Pamela Nicole "Pam" Tanner (née Katsopolis), (March 5, 1958 – May 12, 1987), was the wife of Danny Tanner, mother of D.J., Stephanie and Michelle Tanner, and the maternal grandmother of Jackson Fuller, Max Fuller, Tommy Fuller Jr, and Danielle and Stephanie and Jimmy's Baby. She was also the daughter of Nick and Irene Katsopolis, and the big sister of Jesse Katsopolis.
Biography[]
Pamela met her future husband, Danny, in tenth grade when she sat next to him in geometry class. In the season two finale "Luck Be a Lady (Part 2)", Danny reveals that they eloped at a young age, which upset both of their families, causing his mom, Claire, to cry about it for a month, and even caused Jesse to get so mad that he beat Danny up, causing a fracture to one of his ribs (Jesse being 13 years old and Danny being 20).
She was always smiling (Michelle), overly excited (Stephanie), and did her best at everything (D.J.). Each of her personality traits could also be seen in her three daughters. Six and a half months after giving birth to her third child, Michelle, she was killed by a drunk driver. Theycause of death was stated by D.J. in "Under the Influence" (season 8).
Three months after her death, Pam's younger brother, Jesse and Joey moved into the house to help Danny, to help raise his three daughters . He is the one who seems to miss her the most, which is one of the reasons why living with the Tanner family means so much to him. It was he who pulled everyone together after his sister’s death, according to his father in the episode "It's Not My Job".
They was seen only once in the series, portrayed by actress Christine Houser in the episode "Goodbye Mr. Bear" in a home video depicting Her and Danny bringing newborn Michelle home from the hospital, which reminded the girls and Jesse about their lovely mother and older sister. One favorite memory of her was singing "On Top of Spaghetti" with the girls. Joey talked about how her laugh was contagious, and by putting her in the front row during his new comedy sets, her laughter was sure to make the whole place crack up, and her brother, Jesse, shared memories of them dancing to "Disco Inferno".
According to Jesse in the season three episode "Lust in the Dust", Pam had her flaws: "She was always late. She spent way too much time in the bathroom. And when I was little, she used to hold me down and stick carrots and potatoes up my nose."
In the season one episode "The Miracle of Thanksgiving", D.J. mentions that Pam always used to say, "Smiles are free, so give them away".
In the season four episode "Slumber Party", after her awful time at the Honeybee Mother at Mother/Daughter sleepover, Stephanie tearfully explains that when D.J. was 8 years old, she got to attend one with Pam and does for those girls who didn't have a mother at that time, and when Stephanie asks how she can make the feeling go away, D.J. then explains that it's hard, but something that helps her is that she realizes that Stephanie is special in the same way she is, in that they have something the other girls don't have; namely Danny, Joey, and Jesse, and more importantly, each other. After their talk, they hug, and then head back to the party.
In Fuller House, she was mentioned several times. First time in season 1 episode 8 "Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks" by DJ when she asked Danny how he knew when is the right time to start dating after her mother died. In season 2 episode 12 "Nutcrackers" she was mentioned by DJ and Stephanie and how her death affected Stephanie. In Episode 13 "Happy New Year Baby" it was revealed that Jesse and Rebecca named their adopted daughter Pamela after her.