Rock Video is episode twenty-two and the finale of the first season from the television sitcom on Family Matters, that originally aired from ABC on April 27, 1990. It was directed by Richard Correll and written both by Geoff Gordon and Gordon Lewis.
Plot
Eddie's ego runs amok when he tries to enter a rock video for a contest, with Steve as the cameraman. (Eddie's friends are, surprisingly, very friendly to Steve this time around.) Edward's narcissism eventually disgusts his band mates, who desert him, and causes his family to call him out for it. Wanting to salvage his hopes for winning the contest, he eventually calls on Urkel and his family to make a friendly rap video, "We Are a Family" with Estelle as the DJ. Also, Carl tries to settle the family's taxes to no avail.
Synopsis
Coming home from a weekend away from camping, Laura and Carl are later visited and annoyed by Steve.
Eddie is in a band and needs equipment to film his video for a contest. Steve comes to the rescue with his audio and video advantages from school. Rodney, Jerry and Kyle vote against letting Urkel shoot their video, but Eddie overrides them stating that they need him. Rachel has come up with ideas for the video, but Eddie decides he wants to keep things simple.
While that is going on, Carl attempts to deal with the family taxes to no avail despite Harriette's admonition for him to call his older brother, Calvin, for help as he is more experienced in it than Carl is. He quickly refuses, which Mother Winslow mentions to stand back and watch him crumble.
However on the day of the video shot, Eddie's big ego runs amok and tells Steve to limit the lens to just himself. Although Urkel reluctantly agrees, he makes a brief remark about Eddie's music video being a bigger bomb than Howard the Duck (from George Lucas). After watching the video, his band gets upset and confront Steve for his actions. He defends himself, revealing Eddie's plans to leave the others out of the video and keep the camera lens on him. Rodney, Jerry and Kyle had enough of Eddie and leave him. Laura and Judy didn't like it either, but Eddie claims they weren't in it. Carl disagrees and confronts him for his behavior. He points out that no one liked the video deriding it as self-centered and ego-driven in how he left everyone out except himself. Harriette agrees and admonishes Eddie for being a camera hog. She tells him off that his bandmates had a right to leave him because the video itself was a love letter to his egotism and he has only himself to blame for the matter. Rachel also agrees stating Eddie originally asked her to help out with the production, but he quickly pushed her away. Estelle leaves him with Urkel, implying she is also disappointed in Eddie as well.
Eventually, Harriette has enough of Carl's stubbornness in letting himself deal with the taxes and asks Calvin to help out, which he succeeds in doing. When Carl learns about it, he is upset about it because he was close to figuring it out. Harriette points out that Calvin was able to help them save thousands of dollars on their taxes, making Carl apologize for his actions.
Cleaning up from the whole thing Eddie finally apologizes and admits it was his song. Carl tells him that even though he wrote it, everyone is included in it. He also mentions that when someone decides to be an egotistical jerk and leave everyone out, he usually ends up being alone. Eddie agrees and believes he won't be able to win the contest now. But his great family comes to support him to try to win a music video contest, which they do with a family friendly song "We Are A Family".
Cast and Characters
Main
- Reginald VelJohnson as Carl Winslow
- Jo Marie Payton as Harriette Winslow (credit 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
- Jaleel White as Steve Urkel
- Randy Josselyn as Rodney
Cameo
- Bumper Williams as Kyle
- Chance Quinn as Jerry
Trivia
- This marks Bumper Williams' first role as a minor character. He would return as one of Laura's would-be boyfriends, Daniel Wallace.
- The final appearance of Joseph and Julius Wright before replacing the new new Richie as Bryton McClure in 2nd season.
Quotes
- [After Laura and Judy reveals how much they hated the video]
- Eddie: You're just jealous that you weren't in it.
- Carl: [Confronts Eddie] No one was in it except you!
- Harriette: You can't blame them for walking, Eddie. That wasn't a rock video. That was a love letter to Eddie Winslow from Eddie Winslow.
- Rodney: [Furious after seeing Eddie's music video] I can't believe it.
- Eddie: This is so cool! It's hype! It's super bad!
- Harriette: You got the "bad" part right.
- Rodney: Urkel, what were you doing? The camera was on Eddie the whole time.
- Urkel: You want to feel this one out big guy.
- Kyle: All you could see is my right foot.
- Jerry: At least you were in it.
- Rodney: Urkel, you screwed up big.
- Urkel: Hey, I was following Eddie's instructions.
- Rachel: Exactly what were Eddie's instructions?
- Urkel: To keep the camera on him and forget all the other meatheads.
- Rodney, Jerry and Kyle: What?
- Urkel: [points to Eddie] His words, not mine.
- [Eddie's band-mates abandon him for his narcissistic attitude.]
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