And yet--I submit there are reasons this show still retains such popularity in reruns. And no, not for the "normal" reasons, i.e., audiences are stupid (I hold firm to the maxim that while there may be a considerable number of individual nitwits in an audience, the collective audience is always a genius), or that some people really like the Valuable Life Lessons the show offers. It's no coincidence, as far as I'm concerned, that kid actors on the shows that teach Valuable Life Lessons generally wind up being the most disturbed--and, sure enough, "Full House" boasts (at least) one bulimic and one methadone addict. There are elements that make the show worthy of a second or third look, and here they are...
1) The secrets of Danny Tanner: actors are always the most interesting when they're not revealing everything. What Bob Saget wasn't showing as affable neat-freak Danny Tanner was his bluer-than-blue standup side. This works best if you've seen Saget onstage, but try this--go see "The Aristocrats," the movie about standups telling the world's dirtiest joke. The whole movie's a hoot, but pay attention to Saget's contribution. Now go back and watch some "Full House," and imagine Danny Tanner about two seconds away from bursting into a string of vile profanity. Aren't his scenes 10 times more interesting?
2) John Stamos and meta-television: Stamos gave his character (Uncle Jesse, dude!) a distinctive vocal mannerism lifted directly from Archie Bunker, the bigot-hero of the landmark show "All in the Family." It's hard to render into print, but it runs roughly like this: a dismissive and irritated "hah?" at the end of a (usually exasperated) request, as in, "Just change the baby, hah?" Which made perfect sense--of course Stamos' character would have grown up watching "All in the Family," and that's just the sort of thing people do with characters they like and watch a lot. In a cleverer-than-you'd-expect revelation, we see Danny's late wife (Uncle Jesse's older sister) on a video, employing the same mannerism. Actors and writers on this show were really thinking about these people as, well, people.
3) Kimmy Gibler was hot. Okay, you have to wait till the final couple of seasons, but seriously.
4) The crushing tragi-comedy of middle child Stephanie: yes, you need the complete series arc to appreciate this. Check out the first couple seasons of Stephanie--cute, precocious, and armed with a killer catch phrase: "How rude!" As the youngest verbal member of the cast, Jodie Sweetin was free to steal scenes left and right. Now check out the middle years and the rise of Michelle. The show's diabolically brilliant move was to show us the same baby, then little girl, over real time, and the attachment level was enormous. (It's worth repeating--Mary Kate and Ashley became an Industry, and that's no exaggeration.) Michelle gets cuter and gains in attitude, while Stephanie goes through a major awkward period. And, again, the writers remain very clever--giving Stephanie more and more Danny (daddy)-like traits (particularly the nervous jabbering). Had the show lasted another year or two, the psychological depths could have been staggering.
5) Joey and the voices: okay, this element is the hardest one to defend. Examples of Joey's standup were never more than mildly amusing, and only about 1 in 15 of his cast of voices weren't downright annoying. Nevertheless, a few gems stand out: a) Joey's George Jetson--nails it, dude; b) Joey's "Wizard of Oz" bit, especially the Ray Bolger-inflected "A twistah! A twistah!" and c) a stray imitation, a propos of absolutely nothing, of Bill Murray's groundskeeper guy from "Caddyshack." I can't even remember the episode, but it kills.
"Full House"--doomed to derision and under-appreciation, except from those few million of us who appreciate it. And I didn't even mention the jaw-droppingly wacky telethon episode.
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