Netflix’s Fuller House star Candace Cameron-Bure explains why the TV show didn’t introduce Kimmy Gibbler’s (Andrea Barber) parents. Playing the eldest Tanner sister DJ in Full House, Netflix’s spin-off series centered on the character as she raises three sons following the sudden death of her husband. Aside from starring in the project, Cameron-Bure also served as a producer. Now that Fuller House is done, she looks back at what went down on its final nine episodes, including how they almost debuted the Gibblers’ parents.
Netflix split Fuller House season 5 into two parts – initially dropping its first nine episodes in December 2019, which ended on a surprise marriage proposal to DJ by her high school sweetheart, Steve (Scott Weinger). Much of the remaining outings, which dropped earlier this month, focused on wedding preparations, with some of the older characters getting involved, like Joey (Dave Coulier). In the midseason premiere, the comedian announces that he’s throwing a party to celebrate DJ, Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Kimmy’s upcoming big day. He wanted everything to be very special and he even invited Kimmy and Jimmy’s (Adam Hagenbuch) parents, exciting fans considering they have never been seen on screen before. Unfortunately, things fall apart, resulting in the Gibblers not showing up.
Now, Insider asked Cameron-Bure why Fuller House didn’t push forward with introducing the Gibbler parents considering they spent all the time and effort setting up their arrival. As it turns out, it has everything to do with establishing Kimmy and Joey’s relationship since they planned on the latter walking the former down the aisle for the triple wedding. Aside from that, the actress also reasoned that with an already big ensemble cast, adding new ones who are expected to have big personalities like the Gibblers might be too much.
“It was something that they thought about and because we knew it was the last season, I think it was hard for the writers to introduce what would have been two very significant characters. If they wanted to do that, it should have been probably in an earlier season or two for it to make sense. Because they would be so significant, I think they thought it would detract from the wedding. That’s why they really set it up in a previous episode when Joey is throwing the engagement party that the parents don’t show up. It’s actually quite sad, but it gives you that beautiful moment when Joey tells Kimmy that he would love to walk her down the aisle. So then when we get to the wedding day, you see the reason, and I think that was the problem that they were trying to solve.
“I think if you bring the Gibbler parents on, those characters are so extravagant and they’re so big and bold that it’s almost like there wasn’t room. We already have so many cast members on our show. That’s another part of it. It’s very hard to serve such big characters that would actually need their own story lines when you already have so many others to service.”
The reason for the midseason subplot surrounding the almost-debut of Kimmy’s parents makes sense. Fuller House needed to establish a good relationship between Kimmy and Joey who haven’t really really had any connection even back in Full House. Their only similarity is that they’re essentially both outsiders to the Tanner family. With no blood connection to the franchise’s lead family, they’re often cast aside; even when they were the center of numerous episodic narratives, there’s no subplot that focused on their relationship until the said Fuller House episode. That being said, the Netflix series could’ve better set up their relationship way earlier in the season, and without incorporating the Gibbler parents in it.
Kimmy’s family background is full of micro-continuity issues. The fact that she suddenly has a brother in Jimmy despite his non-existence in Full House is itself a glaring plot hole. By further delving into her background in the final season, Fuller House inadvertently broke the timeline once again when Kimmy declares that her parents supposedly haven’t seen her with straight hair, despite her wearing it long and straight in the last few seasons of Full House. It might have been for the best if they just didn’t explore that aspect of the character.
