Fans of Full House's hunky rock and roller
taped John Stamos's picture to their bedroom walls. But a clinch with the
actor (who had Uncle Jesse's surname changed in 1990 to affirm his own Greek
heritage) might have dampened their ardor. "Before every kissing scene, he'd
eat Doritos and puff on a cigar," recalls his TV spouse, Lori Loughlin.
Stamos's goofy sense of humor endeared him to his castmates---and to
supermodel Rebecca Romijn, whom he married in 1998. ("When we're at a
restaurant, sometimes I have to duck under the table because I'm laughing so
hard," says Romijn-Stamos, 27.) After Full House, Stamos, 36, craved new
challenges. He starred on Broadway's How to Succeed in Business Without
Really Trying and played a porn editor in this year's indie feature Dropping
Out. He has also become a producer, working on projects including The Beach
Boys An American Family---a miniseries about the band, with whom Stamos
often sits in on drums---and an upcoming TV remake of Butterflies Are Free,
starring his wife. For Stamos, life out of the klieg lights has had one major
benefit He can leave home without drawing a crowd. Recently, he says, "I
rode on a public bus for the first time. It was so liberating! I feel
rejuvenated as a human being."
Full House was wholesome; Bob Saget often wasn't. "I was always
getting in trouble with the girl's' moms because I would say terrible things
that weren't exactly kid appropriate," says Saget, 44, a stand-up comedian
turned TV dad. His Full House daughter Candace Cameron Bure got the jokes. "I
kind of played dumb," she says. "It was fun to hear those things, but I
didn't want the adults to know that I totally understood." Saget, who lives
in L.A. and shares custody of his three daughters with ex-wife Sherri
Kramer-Saget, 43, is honing his adult material. In 1998, he directed the Norm
MacDonald movie Dirty Work, and he has been refreshing his stand-up routine.
The comic in him pokes fun at Full House. "I always thought my character was
gay." says Saget. "He lived with two guys in San Francisco and dust-busted
all the time. He sure didn't date enough for my taste. I kept asking, 'When
is he going to get the girl?''"
The high jinks never stopped on the Full House set, and
comedian Dave Coulier, 40, who played Bob Saget's pal, Joey, was usually the
reason. When shooting in Hawaii, recalls castmate John Stamos, "we'd get kids
to go up to Dave and ask, 'Are you the fat guy on Full House?'" Coulier, who
says the show represented "a G-rated dysfunctional family," gave as good as
he got. "Dave had a gas problem," says Saget. "He'd let go right in front of
the little Olsen twins. Mary-Kate would hold her nose and yell, 'Dave made a
stinky!'" After Full House, Coulier chose to focus all of his attention on
the most important role of his life dad to son Luc, 9 (Coulier and Luc's
mom, actress Jayne Modean, 42, divorced in 1992 after two years of marriage).
"I feel like I've become a great dad." says Coulier, who shares custody with
his ex. "It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done. It replenishes my
soul." Coulier has put his new energy into creating an Internet site for
kids, iComedyNetwork.com, set to launch this month. "I wanted to create
something like Full House, where a parent can say, 'I know you're safe
watching that.'" Occasionally, Coulier finds himself watching Full House.
"I'll be in an airport and hear my own voice," he says. "I'll look around and
see a TV set and go 'Oh, that's a really bad shirt. That's a really bad
haircut.'"
At the beginning, 11-year-old Candace Cameron was chaperoned to
the set by her mother, Barbara, now 50, a talent agent (Candace's brother
Kirk played Mike on Growing Pains). By the time the series ended, Cameron was
19 and engaged to Russian-born hockey player Valeri Bure, now 26. Castmate
Dave Coulier introduced the couple at a charity hockey game. ("When Valeri
first saw Candace, he just blushed," Coulier recalls.) Most of the Full House
cast attended their 1996 wedding. Cameron Bure insists that she didn't miss
out on anything growing up on a Hollywood set. "I don't know life any other
way," she says. "I loved it." Her fondest memories are from the show's last
two years. "Once I got my driver's license," she says, "everybody treated me
like I was an adult." Now 24 and the mother of daughter Natasha, 22 months,
and son Lev, 4 months, Cameron Bure has put her career on hold. "She's the
most incredible mom," says Lori Loughlin, a close friend. During hockey
season, the family rents a house in Calgary, Alta., where Valeri plays with
the Flames; the rest of the year they live in a five-bedroom house in L.A.
