Jaleel White Says ‘Seinfeld’s Kramer Inspired His Urkel

The original inspiration for Family Matters’ Urkel was a combination of Pee-wee Herman, the dorks from Revenge of the Nerds and Martin Short’s Ed Grimley, reveals Jaleel White in his memoir Growing Up Urkel. But on a recent episode of the Really No Really? podcast, White revealed that another TV character had a heavy influence on Urkel’s evolution. 

“You guys were just killing it,” White told host Jason Alexander about Seinfeld, a show that was peaking while the 16-year-old starred on his TGIF sitcom. “I’m looking at Kramer now as my role model because I’m seeing the spastic nature of his character, and I’m also watching the evolution of his character. Because it wasn’t nearly as spastic in the beginning and neither was mine. That’s something that just kind of happens once the audience starts to hang on to every word because they love you before you’ve even spoken. He was hitting the door and he could just start twitching and they would crack up. And guess what? I could do the same thing.”

Alexander was wowed, partially because he couldn’t believe Black people watched Seinfeld. He told White about an incident early in the show’s run. Alexander was a guest on Entertainment Tonight, filming B-roll on the street when a van drove by. “It’s a Black family and a girl — I’ll put her at 9 years old, 10 years old — leans out the window and shouts, ‘I love you, George!’” he remembered. “And I went, ‘What the hell is she watching?’ I’m doing a show that appeals to a Black family and a 9-year-old child? What is happening here?”

White assured Alexander that he loved Seinfeld and watched religiously before calling out the host for his weird assumptions. “You just brought up something that I absolutely have to throw into this conversation — that it was a shock for you for a Black girl to say, ‘George.’ In your mind, a Black girl couldn’t be watching.”

“I thought our audience was very specific,” Alexander stammered. 

“Let me tell you something,” White said. “You appealed to far more minorities and Blacks than you realize.” He told Alexander he’d get in trouble with his showrunner for showing up on filming days reciting the plots of the previous night’s Seinfeld episode. 

But White’s mild irritation with Alexander’s assumptions was evident. “As I got older and even being in college, I found it annoying that people would think, ‘Oh, you watched Seinfeld?’  I’m like, ‘Dude don’t do that.’ I know New York Undercover was on at the same time and Martin and Living Single, and I catch those shows how I catch them too. But Black culture is treated very monolithic in Hollywood,” he explained. “I’m here to tell you there’s a lot of Black girls and Hispanic girls and Puerto Rican girls that grew up loving some George Costanza.”