 |
| Jodie Sweetin. |
About twenty years after pop culture successes end, there usually is a revival. For example, in the '70s, there was a 50's revival with Broadway Shows and films such as "Grease" and "American Graffiti," in the '90s there was a resurgence of interest in "The Brady Bunch," and so forth. It has something to do with little kids who had been absorbing the culture via television growing up and entering their prime earnings years where they can literally buy that culture of their youth.
And thus, we come to Jodie Sweetin.
You may never have heard of Jodie Sweetin, and that is A-OK. However, you probably would recognize her. If you weren't around 13 years old in 1990, that is highly possible, but in the right context, almost anyone would recognize Jodie. An awful lot of people watched her show, which was on for quite a while. Let's go through who Jodie Sweetin is and why you might be interested in her.
 |
| Jodi Sweetin, then and now. |
Jodie Sweetin was born 19 January 1982 in Los Angeles, California. She was adopted because both of her parents were in prison at the time. Her uncle, Sam Sweetin, raised her.
Jodie is one-fourth Native American.
Jodie first started acting in 1987, when she was four. She was in television series "Valerie" and played Pamela.
Things happened fast. Jeff Franklin liked her work and cast her as Stephanie Tanner in "Full House" the same year. It has become her signature role.
Jodie played Stephanie Tanner throughout the entire "Full House" eight-year run. It was a smash success, especially among the younger set - people who were 13-years old around 1990.
Stephanie was so young when she played Stephanie Tanner that she didn't even graduate from high school - real high school, Los Alamitos High School in California - until four years after "Full House" ended - and she wasn't left back or anything like that.
It isn't often that you are set for life due to your own work - and not winning the lottery or an inheritance or anything like that - before you even enter high school - but Jodie Sweetin accomplished that.
Everyone knows the travails of child stars in Hollywood. They always seem to have problems at some point. The same happened to Jodie Sweetin.
First, though, let's summarize the rest of her career after "Full House" and, well, after high school.
Jodie took a break from television, and went to college, Chapman University in Orange, California.
Jodie eventually made her way back to television. She hosted a season of Fuse TV's "Pants-Off Dance-Off" - no, I never heard of it either - and filmed a television pilot, "Small Bits of Happiness."
Jodie appeared in some independent television films, "Port City" and "Redefining Love," in 2009.
Sweetin also appeared in "Can't Get Arrested," a web series, in 2011.
She also appeared in "Singled Out" in 2012. Basically, Jodie was on the fringes of Hollywood. That's why child stars develop problems later, they can't recapture that fame and adulation of their early years.
Jodie married an LA Police Officer, Shaun Holguin, in 2002. They divorced in 2006.
Sweetin married a film transportation coordinator, Cody Herpin, in 2007. They were divorced in 2010 after producing a daughter, Zoie Laurelmae Herpin.
Jodie next had a daughter, Beatrix Carlin Sweetin-Coyle, in 2010. She married the father, Morty Coyle in 2012. She since has filed for legal separation from Morty.
 |
| Jodie with former (and future) costar Candace Cameron. |
Recently as of this writing, in January 2016, Jodie announced her engagement to Justin Hodak.
Along with her relationships, Jodie acquired various drug habit. She was around the Hollywood social scene from her early tween years and started drinking around the time that "Full House" ended.
 |
| The "Full House" cast at a reunion. |
You know what they say about alcohol and other drugs - it can lead to other things. And with Jodie, it did.
 |
| Jodie is on the left. |
Jodie is said to have used ecstasy, methamphetamine, crack, and other drugs. Actually, putting it like that is wrong: Jodie herself says it. Otherwise, very few people would know, and we wouldn't be writing about it here.
Sweetin later said that she became hooked on drugs because she was "bored." With her career going nowhere, there were not many other outlets.
The good part of the story is that Jodie survived her drug period and got clean.
 |
| "How rude" became a catchphrase. |
Jodie wrote about her issues in her autobiography, "unSweetined," in 2009, so all of this she freely admits.
Her story is remarkably similar in some of these respects to "Brady Bunch" child star Maureen McCormick, who also developed a vicious drug habit. Both later kicked it after many struggles.
Jodie returned to fame in 2015 with the return of her character Stephanie Tanner on "Fuller House," a Netflix original (so to speak) series.
Netflix does not publish the ratings for its shows, but it is said that "Fuller House" has become a big hit. It has been renewed for a third season as of this writing.
