Rusty (played by Jordan Christopher Michael) is the son of Cindy, Danny's girlfriend, in season four. He has a reputation for being a troublemaker and a prankster.
Overview[]
In "Terror in Tanner Town" (4.10), he spends the day with the Tanners, and creates disturbance throughout the household, unscrewing the salt shaker, tucking the tablecloth into Danny's pants, punching a hole in the milk carton, giving D.J. and Stephanie trick gum that turns their teeth black, locking Jesse, Becky, Stephanie, and D.J in their rooms by tying a rope between both rooms' doorknobs, taping over Joey's comedy video with a clip of himself on his own comedy show (which he calls "Rustyvision"), making Danny fall in a mud puddle while playing football with him, luring Comet with a rump roast while D.J. and Stephanie are bathing him, getting Michelle’s eye painted black from looking into a kaleidoscope (although that was meant for Stephanie), and putting green hair dye in Danny’s shampoo.
It is learned that the motivation of the pranks is to turn Danny away from Cindy, as Rusty hopes his parents will get back together. At the end, as he is enjoying a root beer float, D.J. and Stephanie turn the tables on him by putting dog food in the drink and he does not realize it until he's about to take a sip. He decides to go make his own ice cream soda treat, and they ask him to go look in the wine cellar. He then falls victim to one of their pranks when Michelle sprays him with whipped cream and the other girls follow suit.
In “Secret Admirer” (4.11), when Cindy and Rusty come over to the Tanner family barbecue with Cindy's semi-homemade apple pie, it's discovered that Rusty ate a piece while they were on the way there. But that's only the beginning.
He causes a major commotion with a fake love letter he types (as he is inspired and intrigued by D.J.’s crush on Ricky, the paperboy). He intends for her to receive it (as well as make her think that it came from Ricky). However, he does not address it to D.J. and simply signs it “Hot for You”. As a result, it gets around to everyone in the Tanner household from someone else and leads to pandemonium as to who the "Secret Admirer" is. Michelle says she knows who wrote it and rats Rusty out. He accuses her of lying, but his mom knows he's lying, so he ultimately fesses up.
In "Happy New Year" (4.13), Stephanie actually kisses him, after he kept saying that he was going to kiss her, but he was only playing with her.
In "Stephanie Plays the Field" (4.22), he is on Danny’s Little League Baseball team. He comes up with the name "Tanner Twister" for Stephanie's pitch.