Full House

[minor muppetz]

I've been watching the first season episodes lately, and is it just me or is the syndication version of the opening slightly different? In the shot of the cast running, it looks like Jesse has his shorter haircut from after season one, but the other scenes show him with his original longer hair. So it's not like they replaced the whole opening with a later-season opening.

Why do I ask these kinds of things without thinking to research them on my own... I just watched the full first season opening on YouTube, and that shot isn't there. In fact I knew that the original opening was shortened significantly. I wonder if that whole first verse that's edited in syndication was there for all eight seasons (I did a YouTube search for the season two opening but couldn't find it), as I don't remember it too well and I started watching around season 5 or 6.

It's also interesting that in syndication, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen are credited in the first season opening. I had been wondering that as I saw that in the opening credits and noticed them being listed in the end credits as well (and in the end credits Ashley is listed as "Ashley Fuller Olsen").

When I first saw the episode "Happy Birthday, Babies", I didn't know that all those flashbacks were clips from previous episodes (I had just started watching the show shortly before seeing that episode). While I would watch syndicated reruns shortly after I started watching the show, I don't recall seeing any of the episodes that the episode took clips from until three or four years later. The first such episode I saw was the one where Michelle has her first punishment. Interestingly, in the birthday episode that followed a clip where Michelle got her first bed and jumped on it when the adults were out of the room (only to be caught by Jesse), and I had assumed her punishment was for jumping on the bed. I thought when Danny asked her if she knew why she was punished I thought her "no swimming in the kitchen" response was a silly guess, as opposed to that being the actual reason she was punished.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've found all of the openings on YouTube:

 

[Drtooth]

I'm very labored over this series. On the one hand, I loved it as a kid, on the other hand I just can't enjoy too much of it as an adult (except Dave and his marvelous cartoon impressions of course). But then again, the show was one of the bold sitcoms of the 80's that killed off the mother and said that everything was okay despite that fact. So basically, it was a subversion of the typical sitcom and that alone deserves my respect.

I've grown to not care too much for saccharine family comedies, but I HATE the 1950's and 60's ones the worst. I greatly prefer Full House over them. Full House did deal with important problems, while Dennis the Menace really wasn't, the Brady Bunch sucked and not on the on purpose irony that people actually like it for, and those very disturbingly conformist 1950's shows... ugh... like the old proverb goes, the tallest nail gets hammered down. Cracked had a wonderful, philosophical article about Full House (as well as Who's the Boss) and it's significance about lacking a mother, but showing well adjusted children. I'm too lazy to track it down to post it (someone else will), and that gets a huge rethinking from me. It was a major step forward as far as family sitcoms are concerned. Just, no Malcom in the Middle, a loving yet semi-dysfunctional family. Now THAT was a breakthrough.

So to answer your question, I preferred Perfect Strangers and Family Matters.

 

[minor muppetz]

I just noticed a continuity error: In the first season episode where Stephanie, Jesse, and Joey get the chicken pox, Joey says that he never had them before (and he's convinced he was immune to chicken pox), but then in the episode where Joey gets a gig in Las Vegas and his father shows up to watch, his dad mentions that Joey had chicken pox when he was three.

Perhaps it could be that Joey forgot about the chicken pox and then actually got it again (I think I've heard that some people can get the chicken pox twice, not sure what the conditions are, or maybe I'm wrong).

And on a "what's the deal with....?" note, in that chicken pox episode, Jesse thinks he had the chicken pox, but after getting them and talking to his mom on the phone, he learns it was really an allergic reaction to wool. Which makes me wonder, why did he think it was chicken pox? Did his mom lie to make him feel better, or were his parents wrong at the time but later learned the truth without telling Jesse until then? There's no explanation given.

 

[minor muppetz]

Yesterday I saw the episode where DJ gets an F on her science test and Kimmy changes the grade to an A, and Danny is actually fooled... Shouldn't there be a lot of Xs on that test that Danny should have noticed? Though I could see the front side of the test paper a few times and didn't see any marks at all. I don't know if things were different in schools then, and it could be assumed that DJ got every answer wrong and maybe redundant to even make X marks, but I'm pretty sure they'd put marks on papers even if every answer were wrong (after all, marking the papers before your finished grading would help a teacher remember how many were wrong before writing in the grade).

