Candace Cameron, Danielle Fishel Discuss How Their Weight Was Addressed on TGIF Shows

Boy Meets World's Danielle Fishel recalls her and Will Friedle's weight gain becoming a "funny" storyline, while Full House star Candace Cameron Bure remembers "awkward" episode addressing her weight change.

In the age of the "very special episode," both Full House and Boy Meets World tackled weight changes with their young stars. Candace Cameron Bure joined Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong on their Pod Meets World podcast to recollect how each show addressed it.

"I was always the chubby-cheeked girl," said Bure, who portrayed D.J. Tanner on ABC's TGIF staple Full House from 1987-1995, before reprising the role as an adult for Netflix's sequel Fuller House from 2016 to 2020.

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The actress added that "a lot of people loved that I was," saying that she can appreciate now that she was "just a normal, average girl" while on the show.

And yet, Bure said that when people meet her in person, that perception of who she was on television leads them to always say, "You're so much thinner in person."

"You're just like, 'Is that all people see?'" marveled Bure. "Do they just see my chubby cheeks?"

That led to a discussion of how her weight was written into the show. After she lost 20 pounds between seasons, Bure said that she was asked by producers if she would mind if it was written into the show.

That led to one of those "very special episodes" about D.J. struggling with body image issues. In the episode, she and friend Kimmy ( Andrea Barber ) were invited to a pool party.

"I didn't want to put a bathing suit on," Bure recalled of her character in the episode that's gone viral in recent years. "So, [D.J.] did a crash diet to try to lose weight in a week so [she] wouldn't feel bad about [herself] in a bathing suit, and then passed out at the gym."

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She said the show even put D.J. on an exercise bike in its new intro for that season to "promote" her weight loss, which, "looking back, I don't think that was bad. I mean, I really put a lot of hard work and effort into losing 20 pounds."

While Bure and her parents were both talked with before the episode was even written, with everyone on board, Bure still said, "When you're in it and doing it, it feels a little awkward."

Fishel, who also faced too much public scrutiny about her body while a teenager on television, then shared that neither she nor Will Friedle -- who was absent for this podcast episode -- were consulted by their show's production team before their weight was written into the show.

"They called me into the office to tell me they were going to [do it]," she recalled. "It wasn't really like they asked. They just kind of said, 'We just want you to know ... obviously you guys have gained a little bit of weight. So we're going to write an episode about it.'"

She said they then told her and Friedle, "Here's what it's gonna be, and it's gonna be really funny."

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"I remember that being the hardest part for me, was that meeting," said Fishel, as Bure said her "jaw was on the floor" just hearing the story now.

"Will was very much like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm totally fine with it!' Just immediately," she continued. "I know now he was very insecure, and it was very painful and hurtful for him."

As for her own reaction, "it was more like, 'Oh, wow.' No one had said anything to me about it. I had been aware that I'd gained weight, but I was still a size 4."

"I remember thinking, 'Wow. These people think I've gained enough weight [that] we have to write an entire episode about my weight gain, and right now, I have to say I'm fine with it because they didn't even present to me another alternative.

While Bure was okay with her weight loss being incorporated into her Full House story, she noted that she did put her foot down about another of those growing pains all women go through, vetoing an episode about her period.

"As a teenager, you feel that insecurity, whether you're on television or not," she noted. "Those ages were a little bit more awkward for me. I just want to always go back -- I just want to hug 15-year-old Candace and go, 'Okay, don't listen to anyone.'"

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