‘Problem Child’ Comedy Based On Movie Gets NBC Pilot Order

NBC is going ahead with Problem Child, giving a pilot order to a single-camera comedy inspired by the 1990 Universal Pictures/Imagine feature that starred John Ritter and Amy Yasbeck as a couple conned into adopting a troubled 7-year-boy who wreaks havoc in their lives and leaves a path of destruction anywhere he goes.

Scot Armstrong, writer on such R-rated feature hits as Old School and The Hangover Part II, wrote the adaptation of the PG comedy, described as a family show about the cat-and-mouse game between a set of parents and their brilliant but mischievous child.

Armstrong is executive producing with Imagine TV’s Brian Grazer, fellow producer of the original movie Bob Simonds of STX Entertainment as well as TBD Entertainment’s Peter Traugott and Rachel Kaplan for Universal TV where TBD is based.

Problem Child, on which the late Ritter met his future wife Yasbeck, was a hit, grossing $72 million on a $10 million budget and spawning two sequels.