Full House – the 90’s sit-com that redefined the word cute.  Three guys under one roof raising three kids.  That was the premise that led ABC to sit-com gold!  Like it or hate it, anyone who had a TV in that decade knew of the show and the three lead stars: John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Bob Sagat.  But, the show very nearly went to air without Bob’s leading father figure, Danny Tanner.

The family sit-com was all the rage with the TV networks in the 1990’s.  Blockbuster hits such as Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Growing Pains, and more dotted the prime time schedules and all led to big ratings which scored big advertiser dollars, but all of these shows were starting to age.  The American Broadcasting Company was on the hunt for another rating hit.

Screenwriter Jeff Franklin, who had already worked on hit sit-coms such as Laverne & Shirley and Bosom Buddies was hungry to get a TV show of his own and came up with a dozen proposed ideas, all of which were shot down.  After writing a couple successful movie screenplays, he again developed a pitch for TV that idea became House of Comics, with three stand up comedians sharing a house together.

ABC took a look at the script and asked Franklin to redevelop it as a family show.  He changed the title to Full House, tweaked his script to add three kids, make Danny a widower, and change the guy’s professions to sportscaster, rock star, and only one comedian.  He hoped ABC would love the idea of three guys trying to act as one mom.  Turns out – they did!

John Stamos and Dave Coulier were quickly cast as Uncle Jesse and Uncle Joey.  The cast of kids were quickly signed on including Candace Cameron as oldest daughter DJ, Jodie Sweeten as Stephanie, and Mary Kate and Ashley Olson to double in the role of infant Michelle.

Franklin had written the role of the Danny Tanner, the father of the family, with Bob Sagat in mind.  The two had worked together in the past, as Sagat was the audience warm up guy for Bosom Buddies, but was unavailable having just signed on to be an on-air contributor to The Morning Show for CBS.  The Morning Show was an early version of the current CBS This Morning news program, but featured an odd mix of comedy, news, and entertainment.

With Sagat unavailable, actor Paul Reiser was approached to play Danny, but he turned it down to star in a similar show for NBC, My Two Dads. (Guess he wanted to go with one dad, less?)

Franklin began open auditions and eventually went with unknown actor John Posey and the pilot was shot.  Here’s a look at the first few minutes of the unaired pilot:

http://youtu.be/aJNWdbzoewU

The show tested well and ABC ordered a 9 episode first season.

Just as the show was picked up, Sagat was fired from The Morning Show.  That show’s ratings had tanked was on the verge of once again being reformatted.  Sagat contacted Franklin an expressed interest in the Full House job.

Franklin persuaded ABC to pony up more money to reshoot the pilot, here is the exact same episode and script with Sagat, which do you think is better?

http://youtu.be/8hmHHL_o_Pg

As you can see, only a handful of shots from the original show open remained (including the horrible rear projection scene of San Francisco, where I think they run a red light.)  Fortunately, the right choice was made with Sagat and the series went on to become part of TV history running for 8 seasons and 192 episodes.

Check this out, here’s a side by side comparison of the two episodes!

http://youtu.be/Bu7FNYqhkow

I always though the early years were the better shows.  Once Michelle grew up and they tried to continue the whole cutsey-cutsey theme by giving Uncle Jesse a wife and twins just didn’t work.  Plus, producers still tried to portray Michelle as the cute little kid, while she was well on her way to womanhood.

While I was never a big fan of the show, I did catch Bob Saget, John Stamos, and Dave Coulier when they reunited last week for a sketch on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and I remembered hearing about this unaired pilot.  They also appeared in character for an Oikos yogurt commercial on Super Bowl Sunday.

Seasons 1-4 of Full House have been released on DVD as well as an entire series box set.  The John Posey pilot appears as a bonus feature in the season one set.

To get a show on network TV, most networks order a pilot episode to get the feel for the series they are about to pay big bucks for.  Often times, the tone of the show, sets, and even cast members will change from what will be in the official broadcast series.  Some famous changes include the gay live in cook on The Golden Girls pilot, a different captain on the original Star Trek pilot, and a Macintosh computer inspired set for the Alex Trebek Jeopardy! pilot.

An unrelated series with the same name aired in Korea in 2004.

You can check out the entire unaired John Posey Full House pilot for yourself, here:

THE 411

What: original Full House pilot episode

Starring: John Posey as Danny Tanner

Network: ABC

Recorded: 1987

Status: unaired, released as a bonus feature on Full House season 1 DVD

JERSEY JOE RECOMMENDS

The entire original pilot with Posey appears from time to time on Youtube, but is often removed for copyright violations.  The link provided above is active as of the time of this posting.

The producers were absolutely correct in replacing Posey with Bob Sagat.  Posey just simply didn’t work in this pilot and I can’t imagine this series lasting as long without him.  He is too quiet and too closed in his performance.

Posey has made a great deal of TV appearances however.  He’s guest starred on everything from Dallas to Seinfeld to Bones.  But, this is an example why it’s a good idea for networks to order a pilot and to test a new show.