Some Time With... Debra Stipe!

Hey there, Fanarritos, Welcome back to a brand new episode of How Rude Canna Ritos. Today we are joined by a very special guest. We have Deborah Stipe on the podcast, who you know as Cindy, Danny's girlfriend, who is equally as obsessed with cleaning as he is, and she has quite the prankster for a son. We can't wait to talk to Deborah about all things Full House and what it was like to play a guest star that is loved by so many. So please welcome Deborah.

Hi Deborah, Oh there you are.

Hi, you good you, thank you for joining us.

I got to see Jody very very very briefly in Los Angeles, but now I get to see you too. Andrea.

Oh yay? Where wait? Where did we run into each other?

Well? Okay, so I was filming in an episode of Full House. Rewind Oh yes.

That's right, and you were coming in. That's right.

The one thing you like, I don't know? You like?

Uh?

Lost your I think you lost your wallet?

Oh yeah, the something I couldn't find I didn't like. Yeah, it was I I left the house and I had taken my wallet out of my purse and it was like only street parking, so I had to ask, can you pay for my street park Like it was just one of like a stupid thing, but it was like I just didn't and then I was like going to do a bunch of other stuff. So I was probably in a tizzy that I didn't have my my wallet. But yes, I do remember that. That was so fun very much.

You get tizzy when I don't have my wallet, right, But we just watched uh, Terror in Tanner Town last night, and we just recapped that episode. Oh my goodness, your first episode on Full House outstanding. You meet Cindy and Rusty who are just quite the duo.

Or wow, Cindy, she's really yeah, really struggling.

That was an episode. Yeah, yeah, sorry, especially with you, Stephanie. That was rough. He really uh hard time.

Yeah, but I think stuff gets him back in a particular episode, so we're gonna be all right. But but yeah, we were just joking about that too, because I think he says something about, you know, this means war and stuffs like any.

Time challenge excepted.

Yeah.

When I auditioned for that girls, it was like I walked in and they paired us up with kids. Oh right, like certain auditions you've had, like and they just kind of like forever live in your mind and memory. Yeah, yeah, with them, because when I met that kid, I was engaged at the time, but I didn't have any children, and I looked at him and I was like, I mean, if I had a kid, it wouldn't be him, right, Oh yes, I just thought we resembled each other. And we got to audition together.

Oh yeah.

It was so fun working with him, and we were all like, both of us were the newbies on the sete.

Yeah.

Yeah, so there's some comfort in that, which is great.

Yeah.

Oh no. We were talking about what a great job Jordan did playing just an absolutely like terrible kid that you you know, a character you love to hate exactly exactly.

That's a fine line, isn't it.

Right, Yeah, very much. Now did you audition like separately first and then get called back to do readings with the kids or were they just sort of like you you read together, right, right? It was like that, Okay, yeah, and I remember those days.

And so then we went out in the hall and kind of like you know, quick run through, get to know each other, and then we were in and I just remember we had fun. Yeah, you know, I think you know, you've had a good audition, especially for a project like this. I was like, that was fun. You know, Joe was in there, and I think Bob was in there, and there was this chemistry and fun and yeah, I got a strong maternal instinct even before I was a mom, So that was just it was a whole lot of fun.

Oh yeah, no, you were a great mom. Like when you grabbed his face and like we're going to talk that, I was like, I remember my mom doing that, you know what I mean, like just the arab of the chin. You're like, oh no, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Did you audition? Was it a scene from that episode or was it just a random scene that Jeff had given you? Do you remember?

I think it was two scenes. I think it was our first scene because I think they wanted to see how Bob and I would.

You know, chemistry read for you guys, yeah.

Artonizing right, right, So it was that scene and then it was some scene with with uh with Rusty maybe at the dinner.

Table okay, okay, yeah, yeah yeah.

Yeah, reprimand to him. I'm nervous about leaving because.

Right, you know, you know your kid and you know that he's gonna make some trouble.

