'Full House' sequel hoax fools grown-up '90s kids

Sorry, "Full House" fans. No sequel is on the way despite what you may have read online.

On Monday, numerous media outlets picked up on a piece published at DisneyTreasures.com claiming that 1990s sitcom "Full House" was getting a remake, written by the show's original creator, Jeff Franklin.

The story quoted an interview Franklin supposedly gave to the Newport Gazette, a Rhode Island newspaper that closed down in 1799.

Not only was the story false, but it was a 7-month-old falsehood. The DisneyTreasures.com story was a copy of an April Fool's hoax that ran at Screen Rant.com.

Anthony Ocasio, who wrote the original hoax for Screen Rant, told TODAY that he had no idea DisneyTreasures was going to reprint the piece, or that so many people would be tricked. "It says April Fool right on it," he said.

Back in April, the "Full House" hoax wasn't even the most popular of the site's prank stories. Another hoax story, this one claiming that "Chappelle's Show" was returning, did even better at the time. "That one exploded," Ocasio said.

Rob Keyes, Screen Rant senior editor, said his publication has no connection with DisneyTreasures. 

"We did not give them permission to use our content, let alone copy and paste our entire article (is that called plagiarism still?)," he said in an email to TODAY. "I'm still unsure however, if it's as bad as BBC news radio reporting that Taylor Lautner is going to be in Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles movie based on our last year's April Fools post."

DisneyTreasures did not respond to TODAY's request for comment. 

Earlier in the day, Screen Rant responded to a tweet from Rachael Ellenbogen, a Stony Brook University junior who knew the supposed sequel was a hoax and wrote about it on her site. Uproxx.com also reported on the hoax.

Yahoo TV removed its story about the hoax with no comment. Other sites, including Perez Hilton, left their stories up.

While "Full House" may not be sequel-bound, fans of 1990s television can take heart in another returning favorite. "Boy Meets World" is being revamped as "Girl Meets World," and stars Ben Savage (who played Cory Matthews) and Danielle Fishel (who played Topanga Lawrence) will play adult versions of their '90s characters. The show will debut sometime in 2014 on the Disney Channel. Ocasio told TODAY that the "Girl Meets World" news was what inspired the original "Full House" hoax in the first place.

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"What this whole funny situation does create though is an interesting discussion about 'Full House' and whether or not it can return," Keyes said. "I'd wait and see how 'Girl Meets World' performs first, but 'Full House' may not lend itself as well to a followup since it would theoretically involve a larger cast in the house -- assuming they wanted to bring back some of the original cast as regulars to help sell it to older fans. With 'Girl Meets World' the kids take the place of the adults and new characters take up the original younger cast slots so it's a more natural progression for the series to continue. But if you can bring back Bob Saget and John Stamos, I'd be game!"

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"Full House" has made other headlines lately. In July, star John Stamos reunited with Jesse and the Rippers, his band from the show, for a performance on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." Stamos' TV wife, Lori Loughlin, was there to smooch Stamos after the performance.

And in late October, Loughlin dodged a question about Stamos' earlier claim that she may have been "the one who got away," although she did say she'll "always love John."