Bob Saget

Bob Saget offers living proof that it is possible to dramatically (and aggressively) alter one's own show-business image in mid-act. This deceptively clean-cut writer/actor/comedian began his foray into televised entertainment typecast as a "family-oriented" comic actor, and then shocked nearly everyone by emerging as a popular "blue" comedian with raunchy standup gigs, delivered from such venues as Glitter Gulch. Throughout, Saget managed to achieve considerable success in each venue, albeit among radically different demographics.

A graduate of Pennsylvania's Temple University, Saget originally planned to pursue medical studies, but a brush with the performing arts convinced him to head in that direction instead. Following a brief appearance as a doctor in the Richard Pryor-Michael Apted medical farce Critical Condition (1986), Saget achieved broad recognition in 1987 when cast as genial family man Danny Tanner, a widower and father of three, on the saccharine sitcom Full House (1987-1995). Two and a half years into that program's run, Saget concurrently turned up on another program, America's Funniest Home Videos, which -- per its title -- featured the comic actor emceeing a seemingly limitless series of humorous amateur video clips sent in by folks around the country -- in a contest that issued cash prizes for the very best. Videos, like Full House, instantly scored with the public when it bowed in January 1990; Saget remained with the series until 1997.

Beginning immediately around the time that Full House wrapped, Saget started branching off into a variety of directions; he helmed several features, including telemovies (For Hope, Jitters) and at least one theatrically released comedy (the 1998 Dirty Work), but placed his strongest emphasis on standup. The performer hosted Saturday Night Live, contributed a routine to Comic Relief, and headlined a series of standup comedy specials on pay cable that were -- as indicated -- definitively for adults. He also contributed a memorably scatological and raunchy routine to longtime friends Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette's standup documentary revue, The Aristocrats (2005). (The routine was prefaced by Saget's ironic admission, "Some people think I have a reputation of being a dirty comedian...," and intercepted by his tongue-in-cheek request to have a copy of the video of the routine, to send it to the kids on Full House.) Saget's 2007 directorial effort Farce of the Penguins (2007) skewered the popular nature documentary March of the Penguins (2007) with raunchy voice-overs (by an all-star cast) placed atop nature footage of penguins in the wild. Meanwhile, beginning in 2005, Saget signed for a voice-only role on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He provides the older voice of the lead character, Ted Mosby, as he tells his two children the story of how he came to know their mother, effectively serving as narrator for the show. - Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide