‘Full House’ and ‘Fuller House’ Star Andrea Barber on Childhood Crushes, College and Life Beyond Acting: “I Didn’t Really Have Time to Develop a Life Plan” (Exclusive)

For almost four decades, she’s been the funniest next-door neighbor on television (that is, until she finally moved in with the Tanners!) While Full House may be one of the most beloved family sitcoms of all time, it simply wouldn’t have been the same without the constant comic relief provided by the talented Andrea Barber, a.k.a. “Kimmy Gibbler,” who went from bit player to main cast member on the original show before rejoining the cast (and the entertainment business) for Netflix’s Fuller House revival in 2016.

Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection

While we’ve gotten to know plenty about Kimmy Gibbler over the years (maybe a bit more than we ever wanted to), it’s time to learn more about the woman behind the madness. Who was her first crush?  Her favorite toys? Learn all about Andrea Barber’s past (and maybe a bit about her present and future too!) in our Remind Flashback interview!

What were your favorite TV shows and movies growing up?

Andrea: I loved The Monkees, which is so weird because my parents were like, ‘Why do you like this show?’ This is sort of a band from my parents’ era, not my era, but this was the beginning of my love of boy bands. If you know me, you know how much I love boy bands.

I watched their show on Saturdays or whenever it was on, airing back in the ’90s, and I didn’t know they were a real band. I thought it was just created for TV, which it kind of was. But then they were still kind of a real band also. I was so in love with Davey Jones. He was just perfection.

You’re also a huge New Kids on the Block fan. Tell us about that.

I loved the Monkeys and then that led into my love of New Kids on the Block. They had a cartoon that was on every Saturday morning, the New Kids on the Block cartoon. That love still goes strong. I still follow those guys around. I just love them so much.

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Tell us about a gift you got as a kid that you’ll never forget.

Well, this is a little niche, so I don’t know if anyone’s going to know what I’m talking about, but the one gift that immediately comes to mind was a gift I received for my 16th birthday, which I spent on a cruise. This was the Sail With the Stars cruise with all these ’90s stars. Jodi was there, Candace Cameron was there, Danielle Fishell was there. We would do this every summer.

Anyways, my parents knew at that time that I had strong love for a play called Forever Plaid, which was about a boy band from the ’60s who die in a bus crash and then come back to life and do their one last performance that they never got to do. So that was my obsession. I saw this play over 50 times. My parents were so tolerant of me.

So for my 16th birthday, my parents had a VHS tape and they got the cruise line to roll one of those tiny little TVs into the room and put the VHS tape in and it was the four guys from Forever Plaid singing “Happy Birthday” to me. And not only that, they gave me one of their embroidered nice Letterman jackets with “Forever Plaid” embroidered on the back, and my name, “Andrea,” on the front. And this is a jacket you can’t buy, it was only for the cast members. It was so special. Has anyone even heard of Forever Plaid? It’s a great show.

Who was your celebrity crush as a teen, and what posters did you have hanging on your bedroom walls? That was such a Full House thing. DJ’s room always had that George Michael poster up.

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George Michael. Yep. And then Janet Jackson. Yep. Well, I feel very one-note. I’m realizing just how limited my interests are. But my crush from age 13 till now, Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block. And yes, I had the poster on my wall, and yes, I practiced kissing that poster. I was so in love with him. I was convinced that I was going to marry him.

What was your favorite toy as a kid?

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Oh, it was my American Girl doll, Samantha. I still have her. I loved the books. I was such a nerd. I have the whole trunk, the trunk of clothes with the little tiny hangers and the tea set and a bed for her, everything. My mom was great to indulge me in because those dolls aren’t cheap and the accessories aren’t cheap either.

I saved my Samantha doll to give to my daughter someday. Her name is Felicity.  When she was a baby, they came out with the Felicity doll. I saved it for years until Felicity turned 10 years old, and on her 10th birthday, I gave her her own Felicity doll, and I passed down my Samantha doll. I hope she’s taking care of them. I haven’t been in her room for a couple of days because it’s a very scary thing to walk into the room of a 17-year-old girl.

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What did you want to be when you grew up? Because you started so young in front of the camera, was there a period before that where you remember wanting to do anything else?

Yes, absolutely. I started acting at age 5, so I didn’t really have time to develop a life plan. I didn’t really know even what I was doing. My parents were just like, “Here, go be cute.” And I did. But yeah, when I was little, I wanted to be a bird. Yes, the animal. I remember in first grade we had to answer ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And so I answered the question honestly: “a bird.” The teacher, she kind of called me out for this, and she was like, “You can’t be a bird.” And I’m like, “Why not? I want to fly. I love birds. Birds are great animals.” And so she kind of crushed me when she was just like, “No, you can’t be a bird.”

I mean, there’s so many different ways the teacher could have taken that, but no, she shot that down. And so that was my No. 1 dream that was crushed.

But as I got older, I guess I always assumed I would just keep acting because I did it for so long as a kid, and I’m like, ‘Well, what else am I going to do? What else am I even good at?’ I went to college. I majored in English. It’s a little bit of a useless degree, but I loved it. Again, I’m a nerd. I love books. I love literature. I love writing. I wanted to be a writer. My mom was a freelance writer. She wrote for the local newspaper for a long time.

Then I went to England and I got a master’s degree in Women’s Studies. Again, wonderful subject; kind of impractical, though. I acknowledge how privileged I was to be able to go to these schools and study these things and then not really ever use these degrees.

I did write a book. I wrote a memoir called Full Circle. So maybe I did use my English degree once to write my memoir. There you go.

If you were going to pursue a career in writing beyond the memoir, what would you like to put out into the world? What type of writing would you like to do?

Oh, I want to write children’s books or just any sort of fiction.  I keep saying that I’m going to write a children’s book someday, and then I get busy and I forget it, and I table that thought, and I never get back to it.

Barber and Jodi Sweetin are inviting fans to a live taping of How Rude, Tanneritos!: The Wedding Special, where Lori Loughlin and John Stamos will be appearing, as well as a surprise guest. The event takes place on Thursday, June 5 at the iHeart Theater in Los Angeles. 

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