Ferris Bueller aired from August until December 1990 on NBC.
The fall 1990 schedule brought 2 conniving teenage series, Parker Lewis Can't Lose and this adaptation of the 1986 Matthew Broderick movie that had inspired both, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Ferris ( played by Charlie Schlatter), was the more mean-spirited of the two. His colorful scams and flimflams at Ocean Park High School in Santa Monica, California, were mostly self centered and often seemed designed to humiliate and punish. A lot depended on high-tech gadgetry; his portable computer that could patch into the school system and alter course assignments, his portable phone for impersonating authorities, his remote control for setting off little disasters at school assemblies. No one was his match-not pompous principal Rooney ( Richard Riehle), his assistant Grace ( Judith Kahan), or Ferris's fuming sister Jeannie ( Jennifer Aniston), who despised how he got away with things. Bill and Barbara ( Sam Freed, Cristine Rose), were his vacuous parents, who believed whatever he told them, Cameron ( Brandon Douglas), his dim-witted best friend, and beautiful Sloan( Amy Dolenz, daughter of former Monkee Mickey Dolenz), the object of his affections-and the one person he couldn't bamboozle.
A leftover episode of this failed series aired on August 11, 1991.
A Review from USA TODAY
TV PREVIEW/BY MATT ROUSH
This 'Ferris' should be in detention
Here comes Ferris Bueller. Take the night off.
The least appealing and most cynical of NBC's " doublepumped" early premiere offerings this week, Ferris Bueller spews contempt for authority, family and responsibility. In a case of the schlock calling the kettle black, Ferris earns plenty of contempt for itself.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off , the 1986 hit that spawned this evil twin-and what's worse, a clone on Fox called Parker Lewis Can't Lose-was no great shakes. But there was an undertone of ebullient youth and innocence. The feeling, as Matthew Broderick's Ferris put it, that " Life goes by so fast that if you don't stop and look around, you might miss it."
TV's Ferris is more a ferret, with Charlie Schlatter substituting squinty smarm for Broderick's wide-eyed insouciance . This kid is mean-spirited, self-obsessed, a teen demon with no other apparent desire than to get the goods on everyone who gets in his way: bufoonish principal, shrewish big sis, detached and oblivious parents.
He's also just not very funny. Smug monologues to the camera about how life is like volleyball or driving won't have you rolling , and his misadventures -of the high tech, computer -hacking variety-are awfully predictable.
Executive producer John Masius ( St. Elsewhere) tries his best to jazz up the sorry situation by skewing the line between fantasy and reality, calling attention to Ferris' TV trappings.
In an inspired moment, Ferris calls in a TV lawyer from L.A. Law to get out of a jam. Less inspired was the choice of Alan Rachins arguably Law's least amusing star.
And in the scene that already has garnered the most attention, or derision, Schlatter establishes his hold on the character by taking a chain saw to a cutout of Broderick. " This is television. This is real," mugs the new Ferris.
Someone get some glue.
A Review From The New York Times
October 8, 1990
Review/Television;
When Boys Will, of Course, Be Boys
By JOHN J. O'CONNOR
Suppose you're a male teen-ager and aspire to be Big Man in High School. Helpful tips can be found on at least two new prime-time series, NBC's ''Ferris Bueller'' (Mondays at 8:30 P.M.) and Fox's ''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' (Sundays at 7:30 P.M.).
Some basic television rules: no matter how cynical or smart-alecky you may appear to be, stay cool and cute; never stop manipulating your nincompoop parents; make life miserable for your sister; don't let the other students ever forget that you run the school and that the principal and teachers are merely buffoonish ornaments, and when all else fails, speak directly into the camera, oozing boyish sincerity.
Developed by John Masius (''St. Elsewhere''), the NBC series is based on the ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off,'' the 1986 John Hughes movie starring Matthew Broderick. Television's Ferris is Charlie Schlatter, and in the very first episode he demolished a lifesize cutout of Mr. Broderick, deemed by Mr. Schlatter to be too much of a white-bread sort. That was a mistake.
Ferris's character gets away with his antics precisely because of his seemingly innocent facade, and so Mr. Broderick was perfect for the role. The smirking Mr. Schlatter is likely to leave most viewers reaching instinctively for their wallets.
