Creator Jeff Franklin shared insights into the early days of the popular '90s comedy on Dave Coulier's new series, 'Full House Rewind.'
Full House creator Jeff Franklin is going down memory lane on Dave Coulier's new series, Full House Rewind. Franklin appeared on the first episode of the PodCo series, where he and Coulier reminisced about the pilot episode of the popular family comedy, which starred the late Bob Saget, John Stamos, Coulier, Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen.
During the episode, which Coulier dedicated to Saget, Franklin revealed Sweetin was the first actor cast on Full House. He shared that after they held the first cast table read, Stamos was ready to get off the show because he was concerned Sweetin and the younger actors would take the spotlight.
"I remembered our first table read," Coulier said.
"Where there's a room full of studio and network executives. They were all there to see Stamos, I think," Franklin recalled.
"Jodie just stole the show," Coulier remembered.
"Stole the whole thing," Franklin agreed.
"And I remember walking out with John," Coulier said. "He's like, 'The whole show is going to be her. We can't do this!'"
Franklin added that he learned "much later" that Stamos "was 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.'"
Franklin also revealed on the podcast that he staged a secret chemistry test between Saget, Stamos and Coulier on the set of the '80s sitcom, Perfect Strangers. After having already cast John Posey in the role of Danny Tanner and filmed a pilot, Franklin learned Saget was "available and interested" in Full House, which led him to put together that meeting between the trio.
"That was kind of a secret chemistry test that I put together, so I had something to show people," Franklin explained, "because Bob was not an actor either. And he wasn't Bob Saget yet."
He revealed that it cost about $1 million to reshoot the pilot with Saget as the patriarch of the Tanner family.
"I just had this gut instinct that Bob could be one of those classic TV dads," Franklin said. "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."
Watch the full episode below.
New episodes of Full House Rewind drop Fridays.
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