That awkward time when Urkel met Captain Kirk
Jaleel White co-stars on “Me, Myself & I” as Darryl, the best friend/confidant to 40-year-old inventor Alex (Bobby Moynihan), whose life unfolds in three stages on the freshman CBS sitcom. (Jack Dylan Grazer and John Larroquette play the teen and senior versions of Alex.)
“Darryl is Alex’s clean-cut best-friend since middle school,” says White. “Witty, loyal and supportive. In business, Alex is the dreamer and Darryl is Alex’s grounding force.”
White, 40, is best-known to viewers of a certain age as Steve Urkel, the nasal, geeky, suspenders-wearing next-door neighbor and breakout star on “Family Matters,” which aired from 1989-98 on ABC and CBS. Here, White talks about “Me, Myself & I” — and Urkel.
You’ve worked steadily, yet “Me, Myself & I” is your first co-starring role in quite some time. Why?
I think it’s a little bit of happenstance. I’ve been working in the single-camera [drama] format so much in the last several years [that] when a single-camera comedy came along I really wanted my shot at that. It all came together [on “Me, Myself & I”] — it made sense for the producers and for me. I literally made it a goal, because I’m a dad first and I have to take care of my daughter … I wanted to be on every network drama there is. It really almost got to the point where I didn’t care about the dialogue. I was just racing through ’em — “NCIS,” “Bones,” “Castle,” “Hawaii Five-0.” I did “Survivor’s Remorse” last year.
Did Urkel help or hinder your career?
I’m literally looking at Jason Alexander’s commercial for his new AT&T show [“Hit the Road”] as you’re asking me that question and find it hella ironic. He’s very much George Costanza [from “Seinfeld”] as far as I’m concerned. At the end of the day, I don’t care how talented you are, there’s an element of luck that goes into being in our business. I’ve got no gripes at all; very few people in this business get a chance to choose how they pop onto the scene. The good news is that pretty much every black woman who sees me is gonna call me [Urkel’s alter-ego] Stefan. They’re not gonna call me Urkel.
Would you ever reprise the role?
I think there’s some fun to be had but I’m focused on what I’m doing right now. I was at a Dodgers event recently and I passed [former child actor] Haley Joel Osment, who obviously looks very different now. He’s a grown man. I stopped him, shook his hand and was like, “Dude, you are a riot on ‘Silicon Valley,’ and we just had that kind of handshake … of being part of the fraternity that knows how to go about this. I know what he’s been through — and he didn’t wear any suspenders.
William Shatner used to gripe about being known as Capt. Kirk from “Star Trek.” Do you feel that way about Urkel?
I did an episode of “Boston Legal” with William Shatner and he didn’t even know who I was. I did a take and after the director yelled “cut!” he turned to me and said, “You’re pretty good, do you know you did kinda like a Jack Benny thing? You’ve got some chops.” I wish people could be humble enough to understand that this world is very generational, so if William Shatner didn’t know who I was, well, there’s a 6-year old someplace who doesn’t know him or me.