They all were. Even Joey was somewhat normal in the first season, and the humor, while still family friendly, was a bit more crude. It was around the second season, but especially the third, when they all became unrealistic idiots. While I liked the character of Rebecca (compared to most of the others), it was ridiculous how they neutered Jessie so early in the series by hooking him up with her.

I think someone upthread said they did so they could use John Stamos's Greek heritage as part of the show. Which gave us the awful Greek sterotype episode which I'm watching right now. Getting married by walking around the dining room table... ugh.

I remember that episode, kissing toast--- er, Kakistos, sorry. Although I was too young to understand how lame it was. My young mind was probably more like "Whee! wedding!"

Hey - Danny - at my first rock concert, I had beer dumped on my hair, I got shoved around, stepped on, my hair almost got lit on fire, and I almost fainted under the hot spotlights. D'you really wanna subject your six year old to that? Dumbass.



Oh wow. I remember that too. How much Full House knowledge is lodged inside my brain? (Answer: Too much). If I remember, everyone looked at her like she was a moron.

The best part of Michelle's Bullwinkle-ing was Teddy:

"You awe a stwange kid."

The twins-come-home episode is on now, and I was horrified to learn that Michelle is supposed to be five. She spoke like a three-year-old. I hope their verbal development wasn't interfered with because it was "cute."

That's exactly why I found the ET interview annoying. They were what, four or five in that? Why do tv and commercial producers think people enjoy listening to perfectly capable children butchering the English language? Teach the damn kids to pronounce words properly. But noo, it's much cuter to make them talk like they're mentally deficient.

I think that was one of my favourite things about little Stephanie - she was around 5 or 6 when she first appeared on the show, and she spoke clearly. It totally added, not detracted, from the cuteness quotient.

Early Stephanie rocked. Even if the lines they gave her were bratty, she sold them in a likable manner. No so with Michelle, who you just wanted to strangle by the time she reached that age.

You know, I was thinking the same thing as I was watching the interview with the twins - that they were the same age as Jodie Sweetin was during the shooting of the first season! Amazing how different children's development can be!

That being said, I didn't mind the twins in that interview too much either. Maybe it's that they seem so completely helpless, sitting there in their little chairs hardly able to put two words together... God help me, I thought they were cute and felt like picking them up and feeding them and singing them lullabies. I agree with queenfrostine that the Michelle character was actually still acceptable on the show at this point. Just a cute little monkey-like gimmick that talked funny and would get nice little b-plots. But, yeah, it went downhill from there, definitely...

Totally. She was articulate, but she still sounded like a kid. With Michelle, you got one or the other. She either sounded to kiddy and cutesy, or she sounded too much like an adult.

Speaking of Steph, she said something on one episode that made my eyebrows raise. Kimmie offered to do her horoscope, and she replied, "Horoscope? What's that, a telescope that only you can use?"

You could even hear a few gasps in the audience. I thought it was a little too mature for someone her age, but it was still funny as hell.

Anything that Stephanie Tanner says on Full House is cute & funny. You can't say that about D.J. and you sure as hell can't say that about Michelle. Stephanie will always be cute and funny. Full House could be airing in the year 2100 and Stephanie Tanner will still be cute & funny.

I loved little Stephanie and I noticed this too. It was one of my main grievances by the end. They had a tendency to force the Olsens to act cute--and it wasn't. You can't fake cute by making them talk a certain way or act a certain way or undermining their development. I feel like by the end the Olsens had been forced to act a certain way for so long it was sort of ingrained in them and this is something I can't really blame them for.

Part of why I loved little Jodie Sweetin was she was precocious, but I thought she delivered her lines so naturally (and clear!). I don't think she was fake cute...she was just a cute kid who could be very charming without coming across as overly bratty. She seemed about on target age-wise too.

One of my favorite episodes when I was little always used to be the Oat Boat cereal commercial one where Stephanie stole the part from DJ. Heck, I would have given the part to Stephanie too.

