Michelle Tanner
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| Michelle Tanner | |
|---|---|
 Michelle Tanner as an eight-year-old |
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| First appearance | Our Very First Show |
| Last appearance | Michelle Rides Again Part Two |
| Cause/reason | End of series |
| Portrayed by | Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 0-8 |
| Family | Danny Tanner (Father) Pamela Tanner (Mother) D.J. Tanner (Sister) Stephanie Tanner (Sister) Jesse Katsopolis (Uncle) Rebecca Donaldson (Aunt) Nicky Katsopolis (Cousin) Alex Katsopolis (Cousin) |
Michelle Elizabeth Tanner (born November 18, 1986) is a fictional character on the sitcom Full House, portrayed by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
[edit] Biography
Michelle is the youngest of Pam and Danny Tanner's daughters. She is the younger sister of both D.J. Tanner and Stephanie Tanner. Common nicknames for Michelle include: Shortie and Munchkin (by her Uncle Jesse Katsopolis), Squirt Jr. (by Kimmy Gibbler, Squirt refers to Stephanie), and Princess (by her dad Danny Tanner).
Michelle has a wild streak unlike any of the others, partly because she was not punished by her father until she was almost 4 years old (Crimes and Michelle's Demeanor). However, Michelle was shown as generally well-behaved, but her main problem was a bad attitude, particularly in the later seasons -- yet amusingly, one of her catchphrases was "You got it dude!" Jesse and Joey never were seen to enforce rules -- though it could be argued that Jesse gave an occasional timeout in a chair, this is unlikely, as he could barely bring himself to "time-out" his own children because of how his father always screamed so much. Although none of the adults seemed to have control over Michelle, they always worked best together (Tough Love).
In a real-life situation, Michelle would have to have had someone set limits for her from the beginning. Older siblings, usually sisters, have played the role of disciplinarian when a single father is unwilling to do so. This makes it quite plausible, and likely, that D.J. enforced things somewhat, which is shown in a number of episodes. In the episode Lust in the Dust, when everyone is leaving the table so Danny can be alone with his "date", Michelle spouts, "I have to eat lunch in my room ‘cause D.J. said I do." So there is a history established of Michelle obeying D.J. She also obeys her in Crimes and Michelle's Demeanor, when D.J. tells her to rake up the mess she made outside while playing in a pile of leaves, and she starts to do so without hesitation. Also, when Michelle does something bad in that episode (dragging her wading pool inside, filling it, and swimming in the kitchen) and gets sent to her room for the first time, Danny asks D.J. and Stephanie why they didn’t stop her.
Michelle was as well-behaved as most good four-year-olds, but from age five to six and a half, she was again quite wild. For instance, she sneaks out at night to join Danny on a date (Bachelor of the Month), breaks a dinosaur playing tag in a museum (Please Don’t Touch the Dinosaur), runs away once (The Devil Made Me Do It), and is defiant and bossy at times (when she is "Princess for a Day" at Walt Disney World in The House Meets the Mouse). This "Dennis the Menace" stage ends abruptly after Season 6, as Michelle suddenly matures, becomes quite obedient, and so on. Danny corrects very little of her misbehavior.
Michelle is athletic, but not nearly as much as Stephanie. She plays soccer and, in the book series, baseball/softball. She doesn’t have a love for dance like her older sisters. Instead, she’d rather just play around and have fun. In this way, she is much like the carefree Jesse, whom she copies quite a bit. Her language and catchphrases in the early years -- "You got it, dude!" (with an accompanying thumb gesture), "Duhhuh!", and "Oh, puh-lease" -- most likely come from Jesse and his band, whom she hangs out with quite a bit in the first few seasons. "You got a bad attitude!" of course, is never said by the adults, but D.J. once refers to Jesse as "Uncle Bad Attitude", so it likely was copied from her scolding. "You’re in big trouble, Mister!" is another of her major catchphrases.
Michelle is a good student, though not a great one. The books based on the series depict her as more compassionate and much more of a leader in the years beyond the show’s end -- she is the fourth grade Class President, in fact, in the Michelle and Friends series. This trait is among those that make it appear that the writers wanted her to take after her sisters, and not after Jesse, in books. As a matter of fact, while she never repeats Stephanie’s ubiquitous catchphrase "How rude!" in the TV series, she says or thinks it several times in the books.
In many episodes, Michelle is seen trying to do whatever she can to get ice cream or cookies. In one episode, she licked every single filling of each Oreo cookie that was in the cookie jar. She tells her Uncle Jesse to "next time, only buy the middles".
Even though fraternal twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen both play the role of Michelle on the show, there is one distinctive trait that separates them: Ashley is right-handed, and Mary-Kate is left-handed. If one were to look closely, the difference is very noticeable.
[edit] Trivia
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- In the opening credits of "Full House", the role of Michelle was credited to "Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen" to make it appear that only one child was playing Michelle.
- Michelle's trademark catchphrases include: "You got it dude!", "You're in big trouble, Mister!", "Aw, nuts!", "What a ripoff!", "Duh!","No way, Jose!", and "Oh, puh-lease!".
- While not a catchphrase, a running gag in Season 3 is her mispronunciation of ice cream as "ouce cream" and spaghetti as "pasghetti".
- Her first word was "cookie", then it was "Dada". However, Michelle called her Uncle Jesse and family friend Joey "Dada" first, instead of her own father, mostly because Danny was at work most of the day, while Jesse and Joey babysat the girls.
- She loved to play "Horsey" with Stephanie Tanner when she was two.
- In Season 4, the Tanners received a visit from Jesse's Greek family, including one of Michelle's cousins, a girl named Melina, who looked exactly like Michelle, the only difference was their differing hair color. Michelle's reactions included: "Hey, that's my face!", "I see it, but I don't believe it!", "You are very pretty!", and "Why do we look the same?".
- Occasionally, Michelle would say hello to a kid unknown to her by saying, "Hi, kid I don't know."
- Michelle Tanner was portrayed by Taeko Kawata in the series' Japanese dub.
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