Straight A's is the fifth episode of the first season of Family Matters, which aired on ABC on October 20, 1989. It was directed by John Bowab and written both by Geoff Gordon and Gordon Lewis.
Synopsis[]
On report card day, Eddie is expecting the worst, Laura is expecting nothing but the best and Carl may be expecting too much from Eddie when Carl sees straight A's on Eddie's report card. What Carl and Eddie don't know is that Eddie's friend Rodney Beckett got into the school records and made a fake report card to make Eddie look good. How will Eddie break the news to his family when he finds out?
Plot[]
Laura and Judy are doing homework in the kitchen, while Rachel is coloring in Richie's color books. When she shows off her coloring skills, the two aren't impressed. Laura points out that she went over the lines again and of which Judy agrees with. Carl comes inside the kitchen and is angry with Eddie. He reports to the family that he caught Eddie pretending to study by leaving the TV on and listening to the radio on his boom box. He tells Harriette that they need to something with his studying skills(or lack thereof). Laura asks if Carl wants any of her suggestions. Harriette silences her by reminding her to do her homework. She then tells Carl that Eddie has just began high school and he's trying to adjust. Harriette mentions that last week it took him three hours to settle on a three ring binder. Not buying it, Carl pointed out that he made the mistake of buying two-hole paper. He is very concerned that Eddie isn't going to make it in high school with that kind of behavior.
On report card day, Eddie is expecting the worst and Laura is expecting nothing but the best. Judy is happy when she gets 2 As and 3 Bs and a good payment. Laura is happy at first when she believes she has gotten all A's. However, she's upset when Carl mentions that one of her grades is a B on her history class. He might be expecting too much from Eddie when he sees straight A's on Eddie's report card. Laura is in disbelief over this because even she knows he's not good at studying unlike her. What no one knows is that Eddie's practical jokester best friend, Rodney, got into the school records and made a fake report card to make him look good via his home computer in his room. The real report cards doesn't come out until tomorrow, revealed during his visit to Eddie's room.
This becomes a conflict over whether he should tell Carl the truth or not. Harriette previously warned Rodney not to pull any more pranks involving him putting saran wrap on the toilet again. Laura is still bummed over that one B in her class. Harriette tries to convince her it's still a passing grade, but she's not listening. Laura mentions her dreams to get into a top law-school university like Harvard. Rachel tries to talk to her about letting it go. She mentions the got into a good college despite not making as good of grades as Harriette and Laura did. Harriette mentions she made the wrong calculation on the chocolate chips for the cookies and has to toss them out. Laura claims they look fine to her until she figures out that it was just Harriette's way of trying to get her to forget about that B.
Eddie is real bummed over how Carl isn't listening to him and buying him presents such as a computer. He goes out into the back porch. Rachel happens to see him there and decides to talk to him. It's there Eddie finally confesses to her about Rodney's prank and doesn't know what to do. He comes up with two options: either study harder to bring his grades up. Rachel asks Eddie what his other option is and he reluctantly tells her that he should tell the truth. She admits that she likes that plan, but he's not sure. Eddie admits he's afraid to tell Carl because he will yell at him like he always does if he found out his grades were not as good as he thought. Rachel encourages him to do so and admits that he's a lot brighter than what Laura and anyone else gives him credit for. Eddie finally tells Carl and Harriette the truth about Rodney's prank. He even shows them his real report card with has 4 C's and 2 B's. Carl overreacted by mentioning that there are no A's on his report card. Eddie believes he has disappointed Carl again with his report card and leaves, believing he is stupid. After he walks upstairs into his room, Carl realizes he had hurt his feelings and realizes he was the stupid one for overreacting.
Carl comes inside Eddie's room to apologize for his earlier behavior. He mentions he knows it wasn't easy for Eddie to do the right thing and confess to his report card. He isn't convinced because he had been looking forward to bragging about his straight A's to Laura over the weekend and had wanted to go to school to brag on Monday Morning. Thanks to Rodney, Eddie feels stupid once more and is worried that she will make fun of him when she learns of this. Carl tells him that he's not stupid at all. He may be a bit undisciplined when it comes to studying but he's a bright young man. Plus, Eddie brought home his best report card Carl has seen for a long time. This brings him comfort and they reconcile. After coming downstairs, Harriette asks Carl if he wants her to cancel the appointment with the college recruiter from Harvard because he's here to talk to Eddie. The day is saved when Rachel convinces them to let her talk to him because she finds him attractive and heads inside the living room to talk to him, possibly to get herself a date too.
Cast[]
Main[]
- Reginald VelJohnson as Carl Winslow
- Jo Marie Payton as Harriette Winslow (credited as Jo Marie Payton-France)
- Rosetta LeNoire as Estelle Winslow
- Darius McCrary as Eddie Winslow
- Kellie Shanygne Williams as Laura Winslow
- Jaimee Foxworth as Judy Winslow
- Joseph and Julius Wright as Richie Crawford
- Telma Hopkins as Rachel Crawford
Guest[]
Recurring[]
- Randy Josselyn as Rodney Beckett
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The first appearance of Eddie's friend, Rodney Beckett.
- When this episode originally aired it was the first time Rosetta LeNoire’s credit was updated. She was still reading a magazine on the porch but she had a blue shirt on and it was zoomed in closer to her. This version of the credit however is used in episodes 1-4 of the “As Days Go By” Intro.
- This was the final episode to use “What A Wonderful World” as the theme song. It can still be seen in the outro credited as the theme song instead of As Days Go By like episodes 1-4 had updated it to.
Quotes[]
- Eddie: Well, I'm all finished studying for the night.
- Rachel: Hey, grab a crayon. You can color with us.
- Eddie: No thanks, I don't want to overload my brain.
- Laura: Tying your shoes overloads your brain!
- Eddie: Oh yeah? I can tie my shoes with both hands behind my back!
- Laura: I rest my case.
- Eddie: What's an incentive?
- Judy: Look it up!
- Eddie: Dad, listen. Before you open my report card, there's something you ought to know. My science teacher hates me. Oh, and during my math exam, I got extremely dizzy. I think I have an outer ear infection.
- Harriette: Eddie got straight A's!
- Laura: Our Eddie? This Eddie? Eddie Winslow?
- Eddie: Well, 6 A's, 5 bucks a piece, you owe me 40 bucks, Dad.
- Laura: 5 times 6 is 30. He can't even multiply!
- Eddie: I've got an A in math that says I can.
- Eddie: You mean these aren't my real grades?
- Rodney: Not unless you had a brain transplant!
- Eddie: Man, I thought I was smart.
- Rodney: You thought you were smart? What are you, stupid?
- Carl: Take a look at these college brochures I picked up for you. They're from the top ivy league colleges. How would you like to go to Columbia?
- Eddie: Why would I want to go to Columbia? I don't even speak Spanish!
- Eddie: Dad, you weren't really serious about sending me to Columbia, were you? You do know there's a drug war going on down there?
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