November 5, 2025 • 36 mins
Telma and Kellie rewatch season 1 episode 2 of "Family Matters" called "Two Income Family." They discuss the star power of Jo Marie Payton as Harriette, the re-casting of Judy, and building the Winslow family's on-screen chemistry by bonding in real life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Reminiscence, omission, this day and age, Kelly and Tilma and
we're turning the pay We're talking family matters. It's about
those times.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Tell them what happened between the line.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We're bringing the cast and crew and you and your
family too. That's all we need is Kelly and me
talking about the stories of a family. Drive.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We're serving up but.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Taste a bat in the day.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Girls, family, listen to us.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We've got something to say. Well say, there's plenty of
roomy from the sun to the moon. Family weather, it's
midnight or no God with Kelly and me.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Welcome to the fam, Elie, Kelly, Welcome to the family, y'all. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
I'm Telma and I'm Kelly. And in the nineties we
both started in a little sitcom you may have heard of,
called Family Matters, right, a.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Little sitcom only one of the longest running sitcoms with
a black cast.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, but we only did two hundred and fifteen episodes.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I'm tired just thinking about it. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I played Laura Winslow, the Smart and Sessey middle sibling
of the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Family Smart and Sessey some things haven't changed. And I
played Aunt Rachel, Harriet Winslow's younger sister who moved in
with the family with their baby son, Ritchie in tow Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Now, in our first episode in the podcast, we talked
all about the pallada of Family Matters and how we
both got involved with the show and how we true
became a real life family. If you haven't listened to that,
what are you even doing here? Go back and get
all the juice details.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and after you listen to the pilot, come right
on back, because today we're gonna be talking all about
season one, episode two of Family Matters, which was called
two Income Family. But before we get into all that,
let's catch up a little bit. Kelly. What's up with you? Kenny?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
What's up girl?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Girl? Way more those driverless cars, they way more of
them than their need to be. I was driving to
get my nails done, having the glands over. Nice cute
guy nodded at me. I looked back and there was
nobody in the driver's seat.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Girl.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Those things freaked me out. I'm sorry, la is turning
into the Jetsons.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Girl.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Driverless cars everywhere they're way molds. So that's what's up
with me?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
What's that with you what's up with me?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well, in the back of my mind when I was
raising kids, I always thought to myself, at what point
do you know that you're not raising a serial killer?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And my kids?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
My kids are finally getting to the age where I
really like them, Like I think we're putting out good
people into the world, and so just watching them grow
and become real people, you know, separate and apart from us,
I think that they're pretty cool. You have a good
relationship with your son. When did you realize I think
I did good.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm still working on that. No, no, no, actually, you
know I always say that my son is my best work.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I love my career, I love everything that I've accomplished
and continue to accomplish, but I still consider him my
best work.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Okay, so keep praying for me because I'm still new
to the game.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I knew, girl, how old is hann now?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Fifteen?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh? I wasn't ready for that. Okay, take it back,
Take it back, lady, And I'm an old my so
yeah I am. If you say something Ather said, somebody
ain't gonna make the graduation. But listen, were rolling? Oh girl,
you know, Pat don't know what she's talking about we
can't pay attention. Pat's her mom. In case you're wondering,
(04:14):
I guess it's about time we talk about the show,
don't you think, I mean, let's get into that. So
today we are talking all about two income family, which
was a second episode of the first season of Family Matters.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, here's a little bit of an overview. Harriet, the
matriarch of the family played by Joe Marie Payton, loses
her job as an elevator operator. They don't even have
those much anymore at all. Nope, got replaced by Ai,
I guess, and then the family has to cut costs
while she looks for new work. Now, after a period
without luck finding a job, Harriet gets much needed confidence
(04:51):
with a pep talk from carl Or, her husband played
by reginaldvel Johnson. Right now, Harriet interviews for a security
job at a old place, and she gets the job.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
This is a great episode for Jill Marie. I mean,
she was just fabulous. He chewed up that scene and
re split it out and then picked it up again.
But you know this episode aired Friday, September twenty ninth,
nineteen eighty nine. Dang yep I was only thirteen at
that time, so that would make me twenty three. Okay,
let's move on.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But you still look good?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, thank you, darling. It's all rubber bands and fake mirrors. So, Kelly,
what else was going on on September nineteen eighty nine
that you know about? What can you tell us now?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
On September twenty ninth, the soul to soul song Back
to Life was the number one on R and B charts.
On September sixteenth, DeBie Turner became the third African American
to win the Miss USA pageant. On September twenty first,
the Senate come firm General Colin Powell as a chairman
of the Trice of Staff.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Do you remember that I met him at the White House?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
You got some stories.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Last White House dinner for Reagan? We sang, oh wow, yep?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
What else?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well? I was thinking that the one thing that really
kind of lends itself to this episode is the fact
that on that date, on September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
the dal Jones took a sharp drop and there was
a recession in America, which reflects the financial concerns of
the family. What was going on with us. I mean,
(06:27):
we had four generations of one family in one house
with two people bringing in an income, and it really
speaks to that time. I like that. That was realtive,
you know, and it still is really those Financially things
are tough for a lot of people right now.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well now for you, babe, You've got a million jobs Jamaican.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, but I'm making a dollar on everyone. That's why
I have a billion. You know, they ain't paying real
money no more. I remember one time you told me
that NBC ge gave you a diamond ring. That's a
Christmas gift? Was it like a Tiffany Simmer ring? It
wasn't even a Christmas gift. It was a gift because
I sang at a luncheon of theirs. That's what I
(07:08):
was doing. Give me, let me get you one.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Of these gowns out. You're about to be all over town.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You're gonna be my agent, exactly, get up there, Come on,
tell me, Wait a minute, did I tell you I
went on my first in person audition in four years
since COVID. Oh nice, that's a live people and everything.
It was great. I knew we were all excited, right.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So for those of you who don't know. She doesn't
even need to go in person. Tell me working more
than anybody in Hollywood. She's James Brown, the woman version,
the hardest working woman in shows. She pop up and everything,
the Matrix.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
What's the name of the new show? Tell uh?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Please later? I don't know. Okay, Young and the Restless,
No that too, But I digress. So you know what
I noticed when I was watching I've kind of got
carried away. I watched three shows, but since I haven't
seen the shows in so long except for two thirty
in the morning when I'm half sleep, I was surprised
(08:10):
that I was really able to watch the show as
an audience. And what I find or have found thus far,
is that in every show, I actually get emotional. I
get teary. There are moments in every show that just
really touched my heart. And yes, and I guess being
(08:34):
away from it so long, I really get it. When
you're in it, you're just in it, you're working, you're
doing the publicity, you're all over the place. To go
back and see it now as an audience, it's a
really good show. And I'm not just saying it because
I'm on it, although I am on it. Don't forget that.
