Rachel Crawford

Infobox character
name = Rachel Crawford
colour = indigo
first = The Mama Who Came to Dinner
last = Deck The Halls
born = 1954
age = 35 (in 1989)
54 (as of 2008)
nationality = African-American
relatives = Jimmy Baines (father)
Darlene Baines (mother, deceased)
residence = Chicago, Illinois
title = Sweetheart
gender = Female
species = Human
children = Richie Crawford
spouse = Robert Crawford (deceased)
occupation = Story Writer (1989– 1990)
Owner of "Rachel's Place" (1990–1992)
portrayer = Telma Hopkins
family = Harriette Winslow (sister), Carl Winslow (brother in law), Eddie Winslow (nephew), Judy Winslow (niece), Laura Winslow (niece), Estelle Winslow (mother-in-law)

Rachel Crawford (born 1954 [The Rachel character was made to be in her mid 30s.] ) was a supporting character on the sitcom, "Family Matters". She was portrayed by singer/actress Telma Hopkins (better known as one half of the music group, Tony Orlando and Dawn) from 1989 until 1993, with Hopkins guest starring as "Rachel" from 1994 until 1997. She was the baby sister of Harriette Winslow. In real-life, Hopkins (Rachel) is two years older than Payton (Harriette) (Hopkins was born in 1948, and Payton was born in 1950 [In Real life the two co-stars are born those years.] )

Character Background

Rachel Baines Crawford is the little sister of Harriette Winslow. As girlhood siblings, Harriette and Rachel's father walked out on them, and Rachel happened to be a "sweetheart" of the family while Harriette turned out to be a "Loudmouthed, Yoda of the family", Rachel married her husband Robert , who was never seen, and died, with no explanation given, so she gave birth to her son and only child named Richie Crawford, and moved with her sister, Harriette, Harriette's husband, Carl Winslow, their 3 kids: Eddie Winslow, Judy Winslow, Laura Winslow, and mother-in-law, Estelle Winslow; things turn quite okay when Rachel and her newborn son, Richie had moved in with the Winslow clan.

Early Career

In the series' first season, Rachel's career was a story writer. In the first season episode, "Short Story", Rachel writes fictional characters similar to Harriette, Carl, Judy, Laura, Eddie and Estelle, in order to win a short story contest, which made the entire family (specifically, Harriette) furious for, to the family, writing characters "negatively" based on the family, however, Harriette, and the family had made up with Rachel. Rachel's career as a writer, was changed after the series first season.

Later Career

At the show's second season premiere, in 1990, neighbor Steve Urkel, and Laura Winslow had jobs at a burger joint named Leroy's, but Steve destroyed the place via a horrific fire, and the family came to save them. The episode entitled "Rachel's Place" aired on September 21, 1990, centering on Rachel opening up her own burger/teen restaurant in the former Leroy's location. Rachel had hired Carl's friends from the construction business, and they built the place; as "Rachel's Place" finally opened, she hired Laura and Steve as waiter/waitress. During seasons 2 and 3, "Rachel's Place" was seen, but it disappeared in 1992, with no explanation given, due to Rachel having a low budget, and some technical problems. At this point, "Rachel's Place" was permanently written out of the series, and none of the family members mentions it again on the show.

At the end of the fourth season in 1993, Telma Hopkins left the series temporaily and returned as the Rachel character who guest spotted on many different episodes only when necessary. In the last episode "Deck the Halls" Rachel and her son Richie move back east; the background is unknown.