Why Full House Recast Danny Tanner After The Pilot Episode

Summary

• Bob Saget was not the original choice to play Danny Tanner in Full House. John Posey filmed the unaired pilot before being replaced.
• Posey lost the role of Danny Tanner due to Saget’s availability changing after his CBS show was canceled.
• Similar to Full House, New Girl also had casting issues with Damon Wayans Jr. leaving after filming the pilot.

Long-time fans of the sitcom Full House may find it hard to imagine anyone other than Bob Saget in the role of Danny Tanner, but the original pilot for the show starred actor John Posey as the Tanner children’s dad. The series followed Danny Tanner as he raises his three daughters after the death of his wife. He’s aided by his late wife’s brother Jesse (John Stamon) and family friend Joey (David Coullier). Saget played Danny for the entire run of the show as it aired, but not for the pilot presentation created to sell the show.

The unaired pilot is almost identical to the pilot that ended up on TV, with the notable exception of Danny looking rather different. John Posey was relatively new to the industry at the time, cutting his teeth on improv comedy. He went on to become one of the most prolific actors in television, frequently appearing as recurring characters, and is a great character actor. He’s been in everything from Cheers to Better Call Saul.

Posey Was Not The First Choice To Play Danny Tanner

Producers Wanted Bob Saget

Unfortunately for Posey, he was the second choice to play Danny from the start. Full House‘s executive producers – Jeff Franklin, Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett – had previously worked with Saget on the show Bosom Buddies, where he had done warm-up for the studio audience. Miller then saw Saget in the Richard Pryor comedy film Critical Condition and felt that he would be right for the role of Danny Tanner. There was a snag, however: Saget had already signed up for a CBS morning program called… The Morning Program.

Posey was cast as Danny Tanner after a representative from ABC saw his comedy show, Comedia, in Atlanta. Speaking in an interview with Yahoo! TV Posey recalled, “They… pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to see you get in front of our comedy development people’… I went ahead and went [to Los Angeles]. And then of course the pilot they gave me right away was Full House.”

He admitted that at the time he was an inexperienced actor, and in particular was unfamiliar with the kind of comedy required for a fatherly role in a sitcom. “[I had been] doing Saturday Night Live-type, Second City comedy, very physical comedy,” Posey explained. “And Full House was very, you know, sweet and different.” With children on set who only had so much time to film before being in their on-set school, Full House also wasn’t the kind of sitcom that allowed much room for improv.

Danny Tanner Was Recast After The Pilot Was Filmed

Bob Saget’s Availability Changed

The recasting of Danny Tanner had more to do with the sudden availability of Saget than any actual failings on Posey’s part. The Morning Program was canceled after just nine months on the air, leaving the Full House execs’ first choice for the role of Danny free in time for them to shoot a new pilot.

Posey said that losing the job came as a shock to him: “Nobody said there were problems. It seemed like everything was fine. We shot it. I learned as much as I could in a short period of time. And next thing I know… ‘Hey, you’re no longer employed.'” The young actresses who played the older Tanner girls – particularly Candace Cameron Bure, who played D.J. Tanner – were also upset, having bonded with Posey during the filming of the pilot.

Full House ran for eight seasons on ABC and was recently revived on Netflix in the sequel series Fuller House, which follows an adult D.J. Tanner as the widowed mother of three children. After leaving Full House, Posey wrote and starred in a one-man show called Father, Son and Holy Coach, and went on to have a steady career as an actor and writer. And while he may not have been chosen as one of the all-time great sitcom dads, he did go on to star alongside his real-life son, Tyler Posey, in the MTV series Teen Wolf.

New Girl Went Through A Similar Casting Issue

Damon Wayans Jr. Left After Filming The Pilot

Full House is hardly the only sitcom to have casting difficulties following the pilot filming. Typically, however, casting issues arise because someone is unavailable, not because an actor is suddenly available to film. This was the case for Damon Wayans Jr. on New Girl.

Wayans was a main cast member in Happy Endings, which was not expected to be renewed for an additional season. He auditioned for and was cast in the New Girl pilot as Coach, one of the roommates, but upon filming the pilot, Happy Endings was actually renewed for a final season. At the time, no one knew it would be the final season, and he was under contract for Happy Endings. He had to leave New Girl behind.

The producers of the show, however, didn’t simply want to recast the role in case he was able to return to the series in the future. They also wanted to use the pilot they had already filmed, so the character moved out of the loft between the two episodes and a new roommate moved in.

That turned out to be a smart decision. Lamorne Morris was cast as Winston beginning with the second episode. He became the fourth roommate, but he did not replace Wayans in the role of Coach. Winston went on to become a fan-favorite character and Wayans was able to return to the series as Coach full time in season 3. Wayans would leave the show again for season 4, but he was able to return for guest starring spots periodically until the show ended with season 7.

Of course, the difference is that New Girl was able to create a new role for a new actor while Full House gained the actor producers originally wanted for the part.