John Stamos almost quit ‘Full House’ after Jodie Sweetin ‘stole the show’ at a table read

John Stamos said being upstaged by Jodie Sweetin almost made him quit “Full House” before it even got started.

During a July 20 appearance on “Hot Ones,” Stamos reflected on his career and the time he tried to leave the sitcom with the show’s host, Sean Evans, while munching on some burning hot wings. Then, in the first episode of Dave Coulier's "Full House Rewind" podcast, creator Jeff Franklin recapped that fateful first table read that almost changed the show as we know it.

Speaking to Evans, Stamos opened up about the process of being cast as Jesse Katsopolis, the Tanner family’s cool, Beach Boys-loving uncle who rode motorcycles.

“‘Full House,’ I hated that show. Obviously, I ended up loving it, but it was sort of pitched to me as a ‘Bosom Buddies’ ... with, you know, a couple of kids in the background,” he explained.

The 1980s sitcom series “Bosom Buddies” starred Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari as friends who lived together in New York City.

Meanwhile, "Full House" was about a widowed San Francisco father (played by Bob Saget) who was raising his three daughters with the support of his brother-in-law Jesse (Stamos) and best friend Joey (Dave Coulier).

According to Stamos, he thought that while the series would have children in the cast, they would primarily be in supporting roles.

“We did a table read of it, and I was the star. I was coming off of ‘General Hospital,’” Stamos recalled. “We sit down, and we started reading, and Jodie Sweetin, who plays Stephanie, reads her lines, and people are dying laughing. I mean screaming, I was like, ‘What’s happening here?’"

“They couldn’t even hear my lines. They were laughing so hard at her," Stamos added, as he re-enacted slinking down in his seat.

After the table read, he said he hurried out of the room and called his agent, saying, "get me the f— off this show."

In the podcast episode, Coulier also recalled Stamos telling him, "The whole show's going to be her. We can't do this."

Franklin added that he later learned Stamos was "so upset about having to play second fiddle to these really funny kids" that he called his agent and tried to quit.

Stamos shared that he began to come around when Saget was cast as the show’s patriarch.

“I fought it for a long time,” Stamos said of the hit ABC sitcom, which eventually ran for eight seasons. "And then I finally said, ‘What am I doing? It’s a beautiful show.’”

Eventually, Stamos realized that the show wasn’t meant to have a central character.

“I realized the central character was love,” he explained. “We were the best representation of a loving family, not a normal family. And it was the new normal that was now an unconventional family.”

"Full House" ultimately launched the careers of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Candace Cameron Bure and Sweetin, who starred as Stamos' nieces. It aired from 1987 until 1995, and many of the show's cast members returned for Netflix's revival of the series, entitled "Fuller House."

Stamos has previously opened up about his difficulties working with kids on the set of "Full House."

In April, Stamos revealed on the "Good Guys" podcast that he got the Olsen twins fired at the beginning of the show's run after the then 11-month-old babies wouldn't stop crying while filming the pilot. But he said their replacements were "terrible," and he asked for the Olsens back.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com