Jodie Sweetin’s pick for her most hated episode of Fuller House highlights just how the Netflix spin-off sequel failed Stephanie Tanner.
Jodie Sweetin’s most hated Fuller House episode highlights how badly the spin-off failed Stephanie Tanner. At the height of reboots and revivals, Netflix ordered the Full House spin-off in the mid-2010s and debuted it in 2016. Fuller House ran for five seasons and focused on Danny Tanner’s (Bob Saget) two older daughters and their eccentric neighbor, Kimmy (Andrea Barber).
Wanting to take advantage of Full House’s continued popularity, Fuller House fully leaned on nostalgia — so much so that it basically just copied the premise of its parent series. Like her father, DJ (Candace Cameron-Bure) was suddenly widowed and left to raise three young kids on her own. Meanwhile, Stephanie and Kimmy moved back to the Tanner family home to help her get back on her feet, essentially being the modern versions of Jesse (John Stamos) and Joey (Dave Coulier). There were pros to this creative decision. Firstly, the familiar dynamic was comforting for fans of Full House who were watching the sequel. Secondly, it highlighted just how big of an impact Danny, Jesse, and Joey’s parenting was on the girls. However there are cons to repeating this formula as well. For starters, virtually restarting Full House led to largely uninspired storytelling, with some of the cast members even admitting to not particularly liking certain narrative elements of the show.
For Sweetin, she revealed that she’s not really fond of what happened in Fuller House season 4, episode 7 titled “President Fuller.” In it, Steph kickstarted her new job as a singer for kids’ parties known as Aunt Steph. It wasn’t the outing’s main storyline, but it essentially saw Steph arguing with Sudsy the Clown (Larry Joe Campbell), who believed that the Tanner middle child was detrimental to his business. The whole plotline was absurd — something that Sweetin herself said. The actress shared that she couldn’t believe that Stephanie, who’s a fully grown woman in Fuller House and was about to have her first child, was arguing with a clown. Despite her personal feelings, she showed up and delivered her lines because, at the end of the day, that’s her job. This highlights just how much Fuller House changed her character to service its efforts to establish a parallel with Jesse’s rocker and devil-may-care attitude. In Full House, Stephanie was smart, eloquent, and wise. Sure, she made mistakes, but she was mostly mature for her age, which is why it didn’t make sense that she’s suddenly childish in the offshoot.
Despite being a main cast member, Stephanie was largely underdeveloped as a character when she’s not simply being used for comedic purposes. Granted, she had a few great storylines, including her pregnancy journey, but there wasn’t nearly enough focus on her overall. Among all Fuller House characters, Stephanie was arguably the most interesting. Her story also had the biggest potential, starting as a full-on global DJ to a devoted mother, as well as a successful musician. However, instead of properly fleshing out her character arc, Fuller House lingered on DJ’s love life, which, for the most part, barely had any ties to the show’s core theme of family. As the eldest Tanner daughter debated on whether to go with Matt (Jon Brotherton) or Steve (Scott Weinger), there wasn’t really an effort to include the feelings of her three kids in her decision. Instead of spending that long on this extended romantic plotline, Fuller House could’ve focused on Steph’s growth as a person while he transitioned to being a mother, instead.
Another proof that Fuller House ultimately failed Stephanie was its blatant ignorance of Danielle — her first child. After she was born through Kimmy’s surrogacy, she was barely featured in the series again. They were supposedly saving her appearance for season 6. While that’s understandable, the least they could do was ensure that she’s still shown as part of the Tanner family.
