Pop Culture | Movies | 80s
10 Facts About '3 Men And A Baby' That Will Make You Wish You Had Three Dads
An absolute classic of 80s comedy, 3 Men And A Baby featured the dream team of Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson as three bachelors who find a baby left on their doorstep, only for shenanigans to ensure. It's been a favorite of everybody ever for 30 years now, but we're willing to bet there's a few things you might not know about it.
It was directed by Spock.
Leonard Nimoy actually directed a few movies outside of the Star Trek franchise, and this was by far his most successful. He was apparently a very strict director: actor Steve Guttenberg once said "Leonard was a good director, and being an actor, he knew the problems actors face - although sometimes I think he forgot."
It's actually a remake.
The original movie, a French film called Three Men And A Cradle, came out two years before this one.
It was the highest-grossing movie of 1987!
It made back its $11 Million dollar budget on its opening weekend, and went on to gross over $167 Million, which for the 80s was insane.
Pampers paid a LOT of money to be in the movie.
The diaper company offered up a whopping $500,000 for their brand to be featured throughout the entire movie.
The facts just get crazier from here...
A lot of twins auditioned to play Mary.
Nimoy had to watch over 200 audition tapes of twins, before ultimately calling in four sets of them for an in-person audition. Ultimately, Lisa and Michelle Blair got the role.
There's a spooky story to one scene (that's totally fake).
People think there's the ghost of a child who died in the film's shooting location in the background of the scene where Jack's mother comes to visit Mary. This is actually false: the image is a cardboard cutout of Jack that's used later in the movie, which was left on the set by accident.
The three men prepped for the movie by partying.
Ted Danson had been married for a long time at the time of filming, so Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg took him out to a bunch of bars, restaurants and clubs across Toronto to remind him of bachelorhood.
The baby in the poster peed on one of the actors.
It was Tom Selleck. The baby peed on Tom Selleck.
A lot of studios didn't want to make the movie.
Both TriStar and Universal felt that the movie was too "soft" for them, but Disney was immediately interested. Wonder if TriStar and Universal still felt that way after seeing how much money it made.
The cast could have looked VERY different.
Michael J. Fox and Tony Danza were considered for the role of Jack. Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Bruce Willis and John Travolta were all in the running for Michael, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson and Steve Martin were considered for Peter.