Despite its cancellation, fans still love "Full House"

FINE TUNING

PASADENA, Calif. If you are still writing fan letters to cast members of "Full House" despite the fact that the show has been cancelled by ABC and won't appear in the upcoming fall season, you're not alone.

The show's studio, Warner Bros., reports that cast members still get roughly 10,000 pieces of mail a week. Candace Cameron (D.J. Tanner), Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie Tanner) and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (Michelle Tanner) receive between 2,000 and 3,000 letters apiece each week.

The twins even have their own fan club, called the Mary Kate and Ashley Fun Club (formerly called the Mary Kate and Ashley Two Much Fun Club), which helps them sort through the bundles. "Full House," which at times was ranked in the top 10 of all TV shows, was one of the top two shows among viewers ages 2 to 11 for its entire eight-year run.

According to Warner, 6 million kids regularly tuned in to ABC on Tuesday evenings, and those doe-eyed blond twins once had the second highest Q-rating (which measures an actors desirability) of anyone on television. Only Angela Lansbury was a bigger hit on the Q-meter.

Even if you're not a kid perhaps you have one that forced you to watch the show you can find peers who long for "Full House" as well.

One, obviously, is Lori Loughlin, who played Rebecca Donaldson Katsopolis. Not only did she say she lost a job with a nice paycheck, but she no longer gets to spend time with a group of people she came to love.

"It was a big family," said Loughlin (who is now paired up with Tony Danza, another actor known to attract an audience, in the new ABC romantic comedy, "Hudson Street"). "Bob Saget had us all over for dinner Monday night. I miss the children most. I talk to the guys all the time."

Loughlin said that she felt the show, which will forever live in syndication, still had enough life to go on. But, she said she was happy that at least it went out on top.

"It was a hard decision because I'm a huge fan of the show," said Ted Harbert, president of ABC Entertainment, who said that he would rather cancel a show a year too early than a year too late.

"We were starting to lose a lot of adults to 'Wings' and it was starting to become just a kid audience.

That's not our job as network programmers. We're not narrowcasters, we're broadcasters." Harbert, who said that other cast members will have other roles on ABC shows in the near future, claimed that ABC was not inundated with mail and phone calls from angry viewers who missed the show because children don't usually write letters (except, apparently, to Warner Bros.). He did hear about the cancellation at home, though.

"My daughter (Emily) is 6 and she's the biggest 'Full House' fan," Harbert said. "I always had to bring home the rough cut (not yet broadcast quality) tapes. I explained to her that we just weren't making any new ones."

Loughlin said that the cast was approached by the fledgling Warner Bros. network to continue producing new shows. That, she said, would have been a step backwards.

"We wanted to go out a winner," Loughlin said. "It worked out to be a good thing for me because I have the opportunity to do this show ('Hudson Street'), and I'm excited about doing a different character."

Before you jump to the conclusion that Loughlin didn't care that much about "Full House," or the kids, she admitted that when she heard the show wouldn't go on, she didn't feel any desire to celebrate. The day the network announcement came down, she had left the set early.

When she got home, she received a phone call telling her she was unemployed. The actors knew the decision to cancel the show was a possibility, but still they didn't expect it.

"I was heartbroken," Loughlin said. "I was devastated." She sat at home and cried.

The taping of the final episode was an emotional lovefest, according to the actress.

"There was a lot of love and affection," she said. "It was heartbreaking."

The pain still lingers, and Loughlin still seems to genuinely miss being John Stamos' (Jesse Katsopolis') TV wife.

Despite the fact that she has landed another part she will play Melanie Clifford, a newspaper police reporter, who has a love-hate relationship with cop Tony Canetti (Danza) in her new show you get the idea that Loughlin would have liked to live in the crowded house for a few more seasons