I loved that part too, especially when she was practicing her lines and kept reading the instructions as if they were meant to be said. "Oat Boats are delicious, Stephanie takes a bite!" or however it went. Nice touch, writers! And then she feels bad in the end for "stealing" the part from DJ and tries to call the operator to get in touch with a Mr. Boat -- a Mr. OAT Boat. How I wish FH could have stayed forever in seasons 1 and 2.

I had a discussion with my five-year old neighbor who's discovered this new show called Full House and she was shocked to discover that it was on when I was a kid. She recaps the episodes she sees and says her favorite character is Michelle. I think it's cute.

Hee, hee-so true! The 3 guys did become rather generic, bland, and annoying around the 3rd (I think) season. The 1st couple seasons did have a tiny edge to them with funny & realistic plots that hadn't descended into sugar overdose yet.

Count me in on the Stephanie love. Best kid actor on the show & belivable & likeable.

Another line I never caught before. It's a very early episode, and the guys are telling the girls a round-robin type story and making it up as they go along. I think Danny said "the dish ran away with the spoon" or something corny like that, and then it's Jesse's turn:
"So they went to Sweden, where they were cool with stuff like that."

But see, I never got the impression that DJ was supposed to be cute, she was always the older sister and you could tell. I felt like they tried to replace Stephanie with Michelle and that left Stephanie with not much to do later in the series, where I didn't like Stephanie much. She was cute as a kid, not much as a teenager.

I don't think DJ was meant to be cute either. She was supposed to fit into the big sister mode and that was it. Then again, she was also older than me during the show's original run, so I guess I was probably supposed to liken her to a cool older sister. Though in the first season or so she could pass for cute with her big chubby cheeks.

With Stephanie, she grew out of her cuteness, but at the same time when the show went off the air Jodi was thirteen and in midst of an awkward phase--and there are very few child stars who come through adolscence on televison completely unscathed. That's a rough time period to be on television even for those who grow out of it. Also see Keisha Knight Pulliam of the Cosby Show. Cute kid, really awkward preteen, rather attractive adult.

As for Stephanie being more annoying, she was, but at the same time I think it's pretty normal for thirteen year olds to be annoying because that's usually what that age entails. Bratty behavior. Even I didn't really find Stephanie all that realistically bratty for her age. Annoying sometimes, but I still chose her over Michelle anyday.

Candace Cameron would have made a great Stephanie if they had cast the show a few years earlier. She was very much a Stephanie in Some Kind of Wonderful.

I never minded the younger version of DJ because although she could be bratty sometimes, she was the only one of the kids that could really understand the death of her mother. I could definitely see Danny telling her very shortly after Pam's death that she was the big sister and she had to be brave for Stephanie and Michelle. Therefore, he would be putting pressure on her and she would freak out in the face of it, and rebel.

Of course, I don't think the writers considered any of this. Much too deep.

And ITA on adorable Stephanie. I'm watching the episode with Kirk Cameron (I think that's who it is) and DJ was all "chump" to her and Stephanie was like "fool!" So, so, cute. I loved the Stephanie-DJ relationship. I think both actresses had great chemistry together, and they had sweet storylines. They always seemed to confide in each other--something Michelle was "above."

That's what I loved about early DJ and Stephanie, I think (besides the fact that they could act.) They fought and fought and fought - but they were always there for each other. And while they were there for Michelle, and far nicer than I would have been, I don't remember her ever doing a nice thing for them.
Stephanie's first day of kindergarten was on today, and she and DJ had great moments. And Jodie was just so damn cute. Also, there was a tray of those little milk cartons listed as 25 cents each (Uncle Jesse tried to bribe Stephanie some friends by giving out free milk and the kids swamped him - do kids really like milk that much?) Is this a normal practice in elementary schools? It wasn't in the lunchroom or anything, just in the classroom.

That whole kindergarten episode was kind of off for me. The kids were sitting there playing, then they were scattered, then the teacher came in, then she left... that's not how a typical first day of school goes. And then the bell rings and all the kids know to get into the circle position? And did no other parents join their kids inside the classroom? Why was Steph the only traumatized kid? So unrealistic!

