"Fuller House"/Netflix
"I went a little nuts one day and decided that would be a fun house for me to own," he told Business Insider.
The four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 2,500-square-foot San Francisco house went on sale in May for the first time in about a decade for $4.15 million. The time was right for Franklin, and he nabbed it for around $4 million.
"Coincidentally, 'Fuller House' is now on the air," he said. "There's some benefit to the show to be able to go back there and shoot there and maybe we'll have the cast come up, shoot some scenes outside of the house. I don't know yet. We're still waiting for a season-three pickup. It would be good for the show and it's just fun for me to own that house."
Franklin hadn't been allowed to film the property since "Full House" premiered in 1987. Back then, the production paid about $500 to shoot various shots for use on the show. They weren't welcomed back years later when they wanted to shoot again, because the then-owner had become annoyed by the many "Full House" fans who visited it. Franklin estimates about 250 fans visit the location every day.
"Everyone had been watching the same shot of the outside of the house for 30 years now," Franklin said. "So it would be nice to get some new footage shot in 4K."
For now, Franklin has some work to do on the house. He needs to seismically retrofit it for safety in the earthquake-prone area.
"It's going to be under construction for a while," he said. "We're going to make sure it doesn't fall down on anyone."
But the show creator sees several ways buying the house will pay off, including a potential tax write-off.
"I don't think it's going to be a big money-maker for me, for sure. So yeah, it will be some kind of a write-off I hope," Franklin responded when we asked if he could write off the purchase for his taxes. "But it's more sentimental than anything. Both of these shows have just become a big part of my life. It just felt like the right thing to own it."
"Fuller House" returns for its second season December 9 on Netflix.