Problem Child (film)

Protests over posters

One of the posters for the film showed the cat Fuzzball in a tumble dryer, with the implication being that Junior had put him inside.

Home media

The film was more successful on home video. The VHS version adds an extra bit just before the closing credits, in which Junior interrupts the sequence to tell the audience that he'll be back next summer for Problem Child 2. Then he disappears and a loud crash noise is heard, followed by Ben shouting, "Junior!", him laughing, and the roll of the closing credits. The VHS version was released in January 1991.

The first DVD release was released by GoodTimes Entertainment in May 2001. It and Problem Child 2 were released together on DVD in the US in March 2004, as a package entitled Problem Child Tantrum Pack. They were presented in open-matte full screen only. No home video release thus far features the deleted footage shown on TV airings of it. The film 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 its first widescreen Region 1 DVD release, in August 2008. It was released on Blu-ray in August 2017.

TV version

The film first aired on NBC on September 15, 1991, with 12 minutes of previously deleted scenes. All the profanity was dubbed with different and appropriate words and phrases.

Legacy

Sequels

The film inspired two sequels: the first, Problem Child 2, was released theatrically in 1991; the second, Problem Child 3: Junior in Love, was a television film aired on NBC in 1995. The first one brought back the original cast in their original roles and picked up where the first film ended. Amy Yasbeck was given a new role with a new dynamic opposite to her original character.

In the third and final film, William Katt and Justin Chapman replaced John Ritter and Michael Oliver as Ben and Junior respectively. Gilbert Gottfried and Jack Warden reprised their roles as Igor Peabody and Big Ben. The film does not follow the storyline of the first two films.

Television series

The film was adapted into an animated television series that aired on USA Network for two seasons, from October 31, 1993, to December 4, 1994. Gilbert Gottfried was the only original cast member to be featured as a voice-over actor, making him the only cast member involved in all three films and the animated series.

In 2015, NBC ordered a pilot for a live-action TV series based on the film, produced by STXtelevision, Imagine TV, and NBCUniversal, but the pilot was not picked up by the network.

In popular culture

The film was featured in a famous scene from Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of Cape Fear, where it is shown screening at a movie theatre attended by ex-convict Max Cady (Robert De Niro), attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and the latter's family. Cady, trying to unsettle Bowden and his family, loudly and obnoxiously cackles at the film.

Adaptations

In 1995, a Turkish-language adaptation of the film was made called Zıpçıktı, which was directed by Ünal Küpeli and featured Şenol Coşkun in the lead role.