"Everywhere You Look" (Theme of Fuller House) by Carly Rae Jepsen, Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Carly Rae Jepsen is tattooed in the history of bubblegum pop for "The Song of the Summer" of 2012, "Call Me Maybe." Jepsen hasn't matched the success of "Maybe," but she keeps making music, and her fans adore her. I wrote back in January about her song "Run Away with Me" and how much her album Emotion meant to me in 2015. And while most people are sick of "Call Me Maybe," it always makes me think about Arrested Development where George Michael can't help his feelings for his cousin Maeby Funke, but that's a post for another day. So to end a particularly streak of guilty pleasure songs, why not talk about the theme of Fuller House, sung by Carly Rae Jepsen?

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO PREDICTABILITY? Along with Alf and The Cosby Show, Full House is one of my earliest TV memories. First airing in September of 1987 when I was a mere three months old, Full House is a show I haven't rewatched as an adult, but there is certainly a meme-worthy '90s nostalgia connected to the show--like whenever you see the whenever Candace Cameron Bure is making some outlandish conservative statement, or the Olsen twins come out of hiding, or you hear something more about the college cheating scandal and you think, "Oh, Aunt Becky. Why?" I can't see an arial view of the Golden Gate Bridge and not think of Michelle in a back carseat of a convertible. Whenever I see the iconic San Francisco townhouses, I don't think Tales of the City; I think Full House. In fact, prior to Full House, San Francisco was in America's consciousness as the capitol of AIDS. I think I heard somewhere that setting Full House in San Fransisco was a strategic move to 1) put the city back in people's consciousness as a truly American city with nice upper-middle class white families that America can look up to and 2) homo-erasure. Of course I'd have to do more research, like watching 8 seasons of Full House, but I'm pretty sure American family TV skirted the issues of the Reagan/ Bush years. Apparently, though, Kimmy is bi-sexual, so progress? And just so you know, Candace Cameron Bure says, "Loving Jesus doesn't mean I hate gay people."

A LIGHT IS WAITING TO CARRY YOU HOME. When my friend recommended Bojack Horseman back in 2016, I couldn't help but draw parallels to Full House. The show-within-a-show Horsin' Around mimics cheesy '80s and '90s television shows in general, but the main character of the cartoon, Bojack, seems to be a Bob Saget character. Like Horseman, both were comedians who weren't particularly family-friendly when he was given their breakthrough roles. Like Bob Saget mostly disappeared after Full House and hosting America's Funniest Home Videos only to reemerge on the stand-up scene with some filthy jokes, Horseman also reappears with an outlandish media shows. For Saget there was the sex comedy, adult cartoon Farce of the Penguins, a documentary styled movie parodying March of the Penguins. The movie was so bad, my friends had to turn it off. Horseman took another shot at television in 2007 with a more edgy format, which like Saget's Farce was seen as a critical flop. Saget has appeared on Fuller House, which is a throwback to the good-old-days that really never existed. Even the show's theme song remembers how a predictable lifestyle set in the good-old-days was a better time. Viewers of the original Full House may recall the days of The Brady Bunch or Leave It to Beaver, completely overlooking counter-culture, of course. Viewers of Fuller House certainly think about growing up in the '90s as a safer climate, just don't think about the Netflix serial killer documentaries that we can't get enough of. Viewers of Bojack Horseman, however, get a much more sinister look at the underbelly of Hollywood, I mean Hollywoo. It's a land where your heroes on TV had secret cocaine addictions, and fame is certainly not kind to the child stars (Sara Lynn = The Olsen Twins meets Lindsey Lohan?). The backdrop of Horsin' Around reminds viewers of everything from Mr. Ed to The Cosby Show to Full House. But unlike the triple weddings on the series of finale of Fuller House, Bojack shows us that life and Hollywood doesn't have happy endings--just the ending of lives and friendships and the ever-pressing existential questions that haunt us in the middle of the night everywhere you look.

Full House of Mustaches (Deep Fake video featuring Nick Offerman):
 

Fuller House title credits:

Horsin' Around Theme from Bojack Horseman:

Finally, Ms. Carly Rae Jepsen full track: