'Full House' Stars Reflect on Show's 35th Anniversary: 'They Said It Wouldn't Last Until Thanksgiving'

Mar. 15, 2025

Thursday marked35 yearssinceFull Housepremiered, and two of the beloved ABC sitcom’s stars took the chance to reflect on its unexpected success and legacy in their lives.

“When when it first came out, the reviews said it wouldn’t last until Thanksgiving,“John Stamostold PEOPLE Wednesday night at the “Cool Comedy, Hot Cuisine” annual fundraiser for theScleroderma Research Foundation— an organization with long-standing ties to Stamos' late costarBob Saget.

Stamos, 59, admitted he still can’t quite wrap his mind around the show’s cultural impact, but he’s grown to appreciate it more as the years have gone on.

“When it ended, it was time to move on. I was trying to keep my distance from it,” he said. “And it just got bigger every year, bigger and bigger, and I realized, ‘Why am I running from this?’ I got to the point too where I’d done enough work that I felt I was able to do other things and prove myself as an actor. And so now I just absolutely love it. I just love it.”

Jodie Sweetin.John Salangsang/Shutterstock

“I mean, look, if you would have told me that the 35, 36 years ago, I’d be standing in a ballroom with all of these people at 40 years old, still having relationships with them and being as close to them as I am and having them still be my family, I would have been shocked,” said Sweetin, who was just 5 years old when the show debuted.

“And, you know, it’s been a legacy for the people that were involved, but it also has been this incredible legacy for everyone that got to grow up watching it,” she continued. To that end, viewers' love for the series prompted her and costarsCandace Cameron Bureand Andrea Barber to bring back their characters for Netflix’sFuller House, which also featured Saget, Stamos,Dave CoulierandLori Loughlin.

“I’ve always been really honored to know that I was a part of something like that,” affirmed Sweetin. “I mean,Full Households a very dear place in a lot of people’s lives.”

John Stamos and Bob Saget.John Shearer/WireImage

Stamos and Sweetin joined Saget’s widowKelly Rizzoat Wednesday night’s fundraiser in Beverly Hills, California.

Not only did the event fall almost 35 years to the day since the premiere ofFull House, it was also the first SRF gala since Saget — who had been on the foundation’s board of directors since 2003 —diedunexpectedly on Jan. 9 at age 65.

Looking back on the man who became a lifelong friend, Stamos admitted his first days working with Saget weren’t necessarily smooth.

“The interesting thing was we didn’t really like each other in the beginning,” he recalled. “We were very different, we came from different approaches to acting and slowly our differences made us interesting to each other.”

The two learned about each other throughout throughout the show’s eight-season, which ended in May 1995. “And then we were best friends until the day he died,” said Stamos. “We were there for everything with each other: the good times, the bad times, divorces, marriages, kids.”

He continued, “I don’t know how I’m gonna get through the rest of this world without him. You know, [my 4-year-old son]Billydoes something funny and I’ll go, ‘I wish Bob could see this’ or I wish I could call him and tell him. It’s a tragedy.”

Kelly Rizzo and John Stamos.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

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Saget’s onscreen daughter Bure, 46, marked the day with anInstagrampost.

Sharing a carousel of throwback photos of herself with her costars, includingMary-KateandAshley Olsen, she wrote: “35 years ago my life changed for the better ❤️#35yearsofFullHouse”

source: people.com