The Life Lessons Taught by Full House, an American Sitcom

Often times, people watch movies or comedic sitcoms to relieve stress or for entertainment.Additionally, these multimedias all show a certain message or a life lesson that is shown by the characters' actions. A famous and popular TV sitcom, Full House, depicts many life lessons ranging from family relationships to teenagers growing up and encountering real-life personal issues. The producers developed the sitcom this way to interact and engage young teenagers to something that they can relate to such as being bullied or encountering drugs.

Each episode of Full House has a different meaning and purpose to it. Because of this, this American sitcom is definitely a television show for young viewers, as it portrays life lessons that young teens can relate and apply to in real life scenarios. The TV show Full House consists of six main characters who are all family members, besides one, Joey Gladstone. Joey plays as the best friend of the family and is treated as a family member.

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Joey helps Danny Tanner, who is a single father, raise his three little girls. D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle Tanner. All three were raised in a big, happy family, along with their Uncle Jesse. The show both features mistakes and personal conflicts as the three girls grows up.

This is where Danny, Joey, and Uncle Jesse contributes in developing the life lessons for the three girls and also teaching its audience about what the various situations can result in. In season seven of Full House, Stephanie encounters a group of friends who smokes in the school bathroom.

Not only was that hard enough, but her best friend Mickey was involved with the group of friends who smokes. Situations like this are widely common throughout a teenager's life. Stephanie was in a dilemma on what she should do, whether she should join her best friend smoking, stop her best friend, or separate herself. While Stephanie was in the bathroom with Mickey, the group of friends walked in and encountered Mickey and offered her a smoke then to Stephanie. Stephanie was hesitant and didn't want to make herself look like a fool. She said “No thanks. I'm trying to quit.” Mickey, on the other hand, stayed with the group, while Stephanie walks away.

This results in Stephanie feeling vulnerable like she has lost her best friend. Afterschool, Stephanie calls the radio station for advice, which is where Joey and her Uncle Jesse works. In this episode, her sister DJ was there as well. Stephanie disguised her voice so that she would be unrecognizable. Stephanie talked about her situation and DJ said "I think that If you have to smoke in order for her to be your friend, then she's not a real friend.” That statement serves the main purpose of the episode. Looking cool is not worth smoking, as it can lead to a long-term negative effect.Towards the end of the episode, Stephanie confronted herself to the group of friends that were smoking. One of the members from the group said "Come on, Mickey. Walk me to detention.” Mickey said “No, you guys can go. I'm going to hang out here. Eventually, Mickey was on Stephanie's side again. The group of friends continue on smoking on their own.

This episode showed a situation that can happen to anyone and as the solution to the problem is to get help and advice, not keeping it silent. That was the moral and life lesson of this episode when having a best friend, smoking with a bad group of friends. Another example of why young viewers should watch this show is because the show teaches viewers that tests are just tests. This show completely targets students and is completely relatable to students who may have encountered anxiety when it comes to testing. In an episode called “The Test,” DJ finally reached her time of her life to take the SATs during her junior year of high school. Her family reassures her that the SATs is just a test. In the episode, right before dinner starts, Danny encouraged the whole family to say "It's no big deal. It's just a test" at the same time without the presence of DJ there. Once they got to dinner table, Danny told her to go eat because she won't eat and devoted most of her time studying.

DJ said "Guys really, I won't be able to get into Stanford if I don't go study.” As practiced before, Danny and the whole family said “It's no big deal. It's just a test.” Later in the episode, DJ had a disastrous dream that she did not have the right pencil, was late to class, and was not at all prepared for the SATs. Once she woke up from her dream, her dad reassured her again. Danny said "Honey, you have done everything you could do. You're prepared, you studied really hard and everyone believes in you. What you have to do now is to believe in yourself. Do the best you could do."'The message of this episodes is to teach young viewers that one should not become so stress about it and doubtthemselves.

Therefore, this episode does a good job of displaying the stressful life of DJ, prior to the test and her getting thoughtful advice from her father, Danny Tanner. Lastly, young viewers tend to keep things silent and believing they can resolve problems themselves, depicting the famous quote "silence is not golden,” portrayed in one of theepisodes. In one episode, Stephanie has a classmate named Charles, who she has to work on a project with. While they're in the room doing their project, the topic of parental abuse was bought up, as Michelle mentioned to Stephanie that she forgot to take out the trash for the week. Charles figured that her dad would hit her for not taking out the trash. Charles said "Try thinking of a funny movie...that's what I do when I'm getting it." He never mentioned what "it" means, making Stephanie ask him what “it” meant. “Oh, you know...like when your dad is pounding you.”

The concerned Stephanie suggests that he should get help by telling someone. Charles, confronted her suggestion right away. Charles exclaimed “No! I can't tell anyone and neither could you!" The next morning, in class, Stephanie was told by her teacher that she would need a new partner for her project “Stephanie, I'm afraid. I'm going to have to find you a new partner for the assignment...he's going to be out all week. He had an accident."Later in the day, Stephanie had the urge to do the right thing in order to protect Charles from his father abusing him. She talked to her Uncle Jesse and he took action immediately. He said "I got to report this myself. If I don't, I got to sort this out myself." Stephanie worries that Charles would be mad at her. Uncle Jesse talked her into it and said "I know you want to keep your promise. But if you know this is happening and you don't say anything about it, it'll only happen again." Eventually, she was convinced enough to let her Uncle Jesse make the report. The episode concludes with Stephanie doing the right thing, Charles becoming separated from his abusive father, and Stephanie giving her dad a hug at dinnertime.

Her dad said “Thanks, what was that for?" Stephanie said "Nothing, I just felt like it.” The episode ended with an emotional hug that symbolizes her gratitude for having such a great father, also showing the loving relationship between the father and daughter. The message behind this episode tells the audience that keeping silence will only continue the worst. Speaking up and telling someone to stop is the only way to resolve the problem. If it wasn't for Stephanie, Charles would be abused everyday. Therefore, this episode is very meaningful because it teaches young audience members that having a voice and raising awareness of domestic abuse or any kind of abuse can contribute in helping others and possibly, saving lives. Full Househas given its audience many crucial life lessons. Because the TV show is a comedy and family show, it revolves mainly around comedic situations that is twisted into a more serious approach. From the examples provided, the audience can see that many of these life lessons are taught to target young viewers so they can learn from it. All in all, teenagers have eventually faced these type of situations that were shown in the examples. The show teaches its audience on how these type of situations should be approached and resolved. As a result, Full House has been a popular TV show that has done a fantastic job in showing these situations that are relatable to teens and younger kids from the 1990s until present day..