You may notice a distinct shortage of episodes in the first
two seasons. Before you get mad and start saying “How Rude”, let me explain the
reasons for that. First, I was born during the first season of the show, so I
am much more familiar with the later seasons. Those are the episodes that bring
back the memories of sitting in the basement, playing with my Power Ranger
toys, watching hours and hours of Full
House. Second, I legitimately think that the show greatly improved after
the first two years. Don’t get me wrong, the entire show is great, and
something I’d recommend. That being said, the early episodes were all about
these three guys learning how to raise kids, despite not really knowing how to
be parents, which started to get old. I think it did a great job of showing us
what it was like for Jesse and Joey, who previously only had to care about
themselves, suddenly becoming parent-figures to three girls. We have moments
like Jesse keeping the girls up way past their bedtime practicing with his rock
band or Joey deciding to ground D.J. for misbehaving. It was an interesting
dynamic, but after two seasons, I noticed a slight shift in the tone of the
show. While everyone continued to learn
how to be a family, the adults began to be portrayed as competent, mature
authority figures instead of bachelors struggling to figure out life. We also
started to explore the individual personalities of D.J., Stephanie, and
Michelle as they got older, turning them into well rounded characters. This is
when Full House is at its best, in my
opinion. Are you ready to dive into my personal picks for the greatest Full House episodes ever? You Got it
Dude!
#20: The Hole in the
Wall Gang (Season 4, Episode 21)
I’ll start us off with a simple classic. It’s the one where
DJ and Stephanie end up putting a hole in the wall of Danny’s bedroom.
Stephanie is trying to dress just like DJ, copying her style. DJ decides to
borrow a shirt from Danny, and of course Stephanie follows. In the midst of
their arguing, the closet rod ends up going through the wall. This leads to the
cover up plan. The girls convince Jesse to tell them how to fix the wall, they
move the furniture to cover the hole, and even send Michelle to distract Danny.
As a last ditch effort, DJ and Stephanie tell Danny they were in his room to
gain inspiration for their song “Dad”. Not surprisingly, Danny sees through
everything and knows they’re up to something, but is too tired to look into it.
It’s a fun plot that brings DJ and Stephanie full circle, from beginning the episode
arguing, then having to work together on the cover up, and finally to the
traditional heart to heart at the end of the episode. Plus there’s some cute
Michelle moments, which I always enjoy.
I also picked this episode for the B plot. Joey is helping
Jesse renovate the attic into an apartment for him and Rebecca. I’m always on
board whenever they decide to put Jesse and Joey together, these guys are a
great comedic duo in this show. Jesse doesn’t want Joey’s help for anything,
belittling his abilities. While working on the wiring for the bed that comes
out of the wall, Jessie gets trapped inside, forcing him to admit that he could
use some help. This is a great episode the displays the hectic craziness that
can happen with so many people living in one house.
#19: Just Say No Way
(Season 3, Episode 21)
As an ABC family sitcom in the 90s, you can bet that Full House has had a few episodes that
deal with serious issues, and this is one of them. Tonight’s topic: teenage
drinking. It all starts with DJ and Kimmy organizing their school’s Backwards
dance, which DJ is very excited to attend with a boy named Kevin. Panic sets in
when the band cancels, leading DJ to ask her musically talented, Uncle Jessie
to perform. She promises him a great back-up band, which is later revealed to
be the school’s marching band. From a plot perspective, this was necessary in
order to get Jesse to the school during the dance so that he could walk in on
what’s about to happen. DJ finds Kevin in the hallway drinking beer with some
friends. She tells them what they’re doing is wrong, and even takes the beer to
mock their behavior. This is the unfortunate moment where Jesse walks in and
sees DJ holding the beer. Jumping to the conclusion that DJ was drinking, he
takes her home, where Danny and Joey are also suspicious of DJ’s behavior. She
finally convinces Stephanie that she’s telling the truth about not drinking,
then sneaks back to school. Danny and Jesse follow, only to run into Kevin who
confesses and tells them the truth. Jesse apologizes to DJ, saying he didn’t
want to see alcohol ruin her life, the way it’s ruined others' lives.
I think this episode was done very well. It definitely
delivered the message that teenage drinking is not a problem to be taken
lightly, but there are several other lessons in this episode. DJ also learned
that lying to someone once can ruin your credibility when you need someone to
believe you later. Jesse learned to get the full story and not jump to
conclusions. On a lighter note, in the B plot, Joey, Stephanie, and Danny learn
that if you give Michelle a tape with the catchy tune “Baby Beluga”, she will
continually play it until you wish you were deaf. It applies to so many
situations, which is why I picked it as part of my Top 20.
