Shark Bytes

How did they ever plan on keeping this show going? The baby would eventually grow up and start talking for real. It was probably just a loosely thrown together sitcom that they knew stood no chance was only on TV for reasons us regular folk will ever know, (maybe the producers were laundering money).

Well... I liked the show a lot and begged to stay up to get to watch it. Then again, I was 9. I don't remember a whole lot... but consider: there's a reason why 3 different actresses had to be carted in to play the role. They had to completely redo the show twice. They got a prime spot on ABC's legendary TGIF lineup (OK... so the 9:30 spot just wasn't that prime, everything always got cancelled in that slot). But, unfortunately, all the reviews were so unflattering, people turned away in droves. Funny how the whole thing worked so well in a movie theatre.

I remember only seeing the first couple episodes. What turned me off was Tony Danza. In Look Who's Talking, at least Bruce Willis' lines had some personality and warmth. Tony Danza just did lame one-liners. Not funny at all!
Boring, even.

I don't blame Danza himself, but it was all just terrible.

I used to love this show, but I was four when it aired! So go fig!

This show never jumped! I thought it got sooo much better after Julia Duffy left and was replaced by Mary Page Keller! Julia Duffy didn't fit the role, but Mary Page Keller had previously played a minor role as a single mother on "Life Goes On," so she knew how to play the part. Also, Scott Baio, Francesca P. Roberts, and Polly Bergen were great additions to the cast!

When Tony Danza was on for one episode and was promptly kicked off in a minute or two. But then again, how long could a show go on with the premise of Baby Talk? Even Mr. Ed evetually found his way to the Alpo Plant.

Isn't this the show with the annoying "I like bread and butter...toast and jam" theme song? If so, I can't believe that this show came on so long ago; that song is still stuck in my head from even back then..and it's still annoying to me.

I remember this show. I watched this show. I even watched this show after the cast change. I even watched this show after I realized it was crap (i.e. After the cast change). I am very sorry.

Sure, this show was a Look Who¥s Talking knockoff, but it had it¥s good points. It had a pretty good two year run, and I remember liking it when I was a kid. Although, if it was run into sindication and I saw it, I don¥t know if I¥d like it or not. The parts which were the Look Who¥s Talking ripoff¥s were the following, for the record: Look Who¥s Talking Baby Talk Baby¥s Name Was Mikey Baby¥s Name Was Mickey Boyfriend Named James Boyfriend Named James Single Mother Raising Child Ditto I guess that was about it. Plus, Tony Danza being the voice of the baby was pretty funny too.

This show had problems since day one. First off, the were advertising it for a fall release, the Connie Selleca pulls out. So Julia Duffy comes in to pinch hit. The only problem is people remember her as spoiled brat Stefanie Vanderkellen on Newhart, so it was hard to picture her as a loving mother. Finally, the queen of short lived sitcoms, Mary Page Keller, relives Duffy and we add Scott Baio. Nowhere to go but down from there. Also it ripped off the one joke premise of 'Look Who's Talking' (but everyone was doing it at the time). It never recovered after the pilot.

I was thinking the other day that if Ted McGinley is the king of jumping the shark, then Julia Duffy is his queen. Strange that they were together on the first episode, something I didn't know. Julia replaced Connie Selleca, who had been in the pilot. On Newhart, she replaced the first hotel maid. Who knows what other shows that she has been called into as the relief pitcher? Anyway, it was clear from watching the show that Ms. Duffy hated the role-- I remember one episode where she pushed the baby roughly so that he would fit in a high chair

This show jumped the shark from day one. It was a total ripoff of, "Look Who's Talking." I remember watching this show when I was little and being fascinated by a talking baby, but shows made from movies never work.

This show jumped the shark from Day ONE, even before it premiered. The show, which was based on the "Look Who's Talking" movies, but for legal or other reasons, couldn't retain that title, used basically the same characters with slightly different name changes. Molly the mother(played by Kirstie Alley in the movies) was now Maggie, Mikey the baby (voiced by Bruce Willis in the movies) was now Mickey (voiced by Tony Danza) and James (played by John Travolta) was now Joe (played by a pre-ER George Clooney). ABC heavily promoted the show as part of its Fall 1990 line-up. However, back stage production problems delayed the premiere of this TV dud until the spring of 1991. Connie Selleca (from "Hotel") had been cast to play the Kirstie Alley part, but she departed after the pilot and was subsequently replaced by Julia Duffy (whose just ended a long-run as the shrill Stephanie on "Newhart). Julia just couldn't pull off the maternal role and there was absolutely no chemistry between her and George Clooney. Why in the world did ABC renew this turkey for a second season? They dropped the entire case except for the baby (and Tony Danza's voice). Julia Duffy jumped ship to replace Delta Burke on "Designing Women" and they replaced Julia with Mary Page Keller, who had just ended a four year run as Laura on the Fox series, "Duet" and its spinoff "Open House." They also replaced George Clooney (who had actually quit midway through the first season) with Scott Baio.

Day One. How, you may ask, does a show jump from day one, when shark jumping is supposed to be the point a good show starts a gradual downslide? Here's how. Take a popular movie and drag it to the small screen. TV executives never learn, it seems. The number of successful TV versions of popular movies can be counted on one hand--in fact, I can think of only one, M*A*S*H. But that doesn't stop the suits from trying. This time the movie in question is "Look Who's Talking", a cute, funny little movie with John Travolta and Kiristie Alley. It, in fact, was probably the movie that helped turn Travolta's career around. So, the network thinking goes, maybe lightning can strike again on the small screen. Wrong! Since there is no way on God's green earth that TV producers could afford the astronomical salaries of the original actors, we're stuck with the generic TV equivalent (in this case, Julia Duffy and Scott Baio). That alone should set off alarm bells. Scott Baio should be called "Ted McGinley II", and deserves co-patron saint status with our dear friend Ted. As I said, TV producers and execs never learn--and the main thing they never learn is that a concept that works for a movie does NOT necessarily make a good series. Imagine "Indecent Proposal" the series. Does the character sleep with a different guy for a million dollars every week? No, they'd have to clone old shows like "The Millionaire" and add a touch of "Touched By An Angel." A different person is OFFERED a million dollars to sleep with someone, and the resulting moral dilemma and self examination betters their lives...and puts us to sleep. "Baby Talk" suffered from a similar problem. Kids don't stay kids forever--eventually babies learn to talk for real. Then what? Get another kid!! Which is exactly what they tried to do before this mess got cancelled. If the show had gone on ten years, would they have needed to have five more kids??

This show was bad enough (a blatant ripoff of "Look Who's Talking"), but when you have TED MCGINLEY on your first episode... well, enough said. Yeah, I should've put Day One, but that's already been done. We need the Ted vote here.