Dave Coulier began playing Joey Gladstone more than three decades ago, and he says he shares plenty of similarities with his “Full House” alter ego.
“I got to bring a lot of elements from my real life into the show,” Coulier told TODAY. “I'm an airplane pilot, so we did an episode where I got to fly Jesse and drop him off in a tomato patch. We did an episode where I got to play ice hockey. And we also got to incorporate some of my stand-up in the show.”
The actor, who reprises the role in Netflix’s revival “Fuller House,” said his funniest moment from the original series was when Joey sits in the kitchen unaware that a cement truck has backed into the house.
“I usually don't laugh at myself, but for some reason, that particular scene made me laugh really hard,” he said.
While fans frequently quote Joey’s catchphrase, “Cut it out,” Coulier revealed that they don’t always get it right.
“They'll come up and go, ‘Hey, man, knock it around,’” he said. “And I'll be like, ‘You mean, “Cut it out?’” And they'll be like, ‘Oh, you got it.’ Like, somehow I’m gonna mess it up.”
Coulier also explained that the phrase was inspired by his close pal Mark Cendrowski, best known for his work as a director on “The Big Bang Theory.”
“Mark and I were a comedy team called C and Ski,” he recalled. “And Mark used to do this Mark Suave character. And he would unbutton his shirt and he would look at a lady in the front row, and he’d go, ‘Cut it out.’ And I told him, ‘I'm stealing that. And I'm going to use it in my stand-up. I'm gonna use it wherever I can.’ So he thinks I still owe him royalties on that. But you’re never gettin’ it, Mark. Ever.”
Coulier says it was easy for the gang to pick up where they left off when they began filming “Fuller House,” which was renewed for a fifth season earlier this year.
“All of the old jokes that we told back in the day, our little silly songs that we sing to each other. The stupid jokes that we say to each other. The pranks. We have not missed a beat. All of that stuff still comes back into play. And somebody can just start one of these songs or one of these bits and everybody just chimes in at the same time.”
Of course, one thing has changed, now that the Tanner girls have grown up.
“Me, John (Stamos) and Bob (Saget) would get in trouble with the moms on the show constantly, because when (the child actors) were off studying in their rooms, they still had monitors, so they could watch what we were doing onstage,” he remembered. “And then one of us would do something really silly, and all of a sudden, the three moms would walk around the corner like, ‘Really, guys? Really?’ So we got in trouble a lot.”
He added, “The kids knew everything we were doing. And then they started repeating what we were doing. And we were like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. You can't do that. We're immature. You have to be more grown-up than the grown-ups.’”
However, Coulier still feels like a father figure to his castmates.
“We’ve been through so many things together,” he said. “I introduced Candace (Cameron Bure) to her husband, Val (Bure), many years ago at a charity hockey game. And they’re still together. They have three kids. So I feel a little bit like I’m Cupid at the same time. We really are a family. It’s pretty unique, I think, in television that you become so close to your castmates, and a lot of people that were part of the production as well. We really stuck together all these years.”
Reflecting on the show’s longevity, Coulier said, “I think there’s something in it for everybody.”
“You’ve got a lot of humor,” he continued. “You’ve got a lot of family interaction. You’ve got a lot of love. And I think ‘Full House’ and ‘Fuller House’ are both kind of like video comfort food for a lot of people. I’ve had so many people over the years come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I had a really tough childhood. And by watching “Full House” and now “Fuller House,” it really got me through some tough times.’ And I love hearing that.”