‘Full House’ Creator Says This Was One of Sitcom’s Worst Episodes

Apologies to Jeff Franklin, creator of the TGIF sitcom Full House, but the show aired many episodes that could compete for the series’ worst. Maybe that’s why Franklin limited it to Season Three when he picked his “controversial” entry for most horrible episode, that year’s season premiere, “Tanner’s Island.”

The premise is predictably dopey. To celebrate the anniversary of Joey and Jesse moving in with the Tanners (did they have the date written on the calendar?), Danny gifts everyone with a surprise vacation to Hawaii. That’s a helluva present! There are the usual hijinks (Joey wants to hook up with a hula dancer) before their three-hour boat tour goes awry, and the fam finds themselves stranded on a deserted island. 

Yeah, it’s Gilligan’s Island, complete with coconuts falling on Joey’s head.

“It had so much potential and cost so much money,” Franklin told Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweetin on the How Rude, Tanneritos! podcast. “And we went to so much trouble and it was so silly. It had no real storyline. It had no emotional through line. Nobody learned a thing.”

Except maybe not to blow the season’s budget on a trip to Hawaii. Franklin’s breakdown of the plot is even more convoluted than mine. “One minute, they’re going to Potato Chip Island, and then they’re building tiki huts, and then suddenly they’re on stage and Jesse’s singing Elvis songs and the crowd is going crazy.”

Sweetin laughed — the audience was overly excited about random people jumping on stage during someone else’s show. 

“That real crowd,” Franklin said, “would have just been watching what their mouths open going, ‘What the hell?’”

“Somebody would’ve gotten tackled off that stage,” Sweetin agreed. “Like, who are these people?”

The rest of the episode was just as goofy, with Joey suffering hula-cinations from the coconut knocks, and the Olsen Twins getting doped up on Dramamine. “It was a cartoon,” Franklin declared, although he conceded the episode was a great travelogue for Hawaii. “You guys had a ton of fun doing it.” 

“Look,” said Sweetin. “I got to swim with dolphins. It was awesome.”

Franklin mentioned one other candidate for Stinker Episode of the Year, “Dr. Dare Rides Again.” Not only did it feature a tired “Uncle Jesse wants his freedom” plot, but it also guest-starred the irksome Scott Baio. “It did make me really appreciate John Stamos for having been on Full House, because Scott Baio was one of our backups when we were casting it originally,” Franklin revealed. Had Baio gotten the role, “I don’t know if we’d be sitting here today.” 

Former Chachis aside, “Tanner’s Island” still ranked worst for Franklin. “It was from another planet,” he marveled.