On September 22, 1987, ABC premiered a sitcom entitled Full House. It starred Bob Saget as Danny Tanner, a single father raising his three daughters (Candice Cameron, Jodi Sweetin, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen) with the help of his brother-in-law, musician Jesse Cochran (later Katsopolis) (John Stamos) and best friend/aspiring comedian Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier). Although the first season finished at #71 in the Nielsen ratings, it's third season was tied in the ratings with the CBS sitcom Designing Women, and thus received high ratings for the rest of its eight-season run, which resulted in the series continuing to be a favorite in syndication and through DVD releases.
However, before the series was greenlit, an unaired version of the pilot was shot. It was identical to the aired version, except Saget, the producers' first choice for Danny, was unavailable due to his commitment as on-air contributor for The Morning Program on CBS, so the role was played by John Posey. Once the pilot was given a series order, Posey was replaced with Saget. Eventually, the unaired John Posey pilot was released on the February 2005 DVD release of the first season, and also on the complete-series box set.