#18: You Pet it, You
Bought it (Season 8, Episode 6)
The craziness in this episode is not the work of any of the
Tanners. Instead it’s a donkey named Shorty. Michelle managed to rack up $221
in profit from selling lemonade to construction workers. She goes with Kimmy to
spend her money at the candy store, but gets sidetracked and comes home with
Shorty. Danny decides to let Shorty spend the night in the backyard, however
that doesn’t last long as he keeps the neighbors up with continuous
“hee-hawing”. The only thing that calms him down is Jesse singing the theme
song to Threes Company, which he
tries to do all night. In the morning, we see the damage Shorty as done,
including eating a portrait of Danny’s great-great grandfather as well as
Stephanie’s homework. We also discover that DJ has an allergic reaction to
Shorty and it happens to be picture day. In the end, Becky suggests they donate
him to the local Children’s Zoo. I enjoyed the simplicity of this episode. It
focuses around one specific plot-line that affects everyone. I love the moment
when Michelle is explaining that they were on the way to the candy store when
they passed by a petting zoo, which leads Joey to chime in with “well,
apparently, you didn’t pass it completely!” Well, I couldn’t pass this episode
completely when picking my favorites.
#17: Greek Week
(Season 4, Episode 1)
If this were an episode of Friends, it’d be titled “The one with all the greek weddings.”
Jesse is excited for his grandparents to visit from Greece to celebrate their
50th wedding anniversary.
What he was not expecting was the guests that they brought with them,
each one bringing more drama than the last. First there is Melina, the daughter
of Jesse’s cousin, who happens to look exactly like Michelle. This was an easy
excuse to have Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen on screen at the same time, but it’s
a fun running gag throughout the episode. Second, is a young man named Sylvio
who takes an immediate liking to DJ, which makes Danny less than thrilled.
Lastly, they bring Sylvio’s sister, Elena, an old girlfriend of Jesse’s, who is
all too quick to give him affection in front of Becky. The peak of this drama
happens when Sylvio and DJ take a walk around the kitchen table, fulfilling a
Pomadorian wedding tradition. Jesse remembers doing the same thing with Elena
years ago, meaning that according to family tradition, Sylvio & DJ and
Jesse & Elena are married. At an eventful anniversary celebration, the
couples end up getting “divorced” by walking around a table backwards and all
is well. After his “divorce”, Jesse and Becky get officially engaged!
This episode feels more like a mini-movie than a sitcom
episode. I wish it had been a two part episode, so that we could explore more
of these relationship dynamics. There’s much more story that could be told
here. We could’ve learned more about Jesse and Elena’s past as well as the
greek family traditions. It also could’ve been fun to see more of Danny losing
his mind over his teenage daughter being “married”. Even without a Part 2, this
episode is terrific. It’s interesting how adding a few more key people to this
already large family makes this much more interesting.
#16: Subterranean
Graduation Blues (Season 6, Episode 19)
This episode closes up the storyline of Jesse going back to
school to get his high school diploma. It’s graduation day and Jesse is set to
give the commencement speech. The family decides to take the subway to the
ceremony, which ends up breaking down. The rest of the episode shows us the
Tanner family trapped in a subway car with strangers. On the lighter side, we
have Danny and Becky meeting some fans of Wake Up San Francisco, who turn out
to be a little on the crazy side. There’s also Michelle, who notices a big
tough guy littering, and tries to get Joey to convince him to stop, even though
Joey realizes this is not the guy he wants to mess with. These scenes serve
dual purpose of tension-cutting humor as well as finding ways to incorporate
the rest of the family into the story, because the main plot here is all about
Jesse, who just wants to get his diploma. This is an important moment for him.
He has taken responsibility for his education and realized the mistake he made
in his youth. This was supposed to be the conclusion of that moment, Jesse finally
being able to show everyone that he’s not a drop out anymore. It’s at this
point that Jesse meets a young potential dropout much like himself. You could
call this luck, fate, a divine intervention, or more realistically, convenient
script writing to bring an emotional moment. Anyways, Jesse ends up giving him
the speech he was going to give, and in predictable cheesiness, the kid decides
to stay in school, and Jesse is given a make-shift graduation right there on
the subway.
One of the reasons I picked this episode is that I really
enjoy bottle episodes. Before you get all technical on me, I know that this
isn’t a full bottle episode, but aside from the episode introduction and the
minor B plot with Kimmy babysitting Nicky and Alex, it comes pretty close, and
has many of the same elements. The characters are confined into one space and
there is both conflict and character development that come out of their lack of
escape. If everyone wasn’t confined into that space, Jesse would have never
been able to help this young man stay in school. It also adds more weight to
the minor plots as well. Joey really didn’t want to anger the tough guy since
there was no escape, much like Danny and Becky couldn’t do anything to escape
their crazed fans. All in all, it’s a good message with fun moments, delivered
in a clever way.
Continue on with # 15-11 Here
Continue on with # 15-11 Here
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