Problem Child (1990 film)

Infobox Film
name = Problem Child


caption = Theatrical release poster
director = Dennis Dugan
producer = Robert Simonds
writer = Scott Alexander
Larry Karaszewski
starring = John Ritter
Jack Warden
Michael Oliver
Gilbert Gottfried
Amy Yasbeck
Michael Richards
music = Miles Goodman
cinematography = Peter Lyons Collister
editing = Tom Finan
Daniel P. Hanley
Mike Hill
distributor = Universal Pictures
Imagine Entertainment
released = July 27, 1990
runtime = 78 min.
country = flagicon|USA
language = English
budget = $10 million [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100419/business Problem Child (1990) - Box office / business ] ]
gross = $53,470,900
followed_by = "Problem Child 2" (1991)
"" (1995)
amg_id = 1:39380
imdb_id = 0100419

"Problem Child" is a 1990 comedy about an orphan child who deliberately wreaks havoc everywhere he goes. It starred John Ritter, Amy Yasbeck, Gilbert Gottfried, Jack Warden, Michael Richards and Michael Oliver.

Taglines

*He is so bad, even the nuns refused to keep him!

*Attila the Hun. Ivan the Terrible. Al Capone. They were all seven once.

Plot

Ben Healy (John Ritter) is a pleasant but brow-beaten yuppie working for his father "Big Ben" (Jack Warden), a tyrannical sporting goods dealer. Ben would love to have a son, but his obnoxious wife Flo (Amy Yasbeck) has been unable to conceive. Ben approaches less-than-scrupulous adoption agent Igor Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) with his dilemma, and Igor presents Ben and Flo with a cute 7-year-old boy, Junior (Michael Oliver). However, Junior is hardly a model child; mean-spirited and incorrigible, the child leaves a path of serious destruction in his wake, and is even pen pals with Martin Beck (Michael Richards), a notorious serial killer. After the cat ends up in the hospital, the house catches on fire, and Junior displays his effective but unethical method for winning in Little League (involves hitting rival players in the crotch with a baseball bat), Ben is having serious doubts about Junior when Beck escapes from jail and decides to kidnap his faithful correspondent, along with Flo. While Ben first sees this as good riddance to his browbeating wife and the trouble making Junior, when he sees signs that Junior is not the monster he appeared; through a series of pictures Junior drew, he depicts children and adults who treated him poorly as deformed monsters with hostile surroundings, but depicted Ben as a person in a pleasant background, revealing that he did value him as a father figure. Ben, realizing that Junior's behavior was simply a reaction to how he himself was treated, undertakes a rescue mission to get Junior back from Beck.

Cast

*John Ritter as Ben Healy
*Michael Oliver as Junior Healy
*Jack Warden as Big Ben Healy
*Gilbert Gottfried as Igor Peabody
*Amy Yasbeck as Flo Healy
*Michael Richards as Martin "The Bow Tie Killer" Beck
*Peter Jurasik as Roy
*Dennis Dugan as Father in the store (cameo)
*Colby Kline as Lucy

equels

Two sequels followed:
#"Problem Child 2" (1991) brought back the original cast in their original roles and picked up where the first film ended. Amy Yasbeck, however, was given a new role with a new dynamic totally opposite her original character.
#"" (1995), the final film, Gottfried and Warden reprised their respective roles as Mr. Peabody and Big Ben Healy.

Animated TV series

There was an animated TV series that aired in 1993. Gottfried was the only original cast member to be featured as a voice-over actor.

pecial DVD release

"Problem Child" and "Problem Child 2" were released together on DVD in the US on March 2, 2004, as a package entitled "Problem Child Tantrum Pack". These films were in the pan and scan format only. However, no home video release so far features the bonus footage shown on the USA Network's TV airings of the film.

"Problem Child" was re-released on the "Family Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature" DVD (with other comedy films like "Kindergarten Cop", "Kicking & Screaming", and "Major Payne") in anamorphic widescreen (being the film's first widescreen Region 1 DVD release) on August 5, 2008. [ [http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=60500 Family Comedy Pack Quadruple Feature, NEW NBC Universal Store Universal Studios New Releases, NBC Universal Store] ]

Deleted Scenes

These scenes were absent from the theatrical and home video versions of the film, but were present in TV airings on USA Network.

*Junior talking to a nun prior to his being adopted.
*The Bow Tie Killer having a flashback before strangling the prison psychiatrist.
*The Healy's old lady neighbor insulting them for Fuzzball having gone to the bathroom in her flowers.
*Junior drawing a picture of Ben whacking Roy with a frying pan.
*Junior terrorizing the milkman and paperboy with an RC helicopter (although cut from theatrical/home video airings, a picture from this scene appears on some home video boxes.)
*Ben making it look like the backpack has $100,000 in it.
*The Bow Tie Killer encounters a bearded lady at the circus.
*Before Junior exits the house, Roy yells for Ben to hurry up.
*At the circus, one of Junior's old nuns spots Ben running around.

References

ee also

*"Problem Child 2" (1991)
*"" (1995)

External links

*imdb title|id=0100419|title=Problem Child
*amg title|id=1:39380|title=Problem Child
* [http://videodetective.com/home.asp?PublishedID=1001 "Problem Child" Trailer at VideoDetective.com]