Wild Mass Guessing for Family Matters.
Carl used to be in the NYPD
Back in the 80's, the Winslows lived in New York City. Carl worked for the NYPD and was the one who told the Ghostbusters they made bail after their arrest. He didn't really believe in ghosts, but he enjoyed reading about their antics. After the Stay-Puft incident, Carl and Harriet decided New York was just to weird to raise their kids in and moved to Chicago. Eddie was told the whole incident was a nightmare brought on by eating too many marshmallows before bed. Laura was just a baby and didn't remember it well. They settled into their new home in Chicago, Carl joined the police force there, Harriet got a job as an elevator operator, his mother and her sister moved in with them and everything was perfectly normal. Until Urkel showed up....
Laura dumbed herself down in school
She was obviously concerned about her image and didn't want to be seen as a nerd. Steve wouldn't be interested in her for so many years if he thought he could find a smarter girl. Judy was killed
Midway through the fourth season, the youngest Winslow was killed when caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting. None of this is ever explained on the show.Or...
Judy was removed from the space-time continuum because of Steve's time travel experiences.
She still appears in flashbacks due to the Mandela Effect. The final season was all just a book written by Rachel.
Urkel is beaten to death at Leroy's by Bull Watson
Eddie either fails to show up to save Urkel's hide or Watson got the upper hand and then, grabbing Urkel, tells him he lied when he said he'd show mercy to him. Either way, Bull's first punch — flush in the nose and breaking Urkel's glasses — fractures the nerd's skull, knocking him down into a semi-conscious, horribly bloody state. Leroy comes out to demand Bull leave and tries to call the police but Bull punches him in the gut too and throws him down. Laura screams in horror and Rodney (Eddie's white best friend who was still with the show at this point) tries but fails to pull Watson off, Bull shoving him aside. Bull — after going through the nerd's pockets — then begins punching Urkel repeatedly in the back of the head until a bunch of police officers, including Carl, show up and pull Bull off and are able to take him into custody. (Bull screams like Rain Man (in the airport scene) as he's being hauled off.) Meanwhile, Eddie — assuming the earlier scenario about being a no-show, he admits he was a coward and didn't really want to help someone he considered an annoying dweeb — goes to the hospital and is horrified as he sees two adults, a man and woman who are presumably Urkel's closest relatives, crying and appearing to say their goodbyes to Urkel (who had been beaten past the point of recognition), as a doctor and nurse are with them. Carl then tells a distraught Eddie he is very disappointed in him ... and that lesson is seared in Eddie for the rest of his life. Part 2 to "Good Cop, Bad Cop"
Had there been a second part or some follow-up, it is revealed Carl follows up on his promise to Officer Evans that his traffic stop of Eddie would be followed-up on with an investigation. In the end, Carmichael turns against Evans and reveals he didn't really want to go along with this stop and admits he was involved in several other of Evans' stops where Black youths were pulled over without probable cause; Carmichael even reveals that he had asked Evans several times about this and whether this was right, to which Evans (falsely) assures him it was their duty to keep Blacks away from whites, and that if he ever said a word to his superiors, the consequences would be severe. Evans tries defending himself initially but in the end goes on a Motive Rant on how much he hates Black people and even regrets not clubbing Eddie to within an inch of his life. His You Talk Too Much! rant costs Evans his career, while Carmichael is given a warning letter and ordered to undergo training ... which he does. Carmichael goes on to be one of Chicago's finest, while Evans ends up bitterly watching the rest of his life on the sidelines. Weasel got raped by a substitute teacher
... who, in an amazing nod to Different Strokes, the substitute teacher is played by Gordon Jump. Said incident happening years about 10 years earlier, but now Weasel is in his senior year in high school and to his horror, the man that molested him is now a substitute teacher. The sub, of course, can't understand why Weasel is so blatantly disrespectful and hostile in class ... and – as Eddie and Urkel are desperately trying to get Weasel to sit down and calm down – Weasel publicly tells the class he raped him. The teacher kicks him out, and Principal Shimata, clueless as to the teacher's history, suspends Weasel. Weasel is over at the Winslows later and is still screaming his head off, saying his parents have grounded him and won't listen to him, and Carl comes in. Carl finally gives Weasel a sympathetic listen and vows to go to bat for Weasel. When he visits Shimata, he tells him he's been a reasonable man and even tolerated Urkel's antics all these years ... and then asks him if he did a background report. Shimata admits he hasn't but then does and finds a horrifying background. In the end, the teacher is removed from the classroom and Weasel is allowed back in school ... but it won't erase the scars of him not believing him at first but then breaks down in tears and thanks Carl. The whole show is split between two parallel universes.
Why else would the later seasons be drastically different from the earlier ones? Because they take place in alternate timelines!- The first universe covers all the "pre-Urkel invention" episodes, which were much more grounded in reality. This is also the timeline where Judy exists. The only invention that would be included in this timeline is Urkel Bot; robotic technology exists in real life, so this episode can technically be kept in the "realistic" universe (that, and Judy is was still around when the episode aired, so there's no way to exclude it).
- The second timeline is the "Urkel invention" universe; these are the more fantastical episodes that focus more on zany sci-fi (the time machine episodes, the cloning episode, any story involving Stefan or the transformation chamber, and so on). This is also the timeline where Judy does not exist, hence her disappearance after Season 4. Since there are still references to the pre-invention episodes in this universe (i.e. Steve reminiscing on the events of Season 2's "Marriage 101" during the final season), this would be considered a parallel timeline, albeit one where Judy was never born and crazy scientific feats were possible.
- In the time-travel episode where Carl and Steve altered their timeline, Carl mentions to Alternate Harriet that they have 2 kids, so this WMG is possible.
