John Stamos Had Top Billing On Full House

1) Stamos was the most well-known of the adults (Bob had little to no acting experience) and 2) Stamos was young and very attractive (pulled in little girls and adult women and to a lesser degree gay boys and men). Without Stamos in fact, this show would have flopped.

John Stamos had some star power from his popular turn on General Hospital so gets top billing. Bob Saget had no name recognition when he was cast.

RIP Bob Saget.

I'm sure some noses were out of joint about Stamos TOP BILLING

The show was literally created as a vehicle for Stamos, who was popular on GH.

The show says “Starring” in front of Saget’s name too. They’re both the leads.

[quote] John Stamos had some star power from his popular turn on General Hospital so gets top billing. Bob Saget had no name recognition when he was cast.

Stamos also had at least 2 sitcoms under his belt, "You Again" and "Dreams." The rest of the cast was unknown.

Full House ended when Stamos called it quits.

[quote] The show says “Starring” in front of Saget’s name too.

Yes but John was always NUMBER ONE on the credits

Have we replaced the BRF Titles trolls with the Star Billing trolls?

[quote] Have we replaced the BRF Titles trolls with the Star Billing trolls?

Where have you been? We have been discussing top billing here on DL for years

Top billing is a fairly boring discussion though. The answer is always this person was more famous at the time contracts were negotiated.

People forget season one was literally about Jesse. He was the star. The show was a vehicle for Stamos. Season 1 is different from the rest of the series. He was the focus. Season 2 they changed the focus to the three girls.

More famous or just THE LEAD.

R12 then what about the Steve McQueen & Paul Newman saga on "The Towering Inferno"

Who do you think should have been top billed on that move?

By the last few seasons, it was really the Michelle Tanner show. So they as well have given "Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen" (I love when TV shows try to credit twins as one person lol) top billing. Just like they should have given Jaleel White top billing by the last few seasons of Family Matters.

Yes. By season 4 or 5 Michelle took over the show, with the twins becoming so popular.

They were making like 6 figures per episode by the final season.

R16 don't remind us

This thread confirms it, OP.

You WILL remain unfuckable forever.

Sorry!

Bob Saget has top billing in heaven.

[quote] Bob Saget has top billing in heaven.

He's D-List in heaven too.

[quote]Stamos was young and very attractive (pulled in little girls and adult women and to a lesser degree gay boys and men).

[quote]John Stamos had some star power from his popular turn on General Hospital so gets top billing.

[quote]The show was literally created as a vehicle for Stamos, who was popular on GH.

R1, R2 and R5’s comments mentioning General Hospital got me thinking, Rick Springfield was popular on GH, right? Why didn’t he get a sitcom or series created for him in the 80s? His music career didn’t go anywhere.

[quote] [R1], [R2] and [R5]’s comments mentioning General Hospital got me thinking, Rick Springfield was popular on GH, right? Why didn’t he get a sitcom or series created for him in the 80s? His music career didn’t go anywhere.

He won a Grammy and kept recording albums. He went back to television in the 90s.

I was too old to watch "Full House", but looking at the pictures since yesterday, John Stamos is certainly hot, but I only have eyes for Dave Grulier. How come he isn't mentioned more around here?

R10 Let's hope - anything is better than those

No one wanted to fuck Dave Coulier

R24 Because he's so fug in the photo you posted it hurts to look?

Dear billing troll - Actor billing is never dependent on the role itself. And agents don't always fight for top billing and sometimes the talent doesn't want top billing. I can imagine raunchy comedian Bob Saget didn't want top billing on this project even if it was available to him. This show was a JOB that had nothing to do with his creative interests as a comedian, actor, writer, or director.

Since you're so interested in billing, I remember hearing about an indie movie where there was a lot of back and forth because the biggest name didn't want top billing and nobody else wanted it either. then another big supporting actor on it became a house hold name star and didn't want top billing since he was moving on to star in studio movies and he wasn't the lead so why should they make money off his name above the title? ....and the movie wasn't even embarrassing or bad.

Bob Saget did Full House for the same reason Robert Reed did The Brady Bunch. Easy money. Didn't require much effort. Bob was very warm and affable, so he fit well as the patriarch. But even then, Danny was always on the side. Uncle Jesse, Joey, Kimmy and later Michelle took up a lot of spotlight.