"The cool thing about my profession is that I can do it until the day I die,"
Cameron Bure says. "I figure this is my time---to relax, be with my family
and have a normal life."
After seeing Jodie Sweetin in a guest spot on Valerie, the
creators of Full House grabbed the 5-year-old for their new series. "She had
the most wonderful smile," recalls executive producer Robert Boyett. As the
middle Tanner sister, Sweetin made "How rude!" a preteen rallying cry. When
the series ended, she had one wish "To go to high school and be a normal
kid." At 18, Sweetin has just finished her freshman year at Chapman
University in Orange, Calif., commuting from her parents' nearby home (dad
Sam, 65, runs a handyman service; mom Janice, 50, is a wedding coordinator)
in the BMW that, along with her education, is a fruit of her Full House
paychecks. Although Sweetin recently did a guest spot on Party of Five,
acting isn't part of her career plans. "The competition is so fierce once you
become an adult," she says. "I'll probably move on to something else."
"When they were 2, I used to flap my arms and tell them, 'If
you guys run and flap your arms really fast, you can fly!'" recalls Full House
castmate Dave Coulier. "Every day I'd ask, 'Are you guys flying yet?' and
they'd say, 'No!'" Fourteen-year-old twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who
shared the role of adorable Michelle from ages 15 months to 9 years, are now
soaring. Although their promising 1999 series Two of a Kind failed, they
anchor a multimillion-dollar empire that markets Olsen Twins books (100-plus
titles), videos (some 20 so far), game cartridges (for Nintendo and
PlayStation) and a megahit Web site. Last month,
Mattel introduced Barbie-like fashion dolls ($30 per pair) of the Olsens.
"It's kind of weird to have your own doll," says Ashley. "But it's neat too.
I dress mine up in clothes like I have at home." Coming at the end of the
year an Olsens clothing line at Wal-Mart. To keep the products rolling out,
the hardest-working twins in showbiz are often away from their Los Angeles
home filming or doing promotional tours. "It's a little exhausting at times,"
says Mary-Kate, "but it's fun to get away. We go to these different cities
and shop at all the new stores." The fraternal twins---who have a brother,
Trent, 16, and sister, Elizabeth, 11, and split their time between their
divorced parents, Jarnette, 46, and David, 48, who act as their managers---do
not date yet. "We're too young for that," says Ashley. "We just hang out with
our friends." While they remember little of Full House except having fun,
castmate Lori Loughlin believes the show gave the Olsens an excellent model
for celebrity behavior. "We had no prima donnas," she says. "I think that
helped them become well-rounded people. It's great to see them so successful."
She was hired for a six-episode guest spot in 1988 as Uncle Jesse's girlfriend, but Lori Loughlin stayed for seven years. "I kind of knew the first day that I was going to be there for a long time," says Loughlin, 35. "I felt I fit in immediately." The rest of the cast thought so too. "There was never a formal announcement," says castmate Dave Coulier, "but Lori brought a female perspective, which brought a nice balance to a show with three guys." The girls in the cast idolized their older female costar. "I had my first-ever kiss on the show," recalls Candace Cameron Bure. "I asked Lori, 'Am I supposed to keep my eyes open or closed?' She said closed. You wouldn't really want to ask anyone, but you knew you could ask her." After Full House folded, Loughlin starred with Tony Danza in the short-lived sitcom Hudson Street. "To have a show that ran as long as Full House is rare," she says. Lately she has been focusing on her family: husband Mossimo Giannulli, 37 (a designer whose once high-flying sportswear company is now being sued in bankruptcy court), and daughters Isabella, 21 months, and Olivia, 9 months. "I love acting, and I won't give it up," says Loughlin, "but right now, raising my kids is a full-time job."
For the most part, Andrea Barber, 23, has fond memories of Full
House. Her only problem wardrobe. "Once in a while the costume people would
say 'Hey, kids, take home whatever you want,'" recalls Barber. "The others
would grab armloads, and I'd just take a pair of pants. My character was
obnoxious, had stinky feet and wore things like purple tights and a yellow
top. I hated the clothes." She nevertheless played the role to the hilt. "It
was hysterical to see this geeky girl next door taking shots at Bob Saget,"
says House co-creator Robert Boyett. After House, Barber aimed higher. In
1999 she graduated from California's Whittier College and spent that summer
interning with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Now working as
Whittier's assistant director of foreign studies, Barber is applying to grad
schools to pursue a master's in women's rights. "I love being a student," she
says. "If I could, I'd stay in school forever."
Nothing is said about them in the article in People Magazine.
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