Despite backlash from the estates of John Hughes, John Candy, and Kevin Meaney’s television career, ABC has given a series order to Uncle Buck, its sitcom remake of the 1989 comedy. That film starred Candy as the unlikely caretaker to his nieces and nephews, a large, fun-loving, irresponsible man who gleefully shocked everyone with his slovenly appearance and boorish manners. The new Uncle Buck series will star Mike Epps as a fun-loving, irresponsible man who shocks everyone with his… hat.
“Look at that hat!” the neighbors will exclaim. “It’s seated far too high on his head! Why, it has the lackadaisical tilt of a carnival grifter or jazz pianist! Who would ever trust him with a child’s welfare?”
The show will attempt to answer that question every week with a cast that also includes Nia Long, James Lesure, Sayeed Shahidi, and Aalyrah Caldwell, whose embrace of and/or embarrassment at Epps’ unconventional approach to family-rearing and hat-wearing will eventually inspire us all to cut loose a little—even if we are, say, the surviving family members of a director or actor who really didn’t want this to happen.
The show is also expected to address Uncle Buck’s refusal to wear collared shirts with a blazer, and what we can learn from that.