It's a really good show. It's a meaty show. Even
(08:58):
though it's funny. It's got just nuggets of reality that
are so tasty to me. I was shocked at my
own reaction, I really was, but it just really got me.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That's funny. I feel that too.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
But coming back to it as an adult and seeing
like the things never mind, but I mean at a
different place in life than you were when you initially
had interaction with the material. Oh my gosh, black women
are the bomb. Like this specific episode I was watching
(09:30):
how just she was a soldier?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, a warrior? Really.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
My mother let me be in a book group with
her and her friends when I was a teenager, and
I forget the book we were reading, but one of
the ladies brought in an article that said the black
women are only second to Japanese men in the preference
of their counterpart and that we would actually rather die
alone than not be with them. Wow, that we love
our families in such a way that we would to
(09:55):
not have it. I'll choose nothing before not having that.
And how she approaches this difficult situation in that same way.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And still with that kind of I mean you know,
she's discouraged, but there's that kind of steel backbone that
women have and that black women have had to have
down through the years that you just see come out.
It's so ironical. I laugh about Reggie being the one
to really pump her up to go get that job,
but he's also the one that lost the job in
the first place. Tell they go in there and demand.
(10:30):
But I just love the way this family our family,
because it really does feel like my family, not just
my family on TV.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I really love the way this family supports each other
and comes together and all their dysfunction to be there
for each other. And we need to see more of
that right now. There's a lot of just negativity and
anger and disappointment and discouragement and all sorts of things
(10:59):
out there. I think it's wonderful to go back and
see a show that really represents not just black families.
We are a black family, but just to remember what
a real family looks like and acts like mm hmm.
I'm really proud of us. I'm really proud of us.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
And also, I.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Mean just bringing it back home to how much you're
totally that same type of chick though you were on
the road. You were still traveling with Tony, Orlando and Don,
you still had a kid, you still were working, and
I was some girl from Maryland that you just met.
You still had enough for me. I just think about
that all the time.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
You're so dope.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I ask my mother this all the time. Where were
y'all getting all of this juice from? I mean, I
get my stuff delivered, my groceries delivered.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Anything.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Time I could take a shortcut, I take it. Because
to the ground, how were y'all doing it? We didn't
know any different, you know, we didn't have all those
the Amazons and all that stuff. We did what needed
to be done, when it needed to be done. We
just did. I used to laugh at my grandmother because
(12:07):
she would just get on my nerves. Every time somebody
would come to the house. She had to feed them.
Half the time they'd be staying on the couch, and
I mean, she just felt the need to nurture everyone
she came in contact with. You too, wore up and down.
I would not be that person, swore up and down.
I am that person. It is at my core. I'm Bertha.
(12:29):
Oh God, give me a moment to get over that Okay, okay,
I'm over it. I watched my grandmother take care of me,
take care of her daughter, take care of my sisters,
take care of her husband, take care of the house.
And so even though you don't know your being schooled,
you're being schooled absolutely, and luckily, you know, when I
(12:50):
had my son, I was not an old mom. I
was a young mom, and I was too stupid to
know it was supposed to be hard. So I just
had fun. I drugged him on the road with us.
He did Mike Douglas. He was on stage with us
in Vegas. We would stick him up in the bandstand
with the guys, and he had a little ukulele and
he knew all the songs would look like he was
actually doing something. He did an American bandstand with it.
(13:11):
I just drug him all over the world with me.
You did that to me too, yep, I did. I
drug both of you a couple of times, and I
think about it. It was just what we did. It
didn't seem that hard. That's what we still do. I mean,
you know now I do.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I do now that I'm a mom, I know.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But I love how this episode actually just highlighted that
about black women, and how we some soldiers yep, like
I said, warriors. Yeah, as long as we have each other.
You know, we had everybody, all these people pitching in
to make sure that everything didn't stop it when Harriet
loses their job. You can really see the heart of
the show in the way that this family cares about
(13:49):
each other.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, and that's what gets me. It gets me because
I didn't associate with it like that when we were
doing it. So going back now, like I said an audience,
I see why the show has been on fro is
it forty years? Thirty five years? How long has it
been forever?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Show?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
It's been on forever. But I see why there will
always be a need for a show like this. I think, Yeah,
I really do. And I'm so Joe Marie's not here,
but I want to give her her kudos. Girl, you
did your thing on that show. Oh I get chills
just thinking about it. You were wonderful and I'm just
(14:28):
so proud of us. So prayerless and mother winslow and
we go there, that's your girl. Just start off so good.
She's gonna start off the prayer just lifting up everything
and lifting up Joe Marie lifted it up thing I.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Put it in there.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Ye Lord, please help Joe Marie as she goes and
gets burned out a job job. So this is my
other question, And what age can you just really start
telling people what you really think? Because I'm ready to
get there right now. Well, I started at thirty five,
so have license at a girl, do Y'll find tell
(15:05):
them all. My grandmother used to just cut people off.
She didn't even care. She'd go in the bank and
people be in line. She walk up to the front
of the line and get in front of everybody, say
I'm old. Y'all got plenty of time. So well, go ahead, Bertha.
You might want to wait a couple of years before
you do that.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We also wanted to talk about the subplot where Eddie,
the oldest brother of the family, is asking Carl for
a period of a new hot top Jordans.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
You remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Person, Yeah, because what is it? Kareem? Now, he had
some Kareem abdu Jabbar's who was no longer even in
the league at the time, and so he felt like
he needs some new high top Jordans. The car tells
him he's going to pay for the new shoes himself.
So Eddie works overtime at his job and if the
market then he raises the money. And note that he
was a fifteen year old with a job, with a job,
(15:52):
a job to pay real money. Again, it's a demonstration
up because you know Eddie's character, Lord blesses Her wasn't
Aboutey's ball and Jamie wasn't fun behind him in this
episode with thats fun but that baby that dog on
Darius did I meet him? When he said I was
(16:13):
sad when I met the man that had no shoes
until I met the man that had no feet? And
Darius goes, did I meet him? Stuff like that just
cracks me up. But then to see him come back
having thought about what Carl said, having thought about what
he was asking of the family at a time when
(16:34):
that money was really needed. So sweet to see him
come down and contribute. Like I said, everybody did something, everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That's why I started off asking you, like, at what
point do you know that you raise that somebody who's
able to read the room. I thought that was a
really cool part of it too, where he understood that
it was time to step up and be a contributed
member of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It's probably different for every kid you know, or everyone
in the family. I don't know. I think that's just
something that comes with age or with that kind of
input too, because that's another thing I like about the show.
There was a lot of love and stuff poured into
the kids. You know. It wasn't just like go do
(17:16):
what I said and that's it, or you can't have
it because of this. It may have been funny the
way Reggie dealt with the shoes, but it was real.
And him coming back and begging for shoes anyway is
real too, because that's what kids do. I have one
that did that. Do you remember a show? I don't
remember what this was about, but my son had asked
(17:37):
me to do something, go somewhere or something, and I
already said no several times, and then he called me
on tape day at work, just about the time when
we would start filming.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Right, that's a good time, actually, because you're gonna get
a yes when the parent is distracted. That's when you're
gonna get what you want. Just leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He did not get a yes. And not only did
he not get it yes, I told him off so good.
You looked at me and said, ooh, you strict. No,
you was always the cool aunt. Maybe not the cool
mom though maybe not maybe not. Yeah, demonstrate that. But
that's what kids do, you know, they want something, they
just wear you down. I'm just gonna come back to you.
