What did you say?! ‘Family Matters’ Star Jaleel White Almost Looks Like Rudy on ‘The Cosby Show’
How different would the world of black pop culture be if we never had the iconic characters Rudy Huxtable or Steve Urkel played by their original actors?
Well, it almost happened!
According to Entertainment Weekly, Family Matters star Jaleel White told the publication that The Cosby Show producers were close to casting Rudy as a boy alongside him.
“In 1984, I auditioned for The Cosby Show. And it was an emotional audition,” White recalled during EW’s recent reunion with him and his expenses.
“[Then-NBC president] Brandon Tartikoff was in the room. And Mr. Obviously Cosby. They brought everyone on the show, all the kids – they probably had us audition for about five or six hours. My agent was told that they pretty much agreed with [me], so I went to the audition thinking I had just gotten to the final audition. And then suddenly, this little girl walked in.”
That girl is Knight Keshia Pulliam.
It seems like no one at Family Matters knows about this old tea!
“Really? You’re telling us something,” said Telma Hopkins, who played Aunt Rachel on the hit ABC show ’90s with White. 90s with White, said. The 40-year-old actor continued: “I’m an adult now, so I understand — you would never [put the show online] without a choice. … It was a complete lie just to get me back,” White continued. “They flew everyone out to New York the next day to start rehearsals to do the show. … We were planning, we were packing, my mom and dad were trying to figure out how, because my dad was in dental school at the time — ‘How are we going to do this, Gail ? Going to New York with Jaleel to film?” And [the producers] came out after about six hours and they said to a bunch of little kids and their parents, ‘We’re going to take you, you, you, and you.’” He admitted told EW that he was truly devastated.
“I came home, and I just… I cried my eyes out. But I did what a child does when they’re hurt and they’re misbehaving. My mother had to grab me and shake me. She said, ‘If you react like that again in an audition, then you’re done [acting].’ She was probably even more confused when I reacted this way.
Apparently everything worked out because five years later, White was cast as Steve Urkel and the rest is television history!
