D.J. Tanner
|
Candace Cameron as D.J. Tanner, shown in the opening credits of the first season |
On the TV sitcom
Full House,
Donna Jo Margaret Tanner (born
1977) was the oldest sister in the Tanner family. She was the daughter of
Pamela and
Danny Tanner, her younger sisters were
Stephanie Tanner and
Michelle Tanner. D.J.'s parents were only nineteen years old when she was born.
D.J. handles many tough situations with general ease. Though she gets upset at times over her dad prying into her affairs or otherwise embarrassing her, she is always quick to apologize when she has acted rudely.
From the sixth episode ("Daddy's Home"), when she wouldn't talk about how much she wished Danny wasn't working so much because Stephanie would cry about Danny missing her recital, D.J. shows great sensitivity toward her younger siblings. She also stays home from her first non mother-daughter slumber party to take care of Michelle when Jesse, Joey, and Stephanie all have chicken pox, so Michelle won't get it - even though Danny was perfectly willing to miss a chance to sit courtside at a basketball game. Though Stephanie got on her nerves quite often with her snooping, this trend continues throughout the show. She messes up and gets them in trouble a couple times, like most siblings will, but she takes some responsibility as the "woman of the house" even after Rebecca enters the picture. She is also Michelle's cabin leader and boss for three straight weeks at
summer camp in season seven's "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night" - this marks the boundary between the more wild Michelle and the better behaved Michelle of seasons seven and eight. It is believed that she has done even more as the "woman of the house" in the "Full House" book series, as in the books, Michelle is better behaved, much more polite, more compassionate, and takes after D.J. quite a bit.
D.J.'s warmth and compassion also extends to her best friend,
Kimmy Gibbler. D.J. gets in trouble sometimes because of Kimmy, but one senses that without her, Kimmy would be much wilder and weirder. She also helps Kimmy with homework, although this more often winds up with Kimmy trying to copy D.J. totally - right up to writing D.J.'s name at the start of an essay once! D.J. is heavily into journalism, although she is also, at very times, interested in a number of other things.
Her main crush was
Steve Hale, whom she got to know well on a trip to Spain. (She dates another Steve in season five in one episode, but since it's a different last name, and other episodes point to them meeting on that class trip to Spain or right before, it's presumed that it's supposed to be a different Steve.) They dated for eighteen months, then found themselves drifting apart. However, the last episode shows they missed each other, and whether Steve came back himself or Kimmy found him for D.J., what's known is that Steve takes her to her senior
prom.
D.J. was portrayed on the TV series by
Candace Cameron. Candace played D.J. from ages ten through eighteen.
