UP FROM URKEL

"Family Matters" and Jaleel White's legacy.

- VINSON CUNNINGHAM

In his portrayal of the smart, sweet, brave nerd Urkel, White brought a new Black male archetype to the culture's doorstep.

To Noward the end of Jaleel White's new memoir, "Growing Up Urkel," the actor runs through a list of regrettable life experiences. There's an agent he wishes he'd never worked with, and another he wishes he'd followed to the ends of the earth. He wishes he'd pursued a small part in a Jim Carrey vehicle. He didn't really need to finish college, but he did so at the urging of his parents. If he could do it again, he'd consider getting into U.C.L.A. "the win," quickly move on, and stop splitting the attention that rightly belonged on his career. As soon as he felt the "creeping sense of dislocation" that estranged him from his fellow-students, try as he might to act "normal," he should have packed his bags and gone back to his admittedly unconventional life.

The name of that chapter is "There Are No Do-Overs," but the book vibrates with palpable regret. "I'm not bitter," White says. Then, reversing himself: "Okay... maybe a little." White, who grew up acting, was already on a career path before he'd developed a mechanism to make his own choices. The term "child star," with its intimations of troubled glamour, doesn't always convey how much of a grind such kids endure. Starting at the age of fourhe learned to read early, which helped him get gigs-White starred in commercials for Pepsi, Oreos, and Jell-O Pudding Pops. His job on the sitcom "Family Matters" was supposed to be a quick guest role. But, as the earnest, klutzy, tenderhearted nerd Steve Urkel, White hit it off with audiences and found himself suddenly at the center of the star-making machine.

"Family Matters" premièred in 1989.