But Elayne Zimmerman, his English teacher at ASHS, recognized his comedic impulses and encouraged him to pursue a career in movies or writing instead. Although he became interested in comedy as a child, watching Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Jack Benny, and Burns and Allen with his father, he had initially planned to become a doctor. The Philadelphia area influenced Saget’s career in several crucial ways. Thus, comedy was 'a means to avoid pain' and helped him survive (Saget, 2-3). As he describes in his memoir, several members of his extended family, including his older sisters Gay and Andrea, and twin siblings he never knew, died at young ages. During Saget’s formative years, comedy became a coping mechanism for anxiety, loneliness, and sadness.
The family followed Ben’s career thus Bob spent his childhood in Virginia and California before returning to Pennsylvania and graduating from Abington Senior High School (ASHS).
His father rose from being a butcher to becoming head of meats for Food Fair, a Pennsylvania-based grocery chain. His grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia and Russia. Robert Lane Saget was born in Philadelphia on to Benjamin M.
