JoMarie Peyton, who starred as Harriett Winslow for 9 seasons on the hit TV sitcom "Family Matters" recalls the time her teenage co-star Jaleel White tried to fight her...
"There was one time he actually wanted to physically fight me," Payton noted, recalling the season 9 episode, "Original Gangsta Dawg," in which White also played Steve's "gangster" cousin, OGD. "[There was a scene where] I said we can't do that, standards and practices will not let that pass, it's not gonna happen. He wanted to do it anyway... He was so mad, he started kicking and screaming and stuff."
"He said something about, 'She must want to melee.' I said, 'What's a melee?' He said, 'a fight.' I turned around -- if he wanna fight, I would," she continued. "Darius [McCrary] grabbed me. I was gonna whip his behind."
With years of perspective, Payton said, she recognizes that White was "just a kid" at the time and doesn't give him "all the credit" for his behavior.
"I give some of those adults credit too," she added. "Letting him run wild and do whatever he wanted to do, thinking he can say what he wants to say, you know, and hurt people's feelings and all that."
