As part of its ongoing effort to throw whatever it can find against America’s TV screens in the hope that something will stick, NBC is developing a single-camera comedy based on Problem Child. Readers of a certain age may remember that the 1990 film followed a husband and wife who adopt a jackass orphan. The kid proceeds to dismantle their lives piece by piece until even calm, affable John Ritter seriously considers abandoning him to the whims of a serial killer. (That’s season finale stuff right there.)
Problem Child will be adapted by Scot Armstrong, who wrote Old School and The Hangover Part II. He also wrote the film version of Starsky And Hutch, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for him to reverse gears and turn a movie into a TV show. It’s unknown whether NBC’s Problem Child will follow the plot of the first movie or its sequel and eventual cartoon adaptation, both of which found the titular child upsetting people at his elementary school. Either way, as the only member of the original cast to appear in all of Problem Child’s various incarnations, Gilbert Gottfried will hopefully be getting a call any day now.