“I was slated to be her next boyfriend for the rest of the series,” the actor said on the ‘Full House Rewind’ podcast
D.J. and Viper’s love story was cut short by Full House’s cancellation.
That’s according to David Lipper, who played the rock n’ roller with a heart of gold in the final season of the beloved sitcom.
Lipper, 50, joined host Dave Coulier, 64, on the most recent episode of his rewatch podcast Full House Rewind, and revealed what he said was the original plan for the two characters.
The actor appeared in a handful of episodes during the show’s eighth and final season in 1995, playing Viper, a member of Uncle Jesse’s band who woos eldest Tanner sister D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure).
“I was slated to be her next boyfriend going on and on for the rest of the series,” Lipper told Coulier. “Until they found out they were gonna be canceled.”
According to Lipper, the show’s producers decided D.J. would ultimately have to choose between Viper and Nelson (Jason Marsden), an ex with whom she’d reconnected. In Lipper’s final Full House appearance, Viper and Nelson compete for D.J.’s affections, leaving her so exasperated she chooses neither of them.
“She was gonna make a decision between Nelson and me, because I dumped her, and then I wanted her back. And then, it was gonna be me, but then she picked nobody because the show was ending,” Lipper recalled. (Ultimately, producers teased a reunion with her longtime boyfriend Steve, played by Scott Weinger, a storyline fulfilled toward the end of the Netflix reboot Fuller House in 2020.)
As both Lipper and Coulier noted, ABC canceled Full House in 1995 due to the show’s rising costs, despite its continued success.
“We were told that there was a possibility when The WB network started that we were gonna do two more seasons on the WB,” Coulier explained. “But at that point, season 8, people were kinda like, ‘How many more stories can we tell? We’ve already told a 192 of these.’ Like, you know, not everybody was into it. I was like, ‘I’ll do two more seasons, man. I’m having a blast. You know, I’ll come in and do Popeye and walk out.’ ”
“It was an expensive show,” Lipper chimed in.
“At that point, it was expensive,” said Coulier. “Yeah. Salaries had gone up. And as shows do, you know, everybody’s salary everywhere on a show and success, everybody starts feeding out of the trough. You know? Especially when we knew that syndication money was there. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re in syndication. You wanna do some more?’ ”
Despite his brief tenure on Full House, Lipper became, as Coulier put it, “part of our Full House family.”
Lipper said he’s remained in touch with Bure, John Stamos and Jodie Sweetin — who also starred alongside him in the 2021 romcom Just Swipe. He even reprised the role of Viper in two episodes of Netflix’s Fuller House reboot, and said people still remember him as the character.
“I get recognized more from Full House than the 60 movies I’ve done since put together,” he said. “I’m gonna say that again: 60 movies, and take them all together, and I get recognized more from Full House. It was a very big show. Still is.”
