Everywhere You Look

*pictures owned by Warner Bros.

     Few television programs epitomize my childhood as distinctly as the one I'm going to analyze today.  If you were a school-aged student in the late 80's and early 90's, this show was likely a part of your childhood as well.  If you're like me, you watched it on TGIF, and then continued watching it when it was switched to Tuesday night's comedy block.  Even if you aren't in my age bracket, you have likely still watched this show.  I'm talking, of course, about the phenomena known as Full House.

     

     This show was so deeply ingrained into my mind that it was the first thing I thought of when, at age 27, I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on a trip to visit a friend north of the Bay Area.  The iconic song started playing in my head, and of course, that one question popped into my mind: "Why are Stephanie and DJ up front with their dad, but Jesse and Joey, the two other adults, have to sit in the back with little Michelle?"   Kind of insulting to their dignity!

     Full House ran for eight seasons (starting in the fall of 1987 and ending in the spring of 1995).  I went from age 5 through age 13 during the show's original run.  I am the same age as actress Jodie Sweetin (who plays Stephanie on the show), so however old she is in a given episode, that's how old I was when it originally aired.  

     

     Whatever clothes, hairstyles and toys the girls on the show had, my sister and I often had the same (not because we were copying them...they were copying us!).  Sometimes, when it mentioned bands they liked, my friends and I liked the same.  The show mentions a lot of cultural norms from that time.  All that being the case, watching it now is very nostalgic.  It is a portrait of a world that shaped my childhood...a world which no longer exists, but has left its indelible mark, and will never be forgotten.  It touches that deep part of me...and yet the show itself, for it's own value apart from nostalgia, is what I'm going to talk about.  Without further ado, let's talk about Full House.

     The opening credits contain the well-beloved song, that begins, Whatever happened to predictability... and talks about how life is more complicated than it used to be, but you still have family who love and need you.  Every season for eight years, they would shorten that song a little bit, until the final season's version just contained the chorus (Everywhere you look...).  While this song plays, it shows scenes of the characters doing fun things together.  And that's my first comment.  Why do the opening credits of shows always look more fun than the actual episodes?  These characters do such fun things in the intro that never happen in the actual show!  

     See what I mean?  I guess it was easier to film these fun vignettes for the opening credits than to actually incorporate these things into real episodes.  But anyway, the intro establishes these people as a loving family who enjoy having fun together.   

     The premise of the show is that Pam Tanner has recently died in a car accident, involving a drunk driver.  She leaves behind her husband Danny and their three daughters, Donna Jo (DJ--age 10 at the start of the series), Stephanie (age five at the start), and Michelle (age one at the start).  Danny's mother temporarily moves in to help out, but this isn't a permanent arrangement.  Danny summons the help of his best friend Joey and brother-in-law Jesse to move in and help him.  Their fumbling attempts at child-rearing are the comedic plots of this show, particularly the early episodes, before they had developed more plotlines.  One particularly big hit was Jesse and Joey trying to change baby Michelle's diaper in the pilot episode.

     The show eventually takes some additional directions and creates some engaging story arcs, which I will get to.  

     The episodes in this show were a bit unusual.  They were about 90% comedy, with humorous situations arising.  Some of the comedy was pretty well-written.  However, more often than not, the last 10% of each episode would play really touching background music while the family had an intensely sentimental dialogue.  Often, Danny would be the one talking to his girls, and they'd all sit on the coffee table together (which drove me crazy, since they had a couch right behind the coffee table!  Who sits on coffee tables?).  They didn't transition well from funny to touching.  

    The three adult males in this show are vastly different, and make good foils for each other.  Danny is the established mature adult.  He is initially a successful sports anchor, and from season 2 on, he is a talk show host of Wake Up, San Francisco.  He own a beautiful house in San Francisco.  He attended college (presumably receiving a degree).  He got married young, and has three daughters...all before he is thirty years old.  He is basically living the American dream...until his wife dies.  He is a bit OCD, and that is sometimes played up a little too much.  His quirkiness is usually made to seem endearing, but sometimes the writers went over the top with it. 

