Veteran actor John Posey played Danny Tanner in the original, unaired pilot of “Full House.”
Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner on the show, said on a recent episode of Black Eyed Peas rapper Taboo’s podcast Taboo Comics & Kicks, “We actually shot the whole pilot with another father, John Posey, and he’s a wonderful human being, a very sweet, wonderful guy.”
But Bob Saget “was the first choice” to play Danny, Sweetin said.
“So he didn’t want to do a show that conflicted with ‘Full House,’ so we reshot the whole pilot,” the actress explained, referring to Saget hosting CBS’s “The Morning Program.”
Sweetin, 44, said producer Jeff Franklin “had to go to great lengths” to reshoot the pilot because it was too expensive.
“He was like, ‘I just know. I just know that I need this person as my father,'” she recalled. “And he was right.”
Saget played the widowed patriarch of the Tanner family on all eight seasons of “Full House.”
The actor passed away on January 9, 2022 at the age of 65.
He was found dead in his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida, and an autopsy report revealed his death was “as a result of blunt head trauma” with hemorrhage and brain contusion.
In addition to Sweetin, Candace Cameron Bure, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen played Danny’s other daughters, DJ and Michelle Tanner, on “Full House.”
The show also featured John Stamos, Dave Courier, Lori Loughlin, and Andrea Barber.
Posey, on the other hand, is best known for starring in Teen Wolf with her son Tyler Posey.
The 70-year-old’s other television credits include “Cheers,” “ER,” “Boston Legal,” “Criminal Minds,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Better Call Saul.”
Posey previously spoke about the Full House audition process on Yahoo! in 2014. Interview.
“From what I was told, they were looking all over the country and couldn’t find a guy, and I later found out that the two people they were initially looking at were Bob Saget and Paul Reiser, and they were both unavailable,” Posey explained, noting that both actors were “obligated to other shows” and therefore couldn’t be on the sitcom.
Posey added, “How it all got from those guys to me is kind of a mystery, because we couldn’t be more different.”
Posey said she learned that ABC tested Saget for the role after filming the pilot and chose Saget instead.
Posey said in an interview that she “never spoke” to Saget, who died eight years later.
“John Stamos is a friend of mine. Dave Courier is a friend of mine,” Posey said. “I know all the young girls were a little devastated when the incident happened because we had a very good relationship.”
According to Posey, Cameron Bure was particularly “very upset” about the casting change.
“It was hard for the kids to go through it all over again with someone they didn’t know,” Posey said.
The cast of “Full House” remained close even after the show ended airing in 1995.
They all attended Saje’s funeral in 2022.
