David Lipper Says He Lost “Step by Step” Role to Sasha Mitchell“ ”Because He Looked Like He 'Would Sell More Lunch Boxes'

While on the 'How Rude, Tanneritos!' podcast, Lipper revealed he lost the role of Cody to Sasha Mitchell because of a simple marketing decision

Full House fans remember David Lipper as DJ Tanner’s on-again-off-again boyfriend Viper, but the actor almost played another memorable '90s sitcom character: lovable doofus Cody on Step by Step.

On a recent episode of Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber’s Full House re-watch podcast How Rude, Tanneritos!, Lipper explained his circuitous route to playing Viper, and how he’d been developing a version of the character before he ever set foot on the show.

Viper, of course, was introduced in the show’s eighth and final season as a member of Uncle Jesse’s (John Stamos) band. Lipper, 50, said the character was in part inspired by John Travolta’s Vinnie Barbarino from the ’70s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter.

Related: Did Full House's Kimmy Gibbler Have Siblings? Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber Weigh in

“I was a big Welcome Back, Kotter fan as a kid,” he said. “So I tried to bring some of that into Viper and kind of some rocker version.”

In fact, Lipper had previously used a version of the character to audition for another beloved TGIF comedy. Not long after he arrived in L.A. as a 21-year-old aspiring actor, Lipper landed an audition for Step by Step. “

"It came down to me and Sasha Mitchell for this role of Cody, the cousin who lives in the van,” he recalled. “Really, the Viper character is the way I did it. You know, the Vinnie Barbarino, baseball cap on. So, I already, like, felt really good about this kind of character that I’d been working on.”

According to Lipper, the show’s producers loved his take on the character. “They're like, ‘Listen, Sasha's still not here. If he doesn't show up in five minutes, it's yours because we absolutely love you.”

“And, at four minutes and 50 seconds, in walks Sasha Mitchell,” Lipper continued. “And he goes, ‘Dude!’ He’s like, ‘I got so lost, this place is so big!’ I'm like, ‘I'm not gonna lose to this idiot, am I?’ And like, ‘Wait a second, the character's an idiot…’”

The show’s producers liked Mitchell’s Midwestern vibe and asked Lipper to read the part again — without the New York-Vinnie Barbarino spin he’d put on the character.

Lipper said the show’s producers took three days to decide between him and Mitchell — a rarity when casting a TV pilot.

“Apparently, this went back and forth. I think maybe [famed sitcom producers Thomas L. Miller and Robert L. Boyett] themselves were at odds on it. I don't remember,” Lipper recalled.

“Whatever happened, it took three days. And then finally, they decided to give it to Sasha. And the casting director — I'll never forget this — told me the final decision was a marketing person who said they thought Sasha would sell more lunch boxes. And that was the end.”

Lipper, however, went on to land what would have been a starring role alongside Giovanni Ribisi, Hilary Swank and a very young Kaley Cuoco in a Fox sitcom pilot called Reality Check. When the network declined to move ahead with the series, Lipper says then president of Warner Bros. Television, Les Moonves sat him down for a talk.

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“He said, ‘Look, we're fans. I'm a fan. We're gonna put you on another show,” Lipper recalled. “And that's when they put me on Full House.”

Lipper ultimately appeared in four episodes as Viper before Full House ended in 1995. On a June episode fellow Full House alum Dave Coulier’s podcast, Full House Rewind, Lipper explained that Viper and D.J.’s love story was cut short when the show was canceled ahead of its eighth season finale.

“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.”

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