Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)

A thirty-something former child star hires a foster family to re-create the childhood he never had.

Director:

Sam Weisman

Writers:

Fred Wolf, David Spade

Stars:

David Spade, Mary McCormack, Alyssa Milano

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Spade	...	Dickie Roberts
Mary McCormack	...	Grace Finney
Craig Bierko	...	George Finney
Scott Terra	...	Sam Finney
Jenna Boyd	...	Sally Finney
John Farley	...	Referee
Bobby Slayton	...	Commentator
Michael Buffer	...	Michael Buffer
Fred Wolf	...	Dickie's Corner Man
Alyssa Milano	...	Cyndi
Emmanuel Lewis	...	Himself
Joey Diaz	...	Emmanuel's Entourage (as Joey 'Coco' Diaz)
Kevin Grevioux	...	Emmanuel's Entourage
Brian Clark	...	Guy in Car
Leif Garrett	...	Leif Garrett

Storyline

Once, he was on top of the world as a popular child actor on TV. Now, he's Hollywood's punchline about everything wrong with people who were famous as children. All Dickie Roberts wants to do is find that one gig that will restore his honor and everyone's love of him, so after learning that Rob Reiner's making an ambitious new movie destined to sweep the Oscars, Dickie's first in line to audition. He walks out having learned he certainly looks the part but can't act it... yet, owing to his very unusual childhood. To research the role, Dickie embarks on a bizarre scheme to live with a suburban family to see how the average American child lives, having them put him up as their "son". But once his gloves are off, Dickie discovers how great it is to be part of a true family, and whether he gets the part or not, his attempt at method acting will certainly change his life forever.

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Plot Keywords:

white panties | panties | marilyn monroe character | hare krishna | 2000s | 

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Taglines:

50 million people used to watch him on TV. Now he washes their cars.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for crude and sex-related humor, language and drug references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 September 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Dickie Roberts: (Former) Child Star

Filming Locations:

741 S Hudson Ave, Pasadena, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$17,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,660,540, 7 September 2003, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$22,734,486, 23 November 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Happy Madison Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

EASTER EGG: There are three easter eggs on the Region 1 (U.S.) DVD - all are outtakes. "Left" button once on first selection of second page on the Special Features menu; "Left" once on the Commentary selection in the Languages menu; and select "Nucking Futs" by hitting "Down" once while cursor on selection above the line in quotation marks.

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Goofs

Leif Garrett tells Dickie that Reiner's new movie would be similar to when Frank Sinatra had a film career comeback and won the Oscar for "From Here To Eternity." When Sinatra did "From Here to Eternity" his acting career was still pretty fresh and did not do many films in the years prior. So, although his Oscar win was highly impressive, it was not a career revival.

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Quotes

Dickie Roberts: May I help you? Was I being too loud in my treeehouse?

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Crazy Credits

About 30 former child stars sing "Child Stars On Your Television" a la "We Are The World".

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Connections

Referenced in Bad Movie Beatdown: Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2010)

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Soundtracks

Bottle Bump
Written and Performed by Andrew Kaiser

User Reviews

Nostalgic fun

A silly comedy starring David Spade as a former child star who "hires" a family in order to give himself a real childhood experience so he can nab a new part in a Rob Reiner movie. The premise is as silly as you can get but it does have some fun injokes involving quite a number of former child actors from the 70s and 80s which is great fun for tv nostalgia buffs.. Pleasant enough comedy. GRADE: C