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Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star film poster
Directed by	Sam Weisman
Produced by	Adam Sandler Jack Giarraputo
Written by	Fred Wolf David Spade
Starring	David Spade Mary McCormack Alyssa Milano Scott Terra Jenna Boyd
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	September 5, 2003
Running time	98 min.
Language	English
Budget	~ US$17,000,000
IMDb profile

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is a 2003 film directed by Sam Weisman.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Cameos 4 Trivia 5 External links

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

Dickie Roberts is an eponymous former child star on a TV sitcom who shot to fame with his catch phrase "This is Nuckin' Futs!" (A spoonerism on "Fuckin' Nuts"). Since his heyday, he has been reduced to parking cars at Morton's and going on Celebrity Boxing, where he gets beat up by a heavily-tattooed Emmanuel Lewis. From the public's point of view, Dickie is a walking joke or "the washed up actor freak".

Dickie is so convinced that a new Rob Reiner movie in the works, Mr. Blake's Backyard, is his comeback vehicle, not even his agent's (Jon Lovitz) inability to get him an audition deters him. He pesters Tom Arnold at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting to hook him up with Reiner. After he is kicked out because he's not an alcoholic, Dickie fakes being wasted and crashes what turns out to be a Lamaze class. However, at the class is Brendan Fraser, who agrees to call Reiner for him.

Reiner bluntly tells Dickie that the part is not within his abilities because it requires knowing how a regular person lives. Unfortunately, he never had a real childhood, having grown up in the limelight, then being abandoned by his mother (Doris Roberts) when his show was canceled. Desperate to prove to Reiner that he's right for the part, he sells his raunchy autobiography to raise $20,000 to offer a family to "adopt" him for a month. As expected, once Dickie hires his "family," things do not go well as he tries to fit into the household.

Dickie learns much about himself, and life in general, and of course gets the part. Along the way, he helps the family's son get a date with his dream girl, and the daughter get on the pep squad. Nevertheless, the main lesson he learned is from Blake's Backyard itself: sometimes the things you want are in your own backyard. When his gold-digger girlfriend runs off with the self-centered father of his fake family, Dickie gives up the part to be with the family he has come to love.

The movie ends with a faux E! True Hollywood Story report on Dickie, who now turns his real story into a new sitcom that uses all of his old friends, as well as his new family (including the mother, whom he has married). The final scenes are a take-off on Relief albums, this one listed as "To help former child stars". The lyrics include such treats as Maureen McCormick threatening to "bust the fucking head" of the next person who calls her Marcia, and many in-jokes for fans of old TV sitcoms.

The movie shows Dickie interacting with numerous other fellow former childstars (played by over two dozen actual former stars lampooning their own careers, such as Leif Garrett, Barry Williams, Dustin Diamond and Danny Bonaduce).

• David Spade - Dickie Roberts
• Alyssa Milano - Cyndi
• Jon Lovitz - Sidney Wernick
• Mary McCormack - Grace Finney
• Craig Bierko - George Finney
• Jenna Boyd - Sally Finney
• Scott Terra - Sam Finney
• Edie McClurg - Mrs. Gertrude
• Rachel Dratch - Rob Reiner's Secretary
• Hal Sparks - Publisher
• Brendan Fraser - Himself

• Dick Van Patten
• Michael Buffer
• Emmanuel Lewis
• Leif Garrett
• Tom Arnold
• Danny Bonaduce
• Dustin Diamond
• Rob Reiner
• Willie Aames
• Fred Berry
• Corey Feldman
• Todd Bridges
• Gary Coleman
• Jeff Conaway
• Tony Dow
• Corey Haim
• Florence Henderson
• Christopher Knight
• Mike Lookinland
• Maureen McCormick
• Eddie Mekka
• Jeremy Miller
• Erin Moran
• Haywood Nelson
• Jay North
• Ron Palillo
• Butch Patrick
• Paul Peterson
• Adam Rich
• Rodney Allen Rippy
• Marion Ross
• Ernest Thomas
• Charlene Tilton
• Brendan Fraser
• Barry Williams
• Jonathan Loughran
• Peter Dante
• Sasha Mitchell

Paramount Pictures was sued for trademark infringement and dilution after this film was released. Paramount had not requested permission for using the Slip 'n' Slide in this movie.^{[citation needed]}

In two different scenes, each set about a day apart, all of the characters can be seen wearing the same outfits. (First scene-before the 'dance lessons', second scene is when they are getting off the bus the day that Alyssa Milano's character appears.

When Heather Bolon finishes her dance routine, you can see her pull her hands out of her hair, but in the next shot you can see her pull her hands out of her hair.

• Official site
• Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star at the Internet Movie Database