Proceeding on the premise that ''life is just one damn thing after another,'' television's Ferris has concluded that there are two states of consciousness - un and sub. At home, while his big sister seethes, Ferris has no difficulty charming his gullible parents. (''Don't you wish they were yours?'' he says, winking.) Mom is in real estate. ''Do you know what it's like,'' she cries, ''trying to dump condos in a soft market?'' Sis is not about to let Ferris borrow her car: ''The thought of you using one of my possessions for pleasure makes me want to puke blood.''
At school, there is Mr. Rooney (Richard Riehle), the principal, a pudgy, sweaty man who seems to expend most of his energy trying to foil Ferris. In typical television fashion, whenever the cameras actually wander into a classroom they find only bored, somewhat sullen students overseen by oblivious teachers. In this context, Ferris is, if nothing else, a welcome diversion.
And he does have his special moments. Wearing tights for a dance session with his girlfriend, he tells us: ''Go ahead and laugh. I'm secure in my manhood.'' And managing a student election campaign, he genially advises, ''Think of the Kennedy years: all image.'' But if Ferris were to suddenly disappear from prime time, most viewers might agree with the dreadful Mr. Rooney. ''I'll miss you, Bueller,'' he tells him, like a 20-pound boil.
Fox's ''Parker Lewis Can't Lose'' is obviously a ''Ferris Bueller'' clone, although in interviews the executive producer, Clyde Phillips, has denied being in creative debt to the movie. Nevertheless, a recent episode did have a character describe the plot of a John Hughes movie, prompting this exchange:
''Which John Hughes movie are you talking about?'' ''All of them.'' In any event, Parker takes to television better than Ferris. For one thing, Parker is played by Corin Nemec, who is indeed white-bread perfect for the kind of fellow who finds the very concept of school totally bizarre. For another, like so many other Fox series, ''Parker Lewis'' is so exaggerated that there's not much danger of anyone taking it seriously.
Parker attends Santo Domingo High School, where, as at Ferris's Ocean Park High School, Hispanic students would seem to be as scarce as blacks among the student body. In this case, the principal is the vengeful Ms. Musso (Melanie Chartoff), whose appearances are often signaled by an eerie, blinding glow inspired by ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind.''
Her special ''obedience helper'' is a strange student known as her mutant teen-age henchman. And then there is the giant football star named Kubiak (Abraham Benrubi), who, Parker swears, once killed a nun when she misplaced his lunch. Kubiak allows that ''high school has been the best seven years of my life.''
Parker has the one requisite sister, this one younger. When not locking her in dark attics, he is arranging for her to gargle with his used mouthwash. Meanwhile, she is apt to say, ''I hate you like the phlegm that you are.''
Parker is not without a social conscience. When his best friend threatens to drop out of school to play in a rock band, Parker becomes responsible, warning that the rock scene is ''burnout city,'' leading only to paternity suits filed by groupies. The friend comes back, admitting that he misses ''the buds thing'' with Parker. Then without missing a beat, Parker offers a moving testimonial to rock, calling it the ''sound track of high school, of growing up, of hope.''
Like Ferris - and a good many television programmers - Parker is not terribly concerned about possible contradictions and underlying messages.
Ferris Bueller
Created by John Masius; produced by Pamela Grant for A Maysh Production in association with Paramount Television; Patricia Van Ryker, production designer; Ron Ulin and Kathy Slevin, executive story editors; Steve Pepoon, executive story consultant; Mr. Masius, executive producer. At 8:30 P.M. Monday on NBC.
Ferris Bueller....Charlie Schlatter
Ed Rooney....Richard Riehle
Jeannie Bueller....Jennifer Aniston
Cameron Frye....Brandon Douglas
Barbara Bueller....Cristine Rose
Grace....Judith Kahan
Bill Bueller....Sam Freed
Sloan....Ami Dolenz
Parker Lewis Can't Lose
Directed by Thom Eberhardt; written by Lon Diamond and Clyde Phillips; produced by John Ziffren for Columbia Pictures Television; Robert Lloyd Lewis, supervising producer; Mr. Phillips, executive producer. At 7:30 P.M. Sundays on Fox.
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