BOB SAGET: YOU 
PROBABLY DIDN’T KNOW 
THIS; AUSTISM ON 
AMAZON, WASPS FIGHT 
ON HBO
A day after Bob Saget 
died, the Jewish Telegraph 
Agency (JTA) did a good 
job of pulling together 
excerpts of interviews in 
which he discussed being 
Jewish. In short, he was 
“really Jewish,” but not 
very practicing for most 
of his adult life. The JTA 
article did touch on the 
fact that his faith in religion 
was shaken by the very 
premature deaths of his 
two adult sisters, the only 
siblings he knew.
I checked out Saget’s 
2014 memoir, Dirty Daddy, 
and learned that death 
haunted him his whole life. 
Saget practically begins his 
book with telling us about 
the death of three of his 
uncles. They all died before 
50 from heart attacks. The 
tragedies don’t end there. 
His mother gave birth to a 
twin boy and girl in 1954. 
A dysentery outbreak hit 
the hospital and killed nine 
babies, including the twins. 
Saget was born two years 
— to the day — after the 
twins’ death.
Saget’s ex-wife is Shelli 
Kramer, about 65. She is 
the mother of his three 
adult daughters. Kramer 
is a licensed therapist in 
California, and I am 95% 
sure she is Jewish. I don’t 
know more because details 
about Bob’s children 
and ex-wife are not out 
there. It’s clear that Saget 
protected their privacy. 
In his book, he does not 

mention them by name (he 
says, “my daughter” and 
my “ex-wife”).
 His book has just one 
story about his wife and 
oldest daughter (whose 
name is Aubrey Saget. 
She’s now 34). Before 
telling the story, Saget 
informs his readers that 
he got permission from his 
ex and his daughter to tell 
this story. Here goes: His 
wife got an epidural just 
before she went into labor. 
The injection “missed” her 
spinal cord and the drugs 
went straight into her blood 
stream. She went into a 
coma and was, for hours, 
at the edge of death. The 
baby was delivered through 
a C-section. 
 Saget described the 
terrible anxiety that he, and 
two sets of grandparents, 
went through — and 
the relief they felt when 
his wife “fooled” the 
doctors and regained 
consciousness sooner than 
expected. 
You know, it’s a cliché 
that comedians come from 
unhappy families. But Saget 
is something else — his 
family was not unhappy in 

the usual way — fighting 
parents, no money, child 
abuse, etc. His parents 
were a traditional, Jewish, 
middle-class couple. They 
loved each other and they 
loved their children.
Saget wrote that the 
specter of death informed a 
lot of his stand-up humor —
graveyard humor he called 
it. But, maybe, the happy, 
loving side of his growing-
up informed the light side 
of Saget — the guy who is 
being called America’s Dad 
and the mensch who has 
been universally praised 
as being really nice and a 
good friend. 
 By the way, Saget 
(Danny Tanner on Full 
House) wrote he first met 
Michigan native Dave 
Coulier (Joey on Full 
House) in a Detroit bar 
that was having a comedy 
night. Saget was 21 and 
Coulier was 17. They both 
ended up in LA, worked 
clubs and became lifelong 
great friends. In 1989, Full 
House premiered, and they 
became TV buds, too. 
 
OTHER NEWS
As We See It is an 

American series based 
on On the Spectrum, an 
internationally acclaimed 
Israeli series. All eight, first-
season episodes will begin 
streaming on Amazon 
Prime Jan. 21. The Amazon 
series, like the Israeli 
series, centers on three 
young-ish, autistic persons 
who live in a hostel 
for adults with autism. 
The hostel staff tries to 
transition these young-ish 
folks into independent 
living. 
Rick Glassman, 37, an 
American comedian who 
has Aspberger’s Syndrome 
(a form of autism), plays 
one of the three main 
characters in the Amazon 
series. As We See It was 
created by Jason Katims, 
61, a veteran show-writer/
producer. Katims is the 
father of an autistic child. 
The Gilded Age 
premieres on HBO on Jan. 
24. This “prestige” series 
was created by and is 
written by Julian Fellowes, 
the Brit who created and 
wrote Downton Abbey. It 
follows the clash, in the 
1880s, between the “old 
money” New York City elite 
and rich newcomers. 
There appears to be 
no Jewish characters in 
the first season. However, 
Morgan Spector, 41, whose 
father is Jewish, has a juicy 
part as George Russell, 
a classic “new money” 
robber baron. I suspect 
in future seasons wealthy 
“clearly” Jewish characters 
will “brush up” against the 
“old guard.” This was the 
case in later seasons of 
Downton Abbey, which was 
set in the U.K. in the early 
20th century. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

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ARTS&LIFE

44 | JANUARY 20 • 2022 

Bob Saget

