Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber Revisit What They Call the 'Worst Episode' of “Full House”
The less-than-family-friendly season 1 episode was “a disaster,” according to ‘Full House’ producer Karen Miller
Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber are looking back at some of Full House’s early misstep — specifically an uncharacteristically racy season 1 episode.
Original Full House producer Karen Miller joined the duo on the most recent episode of their rewatch podcast How Rude, Tanneritos!, and the hosts made sure to find out what Miller thought of the beloved sitcom’s fifth episode in 1987, “Sea Cruise.”
“Was ‘Sea Cruise’ the worst episode that we ever did as a show?” Sweetin asked.
“It was a disaster,” Miller admitted.
As Barber and Sweetin previously detailed when they recapped the episode in August 2023, “Sea Cruise” is particularly notable for essentially jettisoning the Tanner girls to focus entirely on Bob Saget, Dave Coulier and John Stamos’ characters. The episode finds Danny (Saget), Joey (Coulier) and Jesse (Stamos) embarking on a midnight fishing trip, ostensibly for some male bonding time. But things take a turn for the flirty when Jesse’s rock star ex-girlfriend and her backup singers decide to tag along.
“I wouldn't even say it was the boys' fantasy to do that episode. But it turned out to be this weird episode,” Miller recalled. “It was just so out of character for Full House.”
Sweetin noted that series creator Jeff Franklin had previously said on Tanneritos that the original premise for Full House was three single male comedians living together. And in their 2023 recap, Barber pointed out that “Sea Cruise” gives fans “an idea of what the show would have been like had it been Jeff Franklin's original idea of House of Comics, of three guys, three single guys living in a house together without children.”
Upon revisiting the episode last year, Barber and Sweetin were aghast at some of the innuendos and suggestive jokes that made their way into the show.
“This episode is not as family-friendly as later episodes of Full House,” Barber, 48, noted. “Every other joke is a sexual innuendo.”
“I remember when they were shooting this one my mom — I think my mom was like ‘This just doesn't feel like a family show, this doesn’t feel like Full House,’ ” Sweetin, 42, recalled at the time. “And it wasn't. It was really, I think before the family dynamic of the show really took off and we found that the magic was with all of us being together and not keeping the adults and the kids so separated.”
Barber added that she really missed the Tanner girls in the episode.
“I think it was just that the episode was focused on the guys and that was kind of, you know, what shows did,” Sweetin said. “It was like you could have the kids in the beginning and the end and not really pay attention to them. But as the show went on, Full House definitely didn't do that as much.”
On the most recent episode of Tenneritos, Miller agreed with Sweetin’s assessment. “We saw that shift in it really being about the family and less about the boys, you know, dating,” she said.
Related: 'Full House' Cast: Where Are They Now?
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In their original 2023 recap, however, Barber and Sweetin were significantly less harsh on “Sea Cruise,” noting that the seed of that family dynamic was present. They were particularly moved by a scene toward the end of the episode in which Joey encourages both Danny, who is still grieving the recent death of his wife, and Jesse, who is frustrated at his stalled music career, not to push people away.
“Joey and Jesse are just kind of tolerant of each other up until this point, but it's this moment where I think they become friends, like good deep friends,” Barber said.
“It was such a character development story for all three of them,” Sweetin said. “We see Jesse change and we see Joey have a little bit more of a heart and we see Danny still processing, but you know, I loved it. It really came together quite nicely, and Bob, I thought, was so sweet and wonderful and genuine in this episode, particularly in that last scene.”
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