‘Full (and Fuller) House’ might be the perfect family sitcom

Full House was one of the first TV shows I felt connected to, where I really cared about the characters. Every Friday evening, in preparation for ABC’s TGIF, my parents placed a blank videotape in our VHS recorder to tape the new episode. In a world pre on-demand and streaming platforms, the only way I could re-watch the episode of my favorite show was if my parents remembered to hit record.

Who didn’t get emotional when Uncle Jesse moved out and a single tear streamed down Michelle’s face or when Aunt Becky and Uncle Jesse welcomed twins into the world on Michelle’s fifth birthday and they all sang happy birthday together?

But what I remember most from my days of watching Full House, even at that young age, was thinking one day I would introduce my children to my favorite childhood sitcom.

When my family first started quarantining back in March, I discovered we could stream all episodes of Full House through Hulu. Looking for activities to entertain us when the weather was cold and we were on lockdown, I decided there was no better time to start the series. So, that’s what we did.

For weeks, my daughters and I spent hours watching episode after episode, me reliving my childhood and reminiscing about my favorite episodes, my daughters experiencing the sitcom for the first time.

As we watched, I told girls what I recalled about watching Full House as a kid, like when I stood in the kitchen with my mom, their grandma, tearing up because DJ forgot Kimmy’s sweet 16. And the girls shared with me their favorite episodes; my younger daughter loved the very first episode because what 5-year-old wouldn’t find it funny watching Uncle Jesse and Joey, two grown men, change a baby in the kitchen sink. And my older daughter found it hysterical when Stephanie dressed up as the hairy scary monster to frighten Michelle.

During our marathon, I even showed them the picture of their dad and me in front of the Painted Ladies, taken in San Francisco years before our daughters were born. I was such a Full House fanatic, on my tourist list of things to do in San Fran as a married adult without kids, was to visit the houses that appear in the open credits of the show. My girls loved seeing the pictures, asked if we could go when the pandemic is over and even wanted to know if I met the Tanners.

While I told them the family wasn’t home, when we finished Full House, we didn’t stop watching the Tanner family fun. We moved on to the remake, Fuller House, which brings back DJ, Stephanie and Kimmie as well as their kids and is available on Netflix.

When the final nine episodes of Fuller House debuted on Netflix over the summer, I got right to binge-watching the end of the series. Late one night, after putting my daughters to sleep, I watched the last episode. Lying in bed, I felt my eyes well up as Stephanie married Jimmy, Kimmy married Fernando and DJ married Steve.

My tears during the Fuller House finale weren’t as much about the end of the series, but about the culmination of my favorite childhood television show. I felt emotional witnessing DJ and Steve finally get their happily ever after together, 18 years after first getting off the plane from their study abroad summer in Spain. And now, months after finishing both series, we are still re-watching our favorite episodes from both the original and the remake making for the perfect quaranteam night in.