I also watched the episode with Steve Urkel yesterday, and boy does that one have a lot of subplots. It has Michelle getting a piggy bank, Stephanie getting reading glasses (was she ever seen with her glasses after that episode?), and Danny dealing with Jesse picking Joey to be his best man instead of him, in addition to the Urkel appearance. Though Urkel's presence does connect all the plots a little: He gives Michelle money for her piggy bank, tells Danny to get over not being best man, and gives Stephanie advice on how to react if the kids laugh at her new glasses.

 

[minor muppetz]

Watched a few reruns lately where the full opening theme is included. Weird... I wonder if the episodes are just shorter than usual or what. I've seen the full openings on "Happy Birthday Babies" part 1 and the episode where Joey teaches Michelle to ride a bike (which is on right now), and I saw the full intro in another episode recently.

Though "Happy Birthday Babies" part 1 does have some edits. I guess since it's a clip show they figured they could cut more and include the full intro. The only clips I remember being cut involve DJ tricking Michelle into looking into Jesse's bag and Michelle hiding a dog among her stuffed animals. I think those were shown back-to-back... It's interesting, before the clip DJ mentions that they taught her some tricks, then it cuts past a few clips, with DJs voice-over telling her "but when we needed you, you were always there"... Sort of a clever and yet also awkward edit (as the syndication audience doesn't get to see any examples of them teaching her stuff). But then the very end of part 1 is also edited... At the end as they leave the room Becky feels stomach pains (which is her babies being ready to be born) but Jesse remarks that he's also feeling stomach pains and thinks it's something Joey made them to eat.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm watching the episode where Aaron plays with Michelle and Teddy, but doesn't really like having to be around Michelle because she's a girl. At one point they play superheroes, and Aaron says that Michelle can't play. Becky suggests she be Wonder Woman, but Aaron dismisses it because Michelle doesn't have black hair. But he doesn't mind that Teddy is Batman despite the fact that Teddy is black and Batman isn't. Though maybe that'd be too much to bring up on the show (and he's more willing to play with Teddy).

 

[beatnikchick300]

I'm watching the episode where Aaron plays with Michelle and Teddy, but doesn't really like having to be around Michelle because she's a girl. At one point they play superheroes, and Aaron says that Michelle can't play. Becky suggests she be Wonder Woman, but Aaron dismisses it because Michelle doesn't have black hair. But he doesn't mind that Teddy is Batman despite the fact that Teddy is black and Batman isn't. Though maybe that'd be too much to bring up on the show (and he's more willing to play with Teddy).

Not to get too off-topic, but aren't their plenty of blonde female superheroes? I'm pretty sure Bat Girl is a blonde. Oh, well, that's kids.

Anyway, I loved this show (I still do). I'm not sure how so many people can say they hated it; I mean, TV shows don't last 8 seasons because no one's watching them (isn't that how ratings work?).

 

[minor muppetz]

Is it just me, or do some characters on the show only appear for a short amount of time? I've noticed it seems there are three episodes in a row where Danny has a girlfriend with a trouble-making boy (I think his name is Rusty), and then they just seem to disappear. I don't know if there's a break-up episode, but I wouldn't be surprised if the son was the reason for the break-up.

And then there's the episode where Stephanie makes a new friend, Micky (or is it Nikki?), but she seems to only be there for two episodes, and basically gets replaced by Gia, who was friends with Mickey when she met Stephanie (and at first Stephanie and Gia didn't get along). Which is weird... Stephanie becomes friends with an older cool girl, then becomes friends with a different older cool girl who was friends with... Aw, forget it. And it also seems Gia appeared in several last-season episodes in a row, then disappeared with several episodes following.

And while there's not much that can be done with the character, it's interesting that Kimmy's boyfriend Duane only appeared in the last few episodes of the show. But as Duane would say, "whatever".

 

[minor muppetz]

There's one episode I remember, in which a dog came to the Tanner's home, I can't remember if it was a stray or if they were watching it or what. But there's one scene where Michelle hides it among her stuffed animals, and she puts some bunny ears on the dog. DJ comes looking for it and Michelle denies it's there. It barks, Michelle tries to pass it off as her barking but then admits "maybe it's a dog". Anybody know which episode this is? I saw an episode today that I thought would be it, but unless it's cut on ABC Family or I didn't pay enough attention (and I admit, I did get a little distracted while watching the episode) it wasn't. The one I saw today was the one where they found a dog named Minnie, who had puppies, and they ended up keeping one of them (who would grow up to be Comet).