I do remember having milk every morning in elementary though. If you were special, you got to be the milk monitor and were given a pass to go to the "milk room" which was a cooler type thing where the milk cartons were delivered each day. But I don't remember kids ever fighting for it.

John Stamos went on a trip to Greece and came back with a renewed Greek-love and asked for his last name to be changed on the show. For some reason I vividly remember hearing/reading this somewhere. Probably the E:THS on FH?

In catching one of the season one episodes today, Joey was saying how one day Jesse will be a famous musician and he will be a famous standup comedian. I would just like to tip my hat to the FH writers -- for once -- for not entirely making this happen, especially on Joey's part. Joey. Was. Not. Funny. And it was awesome to me that he lost on Star Search and never got, like, a sitcom deal(except for the one that FAILED!) or a comedy special or anything else pandering to stupid-ass Mr Woodchuck or Bullwinkle voice-overs. The closest he got to fame was that Ranger Joe crap. And I appreciate that FH never tried to make Joey a comedy supahstah in spite of his unfunniness. I still believe that Jesse and the Rippers went further career-wise than a crappy cover band really should be allowed to, but screw it. They left him for a Brady anyways.

Sorry, just wanted to actually say something positive about the evolution of FH. There ain't much positive about it, but yeah.

(edited because I remembered the ill-fated "Surf's Up!" sitcom deal...shoutout to Annette Funny-Jello, as Michelle would say)

Actually, Joey's type of humor was exactly suited to the "Ranger Joe" show. Who else but little, little kids would (HA!) think Joey & Mr. Woodchuck were funny?

When I saw that episode for the first time, I had no idea who those two were. I can't even remember the guy's name right now, and I know I should be able to. I kept wondering why everyone was so excited about those people.


Ha, indeed! Good one!

Thank goodness that the new generation is being imbued with the good, strong, Jimmy Stuart-type virtue which is so badly needed. Especially being that the closest thing to morality today's kids are being taught comes from Full House. At least that's what I've observed :-}

Eh, don't feel bad giving the show credit. There are plenty of good things that the show did. The ridiculous Michelle takeover in the later seasons casts a black cloud over a lot of things and makes everything seem worse than it actually was.

The never realized dreams thing is a fine example. Even Jesse's biggest success was limited to Japan, and you could pretty clearly tell that it was meant as a consolation prize and nothing more. He enjoyed the fans, but I think he knew he wasn't what he wanted. Maybe that's why it was so easy for him to come home to bratty Michelle...he couldn't even make himself feel he was doing anything worthwhile. And Joey, yes, it's very good that Joey never succeeded. The sad thing was that I sometimes felt Joey had solid half-comedy. That is, he only knew half the joke. For instance, at either the Star Search or Wayne Newton thing, he made the joke about the guy in clubs who bounce their head. Yes, people do that...but what ABOUT them? That's what was missing. His comedy got ridiculously tamer and lamer over the years, but early on, it wasn't as embarassing. Probably because Joey was a more loveable goofball early on as opposed to creepy pedo that he became.

I also always felt the show handled the Danny/Vicky relationship well because it didn't end up with some happily ever after ending. True, Danny deserved it, and true, the ending was rather abrupt, but it was nice to see Vicky take control of her life and follow her dreams, and it was extremely kind of Danny not to try to fight it. He was pretty understanding, if heartbroken. I thought Saget played that Dating Game episode pretty well given his obvious limits.

On those same lines, I liked the DJ/Steve break-up episode. It was even more abrupt than the other, so there was no build to the conclusion, but the conclusion was logical, and the aftermath (despite the fact it was chunked out the window after one episode) was handled pretty well with the awkwardness and Steve's realization he was financially better off. I thought the writers always did a fairly good job with DJ, and I hate she never got more storylines of her own. The Kimmy's drunk episode was bad, but the SAT episode and the car on the roof episode were both very well done for very different reasons, I think.

Of course, giving DJ something to do was too much to ask for while we had excellent storylines like...

