These people are funny for a reason.” Dugan adds that Al Pacino felt similarly when they were shooting Dugan’s 2011 film Jack and Jill. Ritter was encouraged to ad-lib his lines, with Dugan saying about his own philosophy of on-set improvisation: “ just encourage it.

The couple, who also co-starred in Problem Child 2 and in a 1991 episode of NBC’s The Cosby Show, had a daughter together in 1998 and married in 1999. “He was funny as can be, and she’s funny as can be, and they just hit it off,” Dugan remembers fondly. Ritter and Yasbeck, who played his wife Flo, had never met before a table read at Dugan’s place.

Ritter and Amy Yasbeck met at Dugan’s house - and later tied the knot “ said to me, ‘We’re thinking Ritter is a good idea - do you think you could get him?’ and I said, ‘Maybe,’ ” Dugan recalls with a laugh. By a stroke of luck, Universal came to Dugan the next day with a change of heart. But the studio thought Ritter was too much of a TV actor and that the role needed “somebody more famous.” Despite getting the no, Dugan took the script to Ritter and told him to read it overnight the actor loved it. “About three hours later, Casey Silver calls me, and he says, ‘OK, you got up on that coffee table, and you got the job.’ “ĭugan pushed for Ritter to star, but the studio took convincingĭugan knew Ritter from their days as young working actors, and the director wanted to nab the Three’s Company star for the part of adoptive father Ben Healy. We want this kind of chaos,’ ” Dugan recalls. “I said, ‘You’re looking at me like I’m f- ing nuts, and this is what we want. While Dugan was pitching his take on the comedy to the studio’s president, producer Brian Grazer and other execs, he decided at the spur of the moment to deliver his spiel while standing on the sturdy wooden coffee table in the president’s office. 'Back to the Future': Director, Stars, Producers Reveal 10 Secrets You Didn't Knowĭugan was a successful TV director in the 1980s, cutting his teeth on episodes of Moonlighting and other shows, but he hadn’t yet directed a feature when Universal was on the hunt for someone to helm Problem Child. Dugan has directed 14 films in his career, including the Adam Sandler comedies Happy Gilmore (1996), Big Daddy (1999), You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (2008), Just Go With It (2011) and both Grown Ups films. “ we had our first preview, 70 percent of the audience walked out, and some people were actually verbally angry,” reveals Dugan, who made his feature directorial debut with the film.

With the John Ritter-starring comedy hitting the 25th anniversary of its Jrelease, director Dennis Dugan tells The Hollywood Reporter that the film’s first test audience did not exactly appreciate the film. Problem Child was Universal’s most profitable film of 1990, but its path to success was, well, a bit problematic at times.

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