We came up with a theory that that that maybe she knows that her kid is kind of a terror, and so she's like, I'm bringing him to these people's houses and then I suddenly have to go have an emergency the drag cleaner. I'm gonna be gone all day, And she is just like, you know what I mean, because we're like, what is an emergency at a drag cleaner's What does that do?

Right?

What is it? Where?

Yeah? What were you doing all day at the store?

That was so I think she was.

Like, I can't take this kid today. I'm gonna, you know what, go meet other people?

Yeah, right, stained from dressing.

But I mean like something that would be like urgent, right. I never played it like I was testing him or testing Bob like. I played it like there was a legit emergency.

Oh yeah, no, that's there was a legit emergency. I just like to I go off on tangents where I create absolutely ridiculous stories about what's really going on on full House. Uh yeah, and it's usually has nothing to do with what's actually happening.

But I'm sure you're talking some really great storylines. I'd like to hear some.

Oh oh, just ridiculous stuff. Yeah, do you remember your first day on set with everybody? I mean you kind you met jor first you guys had that the audition together, so that was kind of nice at least, But do you remember like coming on to set, were you nervous? Was it overwhelming?

Or I will say, like, you guys were such a family, and the beauty of that is like you were this super fun family, but also like you are truly the new kid on the block. So anytime as you're showing up to do like a guest spot or something, you are the new kid in the block, and you're also the pressures on to do a good job. Right. But everybody I remember, like Bob and Dave literally never stopped cracking each other out. Never just never caught. That was

Yeah, Paula was around. That's why her posters on DJ's wall. Paula was around a bunch during the fourteenth I.

Always wondered because there was some sort of joke that Bob made to John and kind of a nod to the poster and I was too new to right, But no, I just remember like going, you know, to lunch. You know, it's like when you're in the middle school and you're going to the lunch, right, everybody was great, Everybody was welcoming, good and truly, like Bob felt super safe. I remember I was engaged to my husband when I did the show.

Right, Yeah, it's not. Yeah, it's okay, yeah, because he just he had a sense of trust with him for sure.

Oh yeah, you guys had such great chemistry too, with the flirting with the martinizing, like it was just you're so perfect for.

Each other, and actually cast what martinizing means, so that we yeah, it's it's just.

Well, I'm kind of confused, but I think it's just another word for dry cleaning, but maybe in like an enviolment to leave friendly way.

Lightly sexier words, right, Yeah, yeah, because argonizing.

It was impressive, right, impressive? Yeah, yeah, then had you worked with.

Like on sets with a lot of kids before, because that was you know, sometimes actors have done a lot of more single cam stuff or more like you know, adult tell not adult Healvin, but like, you know, not casts with a lot of kids. And we were very kid heavy. Lots of kids.

Dogs, yeah, exactly, dogs. Talks. They say, don't ever act with kids or talks. Yeah, but well pretty well, I would say, Okay, two things helped me. One is I had done a whole lot of theater, so I love the stage and you know it's a little scarier, but it's so alive. Yeah, audience, So I love that. I love the fact that there was The schedule was so great, like the table reads on Monday and then by Friday year sho would be for a live audience. It's just

Yeah. No, our and our set was definitely when the Olsen Twins were you know, we had the baby wrangler Adria later off stage feeding them lines, and so that's it can get a little tedious at times, trying to like reshoot that again and again and you know, make sure Adrian is not in the shot and that the eyeline is correct. You know, it's it's it's a it's a process.

It's different than other sets. Haven't worked with kids before. You know, a lot of people adults are like, oh my god, this is the stakes forever, and you're like, yeah, it does, yeah, it does belong.

But there's also kind of like a beautiful humanity about it. You know, Yeah, we've got to slow down, We've got to let them do it again. Right, You've got to create an environment where they feel particularly safe. Yeah, you actually su with my daughter and that was like one of my biggest values was create a safe space kids. And if you don't feel safe, you can't experiment. And that's where created flows from. So make a safe space.

We talked. We talked about that a lot. How Full House was a really unique set in that it was an incredibly safe space, and so many you know, shows and things weren't that at the time. They had you know, terrible showrunners or you know, just people that screamed. And yeah, and we just really had a very safe family set to to you know, top to bottom, crew to cast.

