Fuller House didn’t focus much on DJ’s first husband, Tommy Sr., but the show had to bring two actors to play the part. Netflix’s Full House sequel spin-off ran for five seasons and brought back every single character from the original show except for Michelle and introduced some new ones to reflect how much things have changed for the Tanners.

With Michelle absent from Fuller House, the series had to bring in Kimmy to become the unofficial third Tanner sister. Alongside DJ and Stephanie, the three girls were the modern versions of Danny, Jesse, and Joey from Full House. Since the offshoot basically copied the premise of its parent series, DJ suffered the same horrible fate as her dad by having her husband accidentally die, leaving him with three young kids to raise by herself. This kickstarted the show’s events with Stephanie, Kimmy, and their respective families moving in to help her get back on her feet.

As with the Tanner matriarch, Pam, Tommy Sr. wasn’t frequently featured in Fuller House — in fact, there’s an argument to be made that there wasn’t enough of him incorporated in the narrative which was odd considering that the show is technically named after him. Not much is known about him either except that he was a firefighter who died on the job, but DJ doesn’t hold much of a grudge about her bad fortune because he died doing what he loved. Tommy Sr. was mentioned only a few times and appeared a couple more throughout Fuller House‘s five-year-run. Despite this, Netflix still had to get two different actors to portray the part in Jesse Wilson and Dan Thiel.

Wilson first made an appearance as Tommy Sr. in Fuller House season 1, episode 8 titled “Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks.” It featured DJ’s son Max showing off his room and Cosmo to his classmates until he gets into some conflict with one of them who cockily says that his dad is an airline pilot. Max then moves toward a photo of Tommy Sr. and Jackson sitting at the back of a firetruck as he proudly tells them that he was a firefighter. Wilson previously appeared in Fury as a SS Soldier with Panzerfaust and The Nurse. It wasn’t until Fuller House season 4 premiere titled “Oh My Santa” that the Fuller patriarch made an appearance, this time via homemade video which is reminiscent of the Tanner family watching clips of Pam with the kids before she died in Full House. At this point, Tommy Sr. is already played by Thiel. The actor’s credits include Ratched, American Crime Story, and S.W.A.T.

It’s never revealed why Fuller House recast the role of Tommy Sr., but considering how long it took for the character to return, chances are that they weren’t able to book Wilson to film a brief video for season 4. Perhaps the show never planned on featuring the Fuller patriarch again which isn’t surprising since the Netflix series used the character as a launching pad to the spin-off and nothing else.