Willie Fuffner, played by Larenz Tate, is a trouble-maker and resident bully at Vanderbuilt Middle School.
Willie's best friend was his dim-witted sidekick named Waldo Faldo. He frequently liked to bully Steve, but his main antagonism is towards Laura.
Greg mentions that Willie had asked Laura to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with him and she refused to do so. Thus, he's paying her back for refusing to be his date by forcing Greg and the other boys to the dating sidelines. According to him, if any guy defies Willie by dating Laura in front of him, they'll be forced to breathe down his ear and endure bodily harm. Thus, he wants her to go with Urkel as a means to make her the laughingstock of the school. Steve refused to let him get away with it and confronts Willie for his actions, and points out that forcing Laura to go to the dance with him is just plain wrong. Willie took it as a compliment, but was insulted when he slapped him with a mitten. He demanded that Willie apologize to her at once or else face the consequences in doing so. Both boys got into a fight at school, and instead of taking the sensible route and force them to apologize, Coach Redding (who only appears in this episode) decides the boys should fight at Silver's Gym.
During the fight, Greg was inspired by Urkel's bravery and challenged Willie to fight him next. He accepts his offer, but was forced to reconsider when the other irate boys stood up and demanded he fights them next after he gets done with Steve and Greg.
In Life of the Party, Willie is still reeling from his loss to Urkel; so, he plots revenge against him. At Maxine's rooftop party, Steve impresses the crowd by teaching them to do "The Urkel Dance." Pissed that Steve has his own song and dance, Willie spikes his cup of punch with the smuggled small bottles of alcohol hidden in Waldo's trench coat. A drunken Urkel hangs by the clothesline; fortunately Rachel was able to save him by tightrope walking and pulling him to safety. Laura confronts Willie and Waldo about their actions. She tells them off Steve could've been killed if it wasn't for her aunt and that smuggling alcohol and then spiking someone else's drink isn't cool. Willie has been sent to Juvenile Hall and hasn't been seen since.
Willie was apparently erased from the series.
Trivia[]
- As Waldo is his closest friend and sidekick, Willie has been very frustrated with him. The first time was in Requiem for an Urkel, when he unnecessarily asked Willie why they trash Urkel's locker on a Tuesday. This was also shown in Life of the Party three times when he told Laura and the cops about sneaking in an illegal bar in his jacket. Willie was further embarrassed when Waldo even went as far as asking the cops it the number could be a 976 (porn prefix number) after being told they could make one call while at juvenile hall.
- Willie seems to like Laura, but then changed his mind and started to antagonize her when he learned that she wanted to go with Greg Hudson to a dance.
- Although Willie likes to bully Steve on a daily basis, he began to despise the nerd for defending Laura's stance in choosing to go to the dance with Greg; he didn't think someone brave enough to even dare to stand up to him in the manner that Steve did, causing a fight between them.
- Although Larenz Tate had a remarkable performance on Family Matters as Willie, he wound up appearing in only 2 episodes. Both Tate and Shawn Harrison (Waldo) were offered recurring roles on the series, but only Harrison accepted, while Tate moved on to other projects such as the film "Menace II Society: and the short-lived series "South Central" and ''The Royal Family''.
- After Tate left the show, Waldo's character was rewritten as Eddie's best friend, implying that he had been remorseful for his involvement in nearly costing Urkel his life and ended his friendship with Willie.
- Willie was the first one to scare off Laura’s potential dates — including Greg Hudson — to the dating sidelines by using bodily harm.