About Full House

 

Full House is an American television sitcom that originally ran from September 22, 1987 to May 23, 1995 on ABC. The series was created by Jeff Franklin and produced by Lorimar Television (1987-1993), and then by Warner Brothers Television (1993-1995). Set in San Francisco, California, it chronicles a widowed father Danny Tanner who recruits his best friend Joey Gladstone and his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis to help raise his three daughters.  

 

History

The original title of the show was House of Comics, and it was going to be about three comedians living together. However, executive producer and creator Jeff Franklin learned that ABC wanted a sitcom about a family, so it was changed to Full House when it was decided that the show was to promote family themes and values.

The show's original pilot (which was never aired) starred John Posey as the original Danny Tanner because Bob Saget was on another network (as co-host and "comic" correspondent on CBS's ill-fated Morning Program. When it was revamped, Saget was fired, and thus available for Full House).

In the first season, Jesse's last name was "Cochran". His name was changed after Season 1 to "Jesse Katsopolis". The name change was due to Stamos wanting his character to better reflect his Greek heritage. In one episode, Jesse admits his birth name was "Hermes", which actually happens to be his real-life paternal grandfather's name.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen nearly left the show after the first season because their real-life mother was concerned about them missing out on having a "normal" childhood. After a raise from the producers, she let them stay on. Their being so popular was also one of the reasons their mother let them stay.

During the show's run, only four main characters were added to the main cast. Lori Loughlin, who played the role of Rebecca Donaldson (later Katsopolis), was initially scheduled to appear in six episodes in Season 2 as Danny's co-host on Wake Up, San Francisco. However, producers decided to write her character into the show, and give her a permanent role in the third season.

According to the show's E! True Hollywood Story, during the third season, a tremendous amount of sodas were spilled backstage and even on set at tapings. Producers were forced to fire several interns and speak with the cast about how the carpets and vinyl surfaces at the studio were stainable and how hard it was to get the stains out. This lead to a great deal of turmoil behind the scenes.

Season 5 saw the debut of characters Nicky and Alex Katsopolis, who were the twin sons of Jesse and Rebecca. The characters Nicky and Alex were created to complement the popularity of the Olsen twins. However, the new characters did not achieve as much popularity as the producers had hoped. The "baby" versions were played by Daniel and Kevin Renteria until the end of Season 5. Beginning in Season 6, Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit played the roles of toddlers Nicky and Alex until the series ended.

Full House was part of the TGIF lineup from the fall of 1988 to the fall of 1991, which spanned the show's second, third, and fourth seasons. The show was moved to Tuesdays for Season 5, and remained there until its cancellation. While Season 1 was not very successful, Season 2 quickly gained popularity for the show, and from Season 3 onwards it was ranked among the Nielsen Ratings' Top 30 shows.

In 1995, ABC announced that it was cancelling the show after the eighth season due to the increasing costs to produce the show. The new WB network wanted to pick up the show for a ninth season, but John Stamos announced that the eighth season would be his last (he was mainly upset about Full House defecting from one of the "Big Four" networks to a netlet which had not yet received full national distribution). Eventually, the other actors announced they were also ready to move on to other projects, thus ending the show's eight-year run. The one-hour finale was watched by 24.3 million viewers (25 percent of all Americans watching television at the time).

 

Production

Although the series was set in San Francisco, and the opening credits were filmed there, the sitcom itself was taped at Warner Brothers Studios in Los Angeles. The only episode to have actually been taped in San Francisco was Comet's Excellent Adventure, the first episode of Season 8. There were also a few episodes where the cast would shoot in other locations, most notably Hawaii in the third season premiere "Tanner's Island", and at Walt Disney World for the episodes "The House Meets the Mouse" (Parts 1 & 2) at the end of Season 6.

Full House was produced by Jeff Franklin Productions & Miller-Boyett Productions in association with Lorimar-Telepictures (1st season only), then Lorimar Television (later to become Warner Bros. Television).

The theme song "Everywhere You Look" was performed by Jesse Frederick, which he co-wrote with John Stamos. The song was almost always truncated to the chorus for broadcast. Season one was the only season that used the full song; after that it kept getting shorter, until it was down to about 30 seconds in season 8. On the seasons 1, 2, 4 and 5 DVD sets and 6 episodes of the third season, the full version of the theme song is heard, and the fast forward button is disabled. On the seasons 3, 6 and 7 DVD sets the opening was a little shorter, cutting about 14 seconds out of the theme song. In the 8th season DVD set, the entire opening is replaced with a card that instructs viewers to refer to previous DVD sets.

In the beginning, the six original characters were shown either at home or in various shots in San Francisco. Beginning in season 4, the opening credits for the adults were also filmed in San Francisco as well as the last shot of the opening credits of the show, which features the cast having a picnic in Alamo Square in front of the row of Painted Ladies in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. Contrary to popular belief, the red-doored Victorian where the Tanners live is not one of these houses. The address of the Tanner house was mentioned in Blast From the Past as being located at 1882 Girard Street in San Francisco, CA. The actual location of the house is at 1709 Broderick St., San Francisco, CA. Beginning in Season 6, the font of the credits was changed to be bolder, and the color was changed from white to yellow. It was not until season 8 that the opening credits were changed to feature the entire cast in various locations around San Francisco.

The role of Michelle was credited as being played by "Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen" from seasons 2-7 (the duo was only credited in the closing credits in season 1, as "Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen") because the show's director did not want audiences to know that Michelle was played by twins. Ashley's name was made to appear as Mary-Kate's middle name in the titles. (The role of Michelle was played by two children because California state law regulated the number of work hours for a young child). In season 8, with the entire opening credit shots revamped for the last time, the Olsen twins were now given special billing in response to the popularity they earned as separate performers over the years. Appearing last in the credits, they were credited as "and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as Michelle". Fittingly, Mary-Kate is the twin appearing in the shot, but the girl in the painting is Ashley. It was not until season 5 that Andrea Barber (who played Kimmy Gibbler) was added to the opening credits, despite her recurring role on the show since the first season. The long opening was cut when the show started regular rotation upon the end of first-run airing.

 

Broadcasting history

ABC (1987-1995)

Syndication (1995-present)

TBS (1998-2002)

Nick @ Nite (2003-present)

ABC Family (2004-present)

CTS (2008-Present)

 

Syndication history

Since its 1995 finale, the sitcom has continued in syndication while gaining even more popularity among newer generations of family audiences. Full House was initially syndicated on various local stations nationwide. For a brief period of time in the early 1990s, reruns of the early seasons began airing in a daily daytime strip on NBC.^[1] In the late 1990s, TBS Superstation and WGN aired the show every day until 2003, when the show was dropped from the daily schedule on both networks. Later that year, Nick at Nite acquired the show, as well as ABC Family in 2004. Several episodes on ABC Family feature the original extended version of the theme song. As of 2008, the show still airs daily on ABC Family and still airs at 6:00 AM on Nick at Nite. The show also airs on CTS (Crossroads Television System) in Canada.