Jeff Franklin, the creator of Full House, is looking back at how the show began and recalls a moment when John Stamos almost backed out of the series.
The writer-producer-director appeared on the first episode of Dave Coulier’s new podcast, Full House Rewind, which they dedicated to the late Bob Saget.
While talking about the show’s first table read with the actors, Franklin noted that there was a “room full of studio and network executives and everybody who could possibly be there. They were all there to see Stamos, I think.”
But Franklin recalled that “Jodie [Sweetin] just stole the whole thing” with her humor, which he said left Stamos upset because he was afraid the younger stars were going to steal the spotlight.
Coulier chimed in and said he remembers “walking out with John” afterward when the Scream Queens actor told him, “The whole show’s gonna be her. We can’t do this.”
Franklin added that he learned “much later” that Stamos was actually “so upset about having to play second fiddle to these really funny kids, that he went out and called his agent and said, ‘This is a mistake. Get me off this show.’”
But the show’s creator said he eventually “made his peace with the fact that he’s working with the kids and animals and being upstairs.” Which ultimately worked out since the sitcom went on to amass great success, running for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995. The show also scored a revival in 2016 with Fuller House, which Franklin also created.
Stamos played Uncle Jesse on the show, alongside Saget, Coulier, Sweetin, Candace Cameron Bure, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen and Lori Loughlin.
Later during the podcast episode, Franklin also explained how the fan-favorite trio, Danny, Jesse and Joey, came to be since John Posey was initially cast as Danny Tanner in the pilot episode.
Franklin explained that Saget was always at the top of his list for the role of the father, but was unavailable at the time the show started filming.
Then, when his schedule suddenly opened up, Franklin decided to put together a “secret chemistry test” on the ’80s sitcom Perfect Strangers, with Saget, Coulier and Stamos, so he “had something to show people because Bob was not an actor either. He’d done a couple guest shots, but he wasn’t really an actor and he wasn’t Bob Saget yet.”
Although he said it “was tough” to “break John Posey’s heart” as well as spend about $1 million to reshoot the pilot, Franklin knew after the chemistry test that Saget was meant to lead the Tanner family.
“I just had this gut instinct, from the beginning, that Bob could be one of those classic TV dads,” he added. “I just fought for him as hard as I could. I said, ‘This is going to make the show so much better. We have to do this.’ It took a lot of convincing and they finally said OK.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Stamos’ rep for comment.
