
He thwarts Ben's first date by phoning her jealous former husband, who storms into the restaurant and picks a fight with Ben. Throughout the film, Junior and Trixie engage in an escalating prank war.īen decides to date again to find a new wife and mother, but Junior is against it. Thorn ( James Tolkan), sits on the toilet. Junior panics and promptly flushes it, and it explodes right when his teacher, Mr. When Junior confronts Trixie for harassing him, Trixie states that she can harass anybody she wants and punctuates her point by giving Junior a lit M-80. Junior, annoyed at Ben's sudden love interest, attempts to vandalize Annie's picture hanging in the hall, only to be foiled by Trixie ( Ivyann Schwan), Annie's daughter, who is as mischievous as Junior. When Ben comes to, he sees the school nurse, Annie Young ( Amy Yasbeck in a different role than in the original film), and becomes smitten with her. Murph retaliates by dropping the school's satellite dish on Junior, but it misses him and hits Ben instead, knocking him out.

There, Junior meets Murph (Eric Edwards), the school bully, and gets on his bad side when he tapes him to the chalkboard. Horrified, Igor promptly promotes Junior to sixth grade. On Junior's first day of third grade, he finds that Igor Peabody ( Gilbert Gottfried), the adoption agent from the first film, is the principal at his new school. Moments after they arrive, dozens of women line up in their front yard, all wanting to date Ben.
Problem child film movie#
The third movie tends to be forgotten in retrospectives on the series, and it's easy to understand why.One year after their previous misadventures, Ben Healy ( John Ritter) and his adopted son Junior ( Michael Oliver) move from Cold River, Illinois to the quiet community of Mortville, Oregon to start over, following Ben and Flo's divorce. Problem Child 3: Junior In Love's only real saving grace is the return of Gilbert Gottfried's Peabody, who holds the distinction for being the only actor to appear in all three films and the short-lived Problem Child cartoon. The slapstick and toilet humor falls consistently flat and the Junior/Ben dynamic doesn't work as well without the original actors that said, Chapman actually does a good job with the lead role. The first two movies wallowed in how mean-spirited they could be within the confines of being a children's movie, but Problem Child 3: Junior In Love is a nurtured dud. There are some returning players, including Jack Warden as Ben's father and Gilbert Gottfried as the shrill Mr.

Problem Child 3: Junior In Love recast Junior with Justin Chapman ( Jingle All The Way) and his father Ben - previously played by the late, great John Ritter ( IT 1990) - with William Katt. Problem Child 3: Junior In Love aired in 1995 on NBC, and finds Junior competing for the affections of a girl named Tiffany alongside three other boys.
Problem child film tv#
What some fans may not realize is that there's also a third, made for TV movie in the series.

The first two Problem Child movies are far from perfect, but to a certain generation who grew up watching them on video, they're nostalgic comedies. Related: The Birds 2: Why Tippi Hedren Plays A Different Character In Land’s End The film deliberately cranked up the toilet humor too, to the point where an early cut was given an R rating before it was re-edited. Like the original, it didn't receive great reviews and grossed less than half of the original's haul. Problem Child 2 was quickly rushed into production before Junior's performer Michael Oliver grew up too much. Problem Child was reportedly a messy production where even the filmmakers themselves had little hope for its success, but it proved to be a surprise hit.

Problem child film serial#
Problem Child is notable for being a little darker and involves a couple who adopt a red-headed boy named Junior who causes them no end of mystery and is even penpals with a serial killer played by Michael Richards. Other entries include Kindergarten Cop, the Look Who's Talking series, and, of course, Home Alone. The first Problem Child was one of several examples of the "precocious kid causes mischief" subgenre that became popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Problem Child 3: Junior In Love is a terrible ending to the cult comedy series.
