NEED TO KNOW
Things at Full House weren’t always picture perfect.
On the July 12 episode of How Rude, Tanneritos, Full House stars Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber were joined by series creator Jeff Franklin to talk about the highs and lows of season 3. Sweetin, 43, asked the group which season 3 episode they thought was the “worst.”
Barber named “Dr. Dare Rides Again,” a season 3 episode where Scott Baio guest-starred as the old friend of John Stamos’ Uncle Jesse, who tries to get him to do a death-defying dare. Sweetin said her least favorite was “Lust in the Dust,” an episode where the girls try to set Bob Saget’s Danny up on a date.
“This maybe is controversial, but I would pick ‘Tanner’s Island,’ ” Franklin, 70, shared. Both actresses were shocked. “Tanner’s Island” is the season 3 premiere, which sees the cast go on a vacation to Hawaii. They briefly end up stranded, and Uncle Jesse crashed a hula event with his own Elvis Presley-themed concert.
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“It had so much potential and cost so much money,” Franklin explained. “And we went to so much trouble, and it was so silly. It had no real storyline. It had no emotional through line. Nobody learned a thing.”
“It was all just fluff and bananas on bananas on bananas,” he said. “And then one minute there, they’re going to Potato Chip Island, and then they’re building tiki huts. And then suddenly, they’re on stage. And Jesse’s singing Elvis songs, and the crowd is going crazy.”
“The crowd’s excited for these random people,” Barber joked. Sweetin noted that in the real world, “somebody would have gotten tackled off that stage… The Tanners, once again, take over.”
“Every fan in that show would want a refund,” Franklin joked. He said the episode was “from another planet.”
“It was a cartoon. It had no story. It was like a great travelogue for Hawaii,” Franklin said. “… You guys had a ton of fun doing it. But I just think it was not a good episode.”
Franklin said “Dr. Dare Rides Again” would be the second-worst episode for him, then “Lust in the Dust.” The former, he said, was the type of story they had already done in season 1, making it “unnecessary.” But, he added, “It did make me really appreciate John Stamos for having been on Full House because Scott Baio was one of our backups when we were casting it originally.”
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If Stamos, 61, hadn’t signed on, “I don’t know if we’d be sitting here today,” Franklin said.
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Franklin also said that all the bad episodes were his “fault.” Sweetin told him not to be hard on himself because with 24 episodes a season, “Not everything’s going to be gold.” Franklin credited the actors for saving the show “every time.”
Full House ran from 1987 to 1995. It found legions more fans in syndication, and from 2016 to 2020, Netflix aired the sequel series Fuller House, which Franklin also created.