Danny just served as the voice of reason. The straight men with some quirks like his nerdiness, lack of dating life and neat freak tendencies. His character was so asexual despite his real life standup being so raunchy and off-color. Uncle Jesse was very sensual and slutty. The source of the adult jokes before the writers decided to bring in Becky to make him more wholesome and clean.

There's a Reddit post where one of the writers for Full House talked about how everyone basically hated working on it but it was so popular and lucrative they just took the money. He even mentioned how the Olsen twins were like trained monkeys and had their lines spoken to by a woman who they mimed. I'm going to find it and post it because it was pretty interesting.

Kimmy didn’t get much screen time until season 4. She was barely on. She just came in and out. Later seasons we see more of her.

It’s very common for child actors to mimic what they’re told. They were memorizing their lines by seasons 6 or 7. But yes, they were told their lines for a lot of the show because they were 6 months- 8 years old on the show. Some of you forget they were babies on the show. We literally watched those two girls grow up.

Full House would have flopped without Stamos. Ironic is if I had to watch any season. I liked the first season because it focused more on the three guys raising the girls and the humor was more adult. It was basically like Three Men and A Baby and My Two Dads. DJ and Stephanie had some B plots. When Michelle started talking and saying cutesy one-liners and they brought in Becky to make Jesse's characters less of a manhoe. The show became so saccharine. Then Danny went from being down to earth to being more bumbling and obsessed with cleanliness.

Michelle was never cute, she was always annoying and her line delivery was monotone and robotic. All she did was cause problems and when she got older, it was still treated as cute. Spoiled brats ain't funny. DJ got more annoying in later seasons because she was so whiny and unsympathetic. The only sources of some edgy humor were Kimmy and Stephanie's sarcasm.

So yes Stamos was the star. Even though Full House made Bob Saget famous. He had to work to disassociate from this image. Stamos loved the attention and he also had a lot of say. When he refused to do season 9, it was because he felt moving it from ABC to The WB was a downgrade.

I never understood how Lori Loughlin got the prestigious "AND" billing.

Is Stamos white?

Lori was the second most well known apart from Stamos. She was in every non-John Hughes teen movie from the 80s and in a few soaps.

R29 would love to see that post. I've known a few people who worked in children's programming. It's good money (especially if you end up with a hit), but it's mind-numbingly dull work. The ones I knew did horror movies after their shows ended.

Lori Laughlin only had the “and” for like 1 or 2 seasons when she was bumped to main cast in season 3. After that they began showing her in the middle, where she fit as far as placing on the show. It was the 3 guys, the 3 girls then Lori then Andrea. No “and” spot. Their names were just shown. When they added Steve to main cast he was at the bottom and when the twin boys were added they were last, until season 8, when the twins were given the coveted “and” spot.

R37 no, I am pretty sure Lori Laughlin was always the "and"

I mean she wasn't John Mahoney (Frasier), Estelle Getty (GG), or Susan Sullivan (Dharma & Greg).

[quote] Dear billing troll - Actor billing is never dependent on the role itself. And agents don't always fight for top billing and sometimes the talent doesn't want top billing. I can imagine raunchy comedian Bob Saget didn't want top billing on this project even if it was available to him. This show was a JOB that had nothing to do with his creative interests as a comedian, actor, writer, or director.

He was a complete unknown. He couldn't have gotten top billing; even if he requested it. However, why would he request it; knowing he couldn't get it.

R38 well, you’re wrong.

R38 here is season 6. There is no “and” spot.

R38 and the only time they brought back the “and” was for the twins because they were such big stars and making more than Candace, Jodie etc.

I think they were the second highest paid, behind Stamos during that final season.

He's hardly fug! I think I'm in love now.

R22 sure is stupid. A requirement to be on DL.

r44 please stop posting that pedophile.

[quote] [R44] please stop posting that pedophile.

Did you too go down on him in the theater?

Found it! R36

This made me LOL but it was disturbing.

[quote] The way the Olsen Twins performed on Full House was strange and, to me, disturbing. I think they were 7-years-old the year I worked on the show. Although they’d perform in the tapings, most of what was used for air was shot in pick-ups, which meant that after the audience left we’d shoot those scenes again. The woman who worked as the twins’ wrangler, coach, whatever you’d call her, would kneel under the camera, recite the kid’s line and perform a gesture. The kid would then ape the way the line was spoken as closely as she could. I don’t know if that was why we sensitively referred to them as the Monkey Girls, but I found it discomfiting that the girls were in effect acting like little robots, or performing seals. Sure made them rich, though.

