Full House’s Tanner family is now iconic, but fans almost watched an entirely different show with an alternative cast.
Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber took to social media on Monday, November 20, to share a never-before-seen photo of the original Tanner family. In the snap, Sweetin, 41, who played Stephanie in the hit sitcom, was joined by onscreen sisters Candace Cameron Bure (D.J.) and Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen (Michelle).
Their parents, however, looked unfamiliar. While Bob Saget ultimately brought the role of Tanner patriarch Danny to life, Sweetin and Barber’s photo showed a different actor in the role. Danny’s wife, Pam, was also visible in the picture.
“No need to adjust your phones – here it is: a shot from the first unaired pilot of Full House,” read the photo caption on the official Instagram account for Sweetin and Barber’s “How Rude, Tanneritos” podcast account. “Things were … a little different. Can you imagine this version of the show?”
In the photo, John Posey took on the role of Danny next to an unnamed actress portraying Pam. The original pilot never aired, and Saget ultimately replaced Posey, 67, before Full House’s debut on ABC. Pam, meanwhile, died before the events of the series began and was never shown on-camera.
Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995, followed Danny as he attempted to raise his three daughters — D.J., Stephanie and Michelle — after his wife’s death. Danny’s brother-in-law, Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos), and best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) subsequently moved in to help him out.
The series also starred Barber, Lori Loughlin and Steve Weinger and was revived by Netflix as Fuller House in 2016. Many of the show’s OG cast members appeared throughout the spinoff’s five-season run.
Despite documenting their offscreen reunions over the years, Stamos, 60, recently admitted that Saget’s death changed the close-knit connection between the cast.
“The sad thing about losing Bob — I mean, there were a lot of reasons [it was sad], obviously — was that he was the guy who really kind of kept us together,” Stamos told InStyle in October. “We try, we talk. But we’re not together as much as we used to [be]. We were a family, and I think people got that too. Both on and off camera.”
Saget died at age 65 in January 2022 in his Orlando, Florida, hotel room. One month later, the Orange County, Florida, medical examiner confirmed that Saget’s passing was the result of “blunt head trauma” from an “accidental” fall.
The Full House cast released a statement after Saget’s passing, which read, “Thirty-five years ago, we came together as a TV family, but we became a real family. He was a brother to us guys, a father to us girls and a friend to all of us. Bob, we love you dearly.”
