Full House creator Jeff Franklin has shared his honest thoughts about a particular episode of the iconic show.
He reflected on the third season of the sitcom during an appearance on Full House alum Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweetin’s podcast, How Rude, Tanneritos!, which came out Saturday. When asked what the worst episode of season three was, Franklin responded with what he called a “controversial” pick: “Tanner’s Island.”
“It had so much potential and cost so much money,” he said of the first episode of season three. “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. It was all just fluff.”
The episode followed the Tanner family as they took a trip to Hawaii, which unfortunately didn’t go as planned. They appeared to get stranded on a deserted island after losing their boat, causing tension among the entire group.
However, they later realized they were just on the wrong side of the island, and the episode ended with a huge concert surrounded by people. And of course, rock and roll musician Uncle Jesse, portrayed by John Stamos, performed during the show, with his family by his side.
While Sweetin and Barber — who played middle Tanner family daughter Stephanie, and Kimmy Gibbler, the Tanner family’s next-door neighbor, respectively — were initially surprised by Franklin’s pick for the worst episode of season three, they understood why he felt that way.
“One minute they’re going to potato chip island,” Franklin recalled on the podcast. “And then they’re building tiki huts, and suddenly they’re onstage at a show. And Jesse’s singing all the songs, and the crowd is going crazy.”
Sweetin also agreed that the “crowd was excited for these random people” on stage in the episode. However, Franklin said that in reality, the crowd would “just be watching with their mouths open, going ‘What the hell?’”
“The Tanners once again just take over,” he added. “It was just from another planet.” He reiterated that this episode was “a cartoon” to him, since there “was no story” in it.
“You guys had a ton of fun doing it,” he told Sweetin. “I think it was just not a good episode.”
Sweetin previously shared her thoughts about “Tanner Island” and what she thought went wrong. During an episode of her and Barber’s podcast in June, she said that the staff of Full House didn’t have the best time filming in Hawaii.
“No sitcom should ever leave the stage,” she said. “It’s always a disaster. We are a very well-oiled machine inside of a soundstage, and you take us out and … things go wrong.”
According to Sweetin, there were problems within the first days on set, since it was after Franklin had injured his Achilles tendon playing tennis.
“So he was now in a wheelchair and on copious amounts of pain meds the whole time,” she said. “[On another day], we were all told to go to one beach, and the crew was actually at another beach. And those two beaches were not anywhere near each other.”
However, she still said she had some fun while filming. She said the moment she swam with dolphins was one of the “most exciting [ones] of [her] life” as a seven-year-old actor.