     Joey, Danny's best friend since age ten or eleven, is a sweet, fun guy, but initially very irresponsible.  He moves into the Tanner's home carrying a huge pile of clothes he can't even see over, and happily says, "I move into a house with a washing machine the very same day I run out of clean clothes!"  He is a stand-up comic, but doesn't initially have steady employment.  He and Jesse eventually start an advertising business together, which is pretty successful.  He later hosts a children's TV show.  He is talented, but his corny jokes and cartoon voices are a bit over-the-top at times.  He has a few girlfriends over the course of the series, but no one very serious or very long.  He proves to be a good father-figure, and no one can deny his selflessness in putting his life on hold to help his best friend.  He is a genuinely kind person.  After a while, though, it is questionable as to what his purpose actually is.  The writers don't seem to put a lot into his development over the long haul, and they really could have done a lot more with him.  

     Danny's brother-in-law Jesse is about five or six years younger than Danny and Joey.  One thing the writers kind of goofed on was that they made Jesse of Greek descent (that's not the mistake), and that plays a big part in certain episodes.  But his late sister, Danny's late wife Pam, was blonde, which is where the girls get their blonde hair.  That's inconsistent.  I guess they really wanted three blonde sisters.  Realistically, if Jesse is Greek, with those dark features (which his parents also have when they appear in episodes), Pam would share those features, and have passed them onto her daughters (since Danny also has dark hair, though he is lighter-complexioned).  Anyway, that's not really an error with Jesse, but it is connected to him.  Also (this is getting a little bit ahead of where I'm at, but it fits here), Jesse later marries Rebecca, who has darkish hair, and they have two blonde boys.  Again, this defies genetic probability.  But oh well.  

     Although I don't know if it was the writers' intention, I actually consider Jesse to be the show's protagonist, and that the show is really about his redemption.  One evidence of this is that, in all 8 seasons, John Stamos (the actor who plays Jesse) is shown first in the opening credits.  Of course, they could have done this because he was considered the handsome, "heartthrob" of the show, and they wanted to emphasize him to get ratings up.  But more importantly, out of all the characters on the show, Jesse grows the most, and has the best story arcs.   In essence, he grows up.  The series starts with him living on the wild side.  The first season of the show is less kid-friendly than the rest of the series, and part of that was because of Jesse's shenanigans.  He starts off as a long-haired, leather-wearing, motorcycle-riding, rock-playing rebel (who happens to work for his father's exterminator business) and becomes a responsible family man who goes into advertising and gets a record deal.  In the second season, they really start working on his character, making him grow beyond his post-teen rebellion into an adult who makes responsible decisions.  He also goes from being a womanizer to falling in love with Becky, who happens to be Danny's talk show co-host.  Most of the "good messages" of this show are actually in reference to Jesse.  

     These three men, with their different personalities, play off each other as they try to do the best by the girls.  A lot of the humor comes from this.  Sometimes, they're downright dumb, though.  In a season 1 episode, Jesse is doing Elvis impersonations at a nigh club, and he isn't sure if he should accept the gig long term.  He asks Danny and Joey for advice.  They both think he should take the job, but for different reasons.  Danny tells him he should take it for the income it would bring in.  Joey says he should do it for his own enjoyment.  Both of those are good reasons, and Jesse takes the job (although he never has the job in future episodes).  Danny and Joey actually get into a fight about whose reason is better, when they are giving him the same advice!  They both say to take it, and they both have valid reasons.  Why is this an argument?  There are a lot of bizarre, immature situations like this.

