Weight loss culture in the 1980s and 90s was something else. And for DJ Tanner (Candace Cameron Bure), in the season 4 Full House episode “Shape Up,” she understood the pressures of them more than most. Not only did the fictional character stop eating, but she also over-exercised and began to lie and hide from her family members so she could feel good about herself at Kimmy Gibbler’s (Andrea Barber) pool party. After 35 years, Barber and her Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin—who played Stephanie Tanner—are ready to reflect on the episode and voice how it really makes them feel. Read on for their entire statement and to find out what caused them to speak out in the first place.
Andrea Barber and Jodie Sweetin on the ‘Full House’ weight loss episode
Barber and Sweetin co-host a Full House rewatch podcast called How Rude, Tanneritos! And in their most recent episode, the pair discussed the controversial Season 4 episode “Shape Up.”
“It was very uncomfortable to watch,” Barber, 48, said. “It made me really feel for Candace, too, having to carry this storyline.”
Sweetin, age 43, echoed similar thoughts, telling her co-host, “I know it was something that she was sensitive about. It’s hard when it’s something that you’re dealing with to be like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna pretend that this is fine and that I can resolve it,’ you know?”
The two then said that while they understood that the show was trying to portray how hard it is for teenage girls to feel good about themselves, they didn’t necessarily love the way it was done.
“You know, it’s like there’s still a real person who has to say these lines and feeling these emotions,” Barber said. “[It was] hard to divorce the idea of the actor versus the character.”
Barber also shared that while the Full House creator Jeff Franklin consulted with Bure’s parents, who then agreed to let their daughter film the episode, she doesn’t think it changes the fact that the episode was unfair to Bure.
Said Barber, “[It] doesn’t negate the fact that it’s a spotlight on a teenage girl and her insecurity.”
Bure’s onscreen sister Sweetin added to that by saying that since she knows who Bure is as a person, making the episode “harder to watch because you’re like, ‘This feels too weirdly personal.’”
Barber, Sweetin and Bure all starred in the Full House spinoff series Fuller House, which ran from 2016 until 2020. The three also reunited in April 2024 to film a podcast episode together.
Candace Cameron Bure comments on DJ Tanner’s weight loss
In August 2024, Bure also discussed the “Shape Up” episode on the Pod Meets World podcast, telling hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong that the whole thing made her “so mad.”
“She [DJ] went through that, and that people did comment on her cheeks and her face,” Bure continued. “She looked great. Like, so many girls were like, ‘I wish I looked like you,’ and she [DJ] felt so insecure about it. And I’m so mad that people made her feel that way.”
“I was always the chubby-cheeked girl and a lot of people loved that I was. And I can look back and go, like, ‘I was just a normal, average girl,’” she continued. “They actually talked to my mom and dad, and they talked to me and said, ‘Would you feel comfortable if we wrote an episode like this?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ But when you’re in it and doing it, it feels a little awkward.”
In addition to the diet episode, Bure also shared that while on the show, she “had lost 20 pounds from the end of one season to another,” which the producers reportedly really wanted to highlight.
“I came in losing 20 pounds, and they thought it was so great, and they were like, ‘Oh, in the opening titles, why don’t we have you on an exercise bike to promote that.’ And looking back, I don’t think that was bad. I really put a lot of hard work and effort into losing 20 pounds.”
Even so, Bure does wish that she could go back in time and “hug 15-year-old Candace and go, ‘It’s okay; don’t listen to anyone.’”
