#5: Happy Birthday,
Babies, Parts 1 & 2 (Season 5, Episodes 9 & 10)
Normally, I wouldn’t think of clip shows as top episodes,
but this is a special case, mostly because only Part 1 is a clip show. We start
off on the morning of Michelle’s 5th birthday party, and like any
kid would be, she can’t wait til it gets started. She is too excited about
turning five. The family decides to keep her busy by looking through her baby
book, while the audience is shown some of Michelle’s best moments. Danny then
puts a current picture of Michelle on the last page and declares the baby book
to be complete. Michelle, not wanting to give up her reign as baby of the
family, rips the picture out and announces that she’s staying 4 years old. This
leads to the family needing to remind Michelle about good times by showing us
more clips. Michelle ultimately realizes how cool she really is and how she’s
excited for her new baby cousins, and the party is back on. The thing, I find
interesting about this is that it directly addresses something that happens in
many family shows, bringing in a new child when the previous “baby of the
family” starts to get older. The Cosby
Show brought in Olivia when Rudy got older, 7th Heaven brought in Sam & David when Ruthie got
older, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air brought
in Nicky when Ashley got older. Full
House is about to do this as well, bringing in the twins, who will be the
new babies of the family. This isn’t a bad thing, it just signifies a new
chapter of both Michelle’s life and Full
House as a whole. I find it impressive that they were able to use a clip
show to advance the story and produce real character development.
This brings me to Part 2, which I think is absolutely
brilliant. We finally get to see the birthday party that Michelle couldn’t wait
for, and who could blame her? It’s a Flintstones themed party starring DJ as
Wilma, Joey as Barney, Stephanie as Betty, Danny as Dino, Michelle as Pebbles,
and Uncle Jesse as Fred. This party sounds awesome, right?! There’s just one
problem. Well if you hadn’t already figured it out from the title of the
episode of the heavy themes of Michelle’s ending reign as baby of the family,
I’ll spell it out. Becky goes into labor! Which means we get the drama and
excitement of new babies with the added bonus of seeing the family rush around
the hospital dressed as their prehistoric counterparts. To make things worse,
Jesse’s side pains turn into the need for the immediate removal of his
appendix. We get to see Jesse trying to be supportive of his wife giving birth,
while still groggy from the anesthesia. It’s the kind of craziness that only
happens on TV. In the end, we see the new additions to the Katsopolis family
with little Nicky and Alex. To close it out, the family sings Happy Birthday to
Michelle and the twins. This episode has slapstick humor, heart-warming
moments, and cute new babies all in one episode, what’s not to love?
#4: Our Very First
Telethon (Season 3, Episode 24)
Remember the cheesy PBS telethons, where they’d put on a
show and ask for donations? Well this episode of Full House decided to take that concept and basically use it as a
platform for a big talent show, starring the cast. Danny is hosting the 24 hour
“We Love Our Children Telethon”, raising money to buy new equipment for the
Children’s Health Center. To fill the time in the telethon, we’re given a quick
glimpse at random performances, but we focus mostly on what the Tanner family
has to offer. Things start to go wrong almost immediately when Joey performs a
magic trick by trapping Becky in a box and seemingly separates her body in
three parts. The problem is that the box gets stuck, forcing Becky to sing a duet
with Danny while still inside it, until they finally release her. We get some
singing and dancing from Stephanie, DJ, and Michelle, but the real story is
that Danny starts to fall asleep, and he is out cold for a good portion of the
show. Danny is woken up by Kimmy Gibbler’s unicycle routine, and realizes that
they’re closing in on the end of the telethon, but they still haven’t reached
their $1,000,000 goal. Suddenly, Mike Love from the Beach Boys randomly shows
up and sings “Be True to Your School” with Jesse and the Rippers. Of course,
this performance puts them over the edge and everyone celebrates as balloons
fall from the ceiling. This is a pretty big way to end their 3rd
season. I wonder if they hadn’t been officially renewed for season 4 yet, and wanted
to make an episode that could be a series finale. I’m glad the show didn’t end
here, but either way, this was a great one.
Looking back, I think the reason I love this episode so much
is that it reminds me of The Muppet Show.
Think about it, almost every episode of The Muppet Show is this group of
eccentric characters trying to put on a successful show in the midst of
unpredictable chaos. Many episodes also end with a musical number featuring the
guest star. If I take out the word Muppet, you might think I was describing
this exact episode. There’s something really captivating about seeing goofy
characters try their hardest and not give up, despite crazy circumstances.
