John Stamos once said he didn't care if he died. This is the story of how he decided to live
LOS ANGELES — In June 2021, I wrote an essay for the Los Angeles Times that began, "I have come to understand that I have a thing for John Stamos." I had been watching him in the wonderful Disney+ series "Big Shot," in which he plays Marvyn Korn, a temperamental college basketball coach who finds himself demoted — though, in a human sense, promoted — to coaching high school girls. And I realized that I had for some time been enjoying his work, which felt committed and natural and elevated whatever show he was on. You do not act for 40 years in Hollywood without having something special, without being good at what you do.
The piece came as a surprise, even a shock, to the subject, who sent a sweet note, imagining his parents' reactions: "I would have loved to have seen the look on my dad's face at 6 a.m. reading his Los Angeles Times front to back at our kitchen table, smoking a long thin More cigarette, as he read your story about his son. His chest would swell to about 60 inches, and he would say: 'Well, the guy went a little overboard, but most of it is true' (always kept me humble), and my mother would just cry."
"Big Shot" returned for a second season Wednesday, quality still high, and it was nearly inevitable that the following interview would take place. We had exchanged some emails — Stamos sometimes performs with the Beach Boys, for whom my father once worked, and we had some mutual interests and acquaintances. And he allowed the L.A. Times to publish. But this was the first time we talked, over Zoom.
