For “Fuller House” fans, one of the best parts of the Netflix revival is seeing D.J. Tanner and high school sweetheart Steve Hale together again.
As the cast gears up for season five, actor Scott Weinger shared some of his favorite memories as Steve in an interview with TODAY.
“Steve is an interesting character because, if you watch the original ‘Full House,’ you think he's, like, a dopey wrestler without much going on upstairs, except for his passionate love of D.J. and his love of proms and food,” Weinger said. “But you fast-forward to present day, and he's one of the Bay Area's most successful podiatrists, and a divorcé. But the thing about Steve that's consistent is his love of eating, and his love of D.J. Those are the two things that never change, even if he buckled down and got really good in school, and apparently went to medical school and did really well, and now has a successful foot practice.”
Weinger, who joked that his favorite D.J./Steve moments are “the 47 proms they've been to,” added, “I think they did a great job portraying a real teen relationship.”
He explained, “I thought it was really cool how — I mean, it was horrible and heartbreaking and, in retrospect, my character regrets it — but the way they broke up, the way they realized that they were going to go off to college and had the whole world ahead of them and that they needed to sort of take a break and see how it went. I thought they handled the relationship really well.”
Weinger said there are two subjects “Full House” fans often bring up.
"'Do you really eat that much in real life?’ And the answer is, yes, I really actually do. My son called me on it. He's like, ‘Is that why Steve eats so much because you eat so much?’ And I said, ‘I don't think so.’ But I definitely do eat like that. And then the (other) thing that people always want to know about is the Aladdin costume in Disney World. I mean, I did 50 episodes of the show, but that's the one that everybody talks about,” said Weinger, who wore the costume in a 1993 episode as a nod to his role in Disney’s “Aladdin.”
Of the numerous gags about Steve's hearty appetite, there’s one that stands out to Weinger.
“One of the producers of the original series told me that his favorite line from ‘Full House’ ever was this episode where Vicky Larson, who is Danny Tanner's girlfriend, made pesto pizza for everybody. Goat cheese and pesto pizza. And none of the kids wanted to eat it 'cause it was goat cheese and it was green and it was disgusting. But Steve, of course, gave it a try. And I think I had a line in the show, something like, ‘I learned somethin' today. From now on, if it comes out of a goat, I'm eatin' it.’ And this guy said that was his favorite line of the whole series. I was very flattered.”
Weinger, who spends time behind the camera as a TV writer and producer these days, said being on "Fuller House" might be “even more fun than the original” because the opportunity was so unexpected.
“They called and said, ‘Hey, do you wanna just be in this reunion episode? We're making a ‘Full House’ reboot, and it's just one episode.’ And so I went and it was fun. And then they said, ‘Can you do another one? And another one?’ And all of a sudden, here we are, like five seasons later.”
“It's just been so cool to get back together with these people that I love so much and have known for so many years,” he said. “We're back on our original soundstage where we made the original ‘Full House.’ And I got my same parking spot from when I was 17 years old. It's really weird. But I'm loving every second of it.”