There’s no logical reason for the show to be successful, but you still cheer
for these guys as they pull it off. It worked for the Muppets and it worked for
the Tanners in this telethon.
#3: Another Opening,
Another No Show (Season 7, Episode 8)
If you haven’t noticed by now, the Tanner family does
everything together. It doesn’t matter what it is, it’s a group activity. That
continues to be true as Jesse officially opens “The Smash Club”, a hang-out
spot that he owns. It’s such a family outing, that they seem to be the only
staff. DJ, Stephanie, Michelle, and Kimmy are waitresses, Danny and Becky are
running the coffee bar, and Joey is hosting the performances. Early in the
episode, we find out that Kimmy has decorated her outfit with brightly colored
shapes to make it pop. I actually liked her decorated vest, and it seemed to
blend right in with the club, Jesse did not feel the same way, and insults her
for it. This gets awkward in a bit, when Jesse and Kimmy get locked in a supply
closet for most of the episode. Everyone else does their best to keep the club
running. There’s a food critic, played by Ben Stein, judging the food, as well
as a mixup where instead of the rock band R.E.M., Joey booked three old ladies
named Renee, Esther, and Martha. The family pulls together and the night is
still a success, complete with Jesse descending on a disco ball after escaping
the supply closet through an air vent.
There are a lot of great scenes in the club, but I picked
this episode mainly for what happens in the supply closet. Kimmy Gibbler has
always been the annoying, eccentric neighbor who loves to annoy the Tanner
family. Despite her quirks, Kimmy is a good person, who is always there for
them. Just look at some examples from this countdown. In “Subterranean
Graduation Blues”, she babysits Nicky and Alex during Jesse’s graduation. In
“Michelle Rides Again”, she comes to DJ’s rescue and gets her and Steve back
together. In “13 Candles”, she arranges for DJ to kiss her crush. Kimmy is very
underrated. Jesse realizes this when she admits that her feelings were hurt
when he insulted her outfit. Once again, Kimmy was trying to look nice and be
there for everyone, and he insults her. Jesse admits that he was too harsh on
her, and on everyone. Later at the house, he even gives her a big hug, which is
cheesy, yet well-deserved. Kimmy Gibbler proves you don’t have to live in the
house to be a member of the family.
#2: Tanner Island
(Season 3, Episode 1)
Pack your bags, it’s another vacation episode! This time,
everyone heads off to Hawaii to celebrate the two year anniversary of Jesse and
Joey moving in. I love episodes like this, because it give you a break from the
norm. I love the house, and all the great episodes they’ve had there, but once
in a while it’s fun to see the Tanners get out. They get off the plane and
believe it or not, Joey actually gets a plotline this time! He keeps seeing
this beautiful Hawaiian girl smiling at him, but she always manages to
disappear before he can talk to her. Jesse begins to ruin what should be a
romantic getaway with Becky, by obsessing over locations of Elvis movies. While
Jesse and Joey are striking out with their love lives, Danny is taking his
obsessive nature to the next level by scheduling every minute of every day on
his “Clipboard of Fun”. He decides to rent a boat and sail to a small island he
sees on the map. The island turns out to be a potato chip crumb and then end up
shipwrecked, supposedly on a deserted island. The fun Hawaiian vacation turns
into Full House meets Gilligan’s Island, as they start to make
themselves comfortable. Everything is
going pretty good until the family is ambushed by what looks like a tribe of
island native savages who surround them. It turns out they’re performers for a
stage show. The island wasn’t even deserted, they were just on the wrong side
of it. It’s a bit of a cop-out, but it is fun to watch as the family is invited
on stage to sing in front of a crowd of people.
Not only is this a unique episode set in a beautiful,
Hawaiian setting, it really works for the characters. We get to see how
everyone acts on vacation. Danny is obsessively detailed to the point of
annoyance, so naturally he tries to control everyone’s good time and monitor
everybody’s activities. Joey is a hopeful goofball, who keeps chasing a girl,
who seems to be imaginary until he finally meets her in the stage show in the
end. Joey and Danny had some fun moments, but this episode was an eye opener
about Jessie. Think about it, over course of the show, Jesse has gone on what
should be great, romantic vacations with Becky to Hawaii, Disney World, even
Japan, and every time he does something dumb to ruin it. In addition, Jesse got
put in jail on his wedding day, he got trapped in a subway on his graduation,
and had his appendix removed on the day of his sons’ births. Bad things happen
when Jesse leaves the house! Maybe he should just become a shut-in and never
got outdoors, it seems like the best solution to me. Another thing I liked is
that on a lot of shows, the plot of them running into the island natives would
lead to them getting captured and later escaping. While you could also argue
that them stumbling on stage of a major concert is just as cheesy, at least
it’s different. I’ve mentioned earlier that I think Full House got much better after the first two seasons. As the
premiere of season 3, this episode jump-started us into a new, fantastic era of
Full House.