Michelle has big feet
Michelle walks Comet and blames Jesse when she loses the dog
Michelle wants to go to a concert
Michelle knocks over a dinosaur
Michelle doesn't like Rigby
Michelle has no best friend (ha!)
Michelle falls off her horse
Michelle starts a club and blabs a secret and blames Danny

I'm just glad the show didn't stick around long enough for the inevitable "Michelle becomes a woman" episode. Eek.

Oh, the horror.
On the other hand, we didn't get that episode with DJ or Stephanie, even though both (DJ surely) girls reached that age during the duration of the show.

Knowing Michelle and her illogical reaction to just about everything (check list provided by Drew T. above), we would probably have been subjected to Michelle trying to saran wrap her body to stop puberty or having a fight with her "conscience", in the form of the other twin, about the pros and cons of wings. Then she'd shut herself in the room and blame uncle Jesse for making her have PMS. Or something.

Or yell at him not to come in her room for five to seven days. Oh, wait, that was "My Girl."

I have to say that I told my brother about the Michelle period story, and he said all he can imagine is Michelle sitting in a hospital bed like she's a cancer patient or something. And I have to say that's how it'd be. Seriously.

Very, very true. I used to watch Full House religiously--more out of my love for John Stamos than out of any true attraction to the show. But now, years later, when I catch a rerun, I'm genuinely surprised at how well the show handled both difficult and commonplace situations. For instance, I recently rewatched the episode where Stephanie has a classmate who's being physically abused by his dad, and damn if that wasn't dealt with very eloquently and realistically.

Also, the episodes dealing with Pam's death, and/or Danny wanting to date again, were well-written and -executed. I mean, the episode where the family all watches the home movies of Pam and the girls? The one where Danny's wedding ring gets dropped down the sink? Pretty good stuff for a cheesy 80s sitcom.

And I agree that having Jesse and Joey never fully realize their dreams of stardom was a brilliant move--very realistic.

But the later seasons, with the Beach Boys stuntcasting and those damn floppy-haired twins, and the focus on Michelle the Most Evil Child Ever to Live....GAH. And you KNOW that a show has jumped the shark when the cast takes a trip to Hawaii.


Yeah, that's why; I can't remember where I heard that, either. John's family name was Stamotopolis or something like that, but his grandfather shortened it to Stamos. So John wanted his character on FH to have the full Greek-heritage tradition. Hence the change from Cochran to Katsopolis. And how fucking sad is it that I actually know how to spell Katsopolis? Kill me now.

And that episode was only the first of the 3rd season.

I do have to disagree, because Stephanie hadn't yet crashed Joey's car into the kitchen, and I do love that episode. Plus, the Hawaii episode featured the much-loved "Clipboard of Fun," which I think I remember discussing here a while back.

Oh, so true. Stephanie and DJ probably could have gotten away without The Other Talk from Danny on Becoming A Woman...I'm guessing that DJ was old enough for Pam to have told her at least a little and she had Kimmy and that annoying Honeybees group, so DJ could have passed it down to Stephanie, because those two were functional like that...but not MEchelle. I can just imagine her going "Dad, there's BLOOD in my PEE!" And after undergoing plenty of bladder cancer and leukemia tests before the doctor tells everyone not to worry--Michelle's just going through the change.

Gah, look at me. I'm angry at the show for a plotline they never even wrote. Mylanta!



I had no idea who she was when I saw the rerun (I was too young when it originally aired). Heck, I didn't even know what the Mickey Mouse Club was! Was she actually famous? At first I thought she was made up like That Total Hottie (not!) Tommy Paige.

Oh yeah, add me to the list of people who had NO idea Tommy Page was guest starring "as himself" in that birthday episode. Let's see, what other guest stars were on the show whom we'd never heard of before?

After the Mickey Mouse Club, she went on to star with Frankie Avalon (the other guy in Surf's Up!) in several beach-themed teen movies. Hence, Surf's Up! They later on made a movie in the late '80s called Back to the Beach which featured Lori Laughlin, and that's probably how/why they did the episode of Full House (like why the Beach Boys kept coming back... John Stamos had been their fill-in drummer).

