Here are all the controversies Fuller House was involved with during its run. Netflix’s Full House spin-off ended in June 2020 after five seasons, coming to a close with a heartwarming series finale. Like its parent show, it bannered wholesome content that appealed to the general viewing audience, but it was not without any problems of its own.
Debuting in 2016, Fuller House officially joined the list of old TV shows getting either a reboot or a sequel. Fans of the ’80s/’90s family-oriented sitcom were ecstatic about the news as it was confirmed to feature most of the original Full House cast. That said, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the show. It had to sort through some hurdles along the way that ranged from dealing with public perception about its potential to troubled cast and crew members. The offshoot rose above some of those issues as it went along, but was plagued with other ones until the very end.
Five seasons later, Fuller House ended on a happy note with DJ (Candace Cameron-Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Kimmy (Andrea Barber) marrying Steve (Scott Weinger), Jimmy (Adam Hagenbuch), and Fernando (Juan Pablo Di Pace). Stephanie and Kimmy decided to move out of the house following the wedding, but at the last minute, they eventually decide to stay together and live under one roof. Even its final season, though, was at least somewhat marred by events outside of its control. With the show done, here are some of the controversies it’s involved with over the years.
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The Public’s Skepticism About Fuller House Being Successful
The sitcom offered fans a satisfying send-off to its characters; despite this, many are calling for Netflix to renew Fuller House for season 6. However, the show didn’t have the same clamor when it first started. While it was simply building on an already established property with a solid following, there was skepticism about whether or not it’dbe a hit for the streaming service. Before Fuller House, Stamos was working behind-the-scenes to get a revival or reunion project going as he has an ownership stake in the original series. In 2008, he was reportedly working on a reunion movie, but most of the original Full House cast members weren’t interested in reprising their roles. He tried again with a prequel premise pitch that would’ve ideally see Steve Carell, James Franco, and Tracy Morgan as Danny, Jesse, and Joey during their pre-Full House years.
That didn’t go anywhere until serious buzz about Netflix ordering a Full House spin-off began in 2014. It took another year for this to be confirmed; still, not everyone was sold on the idea for the offshoot. Even after it debuted, there was skepticism about whether or not it would have the legs to last several more seasons, especially given its rocky first year, which didn’t really offer anything new. Fuller House season 1 leaned a little bit too much on the nostalgia, with a lot of Full House references instead of establishing itself from its parent series. It was a process for the spin-off to find its footing, and while it still had a lot of areas for improvement, it gradually got better over the years.
Fuller House Firing Its Showrunner
Shortly after the latter half of Fuller House season 3 dropped on Netflix, news broke out the showrunner and creator Jeff Franklin (who’s also behind Full House) was fired from the show. This was prompted by a series of complaints about his behavior on the sitcom’s set – some dating back to two years before they came to light. An anonymous letter was sent to Warner Bros. detailing the executive’s bad behavior, with it describing him as “a lawsuit waiting to happen.” Accusations ranged from being verbally abusive to staffers, to making lewd comments about his personal sex life in the writers’ room. That said, he’s not been directly accused of sexual harassment, thus far. Franklin also allegedly used to bring women he dated to the set, and supposedly even gave some of them parts in Fuller House.
Franklin’s firing came on the heels of Netflix renewing Fuller House for a fourth season, meaning Warner Bros. had to act fast in finding a replacement. Just three weeks after the showrunner was booted out of the Full House spin-off, Steve Baldikoski and Bryan Behar were announced to take over his spot.
Fuller House Firing Lori Loughlin
Viewers were expecting to see more of the adult Full House stars in Fuller House’s final year including Jesse and Becky. After years of living in Los Angeles, the couple, as well as, Danny (Bob Saget) relocate to San Francisco in light of the former Wake Up, San Francisco hosts nabbing their old jobs back. Unfortunately, before the spin-off even began production for season 5, Lori Loughlin was fired from Fuller House due to her involvement in the national college admission scandal.
Loughlin and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, reportedly paid half a million dollars to get their two kids into USC either by faking athletic records or cheating their SAT scores. After this news broke out, Hallmark dropped Loughlin from her regular role in When Calls the Heart; not long after that, Netflix decided to follow suit. Fuller House delayed addressing the character’s absence in the final season until the latter half of the year with the cast mum about how she’s going to be written out prior to Fuller House’s season 5 release. According to Jesse, Becky’s in Nebraska helping her mother – about what, he didn’t expound, but he’s adamant about not bothering her while she’s out of town. In the end, the Fuller House triple wedding finale just had to go through without her.
Fuller House Not Featuring the Olsen Twins
Unlike Becky’s absence in the Fuller House’s final season, Michelle missing the last few episodes was somewhat expected. The character didn’t return in the show’s earlier seasons and has continued to be absent throughout its run as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who alternately played the character in Full House, refuse to reprise the role having already retired from acting. Show creatives reached out to the sisters multiple times for the gig, but they repeatedly turned down the offer. In-narrative, the spin-off quickly addressed the youngest Tanner sister’s whereabouts; mining from the Olsens’ real-life career, she’s now based in New York managing her own fashion house.Admittedly, the show producers could only do so much to convince either of the Olsens to return and the sisters had every right to refuse to reprise Michelle. That said, Fuller House could’ve done a much better job at making sure that Michelle wasn’t just cast aside as if she’s no longer part of the family. After the initial explanation about her absence, she’s barely incorporated in any storylines. She’s mostly only brought up to make fun of in relation to her continued absence and this stuck until the very end. Fuller House’s penultimate episode confirmed that Michelle wasn’t coming to the finale, via a poorly-made meta-joke delivered by Kimmy while the girls visited the house’s attic to look for their “something borrowed” and “something old” items. Other than that, there’s no word on whether or not she was even invited to her own sisters’ wedding, although it would’ve been fairly easy to utilize her in the storyline given her supposed background as a fashion mogul.