Do you credit that to the leadership or to the cast or.

Yeah, all of that, I think all of it.

I think it starts at the top. Jeff is with Jeff Franklin.

Jeff was very conscientious of like the parents and the kids and not you know, and he's pretty like, you know, mellow, easy going. He has his moments when he's fighting for something,

So yeah, and you wonder if ahead of time, if they really thought through that or did they just get really fortunate that, you know what I mean?

I think we just got really fortunate. I always say, like Full House sort of just was like this little sprinkle of some sort of magic dust that made it an environment that was really unlike most sets. Yeah so, and it was just a matter of like, you know, and the reason we're still all friends thirty eight years later, you know, is because we just clicked as a family, like something about all of us just fit together really nicely.

It's got to feel so good because I get this a little bit, you know, how about the grocery store. Maybe somebody thinks they know me and then we you know, we trace a factor full House and so many people are so the heartwarming responses that I get, or how much the show like almost ministered to them, like touch them so deeply, encourage them so deeply. They always could trust the message. They could always trust what was going to be communicated. It's that's a really a gift to be part of.

Yeah, We've had it's been a real pleasure to hear so many guest stars, I mean, everyone pretty much that's come on the show has, you know, said it was one of the greatest guest starring experiences that I had because I just immediately felt welcome because it Ben guest star on a show, and I've most of the time everyone's super great and lovely, but it is You're like, oh, there's that's the family people, and then I'm just kind

And I'm sure a lot of those jokes were probably written into the show.

Really, probably a lot worked because they were things that you couldn't write into a family television show. Yeah, there was a lot of that that went right over our heads as kids.

But our moms would sit in the bleachers and the audience bleachers during rehearsals, and so every once in a while they'd be like, Bob that the kids are on you guys.

Yeah, you know, yeah, and they were like, sorry, mom, sorry, you know it was but again, they were like so sweet about you know. They It wasn't like some actors that would have been like, oh shit, you know, who are these moms telling me what to do? No, it was like oh sorry mom, you know, right, right, right, yeah, so but yeah, oh, Bob and Dave were constant, just constant.

So, Deborah, you did three episodes of Full House, right, did you know when you auditioned that you were going to be coming back a few times or was it Did you think it was just going to be a one time appearance.

I thought it was gonna be a one time appearance. You know, it's the actor. You don't always know. Yeah, and I don't know if those other episodes had been written yet, So I was so so grateful. You know, first one was Terror in Tanner Town, and then it was New Year's Eve, and then it was a Secret Admirer, which is my favorite for it.

Oh my gosh, everyone so many people loves that.

Episode, love that episode.

We just we recreated it Andrey and I recently, Yeah, we.

On on the podcast. We were we were all Jody and I split up the characters, so we did all of the characters, everybody.

And we but we couldn't play ourselves. We had to play each other. So we played each other and like four other characters. But it was such a complicated thing because because you're reading the voiceovers, which is Resti's words, but as the oh, yeah, I was like, this is I don't know who I am anymore? But it was really it was really fun. But we did that episode. We asked our audience, like, which one, you know, would

Oh, I can't wait for Andrea coming down the stairs taking the Jesse's hot for you and you're rocking the lips. That's it's iconic.

Yeah, Kimmy, Kimmy, there was no shortage of confidence there. She was. Of course, Jesse's in love with me, right, I believe this?

Yeah? So yeah, that was such a fun episode.

Now probably know that they actually wanted Bob and Cindy, Danny and Cindy to get married. And it's one of my life regrets. Girls, Oh, I need me to become a series regular, which I've never I've been a recurring character on a number of different shows, but I've never been like a series regular. There was another series that they were going to create from a guess but I did. But anyways, I regret it because it would have been so much fun. Yeah, we've had more time.

But hey, I mean, so, wait, why do you regret it? Was it your decision not to come back, or was it like a creative decision They just said, oh, we're going to break them up. No.

