Before there ever was a , the family sitcom was just another unaired pilot.
In the never-aired pilot, the character of Danny Tanner is introduced right after losing his wife in a car accident.
The entire cast for the pilot was the same as the eventual sitcom, except that playing Danny Tanner was not Bob Saget, but a little-known actor named John Posey.
In addition to the main cast, the pilot also featured an appearance by Danny Tanner’s mom, played by Alice Hirson.
Once the sitcom got green-lit, Saget got subbed in to star, and in the series premiere episode, they basically re-filmed the pilot with the new cast.
Although the actor playing Danny Tanner changed, in the sitcom premiere, the actor playing Danny’s mom Claire Tanner remained the same.
Hirson was an actor who had been on TV since the 1950s, but then things seemed to falter and she took on only a few roles in the 1960s.
In the Seventies, her career picked up steam again, including recurring roles on and a few soap operas.
As more TV work came in, Hirson was soon tapped in the Eighties to contribute cartoon voice work on a show, and she also nabbed a recurring role on the high-profile soap opera
Then in 1987, she got tapped to play Claire Tanner on , and she seemed lined up for her next recurring role on a hit family show.
But Hirson would only appear on once more in an episode called "The Return of Grandma." After that, she would return no more as Claire Tanner.
Instead, the next and last episode to feature Claire Tanner was called "Granny Tanny." It cast a new actor to fill Danny’s mom’s shoes: the delightful character actor Doris Roberts.
The article is not finished. Click on the next page to continue.
