In 1987, the beloved television sitcom
Full House premiered on ABC. Now, 20 years after the cast took their final bows, the show continues to entertain audiences in syndication. Looking back, comedian Dave Coulier, who played Joey Gladstone for 192 episodes, says working with child—and canine—actors wasn't always a laugh a minute.
"It was difficult at times," Dave says. "Mary-Kate and Ashley [Olsen] were 8 months old when we started, so they could only be—because of child labor laws—on the set for a finite amount of time. And when you lost them, that was it. That's all you got. So, you had to get what you needed at that specific moment."
When the Olsen twins got older, Dave says the adult actors would sometimes bribe the girls with gummy bears. "That was a big deal," he says. "'I'll give you a red gummy bear...' [They'd say], 'Okay, you got it, dude.'"
When they thought the children weren't looking, Dave says he and his co-stars, Bob Saget and John Stamos, would orchestrate on-set pranks. "The three of us—me, Bob and John —we got in trouble a lot, from the moms," Dave says. "What we didn't realize is that the kids are backstage, and they have monitors in their rooms."
One night, after a long day of filming, Dave says he, John and Bob surprised the crew by doing a scene with no pants on. "We're all standing there [pantless]. The crew's dying, and the producers—everybody's cracking up," Dave says. "About 30 seconds later, as we're slapping each other on the back [like], 'Yeah, that was funny! We made everybody laugh,' here comes Jodie Sweetin's mom, Candace Cameron's mom and Adria Later, who was our teacher for the kids."
Watch as Dave shares the women's reaction to their pantless antics.
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