Full House


Full House is an American television sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show is about the recently widowed father Danny Tanner who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and childhood best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle, in his San Francisco home. It originally aired from September 22, 1987, to May 23, 1995, with a total of eight seasons consisting of 192 episodes.
While never a critical success, the series was consistently in the Nielsen Top 30 and continues to have an audience in syndicated reruns, and is also aired internationally. One of the producers, Dennis Rinsler, called the show "The Brady Bunch of the 1990s". For actor Dave Coulier, the show represented a "G-rated dysfunctional family".
A sequel series, Fuller House, premiered on Netflix in February 2016 and ran for five seasons, concluding in June 2020.

Plot

After the death of his wife Pam, sports anchor Danny Tanner recruits his rock musician brother-in-law, Jesse Katsopolis, and stand-up comedian Joey Gladstone, his best friend since childhood, to help raise his three young daughters in San Francisco—D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle. Over time, the three men, as well as the girls, bond and become closer to one another.
In season two, Danny is reassigned from his duties as a sports anchor by his television station to become co-host of the morning show, Wake Up, San Francisco, and is teamed up with Nebraska native Rebecca Donaldson. Jesse and Rebecca eventually fall in love and get married in season four. In season five, Becky gives birth to twin sons, Nicholas and Alexander.

Main cast

Casting

The producers' first choice to play the character of Danny Tanner was Bob Saget. Saget was not available to appear in the pilot due to his commitment as an on-air contributor to CBS's The Morning Program. The producers instead cast actor John Posey to play Danny. Posey only appeared in the show's unaired pilot; which is included on the DVD release of Season 1.
John Stamos's character was originally named Jesse Cochran; Stamos reportedly wanted his character to better reflect his Greek heritage, so producers decided to change the character's surname to Katsopolis.
Twins Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen were cast to alternate in the role of Michelle during tapings. The girls were jointly credited as "Mary Kate Ashley Olsen" in seasons two through seven because the producers did not want audiences to know that the Michelle character was played by twins. The sisters occasionally appeared together in fantasy sequences. Full House was one of the few shows on TV where a baby character grew up in front of the cameras, with viewers witnessing all the development stages of the twin actresses. Saget recalled he would often get complaints from the child actresses' mothers for making inappropriate jokes. Jodie Sweetin was spotted in a guest spot on the show Valerie. Lori Loughlin was hired in 1988 for a six-episode romance plot with Uncle Jesse but ended up staying until the end of the show.
All seven of the original cast members remained with the show through its entire eight-year run, with five characters added to the main cast along the way. D.J. 's best friend Kimmy Gibbler was a recurring character in seasons one through four, who was upgraded to a regular in season five. Loughlin's character Rebecca Donaldson originally appeared for six episodes in season two; producers decided to expand her role and made her a regular the following season. After marrying Jesse, they have twins Nicky and Alex, who make their debut in season five. As babies, the children were played by Daniel and Kevin Renteria, and in season six, the roles of the twins were succeeded by Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit. The last main character added was Steve Hale, who was D.J.'s boyfriend in seasons six and seven. He was played by Scott Weinger.

Taping

The series was created by Jeff Franklin and executive produced by Franklin, along with Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett. The series was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions and Miller-Boyett Productions, in association with Lorimar-Telepictures, Lorimar Television, and then by Warner Bros. Television after Lorimar was folded into Warner Bros.' existing television production division.
Although the series was set in San Francisco, the sitcom itself was taped at the Lorimar Studios in Culver City, California, and Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Outside of certain excerpts in the opening title sequences, including Alamo Square Park's Painted Ladies, the only episode to have actually been taped in San Francisco was the first episode of season eight, "Comet's Excellent Adventure". There were also a few episodes which were filmed on-location elsewhere, most notably Hawaii in the season three premiere "Tanner's Island", and at Walt Disney World for the two-part sixth-season finale "The House Meets the Mouse".
The series experienced heavy turnover with its writing staff throughout its run. The first season in particular had at least three writing staff changes, with Lenny Ripps and Russell Marcus being the only writers surviving the changes through the entire season. Show creator and executive producer Jeff Franklin was the only writer to remain with the series throughout its entire eight-season run. Marc Warren and Dennis Rinsler joined the series' writing staff in the second season as producers and remained with the show until its 1995 cancellation; Warren and Rinsler took over as head writers by season five and assumed showrunning duties as executive producers for the sixth season to allow Franklin to focus on Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.

Theme song

The show's theme song, "Everywhere You Look", was performed by Jesse Frederick, who co-wrote the song with writing partner Bennett Salvay and series creator Jeff Franklin. Various instrumental versions of the theme song were used in the closing credits; the version used during seasons three through eight was also used in the opening credits in some early syndication runs, although the song was almost always truncated to the chorus for broadcast. Seasons one through five used a longer version of the theme song. In syndicated airings, the line "you miss your old familiar friends, but waiting just around the bend" replaced the lines starting with "how did I get to livin' here, somebody tell me please...". Hallmark Channel reruns have used four different cuts of the theme song, including the full version.

Cross-marketing

ABC used the show to launch other family sitcom hits throughout the early 1990s on Fridays and other evenings such as Home Improvement, Family Matters and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper.
Dave Coulier sold the Mr. Woodchuck puppet he made on the show to the toy store Toys "R" Us.

Episodes and ratings

Full House originally aired on Fridays from September 1987 to August 1991, which spanned the show's first four seasons, and later became the flagship program of ABC's newly launched TGIF block in September 1989. The show was briefly moved to Tuesdays during the 1987–88 season and then aired twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays for a few months in order to help the series build an audience. It remained on Fridays permanently for the next three seasons, as the show's ratings increased. Full House was moved to Tuesdays full-time for season five and remained there until the series ended in 1995. While the show's first season was not very successful, finishing 71st that year, mostly because it was a new series placed in an 8 p.m. Eastern timeslot, the show quickly became popular during its second season as it was placed immediately following the established hit show Perfect Strangers. From season three onwards, it was ranked among Nielsen's Top 30 shows. By the fourth season, the series jumped to the Top 20 and remained there until the seventh season.
In 1995, despite the fact the show was still rated in the top 25, ABC announced that it was canceling the show after eight seasons due to the increasing costs of producing the series. By the end of the show, the average cost of one episode was $1.3 million. Plans to move Full House to The WB network fell through. The one-hour series finale was watched by 24.3 million viewers, ranking No. 7 for the week and attracting a 14.6 household rating and a 25 percent audience share.

"Very Special Episodes"

Full house included many episodes featuring particularly heavy topics in their plots. In the 70s/80s, when a series featured serious episodes, they were known as "Very Special Episodes".
  • "Aftershocks"
  • * Stephanie goes to therapy after experiencing trauma-induced anxiety from an earthquake.
  • "Shape Up"
  • * DJ develops an eating disorder anticipating Kimmy's upcoming pool party.
  • "Silence is Not Golden"
  • * Stephanie's friend, Charles, is getting abused by his father. He confides in Stephanie, and she initially keeps his secret, but she eventually tells adults to get him help.
  • "Fast Friends"
  • * Stephanie's friends peer pressure her to smoke cigarettes.
  • "The Last Dance"
  • * Michelle is charmed by Jesse's grandfather who arrives from Greece for a visit. Unfortunately, this visit is short-lived as Papouli dies in his sleep from old age at the Tanner household.
  • "Under the Influence"
  • * Kimmy attempts to drunk drive after attending a fraternity party and DJ stops her, causing tension in their friendship.