Top photo: Sitcom Buzz / Own illustration, via Wikimedia Commons
Few things make a parent happier than a good report card, especially one nobody saw coming. In the fifth episode of Family Matters, Carl and Harriette Winslow got exactly that surprise. There was just one problem: the grades weren’t real.
“Straight A’s” aired on ABC on October 20, 1989. It was directed by John Bowab and written by Geoff Gordon and Gordon Lewis, and Wikipedia lists it at 22.4 million viewers.
A Report Card Nobody Expected
Eddie Winslow, played by Darius McCrary, was a likable teenager, but nobody would have called him a star student. His grades had usually been nothing special.
So when he came home with straight A’s, the whole house took notice. Carl and Harriette were thrilled. After all the talks about homework and trying harder, it looked as if their son had finally turned a corner.
Anyone who has raised a teenager can picture that moment. It is the kind of news that gets repeated to relatives and mentioned at work the next day.
The Friend With a Computer
Then Eddie learned the truth. His friend Rodney Beckett, played by Randy Josselyn, told him he had changed the grades on the school computer.
To viewers in 1989, that idea would have felt very modern. Computers were still finding their way into schools, and a few years earlier the movie WarGames had shown a teenager changing his grades the same way.
Eddie hadn’t asked for it to happen, but now he was the only one in the family who knew.
The Hardest Kind of Silence
This is where the episode gets interesting. Eddie could have gone straight to his parents. Instead, he said nothing.
His reason is what makes the story so easy to understand. He wasn’t just protecting himself. He didn’t want to hurt Carl, who was so proud of him.
Carl Winslow, played by Reginald VelJohnson, was a Chicago police officer who believed in doing things the right way. For Eddie, that made the secret even heavier. Every proud smile from his father was one more reason to feel guilty.
Most of us know that feeling from one side or the other. It is one thing to get in trouble. It is another to watch someone you love be proud of you for something you know isn’t true.
Before the Urkel Years
Like the other early episodes, “Straight A’s” comes from before Steve Urkel became the center of the show. These first stories stayed close to home, built around a working family and ordinary problems: bills, relatives, schoolwork and growing up.
That gave Darius McCrary room to show a different side of Eddie. He wasn’t only the wisecracking older brother. He was a boy who badly wanted his father’s approval and had just received it in the worst possible way.
A Question for Every Family
More than 35 years later, the question at the heart of this episode hasn’t aged a bit. When the truth is going to disappoint someone you love, how long can you keep quiet?
Did you ever bring home a report card that made your parents proud, or one you hoped they would never see? And if you were in Eddie’s place, would you have told your dad? Tell us in the comments.
Sources
- TVmaze: Family Matters 1×05
- Wikipedia: Family Matters season 1
- TV Guide: Family Matters Season 1 episodes
