As a kid, I could never get into the sitcom “Full House”, and I’ve realized why. It had nothing to do with its humor (or lack thereof), but more about its theme. Like many comedy series around 1980s & ’90s, it used the “wacky hijinks of a single (widowed) dad” trope. And my problem with that is that the youngest child of that family unit was still a baby – meaning that the event that killed their mother happened pretty recently when the series started. So, what disturbs me about “Full House” (and a few others of the same ilk that I can’t recall right now), is that no one is addressing the loss of their mother/wife at all in the show. It’s just “wacky dad and his adorable kids” through and through.

Maybe they did have an episode or two where they talked about it – but since I wasn’t a devotee, I didn’t see it. In fact, from what I can remember of the pilot episode, any mention of the family’s late mother was consigned to a toss-off remark. I’m not saying that a program needed angst to hold my attention, but it felt like everyone in the series had disconnected so severely from the loss of a parent, that it was like their mother had never existed in the first place. “Why are you crying, Stephanie? We’re supposed to be a happy family! Do you hear me?! A HAPPY FAMILY!”

Aside from the straight-laced, white-bread father, the only other guardians in the series were a lothario and a man-child. Not to get all women’s-studies-major here , but it didn’t impress upon me that the girls in that family were going to have healthy attitudes about their gender as they developed. (This could also offer some explanation to the strange behavior of the Olsen Twins later in life.) I would’ve loved to hear how the grown-ups in the house had reacted to DJ’s first period – or maybe they addressed puberty with the old “my baby girl wants  a bra” schtick.

The series also seemed to rely on the “man smart, woman smarter” routine – a common theme in sitcoms – but in “Full House” it’s girls who haven’t left elementary school outwitting their 30-somthing dad. It came off less like a husband whose abashed from underestimating his homemaker wife and more like a dad that’s too terrified of disciplining his kids. “You’re right, honey, I shouldn’t have yelled at you for wrecking the car. I have wonderful children who can never do wrong.”

It’s any wonder that Bob Saget didn’t kill himself in front of the studio audience during a taping. I’m fairly certain that his first stand-up performance after the series ended was nothing more than him screaming every obscenity at the top of his lungs. I remember catching an episode later in the series, when the baby was now old enough to say catch-phrases, and Danny Tanner’s eyes had this glaze to them. Like an off-camera pitcher of martinis was the only thing preventing Dad from bare-handedly strangling the overbearing monsters that had developed from a need to reject grief.