(18:19):
Just give it to me because you're sick of looking
at me.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
No. Were you aware of any other shows that were
dealing with content like that?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
No, I mean maybe back in the day, Good Times
or all in the Family, okay, but not the way
we dealt with it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Do you think that it was honest to the way
that black people are socialized in the country. Do you
feel like it was honest to your own upbringing? Because
I felt like it was very close to how I
was brought up.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Well, I was raised by my grandmother, So having a
grandmother in the house was natural for me, you know,
and that was really very familiar. And maybe that's why
we were so good at it, because it was foreign
to us. It was part of our natural DNA, our foundation,
how we were raised, how we were talked to as kids,
you know, because when I grew up, it wasn't just
(19:10):
your mother or your father or your grandmother. It was
a lady that had bank all the way down the
street for something somebody, you know, and they have already
called my grandmother and she's waiting for me for when
I get home. This is a blatant admission of cutting uppery.
Cutting uppery. That's a good one. It was some situation
(19:33):
ship happening, right. But yeah, I also.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Thought it was cool that looking at now, with all
the AI upgrades and stuff, that she loses her job
because human elevator operators have become absolute and we're looking
at that same thing right now with all the AI
jobs being lost. I thought that was really cool. Like
looking at it now, it actually is really cool to
see how much things change, but they're still the same.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They're always That's why there's the more things change, the
more they stayed the same, because it's really true, everything
is just a cycle.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Also, what stood out to me was Carl's character, how
supportive he was and how loving he was helping her
to get through that situation.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I was like, this is so that he calls no.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That he calls you know what I mean, but how
it's really.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Dope and his little pep talk.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah, And when I look at the show, it's like
looking at a real family, and I know that that
seems crazy, but I guess because we are all still
so close and in touch, that family matters was really
an extension of our families because we were all so
involved with each other, you know, and spent so much
time with each other. Yeah, and I love the Depression meal.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I'm do you remember the actual meal?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Vote?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
It was so good. It was good.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
People must have gotten that recipe from somebody who just
came out the Great Depression.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I think that helped them with yes, because she was serious.
I mean, some of the stuff she talked about she
really lived through. We didn't, but she did.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Because it's not important to me because I remember that meal.
It was super cold.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
It was in the corn bread. I mean, that's what's
funny that black women could take something that nobody wanted
make it taste good enough for people to be when
you're gonna cook that again, you know. I was telling
the thing about when they used to make soup. When
my grandmother would make soup, she would just go to
the butcher and he would give hers, you know, soup bones,
and it would be bones that still had some meat
(21:35):
on it for flavoring and all that, and she would
use that to make soup. But once they figured out
that black people were using that, they started charging for
the bones for bones, girl, but.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
They were throwing away. I was looking at this thing
that said that it's expensive to be black.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
It's a menth Then you will take something that was.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
For free and make it work for him.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
They did.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
They started charging bag and sticking one of those labels
on them. But that depression, it was good Rick. When
she gave the whole top, Reggie said, well, I'm depressed
and ate all of it. He gives the greatest looks
and sides, and I just love us, can you tell?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
So listen.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Harriet had some great speeches during the show, right, Oh yes,
what'd you think about the speech she gave to her
boss at the Chronicle as to why she should get.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
The new job.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh honey, she tore him a new booty. She really
got down with that. I mean she did. She told
him exactly why she was qualified for the job, and
she was exactly right. It may not have been on
a piece of paper, but she's been managing. She took
care of her sister when her husband died. She's running
a household with a bunch of crazy people. She took
(22:53):
in her mother in law. She's running the house, working, cooking,
picking up the cleaning. I mean she was doing everything
that you need to know how to do in management
and finances because she could turn a nickel into a dime.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
And it changed his mind. So it worked.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
M it really worked. And I love the fact that
everybody pitched in. I mean we have the little silly
stuff we were doing, and you know, some people don't
know and actually you probably I don't know. You make
a dollar twenty five now stuffing envelopes that that's a
real thing. But yeah, it was a real thing. Back
in the day, they used to have these things called
magazines and newspapers, what your Man on the Internet, And
(23:37):
in the back of those they would have like ads
want ads. You could get a job, you could be
a medical assistant, you could stuff an envelope, you get
a place to live. You might be able to get
in an audition. Because they even had them in the
Hollywood Reporter, in the billboard in the back right, because
let's face it, actors need more than one job because
other than that, we starved at there.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So does anything stuck out to you? Because I also
I was thinking of the meat two movements, not in
that creepy guy way, but like in well when she
was talking to mister secret, how condescending he.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Was, Oh, my dear, right, and how.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
She didn't have any really qualifications to get the other
job that she was seeking, right, And I was like, right,
this stuff has been going on forever.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That sucks and it still goes on. I mean it does.
You learn to work with it if you want to work.
But yeah, he was very kindness in the way he
was dear, Oh, he does not like you, but it
is just like so when she stated her case and
(24:40):
made her case for that job, she didn't leave much
choice but to give it to her, even though it
didn't look like it was going to happen when she
was there. But she straightened him out. And we have
to remember that he knew her as a person. The
one of the reasons why they hadn't gotten an elevator
that rid offer in the first place cause they didn't
want to fire her. So there's obviously some feeling there,
(25:02):
you know, and the operation.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
But she even knew how to do that job and
she wasn't even in that position.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
That's so dope exactly. Yeah, we some bad Mamma Jammas
come on now. Then this whole episode we talk about
Harriet's job. We never saw call lead the house one
time and he had a full time job. Wait a minute,
and had a magazine sitting in a chair every time
she came home. Maybe what happened?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I tell my husband that all the time. You know,
they got a saying for it. Now call the second shift.
You go to work all day, then you got to
come home, cook, clean, have relationship with the husband.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Do what you not me?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
You want dinner? You want some fun? Which one? Pick one?
Because you ain't getting both.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
That's what you call the overplay for the underlay. See
it's a trick, and I got I keep that game
real quick. Look you want this.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Or the that? Because it's gonna be this or that,
it ain't gonna be both.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I keep asking my mother and people from that generation,
how were y'all doing it? How would you guys doing it?
Nothing out of place? Everything, You couldn't have been sleeping.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Oh we were.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
This looks so much work. I tell young girls all time,
you better be sure that's what you want to do,
because if I had to do it all over again,
I would have got a boob job and become a
compensated girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
A compensated girlfriend, Now that's a good term girl. I'm
gonna have to use that somewhere. But you really had
got no boobs, you had planning. What's you doing? Mom?
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, but I would have a bigger one.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I want something. I want to go to boyfriend. Boyfriends
are fun, and husband's are the reason they made the
TV show, snapped.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
The hobby. Ain't gonna hear this no time soon, is it?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, well except for my husband. He's like the bomb
clean crazy child, because ain't nobody that's crazy enough to
marry me. I was just joking, babe, I love you
if you are the nuts.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, So now that we discussed the show a little bit,
let's talk about some facts.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What kind of facts do you want?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Well, if you didn't know, Family Matters was a spin
off of that ABC hit Perfect Strangers, where Harriet was
the elevator operator at.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
The Chicago Chronicle.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You knew that, yes, but just for everybody else.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yeah, And of course they got Reggie from die Hard.
