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How did Danny Tanner’s wife die in Full House? Bob Saget had a macabre theory

How did the mom on Full House die? It depends on who you ask and when you ask them

Full House is a family sitcom about a widower named Danny Tanner raising three daughters. To fill the void left by his late wife, Danny’s brother-in-law Jesse and best friend Joey move in to lend a hand. This led to eight seasons of family hijinks which ran on ABC from 1987 through 1995.

However, many viewers have often wondered what happened to the mom. How did Danny’s wife Pam die? Bob Saget had a macabre theory.

“We were at a press conference early on with the show,” John Stamos says during a Full House spotlight panel at Megacon 2021. “The character of Pam died, and somebody at the press thing said, ‘How did Pam die?’”


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“It was of course me that answered,” Bob Saget says. “They said, ‘How did the mom pass away?’ And our executive producer said, ‘Cancer,’ at the same time I said, ‘A car accident’ Then I said, ‘Well, she had cancer in the car.’ It’s gallows humor but having had a lot of death in all of our families, that’s how we dealt with it, which is to make humor about it. That’s what that joke is. Not in good taste at all, but it did make some of the press laugh.”

This theory was never mentioned in the show itself, but the season eight episode ‘Under the Influence’ contains a reference to Pam dying because of a drunk driver.

“People come up and say, ‘I lost my mom and watching it with my dad and siblings helped us to have conversations afterwards.’ And that’s valuable from the show for a lot of people,” Saget says.


Joshua Lapin-Bertone

Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.

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