What was kind of weird is so my agents approached me and they said, they want you to be a series regular. They want you to get married to Danny. Oh my, this is like regular, and like the contract was sent and my agents thought that you know, there was it was a big cast, right, I mean.

Yeah, yeah, we grow exponentially, Yeah, exactly.

They thought that I would get lost, They thought that I feature film career, and I think that they didn't realize what a good fit it would have been.

Oh yeah, you know what I mean, that would have been an amazing an amazing marriage. You know that. Oh man, you guys had such great chemistry.

Well, you know, it's fullhouse always kind of got judged and critiqued by you know, the industry and critics and what it was. It was a show for the fans, for families, and and we sort of lived in that. But yeah, a lot of agents would have probably been like, oh, that's a you know, sort of geese sitcom. You have this to do, you know, but wow, we never knew I never knew this.

This is We didn't know that you were going to get fuller house out of it, you know what I mean. No, But what's weird is like this happens on shows, like you get really invested in a certain character, right, and then the actor isn't available or something, so suddenly they're just yeah, so where did Cindy go? Yeah? Is there ever? Like well, conversation was there's just a new girl.

Maybe she had maybe she had to leave San Francisco. Maybe Rusty was really getting involved in some in some unfortunate business in San Francisco, and she was like, we need to move out of here. Yeah, and she she sold the dry cleaning business, opened another dry cleaning business, uh somewhere just kind of outside Palo Alto, right before it was expensive though, and yeah, and she has been living there and uh and Rusty uh became a total tech nerd.

So yeah, there were and you know who she married, Henry Martin.

Henry Martin, Yeah, yeah, she married. Yeah, randomly popped into her store and she was like, oh martinizing and he was like, oh my god, no one knows me. And it was love at first sight and that's what happened. Yeah, it's great love, lovely story.

I like it.

This is what we do, like, this is how we amuse ourselves.

No more tonight, that's it.

It been so fun, though, to have you as a series regular and to be with us all the time, that would have been a great fit.

But it would have been fun. I actually didn't need that. With Candace Cameron maybe ten years ago. It was a women's event and she spoke and I sang, and I'd written a song and I got like some dancer girls to dance behind me. Anyways, I mean a great kind of you know, reconnection. Yeah, it would have been fun. It would have been fun. Girls.

Wow, I always thought that, oh gosh, Vicky was the only a potential uh marriage for Danny. Yeah, this would have changed.

This would have changed the whole trajectory a step brother. Yeah, that would be Can you imagine Rusty moving into the whole house?

Like that would be drama, right, I mean, particularly after the scene where Steph, wait, what.

Did you is that weird?

He did?

Yes, he tried to kiss you in New Year's Well, yeah.

That's that's he That's what I was saying I was literally like, and it gets weirder because Steph whites the onion and then kisses him on New Year's so like that's sort of weird. Like you know what I mean. If he moves in as the step brother. Oh okay, yeah, you know, things get a little weird. Can't share room with anybody. You can build an addition onto the house.

You go, can we do that? I don't know.

Oh.

Absolutely, this room at the backyard, this house is possible only through uh the non observation of physics because shape shifts. Like our first question was why did Cindy there's a doorbell on the back door, Why does she come to the back.

You're you enter from the back door. That's your first entrance.

And it's like, yeah, wouldn't I say, like, are we already that familiar? Have I been there before?

I mean, yeah, I'm you're delivering it's been two weeks. But your first appearance on the show his dry cleaning, right, but you had but you met two weeks ago, a whole two weeks, that's what he says in the show.

Maybe I had been delivering his dry cleaning for a while.

Well, it used to be Julio. See it used to be Julio and then you took them literally, that's in the script. I'm not just making some random stuff up the time, but you never know. But no, that was that was what happened. But that was my My shock was that Danny goes, Yeah, well two weeks ago, and I was like two weeks You guys are very cose, like yeah, okay in.

The kitchen, yeah, very cood.

Yeah, it was things were moving fast. I mean I see now they were going to get married. You know, you just felt right ye yeah, yep.