I guess that's why.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
He was that cop right.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
This episode is one of the only episodes where we
actually see Harriet at her place of work. Yep, he
always references it, but we never see her there exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And our crack research staff got some interesting information to
give about just what elevator operators back in the day made.
An elevator operator in Chicago in nineteen eighty nine, which
is when Harriet was working, would earn about eighteen to
twenty two thousand dollars a year. Now, that's almost pop level,
(28:00):
but not back in the day. Well, listen to this though.
As head of security, honey, we would have been sailing.
She would have made somewhere between thirty and forty five
thousand dollars annually.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
What the evening.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
That was big money back in the day.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So the whole thing was an exercise and upgrading your life.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So all she needed to just was have faith, yeah,
and tell people all and then she got what she deserved.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
What she was good at doing.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh wow, that's awesome. She put us in the money.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
People were actually living in a major city for eighteen
thousand dollars. That's not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's long enough ago where eighteen thousand dollars was a
lot more than it is now. Now. It's a burking
and a cheap burking at that a burking bag, you know.
But eighteen thousand dollars black women could have lived on
today'd have been thinking they were rich. Honey. They'd have
had stays, all kind of stuff at the house. We'd
(28:58):
have made it at work, you know, and it went
a lot fired.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I wish I could have seen more episodes of her
with that security job. I bet you that was hilarious.
Talk about police academy with Hey.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I mean, get her off my back for a minute,
because she was always losing me around.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
That's what you gotta do to your younger sisters. You
gotta keep them in line. What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yes, I remember, I remember how you treated your sisters.
Don't make me go there, all right? What else, so, Kelly.
Another interesting fact about this episode that I didn't even
remember is that this episode, the second episode, was Jamie
Foxworth's Foxworth's first episode. I can't even say her name.
(29:39):
I know what you mean, Thank goodness. Can you say it?
Say it three times really fast? No, never mind, because
I'm gonna sound crazy too. But in the pilot episode,
and I had totally forgotten about it, it was played
by Valerie Jones, and as a matter of fact, on
the second episode, she's still sitting at the table in
the titles, and then Jamie shows up.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We're diabolical.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I mean, it's just changing people out, leaving some people
in a spot of episode next to this is somebody
else calling the same name.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
At the end of the episode.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
What in the world, And we make it work whether
it works or not. No, speaking of Valerie, though, you know,
I often wonder what she did after that. I know
she did two episodes of Fresh Prince bell Are, but
I don't know what happened after that. So Valerie, if
you're out there, honey, give us a call. Let us know.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
No, we want to catch up. And the first Richie's
also yes.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Oh the big Whens Julius and Joseph. Yes, they were
so cute. They got fired at fourteen months. What kind
of business are we in? And then a three year
old shows up. Now we haven't aged, but all of
a sudden, my son is three years old. Loved me
(31:02):
some bright though, but that was so funny to me.
I was like, wait a minute, he don't look like
the last baby, right, But there were some cute babies.
I loved that. Part of it just really sold me
because I got to be mommy again, you know. And
I just loved having those babies. It was so much
fun until they started biting me. Then I didn't quite
like him as much as I used to.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
They used to.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yes, we didn't have a baby wrangler. Remember you were
your own baby wrangler for the show. Honey. You saw
me chasing them babies down in the show. I was
the baby wrangler and the mama anybody else that happened
to be nearby, but we didn't have anybody.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
That's why I never put a mom baby started biting
Bye baby.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well they kind of got buy baby after that too.
That was the end of the first season, and that
was that. They must have gone upstairs with Judy. We
got a whole bunch of actors upstairs at the Winslow
house that apparently has thirty five bedrooms upstairs and it's
only two feet long, you know it. That is the
craziest thing to me. Everybody had a bedroom. How I
had a bedroom, Richie had a bedroom. You had a bedroom. Kids.
(32:06):
I was like, how many bedrooms are up there? There
are three rooms downstairs.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
My father had there was thirteen of them. They lived
in a five bedroom house. I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I bet, I bet there are people that have lived
in a lot less bedrooms than that, thirteen of them
stacked up. You do bunk beds, girl, Yeah, stacks and
stacks a bunk bed right. My father said that when
they used to have friends over there, like just slide over, we'll.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Make do.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Make room for the new one.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Was Jesus there with the loads of bread?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Was up dividing it up? Was he feeding the people?
Was my grandmother there because she would have tried to
feed him. They should have called Birth Earth on the move,
Birth to come up there. Girl, Wait a minute, I
have to tell this about my grandmother. Bless your heart.
She in heaven now so she can't come get me.
My grandmother. You remember PanAm airlines. Of course she had
(32:59):
her a PanAm bad. My grandmother came to La with
an entire ham in her carry on bag. That's how
she traveled, Like we don't have ham in La. And
I was joking. I picked her up at the airport,
you know, but I was like, Bertha, what a you
got in that bag of ham? I said, what do
(33:19):
you got that bag of ham? She come out? Yeah.
I was like for real, I mean she would come
with ham spam, being a sausages all stuff. I said,
you know we have that out here. We have lots
of food.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
I bet you.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Bertha knew she wasn't paying anything for that hambone. She
was gonna slice that ham up, make a couple of sandwiches,
and then she had something to make, some stuff to
put in her greens.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So she was.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thinking, again, we have ham. But the fact that I
could actually see the bone of the ham sticking out
of the pocket in the airline bag, I was just done.
And everybody around her just fell out when she said,
cause she was like, matter of fact, yeah, she did
that all the time. She did. Well, this has been fun.
(34:06):
Have we covered everything? Is that it for the show
for the week? Are week done for the week? Could
that be?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I'm sure after we get off here, we're gonna call
and I'm gonna talk to y'all for another two hours.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That's what Jess thinking, now that you told me, I'll
be gone. No, that's it for this week, but stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, we're gonna rewatch each episode of Family Matters week
by week, so make sure to rewatch the show right
along with us. You can catch it on Hulu and
TVs and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Tloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam Ripped, JD Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's fobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The show is produced by Helme and I but our
series producer is Irelen Michin and our theme songs lyrics
were written by JD.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Hopkins and Adam RiPP.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
The theme song was scored and mixed by Matt Noble,
who's also our series mixer.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Follow us on Instagram and Welcome to the Family Pod
for behind the scenes photos and more bonus content.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
And don't forget to leave us a voicemail at our website,
thefamilymatterspod dot com. We want to hear your thoughts and
favorite memories of the show and let us know if
you need advice, because we're good for some bad advice
we might be able to help you with your own
family matters, and.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Make sure to rate and review us wherever you're listening.
