Fuller House Focuses on Kimmy Gibbler Being Stephanie Tanner’s Surrogate This Season
This season of ‘Fuller House’ features a main storyline about surrogacy. But unlike other sitcoms that have tackled the subject, this is more about the women’s relationship than the baby. Here’s how it all came together.
When Fuller House premiered on Netflix, nearly three years ago, a whole generation of eighties and nineties kids were excited to check back in on the Tanner family. What followed was a fervor of binge-watching, trend pieces, and Michelle Tanner GIFs, but the buzz tempered by the second season. (How rude.) There were still milestones—an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children’s Program in 2018, for example—but the sitcom mostly settled into a comfortable routine.
By the end of season three, though, that shifted. Fuller House returned to its roots while simultaneously laying the groundwork for its future. Becky, Jesse, and Danny decided to move back to San Francisco so Danny and Becky can host Wake Up, San Francisco again; DJ and Steve reunited; and Fernando bought the Gibbler house. These events allowed the series to keep the family-friendly vibe, while tapping into more modern storylines, namely, the nonnuclear family structure.
Full House (and, as a result, Fuller House) has always been about a nonnuclear family—but it was because of circumstances like the death of Danny’s wife or DJ’s husband, not choice. That’s not the case in season four, which premieres on Netflix today: One of the main storylines will center on Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) being a surrogate for Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin).
The seeds for this actually began back in season one, when it was revealed that Stephanie is unable to have children. Then, in season three, she discovered she had a few eggs left but wouldn’t be able to carry a baby. Enter surrogacy as an option. But Stephanie was in a serious relationship with her boyfriend (and Kimmy’s brother), Jimmy Gibbler, and wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable asking him to be the father should one of her eggs be viable. Turns out he was, and by the season’s end an embryo was implanted in Kimmy. Now she’s pregnant—whether it’s a single or multiple birth is TBD.
It’s a sign that Fuller House isn’t stuck in nineties nostalgia that Stephanie and Jimmy aren’t married or engaged or even concerned about it. They’re just a couple in love who want to have a baby together. Imagine that happening on Full House with Jesse and Becky? For 30-something Stephanie, her biggest priority is starting a family—not worrying about her forever partner.
“It’s definitely not your traditional sitcom storyline of boy meets girl and they have a baby,” Andrea Barber tells Glamour. “I think this is more relevant. For a lot of people having a child is not so straightforward—it’s complicated and messy. I’m glad the show went there and didn’t just drop it in season one. It’s been evolving for four seasons.”
The story of Stephanie’s fertility was originally creator and former executive producer Jeff Franklin’s idea. When season one premiered, he told TV Line he wanted one of the three lead women to not have kids—for now. “The backstory I created for her was that she’s a free spirit, traveling the world. She’s into her career and into having fun, and I thought this would be a really interesting aspect to that character—and touching,” he said at the time.
However, executive producer and coshowrunner Steve Baldikoski says that before Franklin departed the series last year, he made it known that he wanted season four to be about Kimmy’s surrogacy. “In the last moments of season three, we revealed that Kimmy was pregnant with Stephanie and Jimmy’s baby,” Baldikoski says. “The challenge for [executive producer and coshowrunner] Bryan Behar and I was exactly how that would play out for the year. We wanted to have something that was real and tangible to pull Full House into the modern era of Fuller House.”
