"Adventures in Babysitting" is a 23-minute comedy short film from 1989, so two more years and this one is 30 years old. Actually, the Elisabeth Shue movie this is based on has its 30th anniversary this year already. If you take a look at the people who worked on this project we have here, in front of the camera as well as behind it, you will find a handful of names who may have worked on a couple other shows you have seen already. This especially refers to Brian Austin Green in his early days of an actor and he even won an award for his turn here. But despite this awards attention, the pilot episode was not deemed worthy of any follow-up and they never made a series. Perhaps not the worst decision as overall this just wasn't a convincing watch. Here are there we have a decent moment, but there were still at least as many bad moments where the comedy simply wasn't working. The laugh tracks wasn't really the problem here. One problem was however that you could feel on several occasions that the characters' lines were scripted, a common problem for child actors and it is tough to say if their delivery was the core issue or the actual material. In any case. I have to give this one a thumbs-down because there were also major weaknesses about the story, not just the words. For example: The plot twist with one bad guy beating up another at the end was pretty cringeworthy. I suggest you watch something else instead.
Adventures in Babysitting
(1989 TV Movie)
Bearable as a one-time episode, not enough for a series
1 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers