Problem Child

Problem Child (1990)

Timing: 1:21 (81 min)

6.069/10
796

6.969/10
84181

5.5/10
35000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 12

Actors and characters

Release date

1990-07-27

Country

United States

Production

Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment

Genre

Comedy, Family

Budget

$10 000 000

Revenue

$72 270 891

Website

Director

Dennis Dugan

Actors

John Ritter, Jack Warden, Michael J. Oliver, Gilbert Gottfried, Amy Yasbeck, Michael Richards, Peter Jurasik, Charlotte Akin, Anna Marie Allred, Adam Anderly
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Robert Simonds

Operator

Peter Lyons Collister

Composer

Miles Goodman

Artist

Nelson Coates

Audition

Valerie McCaffrey, Nancy Nayor

Editing

Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill, Tom Finan
All team (44)

• Filming period: October 2, 1989 – November 24, 1989.
• In a 2014 interview, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski stated that the inspiration for writing this screenplay came from a 1988 article in the LA Times titled “Adopted Child: Nightmare Begins.” It told the story of a couple who sued an adoption agency on the grounds that they were not informed about their adopted son's serious mental health problems, complicated by a propensity for aggressive behavior, and that he had been repeatedly returned to the adoption agency from other adoptive families. Other writers on the project had suggested making it in the style of Merian C. Cooper's (1900-1986) 'The Bad Seed' or Richard Donner's (1930-2021) 'The Omen' (1976), while Alexander and Karaszewski envisioned a potential comedy. They imagined a sophisticated satire in the vein of popular films at the time in which children teach adults how to love – like 'Baby Boom' (Charles Shyer, 1987), 'Parenthood' (Ron Howard, 1989), 'Look Who's Talking' (Amy Heckerling, 1989), 'Uncle Buck' (John Hughes, 1989), 'Mr. Mom' (Stan Dragoti, 1983), 'Kindergarten Cop' (Ivan Reitman, 1990), and 'Three Men and a Baby' (Leonard Nimoy, 1987). The studio insisted on filming a children's movie, so the script had to be rewritten many times, and some scenes reshot. Everyone involved in the project was sure it would fail. Surprisingly, those expectations did not come true.
• According to director Dennis Dugan, the preview screenings were extremely unsatisfactory – the audience loudly expressed their displeasure, and many simply walked out of the screenings. Reshoots of a significant number of scenes took another two weeks.
• Throughout the film, Junior and Flo never speak to each other. There are scenes where she says something to him, and one scene where he runs past her and says something, but they never exchange dialogue.
• Throughout the film, Ben is shown several times with books on raising children. On the back cover of each book is a portrait of the author. Each time, it's a portrait of the lead actor John Ritter in different costumes.
• Macaulay Culkin was initially considered for the role of Junior.
• Jack Warden agreed to star in the film after Dennis Dugan promised him half of everything he himself would earn. Warden was so touched by this that he agreed to film, but did not take Dugan’s money.
• At the end of the film, when Junior and his father crash into a car and it flips over, they are talking. Meanwhile, in the background by the overturned car, a wheel spins sometimes and doesn't spin at other times.