     Here is what I think so far.  First of all...this living situation would never work long-term!  There are no clearly-defined boundaries.  Jesse and Joey are helping with the girls, but how much authority do they really have?  Having three adults around gives the girls even more opportunities to play one parent against the other than a child in a two-parent home would have.  Also, when is it okay for them to move on with their lives?  As their advertising career takes off in season two, they struggle with guilt over not being as available to the girls, which shows they don't have a strong sense of knowing what their commitment really is.  After Jesse and Becky get married, Jesse feels guilt over leaving the Tanner house, and he and Becky end up moving back in (he moves back in.  Becky never lived there to begin with, so she is moving in for the first time).  Realistically, a newly-married couple doesn't want that kind of situation, but the show portrays everything going so smoothly and happily.  Another aspect of this is that Becky and Danny are coworkers, and now they live in the same house.  Neither one of them can ever escape work now, which is an added frustration that would have to be worked through, but is never even acknowledged.  In real life, none of this would go as seamlessly as it does on the show.  The only issues they ever portray are the humorous side of adjusting to these changes, but it never reveals the genuine frustrations such a situation would create.  Also, on the practical side, are Joey and Jesse paying Danny rent, or is their living there compensation for taking care of the girls?  It is implied in the pilot episode that they get to live there free of charge.  As they move on to other things and aren't as "parental," does this mean that they need to start paying rent?  This adds to the confusion.  It made for good TV, but it would be really frustrating to be in a situation like that for very long.  

     As for the three girls...their personalities aren't as well-defined as the men, but they develop throughout the series.  DJ is overall smart and responsible.  She can be conniving and sneaky when it suits her, but she develops into a very sweet young woman who tries to do the right thing.  She is the "smart one" in her friendship with annoying next-door neighbor Kimmy.  DJ has a serious relationship in high school with a young man named Steve, and sometimes, she gets way too serious in it, as if they're already a married couple making really hard decisions, instead of fun-loving teens.  She puts a lot of pressure on him, which eventually leads to their break-up.  But overall, DJ is a likable character who wants to do right.  In contrast, Stephanie initially has a cute personality.  Sometimes, though, they wrote her as being a little too smart-aleck, and had her saying one-liners a child that age wouldn't come up with.  I caught this growing up, since I'm her age.  It is even more obvious now, since I work with preschool and elementary students, and know what would be normal for them to come up with on their own.  Stephanie grows into her personality as she gets a little bit older (hitting her perfect stride about eight and nine years old).  All in all, for most of the series, she's delightful.  The last few seasons of the show, though, Stephanie completely changes, and becomes a rebellious brat who is very given to peer pressure.  She becomes boy crazy in a way that isn't very relatable to the average junior high girl (average junior high girls like boys, but they're typically not as "on the prowl" or overconfident as Stephanie).  There is no sweetness or fun left.  She is a bad example, and no longer the delightful child she used to be.  She can actually be very mean.  Kids do go through moody stages when they hit adolescence, but I credit her change in personality to poor writing, not normal teen emotions.  

     Michelle...oh, where do I start?  She is my very least favorite character in the series.  Period!  That even includes one-time characters from episodes.  Michelle is still my least favorite!  She is just about the least-developed character throughout the series (for lack of development, it's a tossup between her and Joey, but I still like Joey).  The complicated part of that is the fact that she starts off as a baby and grows up on the show.  She didn't really have a pre-written personality at the beginning.  The hard thing with casting babies is that there's no way of knowing if they can act.  Michelle was played by twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who didn't turn out to be very good actresses as time went on (although they were popular icons for little girls their age in the 90s).  They made cheesy movies and even had a short-lived musical career, complete with music videos  (and they couldn't even sing!).  This would never have befallen them had they not made it big on Full House as babies.  The two have not continued acting into adulthood, and it's little wonder why.  

