If Jeremy Dick of TVWeb or anyone else was thinking that this might shock anyone they might be a bit surprised to find that at least a few people are actually willing to laugh about it despite the dark nature of the rumor that Michelle Tanner is dead. It’s no longer a secret, and hasn’t been for some time, that the Olsen twins didn’t want anything to do with the Fuller House show when it came back, and were not planning on changing their minds any time soon. But the fact that Danny Tanner was heard to say on the show that it was great to have three daughters again, referencing Kimmy Gibbler, DJ’s best friend, as part of the family, the words were pretty indicative of the idea that Michelle was no longer in the picture. That could of course mean a few things, death being just one of them. She could have disowned her family for one reason or another, or she could just be lousy at correspondence and keeping up as the life of a fashion designer might have days off now and again but being on the other side of the continent could be another reason why the issue of her never showing up comes around. Otherwise explaining her absence on the show would be kind of difficult since in a family like the Tanner’s it’s hard to see anyone really being all that set against each other since for a long time it was rather loving group.
Plus there was a moment in the beginning of the season when the comment was made that nearly everyone had made it and the cast turned, as one, to stare at the camera in a meaningful way to indicate without words just who was missing. That kind of blows up the whole idea of her being dead, but as the show moved along that could have very well been the case, though it would have had to go far darker than just a death in the family since not a single one of them were seen to lament the passing of a loved one, and in a family that size it’s too easy to think that had the youngest daughter out of the three passed in any manner it would have been a tragedy worth at least half a season if not more. There would have been tributes of some sort, though that too would have been difficult since it would have required footage of one of the twins at least to show how they’d grown and what had happened between them. Stefanie Parker of TV Insider has her own take on the matter. So in essence it’s more likely that Michelle disowned her family and then, if she did die, she died without anyone from her family ever knowing about it or even checking to see if she happened to be okay. Now that tends to be a rather dark and depressing thought since not even checking up on her once throughout the history of the show is the kind of cold-blooded indifference that the Tanner’s are not known for.
If there’s any hard feelings about the Olsen twins not showing up it’s hard to see since the initial idea that they didn’t want to come around was taken pretty hard by the fans, but after a while people have figured that they had their reasons and didn’t feel like they owed the show anything. Selena Barrientos of Good Housekeeping has more to say on this matter. On one hand they did grow up in show business and it might be that they just wanted to get away from it after awhile, while on the other it could be that theory of their being too young to have the same kind of memories as the rest of the cast could be the reason. If you’ll remember the twins did end up making one movie after the show until after a while they simply dropped off the map as far as TV and movies were concerned. At this point it’s probably best that they didn’t make their way back to the show since it would be another needless complication given that the life of fashion designer would be enough to keep both of the twins on an erratic schedule that would be hard to plan around. Plus, apart from the initial disappointment of not seeing them, fans soon enough found something and someone else to focus on each episode so as to get their Full House fix. Also, with the Lori Loughlin scandal there’s been plenty to focus on in the past year, so accepting the idea that Michelle is well beyond the reach of the rest of the cast was probably for the best.
So if you want to believe that Michelle Tanner is dead it likely won’t mean much if anything to the Olsen twins since they were never emotionally involved to begin with, but if it rocks your world and shakes your faith in entertainment….you might need to be watching less TV in favor of going outside to experience real life.
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