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Problem Child

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Problem Child-1-

Release Date: July 27, 1990

Runtime: 82 Minutes

Rated: PG

Problem Child is a 1990 American comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan. The film stars Michael Oliver, John Ritter, Amy Yaseback, and Jack Warden.

Plot[]

Junior is a 7-year-old devilish kid who was abandoned at birth by his mother. He leaves a path of destruction in his wake and was returned to an orphanage 30 times, until Mr. Peabody, a adoption agent convinces a couple, Ben and Flo Healy to adopt Junior as his first day at his new home as his new grandfather, Big Ben and their cat, Fuzzball fall down the stairs.

Meanwhile, a notorious serial killer, Martin "The Bow Tie Killer " Beck, who is Junior's pen pal, escapes prison to meet Junior, but doesn't know he is a kid yet. He is essential to the plot.

Junior is rejected from going to a kid's birthday party, but still goes and ruins it.

Thinking all Junior needs is some love, Ben takes Junior on a trip, which he proceeds to ruin.

Marty comes, meets Junior, discovering that he is a kid. He kidnaps Junior and Flo, leaving a ransom note. After Ben wakes up and sees the note, he goes crazy, but finds a nice picture of him in Junior's things, then rescues him. Junior calls Ben "Dad" after he's rescued.

Cast[]

Production[]

The film was shot on location in Texas, from October 2 to November 24, 1989. The primary locations were Dallas, Farmers Branch, Fort Worth, Irving, and Mesquite. Also, there were two weeks of reshoots in Dallas (see below) in March 1990.[4]

John Landis, Jim Dale, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, John Waters, Andrew Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Walter Matthau, Frank Oz, Carl Reiner, Simon Callow, Chuck Lorre, Woody Allen, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Jerry Lewis, Tim Conway, Christopher Guest, Donald Petrie, Garry Marshall, Barry Levinson, Stephen Fry, Danny DeVito and Gene Wilder turned down the offer to direct.

Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Richard Dreyfuss, Steve Martin, Rick Moranis and Kurt Russell were considered for the role of Little Ben before it was turned over to John Ritter. The part of Martin "The Bow-Tie Killer" Beck was originally offered to Christopher Lloyd, who turned it down because of his commitments with Back to the Future Part III, released two months before Problem Child, and was replaced by Michael Richards; this was the second role, following UHF (1989), that Lloyd had turned down only to be taken by Richards.[5] A then-unknown child actor Macaulay Culkin reportedly auditioned for Junior, but Michael Oliver was ultimately cast. (Culkin played a character akin to Junior albeit with a far darker motive three years later in The Good Son.)

During a 2014 interview on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski revealed that the story was inspired by the 1988 Los Angeles Times article "An Adopted Boy--and Terror Begins"[6] about a married couple suing an adoption agency after they were not informed that their adopted son had severe mental health issues with violent tendencies and had been previously returned to the agency multiple times.[6][7] While other writers pitched the story as a horror film in the vein of Bad Seed or The Omen, Alexander and Karaszewski thought it had potential as a comedy, envisioning a dark, adult satire of the then-popular trend in films where cute kids teach cynical adults how to love, as seen in Baby Boom, Parenthood (directly spoofed by the film's poster),[8][9] Look Who's Talking, Uncle Buck, Mr. Mom, Kindergarten Cop and Three Men and a Baby. However, the studio insisted upon turning it into a children's film, a conversion that necessitated numerous reshoots and rewrites, leading to a difficult production that left all involved disappointed and anticipating a box office failure. It defied these expectations, becoming a surprise hit and Universal's most profitable film of 1990 but was still so embarrassing for Alexander and Karaszewski (Alexander even cried after the cast and crew screening) that they tried to distance themselves from it, which proved difficult. Studios were initially reluctant to hire them or take them seriously based on their work on such a prominent disreputable film but, as the years went by, they would eventually come to work with executives who were children when it first came out, and grew up watching its frequent TV airings, and were excited to be meeting its writers. Looking back, they still feel it's "a mess" but take some pride in being involved with one of the "very few [PG-rated] children's films that black and that crazy", citing the scene where Flo commits adultery with Martin while Ben is catatonic and contemplating murdering Junior in the next room as an example. They added, "And it's funny".[7]

In 2015, Dennis Dugan revealed that he was hired to direct the film, his first feature one (he'd previously directed episodes of the TV series Moonlighting, Wiseguy, and Hunter), after jumping on a coffee table in a meeting with Universal executives: "You're looking at me like I'm fucking nuts, and this is what we want. We want this kind of chaos". Dugan suggested John Ritter, with whom he'd worked as an actor before turning to direct, for the role of Ben Healy. The studio was initially reluctant, feeling they needed a more famous actor, but eventually relented. Jack Warden turned down the role of "Big Ben" Healy before Dugan offered him half of his net points; he was so touched that he took the part, although he refused Dugan's offer. Amy Yasbeck was cast as Flo; she and Ritter fell in love during production, eventually marrying in 1999. Ritter died in 2003. Both Ritter and Gilbert Gottfried were allowed to ad lib while filming, but Universal reprimanded Dugan for shooting too much footage of the latter. The film's first test screening was disastrous, with 70 percent of the audience walking out, verbal complaints from viewers, and a score of only 30. The studio forced two weeks of reshoots, including a retooled ending and the addition of key scenes, such as Lucy's birthday party.[10]

