Full House was a popular sitcom that ran from 1987 to 1995. The show focused on Danny Tanner and his three daughters, best friend, and brother-in-law living together under one roof. The show solidified its place in American history and the show continued to be popular for years after going off the air.
Due to its popularity, a sequel was released in 2016. This followed two of the original Tanner children, DJ and Stephanie, and DJ’s best friend/neighbor Kimmy as they move into the family home together to raise DJ’s children. Each of these shows has its strengths and weaknesses.
Full House: Characters Seem More Genuine
One of the reasons Full House was so well received was because the characters felt so genuine and authentic. People could connect with them and compare them to friends or family.
Fuller House is more campy and showy than Full House so the characters tend to come off as less legitimate as the audience is always aware that they are watching the show and never full engrossed in what is happening on screen.
Fuller House: Breaks The Fourth Wall
If Full House existed to be heartwarming, then Fuller House exists for laughs. One of the funniest things the show does is break the fourth wall. This has become a running gag on the show. They even use it to poke fun at their own show, acknowledging that they know what questions fans are asking themselves – such as “where is Michelle?” These fourth wall breaks are sure to have the audience laughing.
Full House: Single Dad Representation
There are few shows that feature fathers who are compassionate, kind, patient, and understanding. Fathers who engage with their children, especially daughters, on-screen is pretty rare. It’s even rarer to find single fathers balancing work and still supporting and caring for their children.
As pep talks about dealing with challenges in life are usually reserved for mom characters, it is nice to have Danny Tanner representing all the single fathers in the world who lovingly raise their children.
Fuller House: Powerful Female Characters
Representation of women has begun to improve recently and Fuller House adds to this trend. This show features powerful women who are dynamic, funny, talented, interesting, kind, passionate, and driven.
These women may have their quirks and their challenges but they shouldn’t be underestimated. They show that they can accomplish their dreams and remain happy, positive, and supportive of their friends at the same time.
Full House: Feel Good Family Show
Full House is a family show. The content is wholesome and perfect for children and adults of all ages. Most of the plot lines and humor on the show are clear and focuses on the family dynamic as a whole.
Fuller House represents a major shift in which the show seems to be for adults who grew up watching Full House as a child. While you can certainly watch Fuller House with elementary school aged children, the target demographic seems to be young adults.
Fuller House: More Singing And Dancing
The cast of Full House were all musically talented. While the show featured some musical scenes, such as the telethon episode where Stephanie danced to “Love Shack” and DJ sings a song called “Lollipops and Gummi Bears”, music was never the center of the show. Fuller House brings music and dancing to the forefront. The characters break into song and dance very often making this a staple of the show!
Full House: Children’s Storylines Center Stage
In Full House, the show primarily focused on the children and their challenges growing up. While they occasionally focused on plot lines that affected the adults, such as Danny beginning to date, these plot lines still focused on the effect that these changes had on the family dynamic.
With the focus being so heavily based on the children’s experiences growing up, there was always a heartwarming lesson to be learned and the adults were valued bringers of wisdom.
Fuller House: Adult Jokes
The evidence that Fuller House is for adults is in the jokes. There are several adult jokes in the show in that definitely would not have made it into the original show. One example is when Kimmy says “I haven’t had this much leather on since Fernando went through that phase.”
The show also spends a great deal of time at clubs where the girls are enjoying the presence of attractive men. The dirty jokes and adult storylines make this show more accessible for young adults.
Full House: The Original
One reason Full House is better is simply because it is the original. Unfortunately, in an attempt to draw on the nostalgia that people feel for the original series, Fuller House sometimes can feel like a bad knock-off.
Some of the episodes draw heavy inspiration from an episode in Full House, which feels repetitive and wrong, almost like a remake of their own episode. For this reason, Full House will always be perceived differently simply because it came first.
Fuller House: Parents Make Mistakes
Many parents feel pressure to portray a perfect image of themselves to their children. This desire to have your children perceive you in a certain light made it onto the screen in many ’90s sitcoms, with the adult characters seemingly having all of the answers.
One thing that is great about Fuller House is that the adults make mistakes too. They make a lot of mistakes! This shows that adults are human too, and gives children and adults realistic characters to which they can look up.
