by Conan Simmons – January 13, 2022 – 8:48 pm
Hugely popular comedian, Bob Saget, passed away Sunday night in Orlando, Florida after a live performance of his stand-up comedy tour. Saget was found unresponsive in his hotel room according to sources who say he apparently passed in his sleep on January 9, no cause of death has been ascertained.
Born in Philadelphia on May 17, 1956, Bob Saget began his showbusiness career by directing the short documentary ‘Through Adam’s Eyes’ in 1977 while still in university. He would first appear in front of the camera in the 1980 short film, ‘Devices’, before his career started to heat up in 1981 with both his directorial-starring effort ‘Moving’ and making appearances on the hit television sitcom ‘Bossom Buddies’ starring Tom Hanks and the horror film satire ‘Full Moon High’ starring Alan Arkin.
Keeping primarily with television Bob Saget appeared on the popular superhero comedy ‘The Greatest American Hero’ and became a regular cast member of ‘New Love, American Style’ in 1985.
After making a big screen appearance in the 1987 Richard Pryor comedy, ‘Critical Condition’, Bob Saget landed the role he would most be famous for, that of Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom ‘Full House’ which ran from 1987 until 1995.
Bob Saget became a fixture on the small screen by 1990 when he became the regular host of the television series ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ from 1990 until 1997.
While starring in and hosting both ‘Full House’ and ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, Bob Saget continued to make appearances on other popular television series, from the sci-fi adventure ‘Quantum Leap’ to the Garry Shandling comedy ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ and several more.
In the late 1990’s, Bob Saget divided his time with a return to directing and keeping up with appearances on television series. Saget directed the 1996 tv movie ‘For Hope’ inspired by his sister’s battle with disease known as scleroderma. He also directed the 1997 tv movie romance ‘Jitters’ before directing the big screen comedy ‘Dirty Work’ in 1998 starring the late Norm MacDonald, Artie Lang, Don Rickles and Chevy Chase. Some of the tv series Saget appeared on during that time were the sitcoms ‘Ellen’, ‘The Jeff Foxworthy Show’, ‘The Naked Truth’ and, in 2000, ‘Norm’ starring Norm MacDonald.
In 2001, Bob Saget would headline his own television sitcom with ‘Raising Dad’ which featured early roles for both Kat Dennings and Brie Larson, who played his daughters. The series lasted only one season.
Bob Saget moved further towards the big screen in the 2000’s with a role in the comedy prequel, ‘Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry met Lloyd’ in 2003 and lending his voice to the first in the hit animated feature franchise, ‘Madagascar’ in 2005. He would direct his own animated feature the following year with ‘The Farce of the Penguins’.
Bob Saget remained a fixture of television with frequent appearances as himself on the HBO comedy ‘Entourage’ from 2005 to 2010, as well as the 2015 feature film, and as the voice of the narrator on the long running CBS sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’ which ran from 2005 to 2014.
Reprising his role of Danny Tanner for the Netflix sequel sitcom ‘Fuller House’ from 2016 to 2020, Bob Saget also directed the comedy feature film ‘Benjamin’ in 2019 starring himself alongside comedians Rob Corddry, Cheri Oteri, Kevin Pollack and Dave Foley.
Bob Saget’s stand-up comedy was very blue compared to his family friendly persona on television. Able to balance a career on television often in non-vulgar nice guy roles, his stand-up comedy was far raunchier and blue.
Bob Saget’s final film work as a director is a documentary about comedian Martin Mull which was in post-production at the time of his passing. Saget’s final acting role is in the yet to be released feature comedy, ‘Killing Daniel’, opposite Iggy Pop.