For millions of viewers, Die Hard and Family Matters belong to completely different corners of late-1980s pop culture.

One is an action movie about John McClane fighting terrorists inside Nakatomi Plaza.

The other is a family sitcom remembered for Carl Winslow, Harriette Winslow, and eventually one of television’s most famous neighbors, Steve Urkel.

But according to Family Matters co-creator Bill Bickley, the two are directly connected.

And the missing link is Reginald VelJohnson.

Before he became Carl Winslow, VelJohnson played LAPD Sgt. Al Powell in the 1988 blockbuster Die Hard. It was not the biggest role in the movie, but one producer apparently saw enough in the performance to start imagining an entire television show around him.

Bickley recently explained the origin story on the podcast Keanan and Lakin Give You Déjà Vu.

His version is surprisingly simple:

Producer Thomas L. Miller went to see Die Hard, watched VelJohnson, and came away thinking they should build something around that guy.

Without that movie night, Family Matters may have taken a very different form — or perhaps never existed at all.

Harriette Winslow Came First

The story begins before Family Matters was its own series.

Jo Marie Payton had already been playing Harriette Winslow on Perfect Strangers, the ABC sitcom starring Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn-Baker.

Harriette worked as an elevator operator and quickly became a recognizable supporting character.

That connection is important because Family Matters is usually described as a spinoff of Perfect Strangers.

But Bickley says the new series was not initially conceived as a show built entirely around Harriette.

Instead, another piece had to fall into place.

That piece was VelJohnson.

Then Thomas Miller Saw Die Hard

VelJohnson’s Sgt. Al Powell enters Die Hard as one of the few people outside Nakatomi Plaza who realizes John McClane may actually know what he is talking about.

Powell is warm, patient and grounded.

He is not the flashy hero.

He is not the hard-charging authority figure dismissing McClane.

He becomes something much more important: a calm human connection between McClane and the outside world.

VelJohnson gives Powell an easy likability that stands out even in a movie dominated by Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, explosions and gunfire.

Apparently, Thomas L. Miller noticed.

According to Bickley, Miller saw VelJohnson in Die Hard and was impressed enough that he wanted to develop a television project around him.

That reaction would eventually change the future of ABC’s sitcom lineup.

Carl Winslow Was Added to Perfect Strangers

The next step was not to immediately launch Family Matters.

Instead, producers introduced VelJohnson as Carl Winslow, Harriette’s husband, on Perfect Strangers.

The pairing worked.

Now Harriette was no longer just a supporting workplace character.

She had a husband, a family life and a home world that could support a series of its own.

That combination became the foundation for Family Matters.

The show premiered in September 1989, roughly a year after Die Hard had introduced movie audiences to VelJohnson’s Al Powell.

It is the kind of cause-and-effect connection that becomes almost invisible once a show is successful.

Looking back, Carl Winslow feels like a role VelJohnson was always going to play.

But according to Bickley, the chain began because one producer happened to see him in an action movie.

VelJohnson Brought the Same Grounded Quality to Carl

The connection makes even more sense when comparing Al Powell and Carl Winslow.

They are very different characters, but both depend on VelJohnson’s ability to project warmth and authority at the same time.

As Powell, he gives Die Hard an emotional center outside the skyscraper.

As Carl, he becomes the anchor of the Winslow household.

Carl can be frustrated, loud and exhausted — especially once Steve Urkel begins regularly destroying the family’s peace — but he is also deeply protective and fundamentally decent.

That balance made the character work.

VelJohnson could play comedy without losing the feeling that Carl was a real father with real responsibilities.

It is easy to imagine why Miller saw that potential in Die Hard.

Powell was already showing audiences a version of the same qualities.

Family Matters Became Much Bigger Than Its Original Setup

When Family Matters began, it was primarily a family sitcom centered on the Winslows.

Then Steve Urkel happened.

Jaleel White’s character was initially meant to be a smaller presence, but Urkel became enormously popular and increasingly central to the series.

The show eventually became inseparable from his suspenders, high-pitched voice and relentless pursuit of Laura Winslow.

That shift can make it easy to forget how the series started.

Before Urkel became a phenomenon, the foundation was the Winslow family.

And before the Winslow family had its own show, there was Harriette on Perfect Strangers and a producer who had just watched Reginald VelJohnson in Die Hard.

In other words, one of the most recognizable sitcoms of the 1990s may owe its existence to a supporting performance in one of the most recognizable action movies of the 1980s.

The Timing Makes the Connection Even Better

The dates are remarkably close.

Die Hard was released in 1988.

Family Matters premiered in 1989.

There was no long gap in which VelJohnson slowly built toward television stardom.

The movie helped create immediate momentum.

He went from playing a memorable police sergeant opposite Bruce Willis to becoming one of ABC’s most recognizable sitcom fathers.

And because both projects became so enduring, the connection now feels almost like two separate pieces of pop-culture history suddenly snapping together.

Fans of one may not have realized it directly helped create the other.

Bill Bickley’s Story Changes the Origin Myth

That is what makes Bickley’s account more interesting than ordinary casting trivia.

This is not a story about an actor who almost got a role.

It is not about someone turning down a part.

It is about a performance in one famous project directly inspiring the development of another famous project.

Thomas Miller did not simply think VelJohnson was good in Die Hard.

According to Bickley, he saw enough to want a series built around him.

Then producers found the perfect connection already sitting inside another ABC sitcom: Harriette Winslow.

Carl and Harriette became a television couple.

That couple became the center of a spinoff.

And the spinoff became Family Matters.

One Movie Performance Changed Television History

Today, Reginald VelJohnson is one of those actors audiences can associate with two very different but equally familiar roles.

To action fans, he is Sgt. Al Powell.

To sitcom fans, he is Carl Winslow.

What most viewers may never have known is that those roles were not merely consecutive jobs.

One helped create the other.

A producer went to see Die Hard.

He watched VelJohnson.

He came away wanting more.

Within a year, Carl Winslow had a family, a house and a television series of his own.

So the next time Al Powell appears outside Nakatomi Plaza, there is one more detail worth remembering.

You are not just watching one of Die Hard’s most likable supporting characters.

You may also be watching the performance that quietly helped create Family Matters.