When the Full House reboot was announced in 2015, fans of the show could not contain their excitement.
Danny (Bob Saget), DJ (Candace Cameron Bure) and Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) would be back, along with Uncle Jesse (John Stamos), Aunt Becky (Lori Loughlin), Uncle Joey (Dave Coulier) , and of course Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) would all be back, reprising their infamous roles in Fuller House.
But there was a very large and obvious casting gap.
Michelle Tanner, played by famous twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, would not be taking part.
However, when the show premiered in 2016, their character’s absence was addressed. Michelle was now a fashion designer in New York City and that was that.
Although she was mentioned throughout the show’s five very popular seasons, we never once saw the elusive third Tanner sister.
In fact, in the mid-season finale of season five, Danny (Saget) joked: “You know, it’s so nice to have three daughters again.” Ooft.
Back in season three, series creator Jeff Franklin confirmed to TVLine, that he had stopped asking the twins if they were interested in coming back to do the series.
“The door is open, but I’m not going to be calling them anymore to invite them,” he said.
“They just don’t seem interested in coming. It’s been three years of invitations, so they know the door is open. It’s up to them to decide if they want to come play or not.”
Now, Cameron Bure has told TV Line that there were no invitations extended to the Olsen twins for the shows fifth and final season.
“We did not reach out to them. It was very clear several seasons ago that they did not want to do it,” she said.
With or without the Olsen twins, the show had a successful run for three years – and was only marred by Loughlin’s involvement in the college admissions bribery scandal.
Loughlin and her husband were accused of paying $500,000 USD to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as fake athletic recruits and previously pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering.
As for Aunt Becky on the show, her absence was explained as an “extended holiday”.