This was used only from around April to early September of 1987. The first three months of '87 used a snowbound home in the woods intro. At least this intro gets you pumped about the upcoming premiere of Full House if somehow you were sent back in time. It seemed to be just an experimental intro just be different compared to the more lavish CGI ones by NBC and CBS at the time.
During ABC's "We Belong Together" campaign from 1986-87, ABC decided to phase out the Star Tunnel intro, and they replaced it with a new intro, but still keeps it's music. So they used it for a limited time only in 1987, to start the "Something's Happening" campaign of fall 1987-88.
+20thCenturyFoxFan2003 Yeah, but it was still a dumb move on ABC's part. The intro they came up with at the end of 1987 was a dull, uninteresting intro. They should've kept the star tunnel and waited until at least 1989 to phase it out. The star tunnel was the best intro ABC ever had.
How was it getting old by 1987? Did you see the lame intros that they replaced it with? There was no reason they couldn't have CGI'd the star tunnel intro. CGI wasn't prevalent until the start of the 1990's anyway.