Though contemporary fan love for ABC’s hit television show Full House seemed to reach its pinnacle with Netflix’s April 20th, 2015, announcement of spin-off show Fuller House, the millennial nostalgia for the Tanner clan had been brewing for quite some time. Perennial millennial favorite, Jimmy Fallon, took his audience down memory lane when he invited the show’s aging stars, Bob Saget (Danny Tanner), Dave Coulier (Joey Gladstone), and John Stamos (Jesse Katsopolis) onto his program Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as their Full House characters.

Saget, Coulier, and Stamos have all had careers pre- and post-Full House, but it is these roles that continue to serve as the basis for the public's fascination. Saget had always been a “filthy” stand-up comedian, but when paired with his image as the uber-clean Tanner paterfamilias, his routines seemed even more disturbing and irreverent. In videos with celebrities as diverse as Kid President and the San Francisco Giants, Coulier’s major cultural contribution appears limited to the phrase, “Cut it out!” Even in Stamos’ promotional videos for Oikos Greek yogurt, he cannot escape Danny and Joey. These roles are defining, and have become cultural capital for those searching for a way to communicate familial dialogue.

With its emotionally charged music and pep talks, Full House aesthetics become tropes of growth and maturation. In this video, from one of the last episodes of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Danny, Jesse, and Joey reassure the nervous Jimmy about his upcoming move from Late Night to The Tonight Show, just as they had reassured DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle they they encountered countless changes, talking through the anxieties surrounding switching from cribs to big girl beds and from elementary to middle school. For generations of people who grew up watching Full House either on the air or in syndication, the non-traditional Tanner family ritualized talking through problems and fears, and Jimmy Fallon, as purveyor of nostalgia to millennials, captures this particular televisual and generic moment and continues to make it accessible to the television viewer.