【2008 Archives】

Television008 Archivesa lot of things now; It's prestige, it's guilty pleasure, it's sci-fi/fantasy and everything in between -- but some shows, like Fuller House, exist to be to be sweet, simple comfort.

Netflix's reboot of the seminal '90s sitcom got an almost-immediate second season order, and will premiere within a year of the first 10 nostalgia-filled episodes.

Mashablesat down with Fuller House's Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweetin, who play Kimmy and Stephanie, respectively, at an October junket to get the scoop on their characters and what it's like to return to the Tanners.

SEE ALSO: Netflix's 'Fuller House' is cheesy, predictable and passé — in a good way

It’s good to have the two of you together, because Stephanie and Kimmy have always hated each other.

Sweetin:Now we’re frenemies. I think there’s a deep love between the two of them but they’re always sort of driving each other crazy.

Barber:They love to make jabs at each other, that’s one of my favorite parts of the show is throwing barbs at Stephanie.

Sweetin:But at the end of the day they realize they’re on the same team.

How was it exploring that relationship and how it might have evolved over the years?

Barber: I think the critical episode in Season 1 was the Bollywood episode [where] the party was a disaster and Kimmy needed help and Stephanie stepped in and was like ‘I can help you through this,” and that’s where we formed our partnership with the party planning business, Gibbler Style. So yeah, now we co-run this business together and we realized that our strengths are beneficial to each other.

Sweetin: And I think it’s also something, you know, that’s kind of what happens over time. We all have those relationships that’s like your sister or your sister’s best friend that when you’re five years apart and you’re 5 and 10 or 8 and 13 it’s like yeah you drive each other nuts you’re like, ‘Oh my god I can’t stand you’ and then you become adults. Yeah, you still have those little things that you throw back and forth but you really have a new relationship and a new friendship, and I think that’s kind of what’s happened with Steph and Kimmy.

Barber: Even though Stephanie had reservations about Kimmy moving into the house, I think ultimately we’re all raising these kids together. So there’s no time for--well there’s always time for arguments, but there’s no time for animosity or hostility. We are all on the same team.

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Stephanie’s story in Season 1 was darker than anything we’ve really seen before on this show or Full House.

Sweetin: I think one of the things we’ve tried to do, especially with this new show, is we haveincluded moments of real seriousness in it. I think that makes it real and it makes these characters human. We are such a fun, silly over-the-top family sitcom I think that those moments of dealing with real-life issues and real relationships and losses and grief and things like that -- I think it adds an element of humanity to the show and to the characters.

Dealing with something like that, with Stephanie not being able to have kids, it’s not something that’s dealt with a lot on television and certainly not on sitcoms, and I thought we did a great job at addressing it -- not making it completely depressing but creating a really nice, sweet moment between two sisters talking about something very serious. It gets brought up again a little bit in the second season, but again we do a great job at not letting it kill the vibe of a great sitcom, but...giving it that element of realism.

Barber: Traditionally on TV, women are childless by choice. They just don’t want them. And so to see a character who is conflicted about that, who maybe says, ‘Well I don’t want kids, but maybe I do,’ and then struggling with not being able to have them -- it really gives Jodie’s character a lot of layers.

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And you have your own kids. What’s it like then, playing the single millennial?

Sweetin: It’s fun, I almost forget what that life is like. It’s an interesting character to play because Steph, she is sort of this crazy, wild aunt that has flown into town, but now she’s here to stay. In this season, she finds herself being a little more grounded and a little more involved with the kids’ lives and with family life and what that really means and what that looks like.

Definitely not who I am anymore as a mom! 9:30, I’m in bed -- taking kids to school and making lunches.

There’s a lot of callbacks and fan service in Season 1, are we going to see more of that in Season 2?

Barber:You’re always gonna have the little Easter eggs for fans, and in Season 2 it’s through our guest stars that come back. We have a lot of great guest stars that come back from the original series, like Gia (Marla Sokoloff), Nelson (Jason Marsden), who was one of DJ’s love interests -- so that’s just great for the fans.

Lots of nostalgia; New Kids on the Block, Alan Thicke -- if you were a child in the '90s you’re gonna love Season 2.

Do you watch the show with your families?

Barber: When it first came out, my kids binge-watched the entire series in a weekend. It was crazy, I was like, "You’re already done?” And they were like “Yeah.” It's great, it’s a show you can watch with your kids, which there’s not a lot of on TV anymore.

Sweetin: I won’t always be sitting down and watching it with them, but I’ll be, like, upstairs doing something and I hear the theme song come on, and I’m like, “Are you guys watching Fuller House?” and they’re like “Yeah!” I’ll sit down on the couch and watch it with them but I don’t sit down and go “Hey kids, we’re gonna watch Mommy’s show.”

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Kimmy has this weird period where she’s not really married but not fully divorced.

Barber: She’s divorced and separated but engaged to the same man. That’s a complicated Facebook status for sure. Juan Pablo Di Pace, who plays Fernando, he’s such a terrific actor and we have a great time exploring our relationship in season 2, mostly just being very eccentric and funny. We do a lot of physical comedy together which is great, and we’re still two parents to Ramona, our 13-year-old daughter, which is great for me.

My daughter’s a little younger, she’s 9, so I’ve never parented a teenage girl before, and Ramona goes through some significant milestones in Season 2 so it’s been great to kind of explore that. It’s kind of like foreshadowing for my own future. I’m like “Oh my gosh, I’m gonna have to go through this with my own daughter! I’m not ready for this!”

The kids have some great storylines in Season 2. It’s neat being the parental figures to them, helping them navigate these social difficulties and sibling rivalry and someone gets their first kiss. I remember going through all of that, so now we’re the mentors.

What’s it like bringing a show like this, an iconic 90s show, to where we are now with television and pop culture -- fitting into this very different landscape?

Sweetin:I do think we‘ve tried to make the comedy a little bit more savvy. At the end of the day we’re still something you can watch with kids that’s not going to be -- there’s not going to be anything offensive, but it’s not quite as saccharine as it was in 1988. We can get away with a little bit more, I think audiences are a little bit more wise to things, kids in particular.

Barber:Kids are wiser now.

Sweetin:We try and play into that, but we also really stay true to the essence of what Full Housewas, which was a show about a family -- and a different family, a blended family, a family of not only people, but single parents and aunts and uncles and neighbors and friends and...kind of collective people that all really loved and cared about each other. Something that’s really important today that’s kind of been at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds is ‘What is family?” We really address that in this show.

Andrea, I came up with a great Netflix crossover idea: Unbreakable Kimmy Gibbler.

Barber: I’ve been wanting to pitch that! There was a Twitter conversation once, and I know Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper), she’s not on Twitter, but she said to a reporter once: ‘I would love to do something -- get the two Kimmys together.’ She’s a great, eccentric character who’s a strong female character. I love that show. Unbreakable Kimmy Gibbler, there’s definitely a spark there. I would love to just meet her.

Fuller HouseSeason 2 is streaming on Netflix now

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