Comedian Bob Saget Remembered

Comedian and actor Bob Saget has passed away at age 65. Sheriffs deputies in Orange County Florida confirmed Saget dead at the scene at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando Grande Lakes. Saget had just performed a two-hour comedy set at a show in Jacksonville Saturday night.

Saget leaves behind three daughters from his first marriage to screenwriter Sherri Kramer, and his second wife, food blogger Kelly Rizzo.

He was born into a Jewish family in Philadelphia in 1956 to Ben Saget, a meat company executive, and Dolly, an executive assistant at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Along with his two older sisters, he spent his childhood in Norfolk, Virginia, then briefly in Encino, and then back to Philadelphia.

He chronicled his early life experiences in his 2014 memoir, “Dirty Daddy” with a quip in almost every sentence.

“I always found it a paradox that when I was growing up in Norfolk, Virginia—this is before moving back to Philadelphia where I was born—people would occasionally ask my family, ‘Are you of the Jewish persuasion?’ That is a statement of redundancy. If you are Jewish, odds are it is within your nature to be persuasive,” Saget wrote.

While studying filmmaking at Temple University, Saget interned at “The Mike Douglas Show” in Philadelphia, and would ride the train to New York City to perform comedy at the Improv and Catch a Rising Star Club. Following graduation at age 22, he abandoned his plans to go to film school at USC after Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore offered him a regular spot doing standup.

He permanently relocated to Los Angeles to pursue comedy in 1978. In his early days in L.A., he would befriend and perform amongst comedy legends Don Rickles, George Carlin, Rodney Dangerfield, and Robin Williams. He became a regular on the late-night TV circuit, performing on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and “Late Night with David Letterman” and “The Merv Griffin Show.”

In 1987, Saget was cast as Danny Tanner on the sitcom “Full House,” which became a highly-rated fixture on ABC’s TGIF. Alongside castmates John Stamos and Dave Coulier, Saget’s character was known for his obsessive (and comedic) commitment to cleanliness—the show would run through 1995. Saget appeared sporadically during Netflix’s reboot of the show, “Fuller House.”

While starring on “Full House,” Saget hosted the video clip show “America’s Funniest Home Videos” from 1989 to 1997.

In 2005, Saget performed an ironic juxtaposition to his super-clean Dad role on “Full House” with a ultra-raunchy performance in the comedy documentary “The Aristocrats.” That same year, he became the narrator of the hit sitcom, “How I Met Your Mother”—a show that would run for nine seasons.

A year after he released his first HBO special, “That Ain’t Right” in 2007, Saget was “honored” with Comedy Central Roast, featuring burns by his friends Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Lovitz, Jim Norton, Norm Macdonald, Cloris Leachman, Greg Girlaldo and Jeff Ross. While it was hosted by longtime friend Stamos, Saget was noted for not enjoying any of the jokes at the expense of his on-screen daughters from “Full House,” as he remained close with them long after the show ended.

Outside of comedy, Saget was an active board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation to raise money to fund research for the disease that took the life of his older sister Gay at age 47. He also lost his other older sister Andi to a brain aneurysm when he was in his 20s. His parents even lost twin sons before Saget was born.

He idolized his parents and was fortunate to have them in his life long into adulthood. His father Ben passed in 2006 and mother Dolly passed in 2014.

“She told me not to use bad language or say irreverent stuff while my dad egged me on,” Saget wrote in a Facebook post in 2020. “She was also incredibly kind and considerate and empathetic to so many people, having lost four children in her life.”

In his 2014 memoir, he offered advice on coping with tragedy and death.

“When tragedy strikes, it’s more important than ever to look for anything that can bring humor and joy to every moment,” Saget wrote. “When my sister Gay was in the hospital, we joked about how bad the food was—two slices of bologna on white bread with mayo. So I broke hospital rules and went to Jerry’s Deli and got her chicken matzo ball soup and a turkey sandwich. In her sick state, she could barely eat it, but it was definitely better food.” He continues to describe what happened next, but in true Bob Saget fashion, it’s a tad inappropriate for print.