Also from R48

[quote] When I was writing FULL HOUSE my daughter was 3. I WROTE FOR HER. And she figured out that when the treacly music started it meant the show was almost over. That music signalled what we called the “heart scene,” when one of the brats would get lectured by an adult about how to live their TV lives and the edisode would get tied up in a simplistically near knot.

Re: Coulier:

[quote]He really loved to fart. Made the girls laugh a lot. I gave him a copy of a book called “Le Petomane,” about a performer in 19th Century Paris who could do wonders with his butthole. I’m certain Dave treasures it to this day.

[quote] The common wisdom is that it’s the kids’ shows with the broad that thrive in syndication. I think The Hogan Family was the best of the sitcoms I worked on. It had the most sophisticated, realistic, believeable writing. It had the best actor I worked with on sitcoms, Jason Bateman. (Sadly, I only worked with the wonderful Valerie Harper three days before she got canned.) The people running that show were excellent writers and the Exec Producers, Bob Boyette and Tom Miller, let them do their thing. The year I was on Hogan Family was, I think, the first year of Full House. After a funny, successful rehearsal, Tom Miller once made a rueful joke about having to leave to go to a rehearsal of a lesser series of his — Full House. It’s the latter series that will still be running long after everyone reading this is dead.

This is so funny but happens a lot. Companies will invest the best writers, actors and producers for a show they perceive is higher quality and give the lesser show a lower budget. Then the lesser show ends up a hit and even lives on in syndication to become a viewers favorite. Nobody expected Full House to be successful and it almost was cancelled but ended up becoming hugely popular and is still syndicated today on multiple TV channels. Valerie/Hogan Family was perceived as higher quality but is completely forgotten now (despite starring Jason Bateman) because it didn't have success in syndication. I remember ABC Family aired it for a bit mainly to market off of Bateman's mid-2000s success and dropped the reruns after a few months.

A Kimmy Gibbler line that didn't make it:

[quote]I recall one for Full House that, of course, didn’t make it into the episode. There was a Christmas party at the Tanner residence. I had Kimmy, perpetually lacking in male companionship, wear a contraption on her head that held a mistletoe branch, so wherever she went she was under a misteltoe. The Tanner dog bounded up to her and madly kissed her face. DJ came over and Kimmy said to her, “Can I buy your dog?"

R46 - sorry, I don't know anything about him except that he was cute back then.

All the Kimmy Gibbler jokes were pretty mean-spirited for such a saccharine show. She wasn't even annoying either. Steve Urkel was obnoxious, annoying and a stalker and his putdowns usually were warranted. Kimmy was just goofy yet the whole cast mocked her as if she was this hideous creature from the swamp. She certainly was more likable than DJ and Michelle.

[quote] Valerie/Hogan Family was perceived as higher quality but is completely forgotten now (despite starring Jason Bateman) because it didn't have success in syndication. I remember ABC Family aired it for a bit mainly to market off of Bateman's mid-2000s success and dropped the reruns after a few months.

The Hogan Family aired in U.S. syndication on local television stations, from September 1990 until Summer 1998. From August 1998 until August 1999, startup broadcast network PAX TV aired reruns of the series weekdays at 4/3c.

ABC Family previously held the U.S. syndication rights to the program and had aired episodes twice daily for five weeks from September 25 (2005?) until October 27, 2006. It had discontinued running the show since then.

In Canada, the Crossroads Television System held the Canadian syndication rights and began airing the show Wednesday nights. It discontinued airing the show in 2011.

The Hogan Family title was used for syndicated showings of almost all episodes, including those originally broadcast as Valerie or Valerie's Family. Also, the theme was shortened in the opening credits when the show was in syndication. During the Valerie seasons, the title sequence becomes slow motion at the scene where Mike and the boys begin to tackle Valerie in their football game. For the third-season episodes, the title shot from seasons four and five is used for reruns, where The Hogan Family is displayed over the Hogans carrying their picnic items through the park. This deleted the scene where Sandy runs out to the baseball diamond to try and get the bases unloaded. The latter was where the Valerie's Family title was shown on NBC airings, with The Hogans appearing over the park-walking scene.

The only episode to retain the Valerie title in syndication was "Bad Timing" (February 8, 1987), which also kept the original parental advisory disclaimer from NBC.

