John Stamos recalls wanting to leave Full House because he was upstaged by a child actor. Playing Uncle Jesse in the cult family sitcom in the late ’80s to the early ’90s, he reprised the character in Netflix’s spin-off sequel, Fuller House. As one of the beloved characters from the franchise, it’s difficult to imagine Stamos not being attached to Full House, but as it turns out, he almost pulled out of the project.
Appearing on First We Feast to promote his upcoming memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, Stamos talks about how Full House was pitched to him, and how he didn’t expect that a big part of being on the show was working with kids.
He shares the story of wanting to exit the series after being upstaged by Jodie Sweetin who played Stephanie Tanner. Read his full quote below:
Full House, I hated that show. Obviously, I ended up loving it but it was sort of pitched to me as a Bossom Buddies with kids on the corner. As they were casting, they’re spending a lot of time casting these kids that are gonna be background, and we did a table read of it and I was a star coming out of General Hospital and we sit down and we started reading and Jodie Sweetin, who plays Stephanie, reads her lines and people are dying laughing. I mean screaming, I was like “what’s happening here,” and she was getting comments like “home run.” They couldn’t even read my lines they were laughing so hard and I’m slinking in my seat and I run out to the lobby at the Century Plaza Hotel and I’m digging my pocket for quarters and told “get me the f**ck off this show” to my agent.
How Full House Would Have Changed If John Stamos Didn’t Play Uncle Jesse
Stamos has been honest before about not being fully interested in starring in Full House initially. Aside from the experience during the table read, he also struggled working with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen during the early days of the series. At one point, Stamos even had the twins fired from playing Michelle, but reversed course when he and the rest of the crew realized that the Olsen Twins were the best infants for the role of the youngest Tanner.
Despite his initial feelings about Full House, it was a great thing that Stamos stuck around. The role catapulted him into mainstream popularity, and even after decades, Uncle Jesse is still his most recognized role. It’s a testament to how great he was that it’s difficult to picture what the sitcom had become if he wasn’t a part of it. Stamos played Jesse with equal parts angst and charisma, and it helped tremendously that he is naturally good with kids, hence why he had a lot of great scenes with both Michelle and Stephanie.
Despite Bob Saget’s Danny Tanner being the father of Full House‘s three kids, Stamos’ Uncle Jesse was arguably the show’s true main lead. Out of all the adult cast members of the show, he had the most complete arc, starting as a devil-may-care rocker to a devoted family man. Sadly, Stamos claims that he will never play the role again if another Full House spin-off happens, not wanting to do it without Saget.
