TMC
11-16-2024, 09:14 PM
https://mutantreviewersmovies.com/2022/09/10/uncle-buck-the-90s-sitcom-failure/
It’s got to be quite the demoralizing experience to be a director of a hit film who doesn’t have the ability to stop Hollywood from taking his or her product and turning it into a cheap television show. This happened a few times for John Hughes — most notably with Weird Science and Ferris Bueller — but there’s another, lesser-known offense that I want to talk about today. That’s Uncle Buck, the 1990 sitcom.
Created at the end of an incredible run of teen dramedies that fueled the zeitgeist of Gen X, Uncle Buck was a great way for classic Hughes to go out. You had the late John Candy as the titular Buck, a crude but lovable uncle who ended up babysitting his nieces and nephew with his unorthodox style. There was the teen angst of the older daughter. And then there was some little kid who’d go on to star in Home Alone shortly thereafter. It’s not my favorite of Hughes’ comedies, but I’d be fine placing it somewhere in the middle. It’s certainly entertaining with some outlandish scenes and funny quotes.
Then there’s the sitcom, which was obviously rushed into production and spat out onto the tubes a year later. CBS authorized a full 22-episode season, perhaps hoping that box office gold would turn into television ratings. It… did not.
It’s got to be quite the demoralizing experience to be a director of a hit film who doesn’t have the ability to stop Hollywood from taking his or her product and turning it into a cheap television show. This happened a few times for John Hughes — most notably with Weird Science and Ferris Bueller — but there’s another, lesser-known offense that I want to talk about today. That’s Uncle Buck, the 1990 sitcom.
Created at the end of an incredible run of teen dramedies that fueled the zeitgeist of Gen X, Uncle Buck was a great way for classic Hughes to go out. You had the late John Candy as the titular Buck, a crude but lovable uncle who ended up babysitting his nieces and nephew with his unorthodox style. There was the teen angst of the older daughter. And then there was some little kid who’d go on to star in Home Alone shortly thereafter. It’s not my favorite of Hughes’ comedies, but I’d be fine placing it somewhere in the middle. It’s certainly entertaining with some outlandish scenes and funny quotes.
Then there’s the sitcom, which was obviously rushed into production and spat out onto the tubes a year later. CBS authorized a full 22-episode season, perhaps hoping that box office gold would turn into television ratings. It… did not.