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Jaleel White and George Clooney used to play basketball on the Warner Bros. backlot dressed as Steve Urkel and Dr. Doug Ross
Family Matters and ER had a basketball crossover in real life, and it’s a shame nobody filmed it
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One of the best television crossovers of the ‘90s is something that none of us ever saw.
Imagine watching the nerdy Steve Urkel playing basketball against ER’s hunky Dr. Doug Ross. This is what people visiting the WB studio lot go to see. According to Family Matters star Jaleel White, the whole thing happened because two of WB’s hottest shows were forced to share a basketball hoop.
“I just annoyed everyone because I dribbled my basketball too much,” White recalls during a 2021 Salt Lake Comic Convention panel. “I dribbled my basketball everywhere. I remember the script supervisor Joyce Webb just hated me for it, but it was an amazing time.”
“I had my own hoop on the set. I learned about star power when ER asked if they could use our hoop and put it in between the Family Matters set and ER’s, and then I quickly learned that my hoop became George Clooney’s hoop.”
The solution? Have Clooney and White play basketball together, even if they were both dressed for their television roles.
“Playing a lot of one-on-one with George Clooney, I guess I didn’t realize how special that was either. This guy dressed in hospital scrubs and me dressed in suspenders and pants, and we’re really out here duking it out, playing one-on-one.”
Man, I wish someone had taken a picture of that. Someone really should’ve pitched this as a crossover episode, because it would’ve been a ratings bonanza.
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