     As the twins learned how to talk and grew a little, the show's writers gave Michelle things to say.  At first, it was admittedly cute.  They had her answer the phone, saying, "I went pee-pee on the potty," and embarrassed the adults.  A real toddler might say that.  But it didn't stay that natural.  By the time she was three years old, they were making the same mistake with her that they'd done with Stephanie, giving her statements that would be beyond a child that age.  Michelle's trademark phrase was, "You got it, dude!" with a thumbs up.  By the time she started kindergarten, she graduated from that to saying "Duh!" to everyone whenever they made a mistake.  She really became quite a brat, and it was very unrealistic how the adults just seemed to think it was cute.  The show's live audience even applauded sometimes, which I'm sure they were prompted to do.  It's actually a bad example.  I knew families who didn't let their children watch Full House because of how disrespectful Michelle was toward adults.  At the height of this show's popularity, my dad's closest friend at work was from Viet Nam, and he was completely offended by Michelle's character, and took that as the norm for American children.  He would complain at length to my dad about how, in Viet Nam, children respect their elders, while in America, they just say, "You got it dude!"  My dad tried to explain that this was a fictional TV show, not based on real people, but his friend was really worked up about it.  

     I remember my mother being completely offended by Michelle in an episode leading up to Jesse and Becky's wedding.  They're trying little wedding cake samples, and while they're talking about it, Michelle runs into the room and climbs up on table and starts eating like a pig, stuffing her face.  The adults (including her father, who is in the room) just laugh, watching her eat all the samples.  She needed a spanking, but never got one!  The worst thing that ever happens to her, discipline-wise, is that she has to sit in a chair facing the wall (but not for eating all the cake samples, in another episode).  It's said to be her "very first punishment" by Danny.  My mom was outraged by that as well, because Michelle was three-and-a-half by this point.  I think the show would have worked better without her.  As a baby, she was a prop, and as she got older, she was just a brat.  The later episodes that were written to center on her feel very contrived, rather than natural.  Of course, I have been a preschool teacher for a lot of my adult life, so I can definitely see the difference between a realistic child and a poorly-written TV child.  Few shows really do well in writing children under 10.  Full House failed miserably in this area.  Michelle didn't develop well in the series.  We see a child who needs her bottom paddled, or her mouth washed out with soap (or both).

     Some of the other characters who aren't the immediate family include the girl's friends (most notably DJ's best friend Kimmy Gibbler).  Kimmy lives next door.  One thing I'll say about Kimmy, she could be very funny, and her facial expressions were priceless.  

     In the early seasons, she is portrayed as cleverly deceitful, irresponsible, and having serious boundary problems (copying DJ's homework, looking in windows, walking into their house without knocking, etc.).  In later seasons, she still walks in without knocking, but otherwise unrealistically changes to being just dumb.  What's worse, the Tanners treat her very rudely.  All of their problems with her walking in could be solved by locking their front door.  She'd then have to knock.  Problem solved!  No mean words, just a locked door.  Apparently, they'd rather just be annoyed but helpless to stop her boundary-crossing.   A lot of TV shows at that time made it "cool" to be mean to annoying people, rather than just politely telling them to stop overstepping bounds.  I didn't like that.  Family Matters used this trope as well, and it was just mean (maybe I'll analyze that show another time).  Some shows know how to make annoying neighbor situations funny (Another 80's sitcom, Small Wonder, did it hilariously without being unkind), but shows during that era generally seemed to make them mean.  

     I've touched on her, but one of the best characters was Rebecca "Becky" Donaldson.  Becky joins the show in season 2 as Danny's co-host, but becomes Jesse's love-interest and a very pivotal character in his life.  She is used to really produce changes in Jesse, and also to be a good mother-figure to the girls.  They needed that role.  I mean, it's funny to have three clueless men dealing with three little girls' issues, but that could only take the show so far.  For real development, they needed that woman role.  Becky was perfect.  I'll also add that, as a young girl watching this show, I got all my make-up advice from Becky (she advises DJ on make-up application in a season 3 episode).  Also, as I got older, I started patterning my own make-up after Lori Loughlin (the actress who played Becky).

