Episode #74: And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird

Listen to Episode 74 of the Podcast here while you enjoy the show notes.

SUMMARY - And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird tells the story of two young brothers who are working on a top secret robot. They’re making progress but something is missing. Then one night, older brother Josh (played by Joshua John Miller) goes to a Halloween party and accidentally summons the spirit of his dead father. The next morning, the robot works perfectly with dad (voiced by Alan Thicke) taking control, but that leads to other problems.

Screenplay by Tony Cookson; Directed by Tony Cookson, and released on November 15, 1991.

FILM DISCUSSION

After the opening credits showing a bunch of tech stuff, we're thrown into the young inventor's convention where our protagonists are tied with (and eventually beat) the bully kid.

There's a lot that doesn't make logical sense in this movie, but the biggest offender is the news reporter who knows there's an important story hiding behind the younger brother saying the word "robot."

Seriously, she breaks into their house and also sees wheel tracks to confirm that this must be a super high-tech secret created by a 10 & 15 year old.

Of course the robot is made out of a shop-vac, which would (and did) make those tracks.

Anyway, the dead dad gets transported into the thing, giving us the only special effects in this sci-fi movie.

It's amazing how quickly everyone excepts that the spirit is controlling the robot.

It's strange that in the home movies, they didn't use Alan Thicke. He provides the voice only (which he does well enough).

Anyway, the mom totally wants to do the robot when she learns her husband's "brain" is inside.

There's a lot of strange stuff that happens in this but all you need to know to completely, fully understand everything is that dad gets Albert Einstein to help him return back to heaven and the robot gets sad.

Awards Talk: This earned a Saturn nomination for Best Performance by a Younger Actor (Joshua John Miller). Miller was also nominated for a Young Artist Award along with his co-stars A.J. Langer and Edan Gross.

TRUE CRIME & POP CULTURE

This week the movie is from the same day as our first episode on Cape Fear. So, we don't cover TV, but do talk about the songs that debuted on the charts this week

Billboard 100 - debut singles of November 16, 1991

42. Can’t Let Go - Mariah Carey

79. Kiss You Back - Digital Underground

84. Too Blind to See - Kym Sims

88. All She Wrote - Firehouse

89. Ain’t Gonna Hurt Nobody - Kid n’ Play

92. In My Dreams - The Party

96. Love Me All Up - Stacy Earl

99. Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

We also talk about the fun end credits theme song that should have been more prominent.

Also we mentioned how this movie was featured in a "Kids Club" trailer from the people at "Everything is Terrible"

RANKINGS & RATINGS

Nikki 1-5 star scale - 2 out of 5

Jon 0-4 star scale - 1 1/2 out of 4

Would you watch it again? - It would be great if there was a higher budget so that the robot could do more things or the movie could afford more special effects. This movie was clearly catering to smaller kids and even if we would have seen it back in 1991, it would have been fun but not great. With that said, yeah we had fun with it and wouldn't mind seeing it again.

If you want to watch And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird, as of this recording in July 2022, it’s available on Tubi, Freevee, Vudu, Digital Rental, VHS. Check your local listings.

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