Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991)

Five kids are left home when their mother leaves town on a three-month vacation to Australia, only to have their geriatric babysitter die of a heart attack, leading to the eldest teen, Sue Ellen, to scam her way into taking a job at a hip Los Angeles fashion company to feed and support her needy siblings.

Director:

Stephen Herek

Writers:

Neil Landau, Tara Ison

Stars:

Christina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy, John Getz

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Christina Applegate	...	Sue Ellen Crandell
Joanna Cassidy	...	Rose Lindsey
John Getz	...	Gus
Josh Charles	...	Bryan
Keith Coogan	...	Kenny Crandell
Concetta Tomei	...	Mom
David Duchovny	...	Bruce
Kimmy Robertson	...	Cathy
Jayne Brook	...	Carolyn
Eda Reiss Merin	...	Mrs. Sturak
Robert Hy Gorman	...	Walter Crandell
Danielle Harris	...	Melissa Crandell
Christopher Pettiet	...	Zach Crandell
Chris Claridge	...	Lizard
Jeff Bollow	...	Mole

Storyline

Single mother goes away for the summer. The kids are first delighted but then find that Mom has hired the sitter from hell to stay with them. When the sitter dies of a sudden coronary they deposit the body at a mortuary only to discover all their summer expense money was in her purse. The kids must find a way to survive the summer without mom or her money. This means actual work!

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Plot Keywords:

babysitter | job | fashion | fast food restaurant | deception | 

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Taglines:

No rules. No curfews. No nagging. No pulse.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 June 1991 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Real World

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Gross:

$25,196,249 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinema Plus, Douglas, Home Box Office (HBO)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On Sue Ellen's desk at work, two pictures of the kids can be seen, one of Melissa. This picture of Melissa was also used in production with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

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Goofs

When Sue Ellen goes to send a fax, the fax machine only has a power cable connected. In fact you can see the empty phone jacks where a cable(s) should go.

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Quotes

Kenny Crandell: Don't you ever go outside?
Walter Crandell: Nope, no TV, and no prizes.

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Crazy Credits

The two groundskeepers for the cemetery stand over the Babysitters grave and comment how nice it was for her to leave them the money. The tombstone reads "Nice Old Lady inside who died of natural causes".

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Connections

Referenced in Elvira's Movie Macabre: Night of the Living Dead (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Life's Rich Tapestry"
Performed by Modern English
Courtesy of TVT Records
Written by Modern English
Published by American Momentum Music Ltd.

User Reviews

What I have to say about my favorite movie ever..."Can't you call Lizard or Hellhound?"

Being one of those people that isn't heavily into the whole cinema "thing," I have my classic favorites and I stick to them. But this one outshines them all. When asked 'what is your favorite movie?' at times I am hesitant to disclose DTMTBD as my number one. First, it must be clear that this is obviously not necessarily a "good" movie, in the eyes of the Academy or critics, but it's not supposed to be. That's the beauty of it, and that's why Christina Applegate is an actress!

There are so many quotes that I would like to add to my "comments," but as most of you have probably seen it, you don't likely need a commentary; so instead I'll just get back to the QED Report so Swell can have it to New York by this afternoon.

It's too bad she and young Brian are married now -- I used to watch the grunion run with him. We'll see.