You guys were so good together. Did you ever see Bob after you finished doing the Full House episodes? Did you see him again years later? No?

No, I could love to, but I never did.

Oh yeah, yeah, he's absolutely.

Broke on all that.

Yeah, we talk about him a lot. We keep his spirit alive, cracking inappropriate jokes. Jody loves to constantly make an inappropriate comment.

Yeah, there's one to be made, I'll make it. So that was kind of like Bob.

Yeah, totally totally. Yeah.

Oh all of America, but in a special way to you girls. Pretty sweet.

Yeah, yeah, we got you know, getting to come back and do Fuller and like really experience sort of all of this over the past thirty plus years has been pretty awesome. And even you know, it's always crazy to me because the fans are so incredibly invested in the show, Like they recognize people who were in four episodes or five, you know, like they're just so like, oh, this was everything.

And I.

Love that about our fans. It's really.

Too No. I have a couple of girls that follow me because they're so passionate about the show. Oh, that's our connection. And when they found out I was meeting with you girls, they were like, oh, that's so nice.

Ah. When do you get recognized for the most when you're out and about is it full House? Is it another project that you loved?

It's so funny. It kind of depends on where I am. Oh, okay, like if I'm if I'm in a place where there's a lot of like females, young females like maybe in their thirties. Full House, full House Now Atlanta Airport. I was a recurring character on a Tyler Perry series, okay, and you would have thought, like the storyline was so important, Like they thought that I played the obstetrician, the baby doctor, right,

Audience.

People would be coming up to me asking you, asking me like, did you switch the DNA. I'm like, oh, time will tell.

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there was a lot of that. And then I did a film with Tyler Perry. Excuse me, I did a film with Terry Bradshaw. The film Just It did well. It's super fun. I played Terry Bradshaw's wife and they played a lot on airlines and so people recognize me for that too.

What's what's the title?

What was it called Figures?

Yeah? Figures? Oh yeah, we mentioned that.

Yeah.

Cool.

Okay, I'll look on my next flight. I'm gonna look in the menu.

And Glenn Close, Glenn Close is amazing in it. I mean it's about two brothers trying to find their biological dad and I'm married to Terry Bradshaw, which is hysterical. Oh, it's fun. It was a lot of fun.

So cool. Oh that's great.

And you're still acting to this day. Yeah, you're still I mean, you love I just loved it.

I love it. Atlanta has been a really great place to be. When we first moved here as kind of like, oh, I guess I'm done with that, like number acting. And then there was like industrial projects that I started get involved in, and then things started coming to Atlanta. So I did like an Army Wives episode and it's just kind of built from there.

Yeah.

So you know, if you have a good representation, you can live almost anywhere in these days, for sure. So I've got a beautiful film coming out in March and in March coming up. It's called Bob Trevino likes it, and it's with Barbara Ferreira and John leg Gazamo and Stewart and it is kind of it has an indie feel to it. It has won all these film festival awards at one big time at south By Southwest. Anyways, got a beautiful scene in it, and it's a beautiful film. You're going to love.

Oh, I can't wait. I love John Zamo.

It's really cool about it is that the woman that wrote it and directed it, it is her personal story. Oh and how it's really a beautiful picture of how when we love people well we can help heal their hearts. Kind Of cheesy, but it.

Is it's true.

Well, John Legazamo plays a different kind of character than he usually plays.

Uh, he's Barbarie, such a such an amazing actor, and he's an incredible theater actor like he that's where he does a lot of work and just brilliant, just really really brilliant.

Have you seen him on stage?

I have not seen him live on stage, but I have seen like bits and pieces of stuff that he's been in and I just am always like, wow, yeah, you're kind of a kind of an underrated I mean not underrated, but like you know, he did some move like super Mario Brothers and things like that that I think people didn't take him really seriously for. But he's yeah, he's great. Although, well, we'll definitely be looking out for that.

Where how do we watch it? Is it coming out on a streaming service? Or how do we watch it? Oh?

