Have mercy! John Stamos just dropped a bombshell on how he initially felt about Full House.
"I hated that show," the actor, who played Uncle Jesse on the sitcom in the '80s and '90s, said on the July 20 episode of First We Feast's Hot Ones. "Obviously, I ended up loving it."
As Stamos—who filmed the episode before the SAG-AFTRA strike began—explained, the show had originally been pitched to him as a series similar to Tom Hanks' and the late Peter Scolari's '80s sitcom Bosom Buddies "with a couple kids in the background." But as casting continued, he realized, "They're spending a lot of time casting these kids that are going to be in the background."
Of course, the show ended up being about a widower named Danny Tanner (played by the late Bob Saget) whose brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (Stamos) and best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) move into his San Francisco home to help him raise his three daughters D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and Michelle Tanner (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen).
And Stamos—who had already gained fame for his role on General Hospital—will never forget one of the early table reads.
"We sit down, and we start reading, and Jodie Sweetin, who plays Stephanie, reads her lines and people are dying laughing. I mean, screaming," he recalled. "I was like, ‘What's happening here?'"
In fact, the 59-year-old said, "They couldn't even hear my lines they were laughing so hard at her," leading him to slink down in his seat. Stamos recalled how he then called his agent to, "Get me the f--k off this show." However, he soon had a change of heart.
"We were like, 'Well, we'll give it a try.' And then Bob came in," he said. "I fought it for a long time. And then I finally said, 'What am I doing? It's a beautiful show we built with sweetness and kindness.' There was no central character on that show is what I realized. The central character was love. We were the best representation of a loving family, not a normal family. The new normal was now an unconventional family. So, I guess that was it. I don't know."
Needless to say, the show was a huge success—running for eight seasons and later leading to the spinoff Fuller House that ran from 2016 to 2020.
Want more Full House secrets? You got it, dude. Just keep reading.