Dave Coulier Lost Out on SNL For Being 'Too Similar' to Dana Carvey

Dave Coulier became a household name for his role on Full House, but he almost starred on Saturday Night Live instead of the iconic sitcom, he recently revealed.

This week, Coulier told SiriusXM's Jim Norton and Sam Roberts that before he snagged the role as Full House's Joey Gladstone, he auditioned for SNL and received a call saying he got the part.

"I was going to New York to be on Saturday Night Live, and so I told everybody in my life of course," said Coulier. "All the comics knew, like 'Wow, you're going to New York. You're on SNL?' I'm like, 'Yeah, can you believe it?'"

"I told everybody I knew — my family — boxed up everything in my apartment, and then, like, 10 days go by, and I don't hear anything," he recalled.

Coulier was trying to find an apartment in New York when he got a call from an NBC executive, who said he lost the role because they thought he and Dana Carvey, who had just started at SNL, were too similar.

"So I had to call everybody in my life and say I'm not going," Coulier said.

One year later, though, Coulier got the opportunity to audition for Full House.

"I was given that script for Full House, and then, boom! I got it and I thought, how was that so easy?" he said.

Ultimately, things worked out for Coulier: the actor played Uncle Joey on Full House for eight seasons, and then reprised the role in the Netflix revival, Fuller House.

Full House is available to stream on HBO Max, while Fuller House is streaming on Netflix.

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Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.