Fudge-a-mania

When I was in my elementary years (which was the early to mid 1990's) I had discovered some truly unique books in Judy Blume's "Fudge" series which started with "Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing". For the time in my life, I enjoyed each of these novels about growing up, siblings, and gender wars. Fudge-A-Mania, which is a television film adaptation of the final book in the series, is definitely worth viewing for the younger audiences.

Bob Clark directs a film which is reminiscent of his neo-classic "A Christmas Story". The script for FAM was not terrible, counting it was adapted from a national author's book. The movie itself appealed to the younger audience but without having to resort to cheap, gimmicky or "popular" comedy (ahem...Kangaroo Jack). Darren McGavin is again put into the role of the old-but-wise character and performs admirably. The child actors, namely Jake Richardson and Luke Tarsitano each do a decent job of portraying their respectable characters; Richardson plays the pre-teen male and Tarsitano as the annoying little brother.

So if you are looking for some good, clean, half decent entertainment for your children, you cannot go wrong with Fudge-A-Mania. And for their reading pleasures I recommend any of the titles in Judy Blume's "Fudge" series which include "Tales of A Fourth Grade Nothing", "SuperFudge" and "Fudge-a-Mania".

This delightful show was part of the 1995 lineup for ABC's Saturday Morning program. The show, based on the books "Fudge-A-Mania" and "Otherwise Known As Sheila The Great" by Judy Blume. The show was about 10yr old Peter and his wild cute little brother and their family who live in a apartment building in NYC. Peter's best friend Jimmy, whos Father, i think might have owned the building or was a maintenance man, also lived in the building as well as Sheila, who has known Peter since Kindergarden and has a crush on him and is always trying to spend time with him. The real star is the 5 yr old fudge who is always causing trouble or annoying Peter and Jimmy. Sheila likes Fudge because she "babysits" for him when he is at the playground(meaning she pretends that he is her child). The Show also has some clips where Jimmy, Peter, and Sheila are at school attending 5th grade. I dont remember what Peter's Father does on the show but the Mother(Eve Plum) was a housewife who made sure as much as she could that Fudge was not making trouble or bothering Peter and his friends. If Fudge was not making trouble which was rare, Sheila was trying to get Peter to notice her, or they where hanging out at school or we saw Fudge play in Kindergarden. This show was canceled in 1996 as well as most of the lineup from that year(1995). Untill "One Saturday Morning" premiered in 1997 it was shown in reruns. This show is also known as "Fudge-A-Mania" after the book, but was mostly advertised as plain "Fudge". I dont know if any actors from this show continued working in the business because I haven't heard or seen any of them since.

Everyone I knew growing up read at least one of these books if not all of them. However, this movie is an absolute joke of "bringing to life" these great stories. Peter was a kid we could all relate to but instead we are given a vaudeville interpretation of his life. Peter was always a little more mature for his age and always delved deep into his feelings on every topic. However, its hard to get to his feelings in this movie with the soundtrack for "Problem Child" playing in the background the entire time! Like I said in the intro, don't even bother wasting time with this movie. Not only is it an insult to our past but all I see here is Hollywood making a few bucks. Once again, Hollywood cannot do anything these days without being politically correct. Hollywood is no longer allowed to made a movie that doesn't include a minority. So what do they do? They change Jimmy Fargo into Peters black friend!! Why didn't they just add a black character? That would have been a lot less of a change then turning the Jewish Jimmy Fargo into an African-American.