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Fuller House

'Full House' stars have a family reunion on Netflix

Patrick Ryan
USA TODAY
'Fuller House' reunites Jodie Sweetin, left, Candace Cameron Bure and Andrea Barber.

The Tanner and Gibbler girls are all grown up.

Twenty-one years after Full House went off the air, ABC's schmaltzy family sitcom is moving into new digs on Netflix, which launches a nostalgia-fueled revival on Friday. The aptly titled Fuller House is a sequel of sorts to the original, which premiered in 1987 and followed Danny Tanner, a widowed father (Bob Saget) whose best friend (Dave Coulier) and brother-in-law (John Stamos) move in to help raise his three daughters.

In the sequel, it's Danny's daughter, now-widowed mom D.J.(Candace Cameron Bure), who gets a hand from her sister, Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and childhood neighbor Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), as they join forces to raise D.J.'s three boys and Kimmy's preteen daughter (Soni Bringas).

For the former child stars, there are perks to being the adults this time around.

"You know, it's great — we don't have to go to school in our spare time," Sweetin says. "I can lounge around in the trailer, and not try and hide from my studio teacher. I remember those days, like, 'Aw, I just wanna hang out and have fun!' "

Adds Bure: "Yeah, the kids are always like, 'Oh, man, I have to go to school.' And I'm like, 'Na, na, na, na, na, na! I don't have to anymore!' We did our time."

A mix of new and familiar faces reside in 'Fuller House' on Netflix.

Since Full House was abruptly canceled after eight seasons in 1995, all three actresses have become parents themselves. Bure, 39, has competed on Dancing with the Stars and now co-hosts The View, while Sweetin, 34, published a 2010 memoir, unSweetined, which details her recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Barber, 39, hasn't acted since Full House, although she was on board from the get-go when Stamos and series creator Jeff Franklin approached her about the revival five years ago.

"I didn't really have any hesitations, knowing that Jeff Franklin was at the helm," Barber says. "I just wanted to make sure we did the legacy proud, and it wasn't some cheesy, one-off movie that people would poke fun at. It really is a continuation of where the story started 30 years ago."

Fuller House was taped in front of a studio audience on the same Warner Bros. lot in Burbank where the iconic Tanner house set was rebuilt.

"In the beginning, there was a lot of talk of having the girls move into an apartment and do a Sex and the City kind of thing," Stamos says. "We thought of everything. Then we were like, 'No, we have to rebuild that house. The house is a character.' "

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The first episode reunites the original cast minus Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who shared the role of the youngest Tanner, Michelle, but chose not to return for the new series. Saget, Stamos and Coulier pop in throughout the 13-episode season, although the show focuses on the women as they juggle work, parenting and new love interests.

"We had to watch the three guys make out with women for eight years, but now we get some pretty nice-looking potential men," Bure says.

Full House lives on in reruns on Nick at Nite. And thanks to social media, Stamos' Uncle Jesse and the show's catchphrases ("You got it, dude!") have found a new wave of popularity online, where excitement for the revival has reached a fever pitch. (A Fuller House teaser trailer is the most-viewed clip on Netflix's YouTube channel.)

"It amazes me that back in the day, Full House was panned by the critics pretty much for every season, and yet this show clearly has one of the biggest fan bases in television history," Bure says. "People long for good, family entertainment that passes through every generation because it's timeless ... at the heart of it, it's all about love."

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