A different actor was considered for Bob Saget‘s Full House character, Danny Tanner.
Another Actor in Mind
More than 35 years after the family comedy first aired, Jodie Sweetin, 44, has revealed the show’s original pilot was filmed with another actor in the role before Bob. Saget eventually stepped in and made TV history.
Speaking on Taboo’s Comics and Kicks, the actress, who played Stephanie Tanner throughout the series, recalled that the cast had already completed an entire pilot with actor John Posey, 70, before producers were finally able to secure the man they had wanted from the very beginning.
She recalled, “We started doing the show and we’d shot an entire pilot actually with a different, with John Posey, who was a lovely human being and very sweet and wonderful. But Bob was the first choice for Danny.”
At the time, however, Bob was unavailable because he was under contract hosting CBS’ The Morning Program. It forced producers to look elsewhere as they prepared to launch what would become one of television’s most enduring family sitcoms.
John Posey
John ultimately landed the coveted role after an ABC executive spotted him performing with a comedy group in Atlanta. Reflecting on the extraordinary opportunity during a 2014 interview with Yahoo!, the actor admitted everything happened incredibly quickly.
He remembered, “And then of course the pilot they gave me right away was Full House.”
Only later did John discover just how close he had come to missing out on the role.
The entertainer explained, “From what I was told, they were looking all over the country for people and couldn’t find a guy.”
“Although I later found out that Bob Saget and Paul Reiser were the two guys they were after first, and they were both unavailable. They were obligated to other shows.”
The revelation came as a surprise to John. He struggled to understand how he had found himself competing with two of television’s best-known comedians.
He said, “How you go from those guys to me is kind of a mystery, because we couldn’t be more different.”
For a brief moment, it appeared his future as Danny Tanner was secure.
Changing Actors
After filming wrapped on the pilot, John returned home believing production on the series would soon begin. Instead, he received a phone call that changed everything.
John recounted, “I was in Mississippi. My pager went off. I’ve got a trailer full of stuff. I’m driving back thinking, ‘We’re going to get to work soon on this new show.'”
“And I get a phone call, go to the phone booth, as we used to do in those days, returned the call, and it was my agent saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but for some reason they’re testing Bob Saget.'”
According to John, circumstances had suddenly shifted behind the scenes.
He said, “I guess something opened up for him. Maybe he was fired from something, I think, and suddenly he was available. And I guess the executive producer talked ABC into allowing him to re-shoot. So that was the end of that.”
Bob went on to play widowed father Danny Tanner for all eight seasons of Full House, turning the neat-freak dad into one of the most beloved sitcom characters of the late 1980s and early 1990s.