The end of an era! Bob Saget is opening about the emotional experience he’s had saying goodbye to Danny Tanner for good.
“I was crying all over the place,” the stand-up comedian, 63, told Us Weekly exclusively on Tuesday, December 11, at Cool Comedy – Hot Cuisine benefiting the Scleroderma Research Foundation. “It brought back a lot of memories for me.”
Not only has Saget appeared on Fuller House for five seasons, but he appeared on the Netflix spinoff’s predecessor, Full House, from 1987 to 1995. In reflecting on the differences he felt bidding farewell to both series, Saget admitted that the end of the original ABC series took him and the cast by surprise, because the network pulled the popular show without prior notice.
“At the end of Full House, I just kind of stayed by myself. We had no warning that we were going to be canceled,” he shared. “We were asked to go to the WB or CW and John [Stamos] and I said, ‘No, let’s not do that. We should be on ABC, if we should do it.’”
Saget revealed that “everyone was prepared” for the Netflix spinoff to conclude after its fifth season, because the streaming giant did “a really nice job” of informing the cast and crew. But being in the know didn’t make saying goodbye any easier, as the actor reflected on his bond with his TV daughters Candace Cameron Bure (D.J. Tanner) and Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner). He even recalled “holding” the duo when they were young girls.
“We’ve stayed friends all these years. It’s not just a press thing that we say,” he continued, addressing his offscreen relationship with Bure, 43, and Sweetin, 37, who also star with Andrea Barber (Kimmy Gibbler). “To see them so accomplished and see three empowered women do a comedy kids show with morality lessons — it had those elements in the original series. I was more emotional about seeing them and being with them. It’s not the same show it used to be, but it can’t be.”
Saget added that having the first chunk of season 5’s episodes released on December 6 and the remaining half dropping sometime in 2020 will be “a nice closure” for fans. “It has a really nice goodbye and I was very, very verklempt,” he said.
In July, Bure told Us exclusively that she had “already prepared for the wrap” but wished that it was “not our final season.” She revealed that fans can expect to see “some crazy stuff” in the last few episodes of season 5. However, she also promised that closure will be had.
“It’s just going to wrap up and tie up loose ends with all the different relationships and characters,” she said at the time. “I think the audience will be really happy to feel some closure at the end of this season with where everyone is at.”
On Tuesday, the Scleroderma Research Foundation’s event — which Saget produced and hosted — raised $920,000 to help beat Scleroderma, a chronic illness that largely affects women between the ages 20 and 50. “We’ve made so much progress,” Saget said. “Since you’ve interviewed me last year, this year has been an incredibly significant year. We have amazing research. We’ve made crazy progress. They’re finding things that they’ve never found before. It is an orphan disease and we want to obliterate this disease.”
The first half of Fuller House’s fifth and final season is currently streaming on Netflix, and the remaining episodes will premiere next year.
With reporting by Nicki Gostin
