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). The first season finished at #71 in the Nielsen ratings, and remained low until its third season, when it was tied with the CBS sitcom Designing Women, and thus Full House 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 its DVD releases.
However, before the series was greenlit, an alternate 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 CBS' short-lived The Morning Program, so the role was given to John Posey. Once the pilot received good enough reception to earn Full House a full-series order, Posey was replaced with Saget. Eventually, the first version of the pilot was released on the February 2005 DVD release of the first season, and was also retained on the later complete-series box set.