--- title: The 'Full House' Reboot: When Did TV Get So Dull? description: Netflix's "Fuller House" signals a lack of ambition canonical: https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/ author: Daniel D'Addario article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-02T22:42:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:40:27.723Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Do We Really Need a 'Full House' Reboot? og:description: Netflix's "Fuller House" signals a lack of ambition og:url: https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d90de2321e3a3c/69878684428a9eec80cc7f1e/full-house1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Full House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Do We Really Need a 'Full House' Reboot? twitter:description: Netflix's "Fuller House" signals a lack of ambition twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d90de2321e3a3c/69878684428a9eec80cc7f1e/full-house1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Do We Really Need a _Full House_ Reboot?  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Apr 2, 2015 10:42 PM CUT  Full House Full HouseBOB D'AMICO—ABC, INC.  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Apr 2, 2015 10:42 PM CUT News today that _Full House_ is likely to be revived on Netflix gave rise to a predictable eruption of excitement from the commentariat online. After all, to be on the mainstream of the Internet, run as it is by content creators in their twenties, is to be awash in nostalgia for the 1990s. But there _is_ such a thing as getting too much of what one wants. Already on Netflix is a reboot of the kids’ cartoon series _Inspector Gadget,_ while the new _Twin Peaks_ is meant to begin shooting this year. Fox has already brought back, for a limited run, _24_ and is doing the same for _The X-Files_. Even _Coach_, of all things, is returning. The concept of bringing back familiar TV characters is nothing new: The turn of the century saw revivals like the TV movie _Mary and Rhoda_ and the (re-cast) theatrical release _The Brady Bunch Movie_. But there are simply far more outlets that need creative product today. What was once a novel indulgence in nostalgia is now a business model, banking on familiarity as an easy alternative to investment in risky new ideas. With revivals like _Twin Peaks_ or _The X-Files_, the concern is that the new episodes may not live up to the quality of what came before. (This fear isn’t unfounded: No _Arrested Development_ fan, it seems, was sated by Netflix’s fourth season.) It’s often a good idea to leave well enough alone. With _Full House_, that’s not an issue: The show, a punchline for decades now, was never quite “well enough” to begin with. Today’s adults may have fond memories of watching the Tanner clan on the family couch, but if the show’s new installment is pitched at a similar level to its initial run, it may be over-covered already—and it’s been less than half a day since the news broke. The problem here isn’t even that _Full House_ isn’t good—[lots of crummy things](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1674771/ "undefined") have fans ardent enough to spur revivals. It’s that _Full House_ was literally intended as a show for young children. Now, it’s being brought back for an audience that has grown up in temporal age but not, perhaps, in tastes. It’s comforting to get more of what one loved as a child, but also a bit of a bummer: Shouldn’t we have moved on? Surely there’ll be some irony to the _Full House_ revival—the purported title, _Fuller House_, suggests the producers are in on some sort of joke—but the money Netflix is spending on it could be spent on literally _anything_ new and interesting. It wouldn’t even need to be a series on the level of sophistication of _Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt_ or _Bloodline_. Netflix could put its resources towards a project that today’s kids would watch as ardently as ’90s kids watched _Full House_. That would be a riskier proposition with a far greater upside. Still, dissuading a streaming service with buckets of money from greenlighting _Fuller House_ would be fighting against the ever-growing tendency towards niche-ification. There will be a passionate audience for _Fuller House_, just as there will be for Fox’s new _X-Files_ episodes, and whatever TV reboot inevitably follows. (The notion of a _Friends_ reunion will be bandied about until the end of time.) But for the uninitiated, or those looking for the thrill of the new, TV just keeps getting more boring. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/"},"headline":"Do We Really Need a Full House Reboot?","datePublished":"2015-04-02T22:42:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:40:27.723Z","description":"Netflix's rumored Fuller House signals a serious lack of ambition","url":"https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/","keywords":["Television","Full House","fuller house"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d90de2321e3a3c/69878684428a9eec80cc7f1e/full-house1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d90de2321e3a3c/69878684428a9eec80cc7f1e/full-house1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Full House","caption":"Full House","creditText":"BOB D'AMICO—ABC, INC.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3769918/full-house-fuller-house/","name":"Do We Really Need a Full House Reboot?"}}]}] ```