John Stamos, who played Jesse Katsopolis on Full House, re
cently revealed on an episode of Hot Ones that he almost didn’t want to do the sitcom and recalled one of the early table reads.
Have mercy! John Stamos just dropped a bombshell on how he initially felt about Full House.
“I hated that show,” the actor, who played Uncle Jesse on the sitcom in the ’80s and ’90s, said on the July 20 episode of First We Feast’s Hot Ones. “Obviously, I ended up loving it.”
As Stamos—who filmed the episode before the SAG-AFTRA strike began—explained, the show had originally been pitched to him as a series similar to Tom Hanks’ and the late Peter Scolari’s ’80s sitcom Bosom Buddies “with a couple kids in the background.” But as casting continued, he realized, “They’re spending a lot of time casting these kids that are going to be in the background.”
Of course, the show ended up being about a widower named Danny Tanner (played by the late Bob Saget) whose brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (Stamos) and best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) move into his San Francisco home to help him raise his three daughters D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and Michelle Tanner (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen).
And Stamos—who had already gained fame for his role on General Hospital—will never forget one of the early table reads.
“We sit down, and we start reading, and Jodie Sweetin, who plays Stephanie, reads her lines and people are dying laughing. I mean, screaming,” he recalled. “I was like, ‘What’s happening here?'”
In fact, the 59-year-old said, “They couldn’t even hear my lines they were laughing so hard at her,” leading him to slink down in his seat. Stamos recalled how he then called his agent to, “Get me the f–k off this show.” However, he soon had a change of heart.
“We were like, ‘Well, we’ll give it a try.’ And then Bob came in,” he said. “I fought it for a long time. And then I finally said, ‘What am I doing? It’s a beautiful show we built with sweetness and kindness.’ There was no central character on that show is what I realized. The central character was love. We were the best representation of a loving family, not a normal family. The new normal was now an unconventional family. So, I guess that was it. I don’t know.”
Needless to say, the show was a huge success—running for eight seasons and later leading to the spinoff Fuller House that ran from 2016 to 2020.
Want more Full House secrets? You got it, dude. Just keep reading.
Funny Business
While it’s hard to imagine the show as anything but the wholesome family sitcom it was, Full House creator Jeff Franklin originally intended for there to be more stand-up comics in the mix than just Dave Coulier’s Joey Gladstone. His original concept was for House of Comics, a comedy about three comedians living under one roof. When it became clear that ABC was looking for something more in line with Family Ties and The Cosby Show, he changed course a bit.
Bizarro Danny
Though comedian Bob Saget was Franklin’s first choice for widowed father-of-three Danny Tanner, he was stuck in a contract as an on-air contributor over at CBS’ The Morning Program. So, when the original pilot filmed, John Posey assumed the role. Once Saget got fired from his gig, however, Franklin let Posey go and brought him aboard. Posey would go on to appear on shows like Seinfeld, ER, NCIS and, more recently, Teen Wolf and How to Get Away With Murder, but there’s an alternate timeline out there where he was able to live comfortably off Full House checks for the rest of his life.
Twin Temperment
Of the dozens of sets of twin babies who “auditioned” for the role of Michelle Tanner, what earned Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen the role that would turn them into icons for the rest of their lives was the fact that they were the only ones who didn’t cry once. After all, you need to make sure that fussy babies aren’t going to ruin your takes while filming.