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yes, welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time. Welcome to the family. Audiation
Reminiscence, omission, this day and age, Kelly and Tilma and
we're turning the pay We're talking family matters. It's about
those times.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Tell them what happened between the line.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
We're bringing the cast and crew and you and your
family too. That's all we need is Kelly and me
talking about the stories of a family. Drive.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We're serving up but.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Taste a bat in the day.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Girls, family, listen to us.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We've got something to say. Well say, there's plenty of
roomy from the sun to the moon. Family weather, it's
midnight or no God with Kelly and me.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Welcome to the fam, Elie, Kelly, Welcome to the family, y'all. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
I'm Telma and I'm Kelly. And in the nineties we
both started in a little sitcom you may have heard of,
called Family Matters, right, a.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Little sitcom only one of the longest running sitcoms with
a black cast.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, but we only did two hundred and fifteen episodes.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I'm tired just thinking about it. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I played Laura Winslow, the Smart and Sessey middle sibling
of the.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Family Smart and Sessey some things haven't changed. And I
played Aunt Rachel, Harriet Winslow's younger sister who moved in
with the family with their baby son, Ritchie in tow Okay.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Now, in our first episode in the podcast, we talked
all about the pallada of Family Matters and how we
both got involved with the show and how we true
became a real life family. If you haven't listened to that,
what are you even doing here? Go back and get
all the juice details.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, and after you listen to the pilot, come right
on back, because today we're gonna be talking all about
season one, episode two of Family Matters, which was called
two Income Family. But before we get into all that,
let's catch up a little bit. Kelly. What's up with you? Kenny?
Speaker 4 (02:22):
What's up girl?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Girl? Way more those driverless cars, they way more of
them than their need to be. I was driving to
get my nails done, having the glands over. Nice cute
guy nodded at me. I looked back and there was
nobody in the driver's seat.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Girl.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Those things freaked me out. I'm sorry, la is turning
into the Jetsons.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Girl.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Driverless cars everywhere they're way molds. So that's what's up
with me?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
What's that with you what's up with me?
Speaker 3 (03:03):
Well, in the back of my mind when I was
raising kids, I always thought to myself, at what point
do you know that you're not raising a serial killer?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And my kids?
Speaker 3 (03:14):
My kids are finally getting to the age where I
really like them, Like I think we're putting out good
people into the world, and so just watching them grow
and become real people, you know, separate and apart from us,
I think that they're pretty cool. You have a good
relationship with your son. When did you realize I think
I did good.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I'm still working on that. No, no, no, actually, you
know I always say that my son is my best work.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Man.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I love my career, I love everything that I've accomplished
and continue to accomplish, but I still consider him my
best work.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Okay, so keep praying for me because I'm still new
to the game.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I knew, girl, how old is hann now?
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Fifteen?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Oh? I wasn't ready for that. Okay, take it back,
Take it back, lady, And I'm an old my so
yeah I am. If you say something Ather said, somebody
ain't gonna make the graduation. But listen, were rolling? Oh girl,
you know, Pat don't know what she's talking about we
can't pay attention. Pat's her mom. In case you're wondering,
(04:14):
I guess it's about time we talk about the show,
don't you think, I mean, let's get into that. So
today we are talking all about two income family, which
was a second episode of the first season of Family Matters.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Well, here's a little bit of an overview. Harriet, the
matriarch of the family played by Joe Marie Payton, loses
her job as an elevator operator. They don't even have
those much anymore at all. Nope, got replaced by Ai,
I guess, and then the family has to cut costs
while she looks for new work. Now, after a period
without luck finding a job, Harriet gets much needed confidence
(04:51):
with a pep talk from carl Or, her husband played
by reginaldvel Johnson. Right now, Harriet interviews for a security
job at a old place, and she gets the job.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
This is a great episode for Jill Marie. I mean,
she was just fabulous. He chewed up that scene and
re split it out and then picked it up again.
But you know this episode aired Friday, September twenty ninth,
nineteen eighty nine. Dang yep I was only thirteen at
that time, so that would make me twenty three. Okay,
let's move on.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
But you still look good?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Well, thank you, darling. It's all rubber bands and fake mirrors. So, Kelly,
what else was going on on September nineteen eighty nine
that you know about? What can you tell us now?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
On September twenty ninth, the soul to soul song Back
to Life was the number one on R and B charts.
On September sixteenth, DeBie Turner became the third African American
to win the Miss USA pageant. On September twenty first,
the Senate come firm General Colin Powell as a chairman
of the Trice of Staff.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Do you remember that I met him at the White House?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Are you serious?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
You got some stories.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Last White House dinner for Reagan? We sang, oh wow, yep?
Speaker 4 (06:05):
What else?
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well? I was thinking that the one thing that really
kind of lends itself to this episode is the fact
that on that date, on September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty nine,
the dal Jones took a sharp drop and there was
a recession in America, which reflects the financial concerns of
the family. What was going on with us. I mean,
(06:27):
we had four generations of one family in one house
with two people bringing in an income, and it really
speaks to that time. I like that. That was realtive,
you know, and it still is really those Financially things
are tough for a lot of people right now.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Well now for you, babe, You've got a million jobs Jamaican.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, but I'm making a dollar on everyone. That's why
I have a billion. You know, they ain't paying real
money no more. I remember one time you told me
that NBC ge gave you a diamond ring. That's a
Christmas gift? Was it like a Tiffany Simmer ring? It
wasn't even a Christmas gift. It was a gift because
I sang at a luncheon of theirs. That's what I
(07:08):
was doing. Give me, let me get you one.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
Of these gowns out. You're about to be all over town.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You're gonna be my agent, exactly, get up there, Come on,
tell me, Wait a minute, did I tell you I
went on my first in person audition in four years
since COVID. Oh nice, that's a live people and everything.
It was great. I knew we were all excited, right.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
So for those of you who don't know. She doesn't
even need to go in person. Tell me working more
than anybody in Hollywood. She's James Brown, the woman version,
the hardest working woman in shows. She pop up and everything,
the Matrix.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
What's the name of the new show? Tell uh?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Please later? I don't know. Okay, Young and the Restless,
No that too, But I digress. So you know what
I noticed when I was watching I've kind of got
carried away. I watched three shows, but since I haven't
seen the shows in so long except for two thirty
in the morning when I'm half sleep, I was surprised
(08:10):
that I was really able to watch the show as
an audience. And what I find or have found thus far,
is that in every show, I actually get emotional. I
get teary. There are moments in every show that just
really touched my heart. And yes, and I guess being
(08:34):
away from it so long, I really get it. When
you're in it, you're just in it, you're working, you're
doing the publicity, you're all over the place. To go
back and see it now as an audience, it's a
really good show. And I'm not just saying it because
I'm on it, although I am on it. Don't forget that.
It's a really good show. It's a meaty show. Even
(08:58):
though it's funny. It's got just nuggets of reality that
are so tasty to me. I was shocked at my
own reaction, I really was, but it just really got me.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
That's funny. I feel that too.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
But coming back to it as an adult and seeing
like the things never mind, but I mean at a
different place in life than you were when you initially
had interaction with the material. Oh my gosh, black women
are the bomb. Like this specific episode I was watching
(09:30):
how just she was a soldier?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, a warrior? Really.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
My mother let me be in a book group with
her and her friends when I was a teenager, and
I forget the book we were reading, but one of
the ladies brought in an article that said the black
women are only second to Japanese men in the preference
of their counterpart and that we would actually rather die
alone than not be with them. Wow, that we love
our families in such a way that we would to
(09:55):
not have it. I'll choose nothing before not having that.
