Original Full House star Dave Coulier defends Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s decision not to return as Michelle Tanner in the spin-off Fuller House.
Full House actor Dave Coulier defends Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s decision not to return as Michelle Tanner in Fuller House. The famed twins got their start playing the youngest Tanner daughter in Full House, where they worked closely with Coulier, who played the family’s close friend, Joey. While Coulier and the majority of the original series’ cast all returned for Netflix’s spin-off sequel, Fuller House, the Olsens chose to sit the project out, causing a lot of disappointment from both their former co-stars and fans.
A few years after Fuller House wrapped up with season 5, Coulier opens up about the controversy surrounding Mary-Kate and Ashley’s decision to not reprise Michelle in the Netflix series in a new interview with Yahoo! Entertainment (which happened before the SAG-AFTRA strike) to promote his new rewatch podcast, Full House Rewind. The comedian says that he fully understands where the pair was coming from when they refused the project
Why Michelle’s Fuller House Absence Was So Controversial
In 2016, Netflix officially brought back the Tanners to the small screen with Fuller House. It was already announced that every single main actor from the main series was returning, but there was still uncertainty about whether the Olsens would join the show. Leading up to the show’s premiere, there were conflicting reports that the producers were in the middle of figuring out how to incorporate Michelle into the storytelling. Since Fuller House was filmed in Los Angeles and the Olsens are based in New York, they had to come up with a sustainable filming schedule. Regardless, Full House fans hoped that Michelle would eventually appear.
Once it became clear that Mary-Kate and Ashley were not joining Fuller House, the situation was made worse by John Stamos publicly slamming the sisters for their decision. Narratively, the Full House spin-off regularly poked fun at the sisters and their refusal to partake in the project. Eventually, the show only referenced Michelle to joke about the whole situation, which many found distasteful. More so, it also contradicted the core message of the Full House franchise, which is the importance of family. Not incorporating the youngest Tanner in her sisters’ wedding in the Fuller House finale was the final nail in the coffin.
Ultimately, it’s difficult to blame the Olsens for their decision to not join Fuller House. The twins have long retired from acting and have been keen on keeping a low profile even as they run their fashion house, The Row. Between that and Coulier’s understanding of their perspective, it was for the better that Mary-Kate and Ashley skipped the show instead of forcing them to do something that they didn’t want to do. In hindsight, however, Fuller House should have handled Michelle’s absence better.
