MovieChat Forums > Full House (1987) Discussion > Did Pam Tanner really have to die?

Did Pam Tanner really have to die?


Getting killed by a drunk driver is pretty dark for a family show.Couldnt Danny just have been divorced?

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I'm not saying that Full House had much going for it to begin with but do you seriously think anyone would tune in to watch a show that centered around a man getting divorced and nothing else?

Actually now that I think about it I kind of wish they had gone that route, assuming the show was picked up to begin with it definitely would have been cancelled after one season and then it would have faded into oblivion.

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The "killed by a drunk driver" thing seemed a little bit on the fly to me, like the writers made it up on the spot for that particular episode. They made it up so quickly that they didn't have time to think about how dark it was.

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if he was divorced Pam would still be in the picture and he wouldn't have needed the other two.

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Exactly. What an awkward situation that would be if Uncle Jesse and Joey were there just lounging around for no apparent reason.

If you want to look at Fuller House, they had D.J.'s firefighter husband die in the line of duty. Though, it didn't have the emotional impact as when Danny's wife was killed by a drunk driver. D.J.'s kids are all boys, so having no father figure might not be as hard on them as it was with her, Stephanie, and Michelle with no mom.

And Danny actually gets divorced to his new wife in the continuation.

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Her death made the show more interesting. There were more emotional problems to explore, especially with Stephanie and Michelle dealing with not having a mother growing up.

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I wish it came out later that danny killed her lol

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He was the drunk driver after Pam's death he became the Danny in the show.

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It might have been a little awkward for Uncle Jesse to move in with his sisters ex-husband, who was main guardian of their kids.

Also if they were divorced, they would have had to explain why they were living with their father and not their mother, which is much more common in a divorce.

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It is not impossible that a mother leaves not only her husband after a messy divorce, but her kids as well.
"Blossom" and "Step by step" would go that route only a few years after "Full House" premiered.
It is true though that Jesse living with his sister's ex-husband would have been awkward.

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Danny was really a secret agent and Pam's death was no accident. Agent Jesse Cochran was in on it as well.

I've said too much already.

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That sounds far more interesting than the show we ended up with.

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If Danny was divorced as opposed to widowed then, Jesse and Joey move in, this would’ve been the male version of The Golden Girls. Pam would’ve been the Stan Zbornak of Full House.

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Ask yourself one question. Why was Danny Tanner so obsessed with neatness, cleanliness, and order?

It's because he was very efficient at his job and made a lot of enemies all over the world.

Jesse Cochran was really a mole inside of the Katsopolis family who had his face surgically altered to resemble Stavros Katsopolis, international crime lord.

Joey Gladstone was a Master of disguise who spoke multiple languages in hundreds of dialects. He was Jesse's partner and to this day the only one who knows the true secret of "Jesse Katsopolis."

Joey and Jesse know the truth about Danny and have been keeping an eye on him all these years. Danny still believes they don't know the truth.

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The story of Joey Gladstone is most tragic of all.

In the 1970s the rookie agent was placed on a surveillance mission to monitor the Katsopolis family. It was there that he fell in love with the daughter, Pam.

Joey's partner Jesse Cochran tried to remind him to keep his eyes on the mission and not let his feelings dictate his actions, but Joey would not listen.

Around the same time the Katsopolis patriarch hired Danny Tanner to "take care of some local business" for him. Danny moved in on Pam and a relationship (albiet a loveless one), had started. Shortly thereafter she became pregnant, but seemingly suffered a miscarriage.

While in Borneo helping a California millionaire dispose of chloride sludge, Danny was followed by Joey, who was ready to end Danny's life. It was only the intervention of Jesse Cochran (now in full cover as "Jesse Katsopolis") that spared the life of Danny Tanner.

Feeling betrayed, Joey resigned from the service and approached Pam. Convincing her to leave Danny, they moved to the remote island of San Jabron to start a new life together. Pam became pregnant for the second time. She and Joey soon had a daughter that perished during birth.

After a house boat explosion caused by Danny Tanner, Joey lost his memory and was unaware of the fact that Pam had been absconded by Danny...

Or so it had seemed. In reality, Pam and Danny were in on this together to lure Joey out of the service.

Jesse and his group of elite commandos (known as "The Rippers") came to San Jabron in search of Joey, only to discover that he was being kept in a Swiss safe house by Stavros Katsopolis. Upon inspecting Stavros' computers they discovered that the two daughters of Pam were still alive.

Pam and Danny married each other in Barbados, and Pam once again became pregnant. One night she received an anonymous letter that her two daughters were still alive.

Continued...

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Pam knew that she had to find her two daughters. Danny, a changed man, supported her fully in this quest. Traveling the world, they found the two missing daughters and the family was reunited in time for Pam to give birth to a healthy third child named Michelle.

In San Francisco, Danny and Pam found happiness for the first time in their lives, building a family and living on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately this was to be short-lived.

Joey, still amnesiac, was now brainwashed by Stavros to eliminate Danny Tanner. "Make it look like an accident," Stavros had told him.

Driving an armored truck into Danny's car, he had no idea that he accidentally killed Pam, the only woman he truly loved.

Upon discovering what he had done, Joey's memories returned, knowing he was the father of Pam's second child.

Despondent and suicidal, Joey was ready to take his own life when Jesse found him in a San Francisco bar. Taking him back to headquarters, he used a brainwave scanner to remove all of Joey's pain and memories, but neither Joey nor Jesse would ever be the same again.

Danny was granted a full pardon for saving an entire city from Stavros' plan to make an active volcano go off. He swore he would try to live right from then on. He was given a treatment in the brain wave scanner, removing all his criminal tendencies, but Joey and Jesse knew they had to remain close to him, so they implanted false memories of a childhood together. These three men raise Pam's daughters together, with Joey unaware that he is Stephanie's father.

This has been the story of Full House.

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