Playing it Coulier

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This article was published 25/02/2016 (3730 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They say you can’t go back again.

Whoever “they” are, they clearly never checked with the cast of the ’90s sitcom Full House before jotting down the oft-repeated nugget of philosophical insight.

Going back, while at the same time moving forward, is exactly what the Full House gang is doing when the new binge-ready series Fuller House is released Friday, Feb. 26, on Netflix. And quite frankly, Dave Coulier couldn’t be more pleased.

“I think we’re all taken aback by the reaction to this,” says the 56-year-old actor and standup comedian, who begins a three-night series of sold-out shows at Rumor’s Comedy Club the same night. “Over the years, we’ve heard so many suggestions of getting back together or doing a reunion for one more show, or whatever. But collectively, as a cast, we felt like we did 182 episodes and were very successful, and we didn’t want to come back and do something to screw that up.

“We were very cognizant of the fact you can come back and do it the right way, and you can come back and do it a very wrong way. We didn’t want to tarnish this nice image that we’ve cultivated over a couple of decades, so the consensus was that we didn’t want to do it. And then when it finally happened and we did go back, the energy that surrounded it really surprised all of us…. The audience response has been incredible.”

The original Full House, which ran from 1987 to 1995 on ABC, focused on the efforts of widowed TV host Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) and live-in pals Jesse (Jon Stamos) and Joey (Coulier) to raise his three young daughters, D.J. (Candace Cameron), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and Michelle (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen).

The series was a mainstay in ABC’s family-friendly “TGIF” sitcom block, and became even more popular in syndication. The new Netflix offering, Fuller House, puts a gender-reverse spin on the original show’s storyline, focusing on the efforts of now-adult and recently widowed D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure) to raise three young sons in the same house in which she grew up, with the live-in assistance of sister Stephanie (Sweetin) and pal Kimmy Gibler (Andrea Barber).

Of course, a Full House couldn’t become a Fuller House without regular drop-ins by Danny, Joey, Jesse and Jesse’s wife Rebecca (Lori Loughlin). The new series’ première has the original entire cast on hand (except the Olsen twins, whose absence is explained in a cute one-liner in the first show), and the extended half-hour episode features huge screams of recognition and wild applause from an over-the-top excited studio audience.

“It was very special night,” says Coulier. “It was very surreal. There were happy tears for a lot of people, because they haven’t seen us in the confines of that set for a very long time. I mean, when they raised the curtain, the set got its own applause. It was incredible; we were standing backstage going, ‘Can we just start the show? The set’s getting more applause than we’re going to get.’ It really was a magical night.”

For his part, Coulier says he had absolutely no trouble getting back in touch with his Full/Fuller House character, Joey, who in the new series has taken his comedy act to Las Vegas for a long-running gig.

“To me, it’s Joey Gladstone 2.0. It’s basically an update to an operating system that people are already very familiar with. There wasn’t much in the way of, ‘Oh, boy, I really need to reconnect with this character,’ because Joey Gladstone is kind of an extension of me.”

In the 20-plus years between Joey Gladstone experiences, Coulier has worked steadily as a standup comic and a provider of cartoon voices for such titles as Robot Chicken, Bob & Doug, Muppet Babies and The Real Ghostbusters. He is also currently at work on an interactive online musical storybook called The Adventures of Jimmy Buger (pronounced “booger”).

“Before I was on Full House, I was a full-blown standup,” he says of his current enthusiasm for live-comedy performing. “I did The Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson hosted it, and I went to Just for Laughs, but the objective for me was always to do television. Standup was a way to stay funny and sharp so I could do all these other things, a tool to help me get to the next level.

“For a long time, that was how it was, and then after Full House, I quit doing standup for a while. It’s hard and it’s a lot of travel, and you can’t go onstage and be mediocre. You have to be great, or you don’t sell out. So when I decided to get back into it, I knew I’d have to put together a really solid, funny hour-and-20-minute show that’s going to make people go, ‘Wow — you’ve got to see this guy.’ And now that I’m back at it, the timing is perfect, because just when the (standup) show is really strong and funny, that’s when all this Fuller House stuff is happening. I’m really proud of both shows.”

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @BradOswald