How to Eat Like a Child
| How to Eat Like a Child And Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-up |
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| Genre | Musical, comedy |
| Based on | 'How to Eat Like a Child' by Delia Ephron |
| Screenplay by | Judith Kahan |
| Starring |
Dick Van Dyke Corey Feldman Billy Jacoby Georg Olden |
| Theme music composer | John Forster |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Distributor | MTM Enterprises |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 22, 1981 |
How to Eat Like a Child – And Other Lessons in Not Being a Grown-up is an original musical comedy television special that aired on NBC on September 22, 1981. Based on Delia Ephron's best-selling book of the same name, and adapted for television by Judith Kahan with music and lyrics by John Forster, the one-hour special, through a series of comedy skits and songs, lampoons the adult world through the eyes of children. The musical variety stars Dick Van Dyke as the resident "grown-up" alongside 15 children (8 boys and 7 girls) ranging in age from 7 to 13. Several of the special's young performers would subsequently go on to achieve child stardom in their own right, most notably Corey Feldman, Billy Jacoby and Georg Olden.
Dick Van Dyke opens the musical, stating "When you're a child, having fun is what you do for a living". As the "guest adult", Van Dyke seeks admission to the secret world of children and persuades a group of 15 singing and dancing kids to guide him on a wry and whimsical trip through childhood. Throughout a series of 12 comedy sketches and songs, the special takes an irreverent, but good-natured look at the time-honored dilemmas that children face.
The musical sketches include: "How to Eat Like a Child" (bite a hole in the bottom of the cone and suck out the ice cream.), "How to Stay Home from School" (flu, mumps, stomach ache, or maybe all three.), "How to Understand Parents" ("We'll see" means "no", "Not now" means "no", "Ask your father" means "no"...), "How to Laugh Hysterically" (a young Corey Feldman makes prank phone calls and cracks juvenile jokes before hanging up), "How to Act After Being Sent to Your Room" ("With nothing but my private stereo media center to keep me distracted, I think they overreacted..."), "How to Beg for a Dog" (Billy Jacoby playing opposite Judith Kahan's real-life stepson's four-legged friend, "Bandit"), "How to Torture Your Sister" (a quartet of boys antagonizing their female siblings), "How to Deal with Injustice" (having to walk to the candy store when the adults can just get in a car and drive), "How to Practice the Violin" (a pre-adolescent Georg Olden transforms into rock-star Mick Jagger after growing tired of practicing his violin), and the big finale number, "How to Refuse to Go to Sleep".
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