#1: Terror in Tanner
Town (Season 4, Episode 10)
We finally come down to my Number 1 pick! This was a hard
decision, and I rearranged the order of this list a lot, but I landed on
“Terror in Tanner Town”. Full House
never had a scary Halloween episode, but this one could have easily been a
parody of a monster movie. The unsuspecting Tanner family gets attacked by the
monster of the week. A monster named Rusty! We’re introduced to Rusty, the
young son of Danny’s girlfriend, Cindy. Everything seems great at first, Cindy
and Rusty come over to meet Danny’s family. There are some mishaps at lunch,
involving spilled milk, spilled salt, and a tablecloth tucked into Danny’s
pants. These pranks would later be revealed as Rusty’s handy-work. Cindy gets
called into work, and Danny volunteers to watch Rusty for the day.
As you can imagine, everyone is soon subject to more
childish pranks. He starts off with Danny, playing catch with him and
manipulating the game just right, so that Danny falls into a mud puddle. Next
he interrupts a kiss between Jesse and Becky, and then quickly ties a rope
between Jesse’s bedroom and DJ and Stephanie’s bedroom, locking half of the
family in their rooms. Escaping to the basement, he records over Joey’s comedy
demo tape. Next, he sets his sights on Michelle, showing her his kaleidoscope,
which he lined with ink to leave a black circle on her face. Just to be
thorough, he even throws the family’s roast into the living room, causing the
family dog, Comet to run after it in the middle of a bath. That is efficient
work! In a small amount of time, he managed to prank every member of the tanner
family.
Everyone has had about enough, especially Danny, who comes
downstairs from his shower to find that his shampoo was given food coloring.
He’s about to lay down the law with this kid, when Cindy comes back and Danny
tires, unsuccessfully to cover for him. Rusty and Danny have a heart to heart
about how Rusty doesn’t like that his parents were divorced, and that’s why he
acted out. I personally, don’t think that should let him off the hook for
terrorizing everyone, but I get the overall message. There is a nice moment at
the end, where DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle ambush Rusty and cover him in whipped
cream. It’s not the full payback that he deserves, but it’s a start.
I love the chaos of this episode. The Tanners are having a
normal, uneventful day and this kid comes in and is smart and resourceful
enough to prank every member of the family, right down to the dog. He’s quick
too, the running gag is that as soon as someone realizes they’ve been pranked,
they yell out “Rusty!!” Of course by then, he was already on to his next
victim. There aren’t a lot of storylines to follow either. I know, I’ve mentioned
how I like episodes where everyone gets their own plot, but it’s also nice to
have one story, running through the house. Through most of the episode, when I
see a character doing anything, I’m just thinking about how this is going to
turn into a prank? How will Rusty mess this up? It’s an interesting story that
keeps you on the edge of your seat. I personally think that this is the best
that Full House has to offer.
Conclusion
What’s left to say about Full
House? Out of all the 90s TGIF sitcoms, it was definitely one of the best
and most popular. The show has such a large cast of unique characters, which
allows for so many different character interactions and dynamics. It’s also so
relatable in any point in life. This show follows issues of growing up,
parenting, romantic relationships, friendships, school, graduation, college,
careers, and so much more. Whatever’s going on in your life can probably relate
back to a storyline on Full House. It
had plenty of cheesy moments and a lot of the life lessons were predictable,
but that’s ok. When you sit down to watch Full
House, you know what you’re in for. It also found a balance where it wasn’t
inappropriate for young viewers, but at the same time wasn’t dumbed down too
much either.
Now
that I’ve looked back on 8 years of Full
House, I’m even more excited about Fuller
House. There have been a few trailers released, and it looks great. The
house is back and so are the Tanners! In addition to DJ, Stephanie, and Kimmy,
we know that Danny, Jesse, Becky, Joey, Steve, Nicky, and Alex will also be
making appearances. Yes, it’s a bummer that we won’t get Michelle, but I’m
looking forward to seeing how the show does with a 20 year time jump. I know
I’ll probably hit Nostalgia overload as I tune in. I think by now I’ve covered
everything, so I’ll leave you with a reminder to watch Fuller House on Netflix, on February 26, 2016.
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