In 2016, Antenna TV announced that they would air the series in 2017.[8][9] The Christmas episode was the first to air on the network on December 16, during a marathon of holiday-themed episodes from Antenna TV programs throughout the month,[10] before the show officially joined the lineup on January 2, 2018.[11]

The series began airing on Rewind TV on September 1, 2021 after leaving Antenna TV.

In the United Kingdom the series was shown on BBC1 from 1987 to 1992.

In New Zealand the series was shown on TVNZ.

R55 Compare it to Full House. Full House aired not only on network syndication but was also a staple on cable stations like TBS, Nick at Nite and ABC Family which aired it multiple times a day for nearly two decades. Also the Olsen Twins were hugely popular in the 90s and 2000s, so Full House had that benefit of being tied to these huge teen stars who were still making direct-to-video movies and merchandise.

Jason Bateman was an 80s teen heartthrob but went through a career slump until Arrested Development revived his popularity in the mid-2000s and it was a show for adults. The Hogan Family was forgotten by the time Bateman had his career revival. If Nick at Nite had aired reruns during Bateman's period of Arrested Development and many bro-comedies and promoted it. It could have gotten a following with millennials but never happened.

So someone fill me in on Coulier - I'm not finding anything online about him being pervy.

Roseanne and Married with Children live on syndication mainly thanks to being so reactionary and portrayals of relatable (albeit exaggerated) white working class families and being ahead of their time. FX promoted MWC heavily especially since being a cable network they aired the banned and uncensored episodes. Christina Applegate, Katey Sagal and Ed O'Neill still get a lot of good work. Roseanne got a sequel the Connors and crazy ass Roseanne Barr will never be boring even after getting kicked off her show.

Full House is probably the only saccharine white family sitcom of the 80s that lived on and I think the overexposure on cable and the popularity of the tabloid-heavy Olsen Twins really helped with that. It's popular with Millennials and Gen Z. Just like how the Brady Bunch was popular with Boomers and Gen X. The other sugary sweet 80s shows like Who's The Boss, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Hogan Family, Silver Spoons, Small Wonder etc. eventually became forgotten.

Yep, kids still watch Full House. And then have to ask who the guest stars are (some random Beach Boy or some shit like that).

Who has top billing on Days of Our Lives?

John Stamos could top me anytime.

R60 Eric Braeden

r32 I disagree the show would have flopped without Stamos but the Three Men and a Baby comparison is apt. The show premiered about a year after Three Men and a Baby, which made $600 million worldwide in ticket sales alone (adjusted for inflation).

[quote] John Stamos had some star power from his popular turn on General Hospital

Poor Blackie Parrish. Is he still getting raped nightly in the hoosegaw?

There were a lot of shady dealings on that show.

Trust me.

Amongst other things, Bob Saget’s death has reminded me of how hot John Stamos is. Thanks Bob!

BAB SOGET PUT MY FAMILY OUT ON THE STREETS!!!

Full House creator Jeff Franklin bought the Sharon Tate murder house, tore it down, and then built this monstrosity on the property.

[quote]Is Stamos white?

His people invented European civilization. Is that white enough for you?

In an old thread, a DLer said he once went down on Dave Coulier in a theater. Are you still around, eldergay? What was he like, I wonder? Big, blond, handsome Germanic Dave.

[quote] Big, blond, handsome Germanic Dave.

Isn't Coulier a French name?

He had top billing, but he doesn't have a star on the Walk of Fame

@R68

Knowing someone who pumped so much mind-numbing shit into world gets to own a palace for it makes me sure there is no God.

[quote] a DLer said he once went down on Dave Coulier in a theater.

Was his name Alan S. Morissette?

[quote] He had top billing, but he doesn't have a star on the Walk of Fame

Poor John didn't have the $30K to pay for it.

John Stamos is rich AF.

R63 David Coulier is not funny. Bob Saget's Danny is likable but not at all interesting. Candace was whiny. The Olsens were just babies so did nothing until they talked. So the only one that kept interest during the first season was John Stamos as he had charisma, was good-looking and was known for being on General Hospital. I would also add Jodie since was cute and funny too.

In fact I think had it just been Jesse as a single dad with just Stephanie it would have been successful because they could play each other well.

R76 has no sense of humor. SMDH

John Stamos has always had an oversized, round ass, although it began to sag after he hit 40.

It must be a Greek thing.

Cut it out, OP.