"Clipboard of fun" was awesome. I didn't care much for Danny cleaning his cleaning products (I mean, sure, it's kind of funny, if insane), but stuff like the clipboard of fun was great. Saget had the perfect look for someone with a clipboard like that, too. The best part of that episode was the clipboard coming back.

Oh, my god.... I caught this rerun not too long ago. My boyfriend makes fun of me for watching FH reruns, but I was alone in the house on this occasion. When the line "Ladies and gentlemen, the Tanner family!" was uttered, only to meet with thunderous applause and the fucking Tanners *onstage* at a Beach Boys concert.... I physically cringed with embarrassment. I really felt ashamed. This coming from someone who can normally stomach all manner of bad TV.

And during the diagnosis process, Stephanie's getting prepared for the SATs or is filling out college applications, but Danny insists that she wait on Michelle 24/7 and thus gets no work done whatsoever, and once they find out she's just on her damn period, Danny will make her apologize to Michelle because she should know how traumatic that can be and how dare she think about herself at a time like this? And there will be gross hugging and Stephanie will bring the little twit ice cream and painkillers while she's tucked into bed for the duration of it, and still not get any work done, or be allowed to have a life of her own.

BWAHAHAHAHA! Good one, Miss Daisy!

I still kind of like the "DJ is cured of anorexia (which she's had for only 3 days) in one afternoon" episode. It was on on Sunday. Don't ask me why I like it-maybe for its improbability?

Small voice...I do too. I saw it on Sunday again too. I'm not fond of the five minutes we have to spend following Michelle around the munckin gym while Danny, Joey and Jesse ooh and ah over every little thing she does. No wonder nobody noticed DJ had stopped eating. All their attention as usual was on Michelle.

However, it is a pretty relatable episode. Most teen girls who aren't sticks are going to be subconscious about wearing bathing suits in front of their friends, especially when said friends are sticks.

Yes, there is the DJ is cured rather quick aspect, but then again DJ didn't have anorexia after just a few days. As someone who has sort of been in her shoes, she was just on her way to developing a problem if she had continued her habits. The fact that her food issues in general were never an issue again is unrealistic, but this is a theme that has popped up over and over again everywhere from Different Strokes to even Disney's Lizzie McGuire.

I also appreciated the fact that Candace Cameron looked like a normal teen girl and not some overly made up stick thin model chick trying to pass as an everygirl. It made her a lot easier to take in that regard.

Does that mean that Bob Saget should take the Olsen Twins to the gym? Or.. should the cast just all send them sandwiches?

I just had to add my $.02, because the Michelle gets her Period storylines just cracked me the hell up. Thanks, guys

One thing ive wondered is why if Full House was so popular ratings-wise when it was on - why does it get attacked so much now?

Probably because the target demographic is now all grown up and realizes how ridiculous it really was?
Also, the show didn't start off badly - it was never a brilliant show, but it was pretty good. Then Michelle started talking.

IIRC i read that the show rose steadily and was one of the top ones ratings wise by around 1991-1992

Yes, the 5th season finished 7th place in Nielsen's overall ratings for the 1991-92 season. In Season 6 the show came in 10th for the year. Those were the only seasons it was in the top ten, though it was in the top 20 a couple of times.

Exactly. I mean, I was -obsessed- with it when I was.. god, I would've been five or six when I started watching, and now, it's like "..good lord." I think it might actually go beyond a guilty pleasure.

I just saw Bob Saget's contribution to 'The Aristocrats'.. and.........wow. The dude's -dirty-. I was just shocked.

it just seems weird given how popular it was - how many other popular shows of the past get attacked now (excluding old fashioned racist shows etc)

Well, Full House was OK for the first 4 seasons. DJ was OK, Kimmie was very funny, Stephanie was so adorable & very funny (unlike Michelle), and Michelle was being Michelle. Once Jesse got married to Becky, the show went to hell in a handbasket.

Double geekburger with cheese!



Me too. Actually that's totally in my top 3. I'd love to read a TWoP recap of it!