Full House fans debate over exactly which season of its eight began its decline, but everyone agrees as to the cause: the holy terror that is Michelle Tanner. The Olsen twins became a massive cash cow starting in 1992 — they got their own albums, TV movies, Direct to Video films and series. As a result of this and Stephanie Tanner having aged out of the "adorable wisecracking tot" role, the show began to focus more and more on Michelle, forcing the other characters out of the spotlight and essentially making them prisoners of her whims (the Season Seven finale saw the titular house's original owner offering to buy it for a huge sum, with everyone happy except Michelle—and in the end, they all capitulate and decide not to move simply because she wants them to stay). By this time, fans derisively began calling the program "The Michelle Show," and it never really recovered.
- The rot begins to kick in with Season Four, with a significant premise upheaval at the 3/4 mark of the season when Jesse and Becky get married. They end up moving into the renovated attic of the house — all because Michelle doesn't like the idea of them moving to Becky's place, which is in the same neighborhood! This ties into the biggest problem the show has in its later seasons: The original concept of a widower inviting his brother-in-law and best friend into his house to help raise his daughters after his wife's death is now moot. None of the girls need a full-time caretaker anymore, making Jesse and Joey's presence in the house largely inexplicable.
- Season Five's 1/3rd mark sees the birth of Nicky and Alexander, Becky's twins and the joint Cousin Oliver of the series. The remainder of the season, and a chunk of Six, has quite a few copied-and-pasted plots from Season One when Michelle was a newborn baby. In addition, the writers' complete lack of interest in continuity becomes clear with a two-part Season Finale in which Jesse is struggling to get a recording contract and doubting his skills as a musician...despite the fourth season finale being about him getting a contract in the first place!
- Season Six is the year that sees poor Stephanie relegated more and more to the background (because Michelle gets the "cute tot" plots and D.J.'s Romance Arc begins), with one of her few leading episodes being a Very Special Episode about an abused classmate. Otherwise, she's Michelle's Older Sidekick. (By Season Seven's "Day of the Rhino", Stephanie — a middle schooler — joins Michelle and her six-year-old friends' protest of a kiddie show character, and the visual contrast between the small children and the teenage Stephanie says it all.) Joey also becomes a more popular character's Sidekick with the abrupt loss of his Excited Kids' Show Host job from the previous season, whereupon he and Jesse go into business as radio deejays (even as Jesse got a story arc about getting his GED at the same time). This season also sees increasingly ludicrous scripts, including one where Michelle causes a massive dinosaur skeleton in a museum to completely collapse, and an over-the-top two-part Vacation Episode to Walt Disney World serving as the Season Finale. There are two pretty good Romance Arcs for D.J. and Danny, respectively, but that's all.
- Season Seven sees the show really grasping for new ideas: both Romance Arcs end, Jesse becomes a nightclub owner, a (actually well-received) Very Special Episode about a death in the family leads straight to an episode about Jesse's evil lookalike cousin from Greece, there's a new wacky neighbor in the form of Mrs. Carruthers, and the penultimate episode's big plot twist involves Little Richard turning out to be the uncle of one of Michelle's friends. This problem continues into the final season.