And how she approaches this difficult situation in that same way.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
And still with that kind of I mean you know,
she's discouraged, but there's that kind of steel backbone that
women have and that black women have had to have
down through the years that you just see come out.
It's so ironical. I laugh about Reggie being the one
to really pump her up to go get that job,
but he's also the one that lost the job in
the first place. Tell they go in there and demand.
(10:30):
But I just love the way this family our family,
because it really does feel like my family, not just
my family on TV.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I really love the way this family supports each other
and comes together and all their dysfunction to be there
for each other. And we need to see more of
that right now. There's a lot of just negativity and
anger and disappointment and discouragement and all sorts of things
(10:59):
out there. I think it's wonderful to go back and
see a show that really represents not just black families.
We are a black family, but just to remember what
a real family looks like and acts like mm hmm.
I'm really proud of us. I'm really proud of us.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
And also, I.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Mean just bringing it back home to how much you're
totally that same type of chick though you were on
the road. You were still traveling with Tony, Orlando and Don,
you still had a kid, you still were working, and
I was some girl from Maryland that you just met.
You still had enough for me. I just think about
that all the time.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
You're so dope.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
I ask my mother this all the time. Where were
y'all getting all of this juice from? I mean, I
get my stuff delivered, my groceries delivered.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Anything.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Time I could take a shortcut, I take it. Because
to the ground, how were y'all doing it? We didn't
know any different, you know, we didn't have all those
the Amazons and all that stuff. We did what needed
to be done, when it needed to be done. We
just did. I used to laugh at my grandmother because
(12:07):
she would just get on my nerves. Every time somebody
would come to the house. She had to feed them.
Half the time they'd be staying on the couch, and
I mean, she just felt the need to nurture everyone
she came in contact with. You too, wore up and down.
I would not be that person, swore up and down.
I am that person. It is at my core. I'm Bertha.
(12:29):
Oh God, give me a moment to get over that Okay, okay,
I'm over it. I watched my grandmother take care of me,
take care of her daughter, take care of my sisters,
take care of her husband, take care of the house.
And so even though you don't know your being schooled,
you're being schooled absolutely, and luckily, you know, when I
(12:50):
had my son, I was not an old mom. I
was a young mom, and I was too stupid to
know it was supposed to be hard. So I just
had fun. I drugged him on the road with us.
He did Mike Douglas. He was on stage with us
in Vegas. We would stick him up in the bandstand
with the guys, and he had a little ukulele and
he knew all the songs would look like he was
actually doing something. He did an American bandstand with it.
(13:11):
I just drug him all over the world with me.
You did that to me too, yep, I did. I
drug both of you a couple of times, and I
think about it. It was just what we did. It
didn't seem that hard. That's what we still do. I mean,
you know now I do.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
I do now that I'm a mom, I know.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
But I love how this episode actually just highlighted that
about black women, and how we some soldiers yep, like
I said, warriors. Yeah, as long as we have each other.
You know, we had everybody, all these people pitching in
to make sure that everything didn't stop it when Harriet
loses their job. You can really see the heart of
the show in the way that this family cares about
(13:49):
each other.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, and that's what gets me. It gets me because
I didn't associate with it like that when we were
doing it. So going back now, like I said an audience,
I see why the show has been on fro is
it forty years? Thirty five years? How long has it
been forever?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Show?
Speaker 2 (14:06):
It's been on forever. But I see why there will
always be a need for a show like this. I think, Yeah,
I really do. And I'm so Joe Marie's not here,
but I want to give her her kudos. Girl, you
did your thing on that show. Oh I get chills
just thinking about it. You were wonderful and I'm just
(14:28):
so proud of us. So prayerless and mother winslow and
we go there, that's your girl. Just start off so good.
She's gonna start off the prayer just lifting up everything
and lifting up Joe Marie lifted it up thing I.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
Put it in there.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Ye Lord, please help Joe Marie as she goes and
gets burned out a job job. So this is my
other question, And what age can you just really start
telling people what you really think? Because I'm ready to
get there right now. Well, I started at thirty five,
so have license at a girl, do Y'll find tell
(15:05):
them all. My grandmother used to just cut people off.
She didn't even care. She'd go in the bank and
people be in line. She walk up to the front
of the line and get in front of everybody, say
I'm old. Y'all got plenty of time. So well, go ahead, Bertha.
You might want to wait a couple of years before
you do that.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
We also wanted to talk about the subplot where Eddie,
the oldest brother of the family, is asking Carl for
a period of a new hot top Jordans.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
You remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Person, Yeah, because what is it? Kareem? Now, he had
some Kareem abdu Jabbar's who was no longer even in
the league at the time, and so he felt like
he needs some new high top Jordans. The car tells
him he's going to pay for the new shoes himself.
So Eddie works overtime at his job and if the
market then he raises the money. And note that he
was a fifteen year old with a job, with a job,
(15:52):
a job to pay real money. Again, it's a demonstration
up because you know Eddie's character, Lord blesses Her wasn't
Aboutey's ball and Jamie wasn't fun behind him in this
episode with thats fun but that baby that dog on
Darius did I meet him? When he said I was
(16:13):
sad when I met the man that had no shoes
until I met the man that had no feet? And
Darius goes, did I meet him? Stuff like that just
cracks me up. But then to see him come back
having thought about what Carl said, having thought about what
he was asking of the family at a time when
(16:34):
that money was really needed. So sweet to see him
come down and contribute. Like I said, everybody did something, everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
That's why I started off asking you, like, at what
point do you know that you raise that somebody who's
able to read the room. I thought that was a
really cool part of it too, where he understood that
it was time to step up and be a contributed
member of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
It's probably different for every kid you know, or everyone
in the family. I don't know. I think that's just
something that comes with age or with that kind of
input too, because that's another thing I like about the show.
There was a lot of love and stuff poured into
the kids. You know. It wasn't just like go do
(17:16):
what I said and that's it, or you can't have
it because of this. It may have been funny the
way Reggie dealt with the shoes, but it was real.
And him coming back and begging for shoes anyway is
real too, because that's what kids do. I have one
that did that. Do you remember a show? I don't
remember what this was about, but my son had asked
(17:37):
me to do something, go somewhere or something, and I
already said no several times, and then he called me
on tape day at work, just about the time when
we would start filming.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Right, that's a good time, actually, because you're gonna get
a yes when the parent is distracted. That's when you're
gonna get what you want. Just leave me alone.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He did not get a yes. And not only did
he not get it yes, I told him off so good.
You looked at me and said, ooh, you strict. No,
you was always the cool aunt. Maybe not the cool
mom though maybe not maybe not. Yeah, demonstrate that. But
that's what kids do, you know, they want something, they
just wear you down. I'm just gonna come back to you.
(18:19):
Just give it to me because you're sick of looking
at me.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
No. Were you aware of any other shows that were
dealing with content like that?
