On Friday, Feb. 26, Netflix will start screening Fuller House, a follow-up series to the hit show Full House, which ran on ABC from 1987 to 1995. Fuller House focuses on the older Tanner daughters (Candace Cameron Bure; Jodie Sweetin) and neighbor Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) as adults with children of their own. Netflix has made revivals of series like Full House, Arrested Development and Gilmore Girls a staple part of its original programming. The company said that Fuller House was an ideal show for the streaming service’s family and young-adult programming offerings.
It took several years for Jeff Franklin and John Stamos, who is also an executive producer of Fuller House, to find a network willing to commit to the series. While the new series has embraced some serialized storytelling elements, it retains the aesthetics of the original show, was shot in a traditional, multicamera format, and still uses a boisterous laugh track. The show also retained many of the original writers and directors of Full House. Bob Saget, Mr. Stamos, Dave Coulier and Lori Loughlin will make occasional appearances on the show. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have said they will not be participating.
The original Full House began as Mr. Franklin’s idea for a TV series called House of Comics, following three aspiring comedians living together in Los Angeles. However, ABC wanted a family comedy, so Mr. Franklin’s brainchild was altered to better fit the format. Renamed Full House, the show became a warmhearted comedy about a widower raising his young daughters with the help of two bachelors.
The show recruited Mr. Saget, a comedian who was working as a host at CBS’s Morning Program, Mr. Stamos, from the short-lived sitcom, You Again?, and Mr. Coulier to anchor the show. Full House became the cornerstone of that ABC’s T.G.I.F. lineup of family-oriented comedies, which also included Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and Mr. Belvedere. The show has run almost perpetually since its inception in syndication around the world.
Now, Fuller House will start a whole new chapter for the Tanner family and their on-screen friends. Many expect the show to debut to strong ratings based on the strength of the name alone. The show should appeal to young adults, who will be able to identify with the things that the characters are going through, as well as to their parents, who grew up with the original.
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