TV Version[]

Twelve minutes worth of deleted footage were featured in most, if not all, television airings of the film. None of the following scenes have ever been available on DVD. The first TV version aired on September 15, 1991, on NBC-TV. The profanity in it was re-dubbed with milder obscenities and phrases.

  • A scene where Ben and Flo are leaving for church and their neighbor scolds them for the mess Fuzzball made in her yard and he is forced to pick it up. This also explains why he intentionally drives over there near the end of the film, on his way to rescue Junior, fixing a plot hole. This is then followed by an extra establishing shot of the orphanage. This would have taken place right after Flo agrees to adopting a child, and says "Okay! Let's get a kid."
  • A scene at church where Ben explains his troubles to the priest. This would have taken place right after Martin throws a dumbbell at the warden in prison.
  • A longer version of Ben and Flo's first meeting with Igor in his office. In this missing footage, he inquiries as to whether they cared about what hair and eye color the kid they wanted to adopt had. A brief outtake of this scene can also be seen in early trailers for the film. The regular version picks up where it left off, right after Igor takes down a big book and puts it on his desk, following his line "A child that you can take into your home, and love."
  • A scene with Junior packing as he talks to the Mother Superior.
  • A short scene right before Ben and Flo meet Junior for the first time, where they get ready for him.
  • A longer version of Martin's ink blot examination. Normally, the scene plays out with the man who was examining him kicks out the warden for interrupting him, and, after resuming the examination, Martin, out of nowhere, says "I see...BLOOD!", proceeding to strangle the psychiatrist to death. But in this version, after resuming, the camera then does a zoom-in to segue into a hallucination scene from Martin. During it is a flashback from a prior event, in which he thinks he was being blamed for a crime that someone else did. He, accompanied by his priest, is about to be sent to the electric chair, but not before receiving a cake in the form of a bow-tie from "JR" (whom he doesn't know is Junior). On the way to the chair, he grabs the priest, puts a cake knife in front of his neck, and shoves the warden to the chair. He then flees from the chamber, locks the door, and yells at the warden, "Don't wait up for me, warden! I'll get the lights!", as it ends, and the regular film continues afterwards.
  • A short scene shortly after Junior exists the house in which Roy yells for Ben to hurry up.
  • A slightly-longer shot of the campsite, just before the movie shows Ben and Junior at Campsite #32.
  • A scene following the camping trip in which Ben and Junior have a conversation about the latter's painting, depicting Roy being knocked out. This would have taken place right after Ben sees that Junior taught their talking parrot, Polly, to say "Dickhead", and right before the scene at Lucy's birthday party. During this missing footage, we also learn more about how Junior got to know Roy better than Ben, saying to him, "He had it coming. Roy only pretends to be your friend. He doesn't like you, and his family doesn't like me."
  • A scene in which Junior causes havoc with a RC helicopter by terrorizing the milkman and paperboy. The copter then crashes into the front door's glass. A photo of this scene is shown on the back of the original VHS release, and also appears in early trailers for the film, as well. It would also explain why, in the next scene, the glass was virtually destroyed, fixing another plot hole. Junior is also wearing an outfit from Big Ben's Sporting Goods, after he crashed Flo's car into it, resulting in a lot of damage. This entire scene is a parody of Apocalypse Now, right down to the use of Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, and Junior saying "I love the smell of spilled milk in the morning. It smells like victory!".
  • A scene in which Martin calls up Ben after he finds out Junior and Flo have been kidnapped.
  • A scene where Ben arrives at the circus and uses a backpack to pretend $100,000 is inside it. The Mother Superior can be seen here in her actual overall last appearance in the film.
  • A chase scene between Ben and Martin. During this scene, the latter bumps into a woman named Cindy from Leavenworth, dressed up as the Bearded Lady, who asks him if he recognizes her. He shoves her out of his way and she calls out to him, saying, "You told me you loved me! You called me your little kumquat!", a repeat of Flo's line from an earlier scene.

Sequels[]

Animated Series[]

There was a animated TV series, Problem Child (TV series), that aired in 1993 . Gottfried was the only original cast member to be a voice actor. This makes him the only person to appear in all movies and the cartoon, besides Jack Warden who appeared in all movies, but not the cartoon.

Soundtrack[]

The Beach Boys performed a song, "Problem Child (song) for the film's soundtrack.

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