     I already alluded to this, but I operate under the assumption that Jesse is really the center of the show, and his development is paramount.  I'll explain the big reason why I think this.   The climax of the entire series is Jesse and Becky's wedding, in season 4.  They start off in season 2 as "just friends" and slowly develop it into more.  They almost elope at Lake Tahoe at the end of season 2, but continue their dating relationship through season 3.  At the beginning of season 4, they get engaged, and their wedding is mid-season.  Loving one woman does a lot for Jesse.  Previously, he was flirtatious with anything in a skirt and never had a lasting relationship.  Becky is different.  She touches a deeper part of who he is, and brings out the very best in him.  That's what love should do.  Early on in their relationship, he tells her he is ready to see her exclusively, and to prove it, he throws his "little black book" into the fireplace.  Becky confesses she isn't quite ready for that, and that she has a date with someone else coming up.  At first, Jesse is outraged and tries to retrieve his book from the fire, but then he stops himself and says that he doesn't want to play games.  He only wants to be with her, and that he'll wait for her to catch up with him.  I remember when that episode was on, my mom said, "In one second, I have come to respect him."  That was a defining moment for Jesse's character.  

     I really do see Jesse and Becky's season 4 wedding as the climax.  It was a two-parter, and I remember watching excitedly, waiting all week for part two!  

     Here is the reason I consider the wedding episode the climax, and therefore conclude that Jesse is the central character and his redemption is the main plot.  You really can divide the show into before/after the wedding.  It really was different.  That was the high point of the series.  There is no other event in the entire series that could serve as the climax.  Everything that came before really was working toward that.  Prior to this episode, the writing was pretty good.  Following this season (season 4), the writing really went downhill.  A lot of the complaints I have made (unrealistic character changes, Michelle becoming more obnoxious, etc.) really didn't start until after this.  I think the writers had accomplished some great stuff, but didn't really know where to go from there, now that they had gotten to their goal.  The second half of Season 4, following the wedding, goes pretty well.  Season 5, which follows, shows a lack of clarity, but is still somewhat good, because Jesse and Becky have their twin boys, and Jesse gets his record deal.  Danny ends up in a relationship with a news anchor named Vicki who is really good for him and his family, and Joey lands his own kids show.  The girls are at a pretty good point (other than Michelle, who has recently started her "Duh!" stage).  Everyone is at a good place at the end of season 5.  I think it should have ended there.  Every story needs an intro (which Full House has in their first season), a sequence of events (season two and three), a climax (the wedding in season 4), and a conclusion, where things wind down (which should have been season 5).  However, the show just kept going...and going...and going, like the Energizer Bunny!  It became very stale by season 8, and the series finale (which centered on Michelle temporarily losing her memory) was lame.  These characters, who had seemed like old friends, ceased to even be likable anymore.  Where before, they had episodes about love, making tough decisions, and doing fun things as a family, they later had stories about Michelle having nightmares about her feet being too big.  Lame!  The writers got really ridiculous.  They tried to have Danny and Vicki get engaged, but later had them break up.  They didn't have the "magic" Jesse and Becky had, and I believe that is because Danny wasn't the central character.  His character didn't get the growth or energy put into it that Jesse's did.  Wrapping the series up at the end of season 5 would have left me hungry for more.  

     Another thought that points to the wedding being the climax is that it basically moves the show from its original premise--three men trying to raise three girls.  From that point on, that is no longer the premise.  It is the continued adventures of these characters, but that isn't really a plot in itself.  When any show goes beyond its premise, I think it needs to be wound down.  They didn't do that well.  

     There might be another way of looking at the series, where another character is central, but if there is, I don't know who it would be, or what would serve as the climax.  And even if that was the case, I still see it going downhill in terms of quality after season 4, and undeniably after season 5.  They should have quit while they were ahead.  