Great, Yeah, it will be in the movie theaters initially, and then in like a week it'll have wide release. Right okay, oh yeah, really really cool storyline. And then the other thing I do is I speak to women's groups, and so I had to speak to a group of women and I realized that there was probably a kind of a book that was coming out of my talk. So I wrote my first book.

Oh it's called Oh I love it and.

So Space to Cultivate your most flourishing and powerful self. I'm really about seeing women thrive at any age, at any age, I think, so I age, I'm sixty two, and I think sometimes women kind of give up, like they think, I don't know they Are you still dreaming? Are you still like cultivating what is your biggest gift? Are you still like feeling like you're moving forward? And I kind of want to make sure that women feel

Oh I love women need that. We need that.

It's oh, we really do.

We devote so much of our lives to caring for others, you know, our children, our spouses, our friends, and then you reach a certain age and you kind of feel invisible.

You know, you're kind of like, yeah, society sort of invisible.

Yeah, so we need these pep talks from you.

This is and you know what I love to is.

Too, and genuinely supporting each other.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and to realize.

Too that like not all of us are meant for fame, you know what I mean, Like I never became a household name. I worked regularly for eight years in LA right, but it's okay, like you know what I mean. It's just about like making a difference where.

You are, yeah, regularly.

Yeah, success if you can't fix the macro, so start with the micro exactly.

What's the name of your book again, I can't wait to I want to read it called Room.

To Bloom because I kind of envision a bloom Room like a safe space to like really flourish, and I kind of want to. I'm thinking about maybe even doing a podcast and calling it the Bloom Room and women on that are flourishing and maybe it really overcomes some tough obstacles, but just a way to inspire and here others women's stories about how they're living their best lives. I love you should do it.

Yeah, you should please invite us to be on it, Like yes, yes, I love this idea.

Yeah, we're in, We're in. Maybe that's what Cindy did. She moved on and became a podcaster again. She started out with a dry cleaning podcast and then you then moved into women's empowerment. Yeah, just like, look I'm an entrepreneur. Yeah, yeah, how much.

Here's brand ink stains, which is.

It's true, there's so much, there's so much. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Like this was so much fun to get to see you again and like have you on the show. I just we're really really great as Cindy on the show, and I know people loved you a lot and they will love hearing you talk about your experience. So it's been really great.

Thank you. Well, I'm honored to be back seeing you girls, and I just love what you're doing. So it's so much fun and it's a blessing people in so many ways. Thank you, Thank you.

Where can people find you?

They can find me on Instagram? Okay they can TikTok, but Instagram more likely, and in my bio you can write. The book is actually on Amazon as well. Okay, okay, yeah, Instagram is kind of where I plan myself.

Is it at Deborah Steit Yeah, it's just my name. Well, thank you so much for being on this episode. We really enjoyed. It was lovely to talk to you.

It was lovely to talk to you girls.

So good to see you. Lots of love to you.

So great. She is such a sweet Yeah.

I can't believe she was gonna be she was supposed to be or could have been Danny's wife.

Mind blown, right, No, I had no idea that that was even a possibility.

Well, in knowing that they should have in fuller, when Danny has a wife for like one episode or before they get divorced, they should have brought Hurt Me back, you know, that would have been.

Yeah, that could have been like, oh, they've actually they found each other again.

Yeah, on this opportunity a.

Dry cleaning Facebook group actually may reconnected.

That that probably exists, Yes, sadly, you.

Know what, if you can think it, it exists on the internet, which is terrifying. But yeah, thank you guys so much for listening to another fun episode of how Rude Tanner Rito's. You can also find us on Instagram at how Rude Podcast. You can also send us an email at how Rude Tanner Rito's at gmail dot com. And yeah, the checkout at Deborah Stipe you can follow her. Also, make sure to go to how Rude Merch dot com so you can check out our merch store with all

Your excitement everyone, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, everyone just went Oh no, thank you guys so much for listening. We love you and remember the world is small, but the house is full of martinizing, martinizing.

I wonder if this guy's still alive. If hecause, I'm going to follow him.

On because he probably has an Instagram. Just In on the show.

Hey, here we go. Bye bye