Full House is an American sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC.
Set in San Francisco, California, the show chronicles widowed father Danny Tanner, who,
after the death of his wife Pam, enlists his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law
Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle.
It aired from September 22, 1987 to May 23, 1995, broadcasting 8 seasons and 192 episodes.
Plot summary After news reporter Danny Tanner's wife Pam
is killed in a car crash by a drunk driver, he recruits his brother-in-law Jesse and quirky
best friend Joey to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle, in his San
Francisco home.
Over time, the three men as well as the children bond and become closer to one another.
In season two, Danny is reassigned from his duties as sports anchor by his television
station to become co-host of a local morning television 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, Rebecca gives birth to twin sons, Nicky and Alex.
Main cast and characters
The producers' first choice to play the character of Danny Tanner was Bob Saget.
However, 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 unaired pilot.
John Stamos' 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.
To comply with child labor laws, twins Ashley and Mary-Kate 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.
All six of the original cast members remained with the show through its entire eight-year
run, with five characters added to the cast along the way.
Kimmy Gibbler, a recurring character in seasons one through four, was upgraded to a regular
in season five.
Rebecca Donaldson originally appeared for six episodes in season two as Danny's co-host
on Wake Up, San Francisco; however, producers decided to expand her role and made her a
regular the following season.
Nicky and Alex Katsopolis, the twin sons of Jesse and Rebecca, made their debut in season
five.
The "baby versions" were played by Daniel and Kevin Renteria, and in season six, the
roles of the twins were taken over by Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit.
The last character added was Steve Hale, who was D.J.'s boyfriend in seasons six and seven.
He returned in part two of the series finale after Kimmy set him up with D.J. to be her
date for the senior prom.
Comet, the family dog, was played by a golden retriever named Buddy.
Buddy later appeared in the original Air Bud before dying of lung cancer at the age of
nine.
Filming 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.
Although the series was set in San Francisco, the sitcom itself was taped at the Warner
Bros. Studios in Los Angeles.
Outside of certain excerpts in the opening title sequences, 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.
However, 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 delivered here, somebody
tell me please...".
Broadcast
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.
However, 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
became more respectable.
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, 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.
Ratings 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.
Upstart network The WB wanted to pick up the show, but John Stamos announced that season
eight would be his last.
Eventually, the other actors announced they were also ready to move on to other projects,
thus ending the show's run after eight years.
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.
Syndication U.S. syndication
Currently, Warner Bros. Television Distribution handles the domestic and international syndication
rights to the series.
Since its 1995 finale, Full House has gained even more popularity among newer generations
of family audiences through syndicated reruns.
During the summer of 1991, reruns of the early seasons began airing in a daily daytime strip
on NBC.
Starting in September 1991, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution began distributing
Full House for broadcast in off-network syndication and was syndicated on various local stations
nationwide until 2003.
In 1998, Atlanta-based cable superstation TBS and Chicago-based superstation WGN obtained
cable rights to the series and aired the show every weekday until 2002, when it was dropped
from the schedules of both networks; the series returned to TBS on December 9, 2013.
In September 2003, ABC Family acquired the series; as a result, ABC Family became the
first network since ABC to air the original extended version of the theme song, featured
in select episodes of the first five seasons; by the time ABC Family's rights to the series
expired in December 2013, the channel ran the closing credits over the last 30 seconds
of the final scene, albeit at the bottom of the screen.
In other broadcast and cable syndication runs, a shortened version of the main theme with
alternate lyrics is used for all episodes of the first five seasons; however, an altered
version of the opening credits for seasons six and seven is used, removing the lyric
"Whatever happened to predictability; the milkman, the paperboy, evenin' TV" that was
kept in the long version of the theme during those seasons.
Nick at Nite acquired the series in 2003, and aired it from October 6 of that year until
April 10, 2009; several months later on August 31, 2009, it moved to sister channel The N
and continued to air on that channel after its September 28, 2009 rebrand as TeenNick,
where it remained until October 24, 2010.
The following day on October 25, the series returned to Nick at Nite after a one-year
absence, airing in the hour leading into the start of Nickelodeon's broadcast day.
Soon after, though, it was dropped from Nick at Nite again, returning to TeenNick until
September 2012, where it was then transferred back to Nick at Nite.
Reunions During Bob Saget's final season as host of
America's Funniest Home Videos, six other Full House cast alumni reunited on the May
9, 1997 episode.