Many of the stars of the original "Full House" came back to make guest appearances and star with her. There was little question that Jodie Sweetin was the star of the reboot or sequel or whatever you want to call it.
The hashtag #FullerHouse became a huge trending topic when the show premiered, which is unusual for a new show, especially one on a limited-audience venue. However, "Full House" is very fondly remembered. It is not out of the question at this point that the reboot/sequel may be on longer than the original version.
Many comments about the show have centered on Jodie, and specifically on how she had filled out over the years. Audience members who had been fans of the show when they were 13 and hadn't kept up with Jodie were astonished that she had become so, um, mature.
Jodie is now in her 30s, and she doesn't look a day over that. So she has that going for her. She is no longer the 5-year-old brat that she started out as with her character and that made her a star, but she retains her star presence. Her sarcastic comebacks are legendary.
Remember Jeff Franklin? We mentioned him above as the guy who cast Jodie in "Full House." He's still in charge of the project, now at Netflix.
Jeff has eyes, and he knows what people will notice. He wrote several bits into the new "Fuller House" which refer to Stephanie's bodacious change in appearance.
For instance, he had Jodie hold a baby and direct the baby's eyes upwards because "I'm up here!" If that isn't clever writing, what is?
Stephanie has become the cynosure of all eyes (I always wanted to use that word, and if it applies to anyone, it is Jodie Sweetin). She since has been cast in another television show, "Hollywood Darlings" as - you guessed it - a character named Jodie.
Many people say that Jodie is unrecognizable now. Her co-star on "Fuller House," Candace Cameron," for instance, just looks like an older version of her younger self. Jodie, though, looks completely different, though with the same mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
However, when you focus on her face, and she isn't trying to look different, you can easily tell that it is Stephanie Tanner all grown up.
Now, the Olsen twins, that's a pair that looks different these days. But let's not go there. They have refused to participate in "Fuller House," giving the show's writers free reign to take potshots at them - which they do with abandon.
Jodie occasionally does talks at high schools about her issues.
Jodie's first television appearance actually was as a four-year-old, in a hot dog commercial.
Jodie was successful in school and actually skipped a grade.
Jodie has or had (most likely had) a Lhasa Apso named Lacey.
Jodie was in the 1993 Disney Easter Parade. She appeared as Cinderella. Mary-Kate Olsen was alongside her as Snow White.
Jodie got her degree at Chapman University, by the way.
 |
| Jodie during her "wild" phase. |
Jodie first talked about her addictions on Good Morning America in 2006. She hadn't even completely kicked the habit yet at that time, but she did by 2008.
Jodie married Cody Herpin at a Las Vegas wedding chapel, Little Church of the West. They were divorced in 2010 after having a child. Jodie then married Morty Coyle in 2012, and they had a child, too. However, Morty and Jodie divorced in 2016.
Jodie does not have any siblings.
 |
| A tense moment on "Full House." |
Jodie grew up in Cypress, California, which also coincidentally is the home town of co-star John Stamos.
Jodie is named after actress Jodie Foster. Ha! I bet you didn't know that.
The competition is so fierce once you become an adult. I'll probably move on to something else.
I get recognized all the time, although people are like, Oh my gosh, you're not, like, 11 any more!" It's funny. People don't expect you to grow up.
I don't have any desire to ever act again full time. I don't mind doing occasional guest appearances on shows, but I have other things I'd like to do in my life now. I would like to get into teaching actors and starting a family with Shaun.
We all get along really well and we all are the best of friends. They really did become my other family and my group of friends.
I want to make movies, TV series, wherever the career takes me. I really hope this isn't the last people hear of me. In fact, I would like to make this a footnote in my career, not the end.
Jodie met her current (as of this writing) fiance Justin through a mutual friend.
Jodie says that her bond with her "Full House" castmates helped her to get through her struggles after the show ended. She, Andrea Barber and Candace Cameron are the heart of the show.
We have a family. I don't think that there's anything that we go through, good, bad, or daily stuff, that we can't share with each other and enjoy and support and love each other. We've known each other for almost 30 years now.
When you are as close to people as we are to each other, for that long, you become a family. We support and love each other no matter what. It becomes a real familiar relationship where we insulate each other from all of that stuff and support and love each other through it.
John Stamos Bob Saget, Lori Loughlin Dave Coulier and Scott Weinger all make various appearances during the "Fuller House" series, which can be streamed through Netflix.
2017
