With three seasons under its belt, Fuller House is on track to last as long as its predecessor, Full House. The beloved family sitcom ran for a whopping eight seasons! Similar to the original, Fuller House tells the story of adult, recently-widowed D.J. Tanner, who is raising three boys on her own with the help of her sister Stephanie and bestie Kimmy.
Considering how often reruns of the original TV show aired in the intervening years, it’s easy to forget that the show’s stars had other careers and lives in between the end of the first series and beginning of the new Netflix one.
Here’s how the Tanner family has changed since first appearing on our TV screens thirty (!) years ago.
1. Candace Cameron Bure
At just 11 years old Candace Cameron Bure shot to fame as oldest daughter D.J. Tanner on the original Full House. After the show ended, she made a few guest appearances on other TV shows before retiring from Hollywood to focus on her family (she married hockey player Valerie Bure in 1996) and raising her three kids. She dipped her toe back into the acting pool in the 2000s, appearing in Hallmark TV movies. But her career didn’t really take off again until 2015, when she simultaneously began working on Fuller House and the talk show The View.
2. Jodie Sweetin
Jodie Sweetin went down a typical and unfortunate path that many child actors find themselves on after their shows have ended. As documented in her 2009 memoir, unSweetined, she became addicted to drugs as a teenager and struggled with addiction for years but eventually got clean. She returned to Hollywood in 2006 as the host of a Fuse TV show and then pursued roles in independent films before assuming the role of Stephanie Tanner once again. She has two daughters named Beatrix and Zoie.
3. Andrea Barber
As the goofy young Kimmy Gibbler, Andrea Barber’s performance on Full House was comedy gold. However, despite her success on the show, Barber decided to retire from acting after hanging up Kimmy’s neon-colored costumes for good. She pursued a graduate degree and had a family, before making her triumphant return to Hollywood in 2015 to take a starring role on the spinoff.
4. John Stamos
Have mercy! Time has been good to John Stamos; the actor barely looks like he’s aged since his Full House years. For him, the show was just the beginning of a very busy career. After Full House ended, he went on to star in TV series like ER, Thieves, Jake in Progress, and Grandfathered. He has also had a music career, most notably performing with the Beach Boys and even became a yogurt spokesman. As one of the producers of Fuller House, John has been involved with the show since the beginning and makes regular guest appearances. In his personal life, John was married to model and actress Rebecca Romijn for six years before divorcing in 2004. He is currently single, much to the delight of single ladies with a crush on Uncle Jesse.
5. Bob Saget
Saget’s post-Full House career includes everything from hosting TV shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos to directing to narrating How I Met Your Mother to playing a dad again on the short-lived WB sitcom Raising Dad. Still, Saget is probably best known for his often R-rated stand-up comedy in the years following Full House. He returns to Fuller House as a reoccurring character throughout the series.
6. Dave Coulier
What do you do after starring on a show that utilizes all of your funny voices and impressions? “Cut it out” of Hollywood? No way! For Dave Coulier, the answer was to return to his roots in comedy and voiceovers. Post-Full House, the former SNL actor voiced a variety of cartoon characters in addition to starting his own children’s entertainment company. Despite his busy schedule, he still finds time to reprise his role as Joey Gladstone on Fuller House on occasion and give his catchphrase one last chance to go viral.
7. Lori Loughlin
Thanks to her start on Full House, Lori “Aunt Becky” Loughlin has made a career of playing kind mother figures on shows like 90210 and Summerland. In real life, Loughlin became a mother after the original series ended and is married to fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli.
8. Scott Weinger
Decades have passed since Scott Weinger made his television debut as D.J.’s boyfriend Steve, but he’s still as boyishly cute as ever. After Full House, Scott landed the iconic role of the voice of Disney’s Aladdin before transitioning to a career behind the scenes. He wrote and produced TV shows like 90210 and Black-ish before returning to Fuller House to to win D.J. Tanner’s heart once again.
