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Harriette Winslow is your typical TV Mom, darn near perfect, always doing the right thing and trying to keep her bustling family on the straight and narrow. This is not always easy either with a bumbling, (sometimes) male chauvinist husband (Carl), nosey sister (Rachel) who thinks Harriette treats her like a child, and three rambunctious kids (Eddie, Laura and Judy). The Winslow family just could not stay together without it's strongest member, that being Harriette.

Harriette, at the beginning of the series, is an Elevator Operator at the fictional Chicago Chronicle building. The same company that employed her friends and co-workers, Balki Bartokomous & Larry Appleton, stars of their own series, Perfect Strangers, from which Family Matters was spun off from. Later, Harriette's professional life changed drastically when she was fired by the Chronicle in a cost cutting measure (and later RE-hired as head of Security).

Of all of Harriette's strong suits, memory was NOT one of them, as she NEVER seemed phased by the disappearance of member after member of her own family. Most notable in those disappearaces was her child, Judy, who completely vanished after going up to her room at the end of Season Four. She was never seen again and no one seemed to care.

Late, in the series (the year on CBS especially) Harriette's professional and personal seemed to be pushed to the back burner as the series focused more and more on the Carl/Urkel dynamic. With exception of butting heads with Carl a few times and meddling in Eddie's police career, Harriette was decidedly back baurner. So much so that original protrayer, Jo MariePayton, left the role early in the final season on CBS (to be replaced by Judy Ann Elder).