| Genre: | Sitcom |
| Creator: | Johnnie Mortimer Brian Cooke |
| Starring: | Christopher Strauli Sabina Franklyn Brian Capron Natalie Forbes Diana King Joan Sanderson |
| Theme Music Composer: | Harry Stoneham |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Num Series: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 20 |
| Runtime: | 30 minutes |
| Producer: | Peter Frazer-Jones Mark Stuart Anthony Parker |
| Company: | Thames Television |
| Network: | ITV |
Full House is a British sitcom which aired for three series from 1985 to 1986. It was the last sitcom to be jointly co-created by the sitcom writing team of Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke, however, it was mainly written by Mortimer alone, with Mortimer writing 12 episodes alone, along with a further 3 with Cooke, while another veteran sitcom writer, Vince Powell, contributed another 3.
It starred Christopher Strauli, Sabina Franklyn, Brian Capron and Natalie Forbes, with Diana King, who was later replaced by Joan Sanderson.
It was made by Thames Television for the ITV network.
The show revolved around two young couples, the Hatfields and the McCoys. Paul Hatfield (played by Strauli) and his wife Marsha (played by Franklyn), married for three years, and up to then living with Paul's mother (played in the first two series by King and then by Sanderson in the third), finally find their ideal home. However, they are unable to meet the mortgage repayments, so they invite Murray McCoy (played by Capron) and his girlfriend Diana (played by Forbes), who are also in the same situation, to join them and move in with them, contributing to the payment of the house. In the final episode of the series, the McCoys are married, and they have a baby.
In common with many other Thames sitcoms from the 1980s, the format of Full House was sold to the US, via the American producer Don L. Taffner, who had a close relationship with Thames and had distributed Thames programmes in the States in both format and syndication. Taffner sold the format to CBS, and his production company made a pilot entitled No Place Like Home, starring Jack Blessing and Susan Hess as the married couple and Rick Lohman and Molly Cheek as the unmarried couple. It aired on CBS on 6 September 1985, but it failed to develop into a full series.
However, the original British series did eventually air in the US in syndication, but by then the more famous American family sitcom also entitled Full House had premiered, so it was renamed Mixed Doubles in the US so as to avoid confusion.