eddie punch him and Eddie does so but gets a painful aftermath. Steve says that it's a circus coming up and it's a wrestling match for a grand prize of money that'll be enough to get her another one.

Later on, Carl, struggling with his moral dilemma, comes home and tell Harriette that his day was terrible. To make matters worse, she tells him that she has a surprise for him. Carl mentions to Harriette that he doesn't need any surprises right now. She asks what happened at work. Carl admits to Harriette that he had a meeting with Commissioner Geiss and he's tasked with arresting Frank for passing bad checks. Frank at the door and to Carl's surprise, that was the person he was looking for to arrest. He immediately goes to work by mentioning that Frank is under arrest and has the right to remain silent. This disappoints Harriette and Frank.

At the circus, Eddie and Steve await their opponent which is later introduced as a titanic wrestler named Butterball (played by Tony Longo). Before the Countdown to Cash begins, the announcer goes over the rules to the contestants in which they can use any type of weapon to defend themselves with, but they aren't allowed to use chairs, knives, guns, etc. A series of people go against him, and it results in failure for the people. This makes Steve and Eddie worry about the force field belt and how long it will last against Butterball. They start to reconsider doing this and wonder if it was a better idea to just tell Laura the truth in them accidentally breaking her laptop.

Back at the Winslow house, Carl looks on in frustration and Frank accuses him for doing this in the revenge for having not attended their father's funeral. Carl then snaps and points out he is disappointed because Estelle was devastated and was in a terrible state of mind. She needed all of the sons with her, after Sam died. Frank reiterated that he called Carl 10 times to explain that he couldn't handle the fact that their father was dead and he never had a chance to reconcile beforehand. He gave up after he was convinced Carl hated him. Carl retorts that he would've understood if Frank came to him in person to tell him this, and Frank replies that he's a different person now and is trying to make amends for his past mistakes. Carl isn't convinced and goes to say that he's passing out bad checks. Fed up, Harriette reprimands him for his behavior and convinces him to hear Frank out. Carl finally does after seeing how disappointed she is in him. Frank explained that he was running a restaurant and things were going well. However, the restaurant then closed down, and it resulted in him losing his job. His last paycheck bounced, and he unknowingly passing out the bad checks. Before Carl could say anything, Harriette explains this has happened to their friends and family before when they lost their jobs, and he shouldn't judge them on this. Finally understanding what's going on, Carl asks Frank if he's looking for a job. He mentions that he has one as a traveling clown. He is confused by this, but Frank explains that the carnival pays him very well and is working hard to pay off the debts. Harriette mentions he looks cute in his costume. Carl realizes how much he's hurt Frank with his quick judgment, that family comes first and makes amends by apologizing to him for what he's been through. He reassures Frank that he will not arrest him, and will loan him the money to pay off the rest of his debts. Harriette is happy to see him and Carl reconciling with each other.

At the circus, it's Eddie's turn to go against Butterball. At first, things goes well and he has a hard time hurting Eddie. As the match goes on, the invention short circuits and stops working due to the extensive amount of sweat Eddie's producing. This allows Butterball to KO punch Eddie which leads to him losing the match. Refusing to give up, Steve announces he will challenge Butterball himself. He and the announcer both laugh at Steve in regards to the challenge. Eddie warns against this, but Steve reassures him that he'll be fine because of his experience with bullies in being able to outrun the opponent before they hurt him. This proves true as Butterball has a hard time hurting him and causing the crowd to laugh at him. Steve is able to beat him by having him ram himself out of the ring in a game of matador and bull. He wins the match and the money for him and Eddie to buy a laptop replacement for Laura. The episode concludes with the crowd joining in on celebrating Steve's win and the ring announcer is embarrassed over Butterball being beaten by a nerd.

Cast and Characters[]

Main[]

Guest[]

Recurring[]

  • Dick O'Neill as Commissioner Geiss

Cameo[]

  • Ted Lange as Frank Winslow
  • Tony Longo as Butterball
  • John Mariano as Ring Announcer
  • Brian J. Williams as Man in Tires

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • Steve has invented a transformation chamber, cloning device, time machine, etc. In other words, He could have just fixed Laura's laptop.
    • It was likely that due to the extensive damages to the circuits that he and Eddie both caused and the expenses that would follow, Steve made the wise decision not to risk trying to fix it. Instead, he decided to just replace the laptop.
  • The original post credits scene was supposed to show that Laura has learned of what really happened to her laptop from Harriette who finds the broken pieces and gives both Eddie and Urkel a piece of her mind. She points out that Stefan bought the laptop as a gift to her and they should've told her about it. Eddie and Steve both apologize to Laura and give her the new laptop they bought with the money they won against Butterball.
  • There was an entire circus scene written for the episode to help bring closure to Frank’s character. Since the episode already contained a wrestling scene, it was deemed far too expensive for one episode to add a circus set on top of it.

Quotes[]

Steve/Eddie: "Look what you did!"
  v - e - dFamily Matters Season 8
Paris Vacation (Part 1)Paris Vacation (Part 2)Paris Vacation (Part 3)Movin' On3J in the HouseGetting BuffStevilKarate KidsHome AgainNightmare at Urkel OaksChick-a-BoomThe JuryIt Came Upon a Midnight ClearRevenge of the NerdLove TrianglesFather TimeBeauty and the BeastLe Jour d'amourWhat Do You Know?Odd Man InFlirting with DisasterPound FoolishThe Brother Who Came to DinnerA Pirate's Life for Me
Advertisement