Today, we look at how Michelle Tanner from Full House showed up on Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper to just flame out horribly in a pickup attempt.
This is Somewheres in This Universe, a feature examining when characters from TV
The TV series, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, debuted in the fall of 1992. It was created by Jeff Franklin, the creator of Full House, so naturally, Franklin called in a favor from his more famous earlier show (which was the lead-in to the Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper on Tuesday nights) very quickly.
In the second episode of the series, star Mark Curry’s Mark Cooper (a former NBA player turned substitute teacher) was substitute teaching Michelle Tanner’s first grade class. After he is cajoled to acting out story time, he injures himself.
Michelle feels bad, so comes over to visit Mark at his home (which he shares with his two housemates, Vanessa, played by Holly Robinson Peete, and Robin, played by Dawnn Lewis), and she ends up causing MORE problems for Mark (who has broken his tailbone). Michelle feels that she is a jinx, and Vanessa tells her she isn’t (but of course, she sits in gum while sitting down to talk to Michelle). Mark then tells her the same, explaining that he enjoyed spending time with her, and that she has helped teach him that little kids are just “little people,” as he sees her worried about being a jinx.
Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper was set in Oakland, so it reasonable to expect him to do some substitute teaching in nearby San Francisco, where Full House was set. This was a cute quasi-crossover. Franklin left the series after the first season, so there were no more crossovers between the shows after Season 1.
Feel free to e-mail me at brian@poprefs.com for suggestions for other good non-crossover guest appearances by TV characters!
