The Top Five Lies the Tanners Lived:
A lot of 1990's sitcoms would cast twins as one child character because child labor laws of the time only allowed children to work a certain amount of hours a day. According to Wikipedia, even though this was sort of common, the Full House producers wanted to fool everyone into thinking the twins were one person by eliminating the word "and" between their names in the early seasons.Whenever the credits rolled and showed "Mary Kate Ashley Olsen," I had so many thoughts. Why did her parents give her so many names? Did she have another middle name? How did she have room to write her name on the papers at school? Soon after that, the Mary Kate and Ashley trend exploded and I loved everything about them, and forgot entirely about thinking they were one girl.
Oh, Uncle Jesse. He really was the older man of our dreams. He had all of the ideal man qualities. He was incredibly dreamy. He liked good music (Elvis) and was in a band. He loved kids. He rode a motorcycle. He had a sensitive side. He toured in Japan. HAVE MERCY Aunt Becky was a lucky lady! With all of these good qualities, who cares if his name suddenly changed from Jesse Cochran to Jesse Katsopolis?
DJ's first day of Junior High School was horrifying. She and Kimmie didn't have the same classes and despite her very well hair sprayed hair, she looked like crap. She wore the same outfit as the meanest teacher at school. So, the second day of school, DJ and Kimmie decided to dress a little more Madonna-like so they could fit in.. Needless to say, after watching reruns of this episode multiple times, I was terrified to go to school in jean shorts and a Winnie the Pooh t-shirt. My mom didn't let me wear blue eyeshadow or over the shoulder tops. Maybe it was because I didn't hit junior high until 1999, but no one looked like Madonna and I didn't have to eat in a phone booth. What a relief.
People in the 1990's were sort of obsessed with twins. Even though my two closest childhood friends were perfectly normal twins, I had a lot of twin misconceptions due to television. Nicky and Alex had a lot to do with these misconceptions. They always finished each others sentences and dressed in cute matching outfits. My real life twin friends never wore matching outfits and I never heard them finish each others sentences, but I still held onto this stereotype for a long time.
When Jesse and Joey moved in to help raise the children, it seemed pretty normal. But by the time Jesse got around to marrying Becky, the girls were pretty well raised and it seemed about time for the new family to go find their own place. So they moved to the attic! In television world, this seemed entirely normal. No one was upset. Not even Becky. I'm trying to imagine what my brother would do if I suddenly moved into his attic with my husband, had twins, and refused to leave. I'm not sure exactly how that would go over, but there sure wouldn't be as much hugging.
-Patsy