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Finding Work Is Never a Problem for Bob Saget

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BALTIMORE SUN

“I mean, ‘Videos’ is a fad, obviously,” Bob Saget said. “And people are going to be saturated with a lot of video shows. I think there’s a 24-hour video channel coming on. But, I think, you know, whatever happens, happens. I’m not going to run around scared. I’ll just find something else to do--maybe lawn work.”

Finding work is not exactly a problem these days for Bob Saget. The comedian stars in two of television’s hottest shows. Saget is host of ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” which soared into the Nielsen Top 10 this spring and never left, spawning numerous imitators and boosting sales of home video equipment across the country.

He also stars as Danny Tanner in the ABC Top 20 sitcom “Full House.” Tanner is the single parent of three daughters in the show.

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Saget met with television critics for a press conference in Los Angeles to promote yet another television show, his HBO special “Bob Saget: In the Dream State,” which premieres Aug. 4 on the cable channel.

The show is a combination of dramatized dream sequences and stand-up comedy performances by Saget, who directed the show and co-wrote it with his wife, Sherri Kramer Saget, an attorney turned writer. The Sagets have two daughters.

Saget’s status as a parent is important because so much of his on-screen persona is connected with parenting.

Part of what makes his Danny Tanner character so appealing to the preteen audience for “Full House” is that the three children run the house he’s supposed to be running. In that way, he’s a child’s dream parent. Saget also cultivates that image in his HBO special.

“The HBO show is actually about being a parent and trying to get stuff done, but you can’t because you’re up all night,” Saget said. “People would say it has a yuppie, ‘thirtysomething’ kind of feel to it sometimes. . . . It really has a lot of me in it.”

Saget said that because of the runaway ratings success of “America’s Funniest Homes Videos,” being himself these days mainly means being busy.

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“The success of ‘Videos’ has made me busier. But even when I didn’t have any work, I would always find a lot of work for myself to do,” he said. “I’ve always been kind of a workaholic, and I love working a lot. That’s why I love juggling all these shows.”

Juggling involves taping “Full House” Monday through Thursday and “Funniest Home Videos” on Friday. “And I’m also one of the writers on ‘Videos,’ ” Saget said. “So (the other writers) will come to my dressing room at ‘Full House’ during the week when both shows are in production. . . . And, during lunch hours and in between scenes I’m not in on ‘Full House,’ we’ll be writing the ‘Videos’ show.”

Saget sidestepped the controversy surrounding the use of videos that show people or animals being hurt. “I don’t choose the videos. Some I like. Some I don’t like. And that’s the way it is.”

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