Speaker 2 (18:25):
No, I mean maybe back in the day, Good Times
or all in the Family, okay, but not the way
we dealt with it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Do you think that it was honest to the way
that black people are socialized in the country. Do you
feel like it was honest to your own upbringing? Because
I felt like it was very close to how I
was brought up.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Well, I was raised by my grandmother, So having a
grandmother in the house was natural for me, you know,
and that was really very familiar. And maybe that's why
we were so good at it, because it was foreign
to us. It was part of our natural DNA, our foundation,
how we were raised, how we were talked to as kids,
you know, because when I grew up, it wasn't just
(19:10):
your mother or your father or your grandmother. It was
a lady that had bank all the way down the
street for something somebody, you know, and they have already
called my grandmother and she's waiting for me for when
I get home. This is a blatant admission of cutting uppery.
Cutting uppery. That's a good one. It was some situation
(19:33):
ship happening, right. But yeah, I also.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Thought it was cool that looking at now, with all
the AI upgrades and stuff, that she loses her job
because human elevator operators have become absolute and we're looking
at that same thing right now with all the AI
jobs being lost. I thought that was really cool. Like
looking at it now, it actually is really cool to
see how much things change, but they're still the same.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
They're always That's why there's the more things change, the
more they stayed the same, because it's really true, everything
is just a cycle.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
Also, what stood out to me was Carl's character, how
supportive he was and how loving he was helping her
to get through that situation.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I was like, this is so that he calls no.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
That he calls you know what I mean, but how
it's really.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Dope and his little pep talk.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Yeah, And when I look at the show, it's like
looking at a real family, and I know that that
seems crazy, but I guess because we are all still
so close and in touch, that family matters was really
an extension of our families because we were all so
involved with each other, you know, and spent so much
time with each other. Yeah, and I love the Depression meal.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I'm do you remember the actual meal?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Vote?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
It was so good. It was good.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
People must have gotten that recipe from somebody who just
came out the Great Depression.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
I think that helped them with yes, because she was serious.
I mean, some of the stuff she talked about she
really lived through. We didn't, but she did.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Because it's not important to me because I remember that meal.
It was super cold.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
It was in the corn bread. I mean, that's what's
funny that black women could take something that nobody wanted
make it taste good enough for people to be when
you're gonna cook that again, you know. I was telling
the thing about when they used to make soup. When
my grandmother would make soup, she would just go to
the butcher and he would give hers, you know, soup bones,
and it would be bones that still had some meat
(21:35):
on it for flavoring and all that, and she would
use that to make soup. But once they figured out
that black people were using that, they started charging for
the bones for bones, girl, but.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
They were throwing away. I was looking at this thing
that said that it's expensive to be black.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
It's a menth Then you will take something that was.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
For free and make it work for him.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
They did.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
They started charging bag and sticking one of those labels
on them. But that depression, it was good Rick. When
she gave the whole top, Reggie said, well, I'm depressed
and ate all of it. He gives the greatest looks
and sides, and I just love us, can you tell?
Speaker 4 (22:22):
So listen.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
Harriet had some great speeches during the show, right, Oh yes,
what'd you think about the speech she gave to her
boss at the Chronicle as to why she should get.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
The new job.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Oh honey, she tore him a new booty. She really
got down with that. I mean she did. She told
him exactly why she was qualified for the job, and
she was exactly right. It may not have been on
a piece of paper, but she's been managing. She took
care of her sister when her husband died. She's running
a household with a bunch of crazy people. She took
(22:53):
in her mother in law. She's running the house, working, cooking,
picking up the cleaning. I mean she was doing everything
that you need to know how to do in management
and finances because she could turn a nickel into a dime.
Speaker 4 (23:07):
And it changed his mind. So it worked.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
M it really worked. And I love the fact that
everybody pitched in. I mean we have the little silly
stuff we were doing, and you know, some people don't
know and actually you probably I don't know. You make
a dollar twenty five now stuffing envelopes that that's a
real thing. But yeah, it was a real thing. Back
in the day, they used to have these things called
magazines and newspapers, what your Man on the Internet, And
(23:37):
in the back of those they would have like ads
want ads. You could get a job, you could be
a medical assistant, you could stuff an envelope, you get
a place to live. You might be able to get
in an audition. Because they even had them in the
Hollywood Reporter, in the billboard in the back right, because
let's face it, actors need more than one job because
other than that, we starved at there.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
So does anything stuck out to you? Because I also
I was thinking of the meat two movements, not in
that creepy guy way, but like in well when she
was talking to mister secret, how condescending he.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Was, Oh, my dear, right, and how.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
She didn't have any really qualifications to get the other
job that she was seeking, right, And I was like, right,
this stuff has been going on forever.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
That sucks and it still goes on. I mean it does.
You learn to work with it if you want to work.
But yeah, he was very kindness in the way he
was dear, Oh, he does not like you, but it
is just like so when she stated her case and
(24:40):
made her case for that job, she didn't leave much
choice but to give it to her, even though it
didn't look like it was going to happen when she
was there. But she straightened him out. And we have
to remember that he knew her as a person. The
one of the reasons why they hadn't gotten an elevator
that rid offer in the first place cause they didn't
want to fire her. So there's obviously some feeling there,
(25:02):
you know, and the operation.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
But she even knew how to do that job and
she wasn't even in that position.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
That's so dope exactly. Yeah, we some bad Mamma Jammas
come on now. Then this whole episode we talk about
Harriet's job. We never saw call lead the house one
time and he had a full time job. Wait a minute,
and had a magazine sitting in a chair every time
she came home. Maybe what happened?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
I tell my husband that all the time. You know,
they got a saying for it. Now call the second shift.
You go to work all day, then you got to
come home, cook, clean, have relationship with the husband.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Do what you not me?
Speaker 2 (25:43):
You want dinner? You want some fun? Which one? Pick one?
Because you ain't getting both.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
That's what you call the overplay for the underlay. See
it's a trick, and I got I keep that game
real quick. Look you want this.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Or the that? Because it's gonna be this or that,
it ain't gonna be both.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I keep asking my mother and people from that generation,
how were y'all doing it? How would you guys doing it?
Nothing out of place? Everything, You couldn't have been sleeping.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Oh we were.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
This looks so much work. I tell young girls all time,
you better be sure that's what you want to do,
because if I had to do it all over again,
I would have got a boob job and become a
compensated girlfriend.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
A compensated girlfriend, Now that's a good term girl. I'm
gonna have to use that somewhere. But you really had
got no boobs, you had planning. What's you doing? Mom?
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah, but I would have a bigger one.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
I want something. I want to go to boyfriend. Boyfriends
are fun, and husband's are the reason they made the
TV show, snapped.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
The hobby. Ain't gonna hear this no time soon, is it?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (26:49):
No?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah, well except for my husband. He's like the bomb
clean crazy child, because ain't nobody that's crazy enough to
marry me. I was just joking, babe, I love you
if you are the nuts.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Okay, So now that we discussed the show a little bit,
let's talk about some facts.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
What kind of facts do you want?
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Well, if you didn't know, Family Matters was a spin
off of that ABC hit Perfect Strangers, where Harriet was
the elevator operator at.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
The Chicago Chronicle.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
You knew that, yes, but just for everybody else.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yeah, And of course they got Reggie from die Hard.
I guess that's why.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
He was that cop right.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
This episode is one of the only episodes where we
actually see Harriet at her place of work. Yep, he
always references it, but we never see her there exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
And our crack research staff got some interesting information to
give about just what elevator operators back in the day made.
