Full House will be having its 40th anniversary next year, which is crazy to think about. But the series remains a favorite among many fans, myself included. Thanks to reruns on Nick at Nite, I have been a fan of the TGIF sitcom for years. It's one of the best sitcoms of all time, and one of the best things about the show is that almost everyone on the cast remains close to this day. That's why I was so surprised to hear there was “tension” between John Stamos, the late, great Bob Saget, and Dave Coulier early on.
One of the reasons why Full House did so well and why it ran for eight seasons is because of the chemistry between the cast. The show was about a family, and everyone was practically a family off-screen as much as on-screen. Stephanie Tanner actress Jodie Sweetin revealed on the podcast The McBride Rewind that everyone was very close, but there was something a little different when it came to the dynamic between Stamos, Saget, and Coulier that was different from Jesse, Danny, and Joey:
All of us were very close. And even Ashley and Mary-Kate. It was a family. It was a real family. And like, Bob and John, well, John, when he first came, had just come off General Hospital, and he was like An Actor. And Bob and Dave just fucked around all the time. They're just comedians, and that's it.
Going from a soap opera like General Hospital to a full-blown family sitcom like Full House couldn’t have been easy for Stamos, and he’s opened up in the past about how frustrating the show's early years were. While things definitely got easier as the show went on, and the writers even took notice of his quick friendship with Coulier. Sweetin admitted that, at least during the first season, there was some tension when it came to professionalism:
Article continues belowThere was tension at first with John wanting to get the job done, and Bob and Dave are screwing around. I don't know when it happened. At some point by the second season, it just started to click for them. John kind of let go... and then they were brothers.
It’s hard to imagine how different things would have been, not only with the show but with the cast, had Stamos not let his guard down and really started having fun on the set. It’s also because of him letting go that the dynamic between Jesse and Joey and their partnership really became core to the show, as well as the dynamic between the two of them and Danny. And I am so glad that the tension got resolved by the second season, because who knows what would have happened.
While that tension has obviously been resolved for years, there has been some new tension coming out in recent years between Sweetin and on-screen sister Candace Cameron Bure. The two, who have had a public fallout following Bure’s “traditional marriage” comments, have seemingly buried the hatchet on a few different occasions. Sweetin previously spoke out about their differing viewpoints, admitting they weren’t ever really feuding, but knows that they don’t have the same beliefs.
Like any family, though, nothing is ever perfect, and there will be fights. All that really matters is that, for the most part, the family that fans saw on-screen was true off-screen, albeit a little differently. But don’t even get me started on Stamos getting the Olsen Twins fired when the show was first starting out.
