'I made him a hugger': How Bob Saget created the defining TV dad of his generation

Bob Saget was 30 years old when he gave his first hug as Danny Tanner, the clean-freak, embrace-prone widower raising three daughters with his best friend and brother-in-law in ABC's "Full House." He'd give roughly 10 trillion more from 1987 until the show's end in 1994: Before "virtual hugs" became part of the text lexicon, there was Danny Tanner on TV.

Though there were plenty of beloved TV dads before him, and plenty since, it's hard to overestimate how Saget's displays of affection on "Full House," beamed into the living rooms of millions of homes, soothed a generation of young viewers — even the cool ones who mocked the corniness.

"I didn't know I