Direct From Hollywood with Ryan Seacrest: Jaleel White Shares the Story Behind Urkel’s Catch Phrase: “Did I Do That?”

Remember Steve Urkel’s iconic catchphrase...on Family Matters, “Did I do that?” Jaleel White who played Urkel shared the story behind it...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Direct from Hollywood with Ryan Seacrest.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Julia White's portrayal of the lovable nerd Erkle on the
hit sitcom Family Matters is one of the most enduring
characters of the nineteen nineties, and if you remember Erkele,
you also remember his catchphrase did I do that? I
just did that? Though Jalil shared with the Pod Meets
World podcast, nobody knew those four words would be the
ones to make such a big impact when writers dreamt
them up. He says, they tried a million catchphrases. The

(00:24):
first one was Steve just bumping into inanimate objects like
a lamp, knock it over and say excuse me. That
was it. But did I do that? Just stuck. It's
one of those things you lobbed them out to the crowd,
and back then it was completely about the immediate audience reaction.
You had that live studio audience to tell you in
real time what was working. There was no social media.
That's Jalil White on the birth of his character Steve

(00:45):
Urkle's I kind of catchphrase from Family Matters that's

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Direct from Hollywood.