It’s been nearly two years since Bob Saget died, and in that time no one has been more outspoken about keeping the comedian’s memory alive than John Stamos, sharing stories about his friend, including the last day he spent with him at Disneyland and even how he asked for a sign that Bob was OK the night he died. But the actors who played brothers-in-law on Full House and its spinoff Fuller House didn’t exactly start out on the right foot, and Stamos recalled what he did that pissed off the comedian in the sitcom's early days.
John Stamos had been acting for years on General Hospital and You Again? when he landed the role of Uncle Jesse on Full House in 1987. Bob Saget, meanwhile, was better known for his raunchy standup comedy, and their styles on the set of the family friendly ABC series clashed in a major way. Stamos opened up to his former co-stars Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber in an interview on the How Rude, Tanneritos! podcast about settling into his character, and how his choices upset the Tanner family patriarch. The actor explained:
I started to get into it, obviously, and I knew that you kids were going to be huge stars on there. And instead of being like a dad on Webster or something, I said, ‘I gotta get in the middle of this.’ I nurtured the Michelle/Jesse relationship, which pissed Bob off even more.
John Stamos has admitted to being nervous about Full House when he realized how much much the plot centered around DJ (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and Michelle (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), and apparently it angered Bob Saget that Stamos made moves to protect his relevance on the show. He went on to explain how to the two actors just approached the job differently, saying:
Bob and I, we just didn’t like each other for a good long time, as you guys probably remember. And it wasn’t that I didn’t think he was talented or funny. I mean, I thought he was a genius, I just wouldn’t tell him until years later. His process was very different than mine, as you guys remember. I came from working with Jack Klugman on [You Again?] right before, where we break apart every scene and we talk it out. And Bob just wanted to take a fork and stab his penis with it and say, ‘I hate my penis.’
One can see how John Stamos might have been annoyed with Bob Saget’s more casual approach to their livelihood, but thankfully the two came to understand each other with time, and in true Danny Tanner fashion, Saget became “the glue” that held the Full House family together.
John Stamos has proven that he’s not afraid to talk about some of the behind-the-scenes dynamics from his career-defining role, even when it comes to his frustrations. He’s confirmed that he got the Olsen twins temporarily fired when they were 11 months old, and decades later he admitted to being angry that Ashley and Mary-Kate didn’t return for Fuller House.
To hear how much his Full House family means to John Stamos now just makes it all the more amusing that he and Bob Saget disliked each other in the beginning. You can relive all of the Tanner fun by streaming Full House with a Max subscription or Hulu subscription. Fuller House, meanwhile, is available with a Netflix subscription.
