Bob Saget always wanted us to feel better

"Hey, it's Bob," said the voice on the other end of the phone line. "Please leave a message and I'll be calling you on Monday [and] share something funny or positive that's going on in your life. Otherwise, nice to hear from you …"

The voice on the call-in line belonged to Bob Saget — who died Sunday at the age of 65 while on tour in Orlando — and it was his way of fishing for ephemera for his weekly his podcast, "Bob Saget's Here for You," which he had launched during the pandemic because (as he explained upon launch) he really wanted to be there for you.

Through the decades, and through all the shows — "Full House" above all — Saget really did make a good impression of someone who wanted to be there for us — to make us feel better, to realize that life is indeed ephemeral, to laugh now (right now) before it's too late.

Saget had enormous stature, as a constant presence in our lives for 45 years. We first met him as the breakout comedian on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," then Danny Tanner on "Full House," later host of "America's Funniest Home Videos." Adaptive and resourceful, he reinvented himself for new roles (the narrator of "How I Met Your Mother"), new reboots ("Fuller House ''), new crazes ("The Masked Singer"). Not merely skillful at sustaining relevance, he was a master of the game — TV, the most fickle and tenuous game of them all.

There were in fact two public Sagets, one only passingly familiar to the other, indeed one almost an affront to the other. There was America's Dad on "Full House," the other was America's (as he liked to joke) Dirty Dad. The former was gentle, warm and sentimental, the latter a polar extreme and star (or one of them) of the Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza-directed 2005 movie, "The Aristocrats," about the dirtiest joke ever told. On stage, Saget worked deep blue. On TV, for the most part, he maintained that well-scrubbed Danny Tanner persona.

This Saget was a household name in households where jokes like "The Aristocrats" were inconceivable. As Danny Tanner, he played the widower father who held a family together in the wake of tragedy by "talking about it — that’s what helps me," he told the kids. "Talking about the memories. That’s what keeps her [their mom] in your heart." He talked for eight seasons, sometimes sang — the episode where Danny serenaded D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure) to "My Girl" — and mostly hugged. A lot of hugs, or at least 193 of them closing out 193 episodes from 1987 to 1995.

But Saget's heart belonged to stand-up. He was the comic's comic — the guy who launched on "Carson '' and never looked back, except in gratitude. Saget had supported countless other stand-ups coming up, as they had supported him in turn. "In an often ruthless business he was historically not just hilarious but more importantly one of the kindest human beings I ever met in my career," Richard Lewis wrote on Twitter.

Born in Philadelphia on May 17, 1956, to Benjamin, a supermarket executive, and Rosalyn, who worked in hospital administration (he also had a sister, Gay, who died of the autoimmune disease, scleroderma, and whose story would serve as inspiration for his 1996 film, "For Hope"), Saget graduated from Temple University, then went to USC for graduate work. Stand-up beckoned, and he became a regular at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood. That was the place to get noticed and he quickly was. Carson's "Tonight" (the first appearance in 1987) was the first really big break, which instantly opened other doors — "Late Night with David Letterman," "An Evening at the Improv," even CBS News, which tied him out as the resident comedian on the ill-fated "The Morning Show."

In 1987, he was cast in "Full House," the first indispensable piece of the network's "Thank God It's Friday" lineup, which would later be filled out with "Perfect Strangers" and "Family Matters." He became charter host of "AFV" at a time when "videos" were actually a thing, and from that point forward became what Hollywood calls — with both awe and admiration — a successful working actor.

By the 2000s, he was reinventing himself too, as the alter ego of Bob Saget (on "Entourage") or Ted Mosby's (Josh Radnor) voice on "How I Met Your Mother." Then, along with everyone else, the pandemic forced further reinvention, which included the podcast, and a YouTube channel that became whatever Saget wanted it to be. Love … giving back … or simply trying to make people feel better were its themes.

Those also found their way into the YouTube channel as well. In one edition last September, Saget riffed through tears for 37 solid minutes on Norm Macdonald, who had died the day before. They had known each other since 1978. "Last week," said Saget, "I got a text [from Macdonald] and it just said, 'I love you,' and I said [back to him] 'I love you, Norm.' That was my last communication with him."

"Sixty-one! [Macdonald's age]. That's a sin for all of us that he's gone," Saget said, his voice breaking. "[But] one of the gifts of my life is that he loved me and I loved him.''

There are many in the comedy community who are feeling the same way about Saget this morning, countless viewers, too.