'Fuller House': New Details Explain Why Warner Bros. Removed Creator Jeff Franklin | THR News - video Dailymotion

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A studio executive testifies that multiple female writers accused the TV veteran of boasting of orgies, denigrating female directors and expressing the wish that female staffers would get hysterectomies.

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00:00A Warner Bros. executive is now revealing details as to why they booted

00:04Fuller House creator Jeff Franklin off the Netflix series.

00:07Franklin created Full House in the 1990s and served as showrunner on the more recent

00:11Netflix-rebooted version Fuller House until he was dumped from the series at the end of 2018.

00:16In a lawsuit filed in April, Franklin blamed Brian Behar, who took over showrunning

00:21duties once Franklin's three-year deal with Warner Bros. was up, claiming he was the

00:25victim of career ambition. According to the former showrunner, Behar took advantage

00:29of the MeToo movement and concocted a plan to compile unflattering and distasteful

00:34information about Franklin that was either fabricated or twisted versions of events.

00:39But the studio's VP of Labor Relations, Cilicia Platten, is now challenging this claim,

00:44saying the investigation into Franklin's behavior dates all the way back to 2016,

00:48which was before the public allegations against Harvey Weinstein that triggered the

00:52MeToo movement. An initial investigation was conducted after a complaint was made

00:56about Franklin's on-set behavior, including concerns about his handling of pregnancy-related

01:01requests for time off and equal treatment for male and female writers for the show.

01:06According to Platten, that first investigation concluded with Franklin only receiving

01:10verbal counseling on appropriate workplace behavior, but a second investigation was

01:15conducted in November of 2017 when Warner Bros. received a new complaint that Franklin had

01:20created a toxic work environment in the writers' room. During the investigation in which Warner Bros.

01:25interviewed eight Fuller House staffers, one woman said Franklin would talk about orgies

01:30he had over the weekend. It was also claimed that Franklin complained about hiring females

01:34or people of color as directors, expressed preference for male writers, described female

01:39directors as all the same, and made sexualized comments, among other things. Specifically,

01:44it was claimed that Franklin said,

01:46she is probably going to be pregnant next season, and I wish I could make all the women on my

01:50staff get hysterectomies.

01:52Behar was also interviewed during the investigation, but according to Platten, that did not

01:56factor in my concluding that Franklin had created a toxic and inappropriate work environment,

02:01and that his statements only corroborated with claims made by other witnesses.

02:05As for Behar, he swears never speaking to the press about Franklin and looks to counter the former

02:10showrunner's claim under California's anti-SLAPP statute, which would give him the chance to

02:15strike the case based on the fact that any alleged statements he made to Warner Bros.

02:19and the media were within his free speech rights because it involves a publicly important

02:23topic, specifically in this case, powerful men in Hollywood engaging in inappropriate

02:28workplace behavior.

02:29Behar concludes that he was not a substantial factor in causing Franklin harm.

02:34For more updates on this story, head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.

02:40The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Neha Joy.

'Fuller House': New Details Explain Why Warner Bros. Removed Creator Jeff Franklin | THR News

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