     If we're going to consider season 4 (wedding) to be the climax, and season 5 to be the conclusion (or what should have been  the conclusion), it was detrimental for the show to have continued so much longer.  I'm going to draw a parallel as to why.  Imagine you are watching a murder mystery or action show.  The killer has been caught and convicted.  All is well!  Really, ideally, in those situations, the show should wrap up with a few quick words from the main characters, maybe a humorous exchange (that's how Matlock often ended after the criminal was convicted).  However, imagine instead of this, that the characters all decide to go to lunch.  Imagine, then, that there is a whole twenty-minute scene of them eating lunch, talking about their favorite hobbies, having nothing to do with the exciting plot that just wrapped up.  That would get boring!  After a climax (in that example, the killer being convicted), our brains sort of start to tune out.  We just want that conclusion, and then to move on.  We need it to wind down and let us go.  But that scene of them all eating lunch wouldn't give us that satisfaction or closure.  That's what I felt the additional three seasons of Full House did.  They didn't wrap it up neatly and let me go.  I almost felt accosted by the additional seasons.  

     Continuing along this line, I think the follow-up show Fuller House could have been so much better had the original show ended at that earlier point of conclusion, instead of dragging on for three more seasons.  There was nothing worth coming back to.  I watched all of season 1 of Fuller House, and about half of season 2.   It just didn't grab me.   Maybe it would have if I'd watched all five seasons.  From what I read in the reviews, though, I doubt it.  I felt the writing was, again, poor.  It seemed like these characters hadn't grown at all since the original show had ended.  Stephanie is still a worldly, rebellious brat, for example, and DJ still makes out way too quickly on dates--I didn't touch on that, but all the characters are really obsessed with making out). Mainly, Fuller House was too much a copycat of the original as well, with DJ being widowed with three boys, and Stephanie and Kimmy moving in to help her.  Sound familiar?  Sadly, unlike the original show, Fuller House had some political propaganda woven in.  The show just didn't age well, not in the original, and certainly not in a reboot.  I guess enough people liked the new show, though, because it lasted for five seasons itself.  So what do I know?

Original Full House Season 5 promotional pictures--where it should have ended!

     So, what are my final conclusions about the whole Full House universe?  It was a fun idea in the 80s, and really hit on some good comedy and touching moments.  It was a family show everyone could enjoy together (even season 1, with Jesse being a bit more worldly-wise, never went beyond PG).  The foils of the adult personalities were a big source of the humor.  The children weren't particularly well-written (real teachers and child care workers should be consulted when TV writers are creating lines for children to say).  Jesse's growth as a character, culminating in his marriage to Becky, work as a central plot for the show.  Trying to make anyone else the protagonist really doesn't work well.  It lasted way too long, and should have ended with season 5, rather than season 8.  Now, all these years later, I get warm fuzzies watching the first five seasons, but even watching season 5 starts to annoy me.  

     From a Christian mindset, what do I think of it?  I think the good messages are the love of family, the redemption in real love and commitment, and spending time with people you care about.  It emphasizes the importance of people and relationships.  There are a few small references peppered throughout the series that imply the characters subscribe to a Judeo-Christian worldview, but it isn't central to anything that happens.  They were written for the average American to be able to relate to.  The original show was very moral.  These are the good points I can give it.  As for negative points spiritually, the show went through a period where the Lord's name was constantly taken in vain.  I think that may have been when that was just starting to be allowed on TV.  I don't know, but these characters (usually uptight Danny) responded to any situation with "Oh my god!"  Aside from being an unchristian way to talk, it is once again poor writing.  Using the same phraseology constantly is monotonous, similar to someone saying "Like" or "Um" as a filler word.  While the characters don't engage in sexual immorality, they do get really physical really fast, and that gets old too, because it takes away from real connections people develop.  I imagine that was a ploy to raise the ratings.  

     For sentimental reasons, this show is a lot of fun, and that's all I think of it.  Trying to go too much deeper than nostalgia, it falls short.  Join me next time, for more analysis!