A chain drive connected the gearbox to a solid rear axle with a pair of closely spaced 25 cm (10 in) rear wheels. Jo Marie Payton, who played Harriette Winslow, admitted that she felt the Urkel character had hogged much of the show's attention and disrupted the close family relationship she had formed with the rest of the cast. You might recognize the fully electric Microlino as an updated Isetta, BMW's classic post-war microcar. Sure, in it's day it served a very important purpose in post-WWII Europe. © 2020 Verizon Media. The car was also redesigned to take a modified version of the 250 cc four-stroke engine from the BMW R25/3 motorcycle and the front suspension was changed. Sales of the 600 were, however, aided by the energy crisis of 1956–1957. This results in the alter ego known as Stefan Urquelle, played by Jaleel White in more casual attire. BMW made a few more changes to the design, and rolled out the Isetta in Germany in 1955, where it was a huge success. Not the single door that swings open from the front, revealing both too much and too little of the interior all at once—too much because of the grotesquerie of seeing a car open like a clam shell, not enough because there's simply not enough car; not the single bench seat that serves as the only place to sit; not its bizarre, almost triangular shape, a remnant of a past design that had only three wheels; and certainly not its cloth sunroof, a mockery of a feature on a vehicle that tops out at 53 MPH. It's suitable that his car defies explanation as a vehicle. Maybe the problem with the Isetta is that it was ahead of its time. The front suspension was bolted to the front of the body. Rivolta also negotiated licensing deals with companies in France and Brazil. The answer is: Just as quirky and weird as you’d expect — and absolutely certain to make you grin from ear to ear. Also difficult to distinguish from a photo is that this is an interior shot you're looking at. Series", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Steve_Urkel&oldid=978969615, Fictional characters with multiple personalities, Articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction from October 2013, All articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction, Wikipedia articles with style issues from March 2017, Articles needing additional references from October 2019, All articles needing additional references, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2019, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 18 September 2020, at 00:52. [10] By 1952 the engineers Ermenegildo Preti[11] and Pierluigi Raggi had designed a small car that used the motorcycle engine of the Iso Moto 200 and named it Isetta—an Italian diminutive meaning little iso.[10]. The Microlino comes from … This Stefan becomes a recurring character and eventually proposes to Laura in the ninth season. The presence of the Isetta in the world of Family Matters, then, is somehow fitting. In October 1956, the Isetta Moto Coupe DeLuxe (sliding-window Isetta) was introduced. It takes a tumble off a cliff in a Season 6 episode and nearly takes Urkel with it. [8] He becomes known by viewers and characters alike for several catchphrases uttered after some humorous misfortune occurs, including "I've fallen and I can't get up! In the seventh-season finale "Send in the Clones", Steve creates a cloning machine and winds up creating a perfect duplicate of himself.