He begged his team to get him off of ‘Full House’
Before he was Uncle Jesse, Stamos was playing Uncle “Adam” and wasn’t happy about it. During the first table reading, Jodie Sweetin was getting all the laughs.
“The final scene calls for the whole cast to gather around a baby’s crib and sing the theme song to ‘The Flintstones.’ By the time we get to ‘Have a Yabba-Dabba-Doo Time,’ I’m having a Yabba-Dabba-Don’t Time. The reading ends, thank God, and I head to the lobby as fast as I can, avoiding everyone babbling how great the reading went. I dig through my pockets for change. I jam a quarter into a pay phone, get my agent on the line, and gently suggest, “Get me the fuck off this show!’” he writes. “I’m dying to pull the rip cord on this family-friendly hell, but I’ll fulfill my contractual obligation to shoot the pilot. Keep it professional. The thing will crash and burn faster than my reputation, and I hope I can salvage some dignity with my next project. For now, stay cool. Control what you can control.”
The show was initially met with not-so-great ratings. After the first season, Stamos’ agents called him to tell him he may get his wish. He told them that he’s had a change of heart as the cast is becoming his family.
“Then my agent says, ‘Okay, so there was an idea discussed, but we’re not sure you’re going to like it.’ ‘Why?’ I ask. ‘They’re talking about putting one of ABC’s biggest hits as your lead-in over the summer reruns, but . . .’ ‘But what?’” writes Stamos. “With that simple strategy, ‘Full House’ lands in the top ten throughout the summer. We find an audience and they follow us to season two.”
In an earlier chapter, Stamos claims that he walked in on his first real girlfriend, Teri Copley, in bed with Tony Danza. But sometimes things come full circle.
He writes, “If you would have told me the day I walked into that room and caught my true love in bed with another guy that his show, ‘Who’s the Boss?,’ would launch Full House into a bona fide hit, making me a household name . . . Well, what can I say? Thanks, Tony Danza.”