In a December 2008 news story, it was reported that John Stamos was planning a reunion movie.
Reports, however, indicate that this idea was quickly withdrawn, because most of the
cast was not interested.
In 2009, Stamos announced that a feature film based on the show is still on.
Stamos told The New York Daily News, "I'm working on a movie idea, but it wouldn't be
us playing us.
I'm not 100% sure, but it would probably take place in the first few years."
Stamos posited Steve Carell and Tracy Morgan for the roles of Danny and Joey respectively.
In 2012, eight of the Full House cast members reunited in Los Angeles for their 25th anniversary.
Publicists for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen said that they "weren't able to attend, given
their work schedules."
On July 19, 2013, the original Jesse and the Rippers reunited on Late Night with Jimmy
Fallon.
The group performed a medley of covers including the Beach Boys' "Forever," Elvis Presley's
"Little Sister," "Hippy Hippy Shake" and ending with the Full House theme "Everywhere You
Look".
Bob Saget and Lori Loughlin made cameo appearances.
In January 2014, Saget, Stamos, and Coulier appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
They each reprised their characters, while Fallon dressed in child's pajamas in a bed
framed by four gigantic pencils, similar to Michelle Tanner's bed from the show.
Saget, Stamos, and Coulier said some of their famous catchphrases from the show, as well
as singing "The Teddy Bear" song.
Stamos, Saget and Coulier also appeared together in a 2014 commercial for Dannon Oikos Greek
Yogurt that debuted during Super Bowl XLVIII, days after their appearance on Late Night.
Other media DVD releases
Warner Home Video released all eight seasons of the series on DVD in Region 1 between 2005
and 2007.
A complete series box-set containing all 192 episodes was released on November 6, 2007.
The complete series set is now out of print and can only be bought by sellers on website
retailers such as Amazon and eBay.
It is unknown if another complete series set will be released.
The first four seasons were also released on DVD in Region 2 and Region 4.
Book series Books based on Full House are geared toward
children primarily between the ages of 8 and 14.
Warner Bros., which holds the rights to Full House and its associated characters, would
not permit others to use their characters, and selected who could write books based on
the television series.
As such, the books are generally considered canon, but take place in a separate continuity
or fictional universe known to fans as the Book Universe.
The series includes the following: Full House Stephanie: These 33 books were
written from the point of view of the Tanners' middle daughter, Stephanie Tanner.
They take place with Stephanie in a different middle school, likely because of a slightly
different redistricting plan compared to the one mentioned in season seven's "Fast Friends".
She has different best friends as well, Allie Taylor and Darcy Powell.
Though these are book creations, she has known Allie since kindergarten, and there are several
places in the first five seasons of Full House where fans think an unnamed extra could be
Allie.
The first ten of these books overlap with seasons seven and eight of the television
series; besides the differences in the school Stephanie attends, there are a number of differences
regarding the Tanners from the series.
This series begins with Stephanie being pressured to join a clique called the Flamingos, by
completing a series of dares.
She almost does the last one, though she is not sure if she wants to, before D.J.
catches her trying to steal Danny's phone card.
Stephanie explains tearfully what was happening, and D.J.
helps her to understand what the Flamingos were really up to: they wanted to use the
phone card to call their boyfriends.
Stephanie and the Flamingos become fierce rivals, though not all books surround this
rivalry or even show the Flamingos.
Full House Michelle: These 41 stories are told from Michelle's point of view.
The first 27 feature more of her, and the other Tanners', home life than others, though
some focus on events at school, whereas the last 14, the "Michelle and Friends" series,
focuses mostly on Michelle and her classmates.
Unlike Stephanie, Michelle goes to the same elementary school, but is in a different class.
The first four books in the Michelle series overlap with the continuity of the season
eight of Full House, though these, too, take place in this Book Universe.
Two stories were translated and published in Japan in February 2007.
Full House Sisters: These 14 books focus on Michelle and Stephanie's friendship and comical
situations that occur between them.
The sisters often alternate points of view in the story.
Full House: Dear Michelle: These four books were published several years after the others
stopped being produced.
They take place with Michelle in the third grade, where she writes an advice column for
her class paper.
It is a different third grade class from either the first four books or the TV universe, though
the class contains several of the same friends as in the other books.
Awards and nominations Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards
TV Land Awards Young Artist Awards
References
External links
Full House at the Internet Movie Database Full House at TV.com
Full House at Teennick.com