The commercial break had just started when a woman knelt down beside Jaleel White’s chair at the NAACP Image Awards. He’d only just collected his award, and she had a message for him: “Mr. Jackson would like to meet you.”
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the character will. Jaleel played Steve Urkel on ABC’s “Family Matters,” the kid in thick glasses and suspenders whose “Did I do that?” became his catchphrase. Here’s the Urkel most of us remember, in an official Warner Bros. clip. Keep your eye on those suspenders.
Steve Urkel in an official “Do the Urkel” clip from “Family Matters”
This is Warner Bros.’ own upload from the show, with Jaleel in full Urkel mode as the nerd next door.
Jaleel tells the Michael story himself in a short clip from Everybody Lurks, the podcast he hosts with Joseph Vecsey. “I met him at the NAACP Image Awards,” he says. “I was summoned, actually.”
UPI’s lists of winners show Jaleel took the Image Award for youth actor two years running, at the ceremonies in January 1993 and January 1994. He doesn’t say in the clip which of those nights it was.
He does remember how the moment felt. “When I met Michael Jackson, I was definitely taken aback,” he says, “and I couldn’t really find common ground for us to speak on.”
The aide didn’t make it any easier. She came to his chair after he got his award, knelt down during a commercial break and “was being coy on purpose,” Jaleel says.
So where was Michael?
Not in the crowd. “Nobody knew he was in the building, so he was a surprise,” Jaleel says, “and he was downstairs in the basement.”
Michael hadn’t come just for him, either. “I guess the game he was running was everybody who was winning, he was having them come downstairs and greet him,” Jaleel says. So while the show went on, the night’s winners were being sent downstairs to meet the biggest star in music.
Jaleel was already a TV star in his teens. What Michael wanted to talk about caught him off guard.
“He wanted to talk about action figures and comic books and stuff like that,” Jaleel says. “And I’m like, I’m 15 years old.”
That’s the age he remembers being. And he didn’t walk away. “The conversation he wanted to have with me was kind of beneath my age,” he says, “but at the same time I’m in awe of the person, so I’m willing.”
Jaleel White tells how he met Michael Jackson at the NAACP Image Awards
This is the official clip from Jaleel’s podcast. He starts with the awkward part, then gets to the aide at his chair at about 0:38 and the basement at about 1:00.
Michael had a big night of his own at the January 1993 show, one of the two years Jaleel won. UPI reported that Michael was named entertainer of the year and that “Black or White” won the award for music video. Watch for Michael dancing alongside the Native American dancers.
Michael Jackson’s “Black or White,” named best music video at the January 1993 Image Awards
This is the official shortened version of the video, posted on Michael’s VEVO channel.
For the actor who played TV’s most famous nerd, it’s a funny swap. The biggest star in music wanted to talk toys and comics, and Urkel was the one who felt too old for it.