An elevator operator in Chicago in nineteen eighty nine, which
is when Harriet was working, would earn about eighteen to
twenty two thousand dollars a year. Now, that's almost pop level,
(28:00):
but not back in the day. Well, listen to this though.
As head of security, honey, we would have been sailing.
She would have made somewhere between thirty and forty five
thousand dollars annually.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
What the evening.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
That was big money back in the day.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
So the whole thing was an exercise and upgrading your life.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So all she needed to just was have faith, yeah,
and tell people all and then she got what she deserved.
Speaker 4 (28:28):
What she was good at doing.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh wow, that's awesome. She put us in the money.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
People were actually living in a major city for eighteen
thousand dollars. That's not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
It's long enough ago where eighteen thousand dollars was a
lot more than it is now. Now. It's a burking
and a cheap burking at that a burking bag, you know.
But eighteen thousand dollars black women could have lived on
today'd have been thinking they were rich. Honey. They'd have
had stays, all kind of stuff at the house. We'd
(28:58):
have made it at work, you know, and it went
a lot fired.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
I wish I could have seen more episodes of her
with that security job. I bet you that was hilarious.
Talk about police academy with Hey.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
I mean, get her off my back for a minute,
because she was always losing me around.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
That's what you gotta do to your younger sisters. You
gotta keep them in line. What are you talking about?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yes, I remember, I remember how you treated your sisters.
Don't make me go there, all right? What else, so, Kelly.
Another interesting fact about this episode that I didn't even
remember is that this episode, the second episode, was Jamie
Foxworth's Foxworth's first episode. I can't even say her name.
(29:39):
I know what you mean, Thank goodness. Can you say it?
Say it three times really fast? No, never mind, because
I'm gonna sound crazy too. But in the pilot episode,
and I had totally forgotten about it, it was played
by Valerie Jones, and as a matter of fact, on
the second episode, she's still sitting at the table in
the titles, and then Jamie shows up.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
We're diabolical.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
I mean, it's just changing people out, leaving some people
in a spot of episode next to this is somebody
else calling the same name.
Speaker 4 (30:11):
At the end of the episode.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
What in the world, And we make it work whether
it works or not. No, speaking of Valerie, though, you know,
I often wonder what she did after that. I know
she did two episodes of Fresh Prince bell Are, but
I don't know what happened after that. So Valerie, if
you're out there, honey, give us a call. Let us know.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
No, we want to catch up. And the first Richie's
also yes.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Oh the big Whens Julius and Joseph. Yes, they were
so cute. They got fired at fourteen months. What kind
of business are we in? And then a three year
old shows up. Now we haven't aged, but all of
a sudden, my son is three years old. Loved me
(31:02):
some bright though, but that was so funny to me.
I was like, wait a minute, he don't look like
the last baby, right, But there were some cute babies.
I loved that. Part of it just really sold me
because I got to be mommy again, you know. And
I just loved having those babies. It was so much
fun until they started biting me. Then I didn't quite
like him as much as I used to.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
They used to.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yes, we didn't have a baby wrangler. Remember you were
your own baby wrangler for the show. Honey. You saw
me chasing them babies down in the show. I was
the baby wrangler and the mama anybody else that happened
to be nearby, but we didn't have anybody.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
That's why I never put a mom baby started biting
Bye baby.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Well they kind of got buy baby after that too.
That was the end of the first season, and that
was that. They must have gone upstairs with Judy. We
got a whole bunch of actors upstairs at the Winslow
house that apparently has thirty five bedrooms upstairs and it's
only two feet long, you know it. That is the
craziest thing to me. Everybody had a bedroom. How I
had a bedroom, Richie had a bedroom. You had a bedroom. Kids.
(32:06):
I was like, how many bedrooms are up there? There
are three rooms downstairs.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
My father had there was thirteen of them. They lived
in a five bedroom house. I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
I bet, I bet there are people that have lived
in a lot less bedrooms than that, thirteen of them
stacked up. You do bunk beds, girl, Yeah, stacks and
stacks a bunk bed right. My father said that when
they used to have friends over there, like just slide over, we'll.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
Make do.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Make room for the new one.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
Was Jesus there with the loads of bread?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Was up dividing it up? Was he feeding the people?
Was my grandmother there because she would have tried to
feed him. They should have called Birth Earth on the move,
Birth to come up there. Girl, Wait a minute, I
have to tell this about my grandmother. Bless your heart.
She in heaven now so she can't come get me.
My grandmother. You remember PanAm airlines. Of course she had
(32:59):
her a PanAm bad. My grandmother came to La with
an entire ham in her carry on bag. That's how
she traveled, Like we don't have ham in La. And
I was joking. I picked her up at the airport,
you know, but I was like, Bertha, what a you
got in that bag of ham? I said, what do
(33:19):
you got that bag of ham? She come out? Yeah.
I was like for real, I mean she would come
with ham spam, being a sausages all stuff. I said,
you know we have that out here. We have lots
of food.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
I bet you.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Bertha knew she wasn't paying anything for that hambone. She
was gonna slice that ham up, make a couple of sandwiches,
and then she had something to make, some stuff to
put in her greens.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
So she was.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thinking, again, we have ham. But the fact that I
could actually see the bone of the ham sticking out
of the pocket in the airline bag, I was just done.
And everybody around her just fell out when she said,
cause she was like, matter of fact, yeah, she did
that all the time. She did. Well, this has been fun.
(34:06):
Have we covered everything? Is that it for the show
for the week? Are week done for the week? Could
that be?
Speaker 3 (34:12):
I'm sure after we get off here, we're gonna call
and I'm gonna talk to y'all for another two hours.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That's what Jess thinking, now that you told me, I'll
be gone. No, that's it for this week, but stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
Yeah, we're gonna rewatch each episode of Family Matters week
by week, so make sure to rewatch the show right
along with us. You can catch it on Hulu and
TVs and a bunch of other places.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Welcome to the Family with Telma and Kelly is a
production of iHeart Podcasts and Audiation. It's hosted by me
Tloma Hopkins and me Kelly Williams. Our executive producers are
Sandy Smalling's for audiation, Adam Ripped, JD Hopkins, who also
happens to be my son and Kelly's fobro, and Jonathan
Strickland for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
The show is produced by Helme and I but our
series producer is Irelen Michin and our theme songs lyrics
were written by JD.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
Hopkins and Adam RiPP.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
The theme song was scored and mixed by Matt Noble,
who's also our series mixer.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And we'd like to thank Nikki Etour and the entire
iHeart podcast team. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
Follow us on Instagram and Welcome to the Family Pod
for behind the scenes photos and more bonus content.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
And don't forget to leave us a voicemail at our website,
thefamilymatterspod dot com. We want to hear your thoughts and
favorite memories of the show and let us know if
you need advice, because we're good for some bad advice
we might be able to help you with your own
family matters, and.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
Make sure to rate and review us wherever you're listening.
We are so excited to have you guys along for
the ride.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yes, welcome to the family, y'all, and we'll see you
next time. Welcome to the family. Audiation
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