Amazing Stories (TV Series) The Sitter (1986) User Reviews

A 1986 Version Of 'Nanny McPhee'

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 31 August 2007]

Despite a very predictable and clichéd Spielberg story (black sitter succeeds when whites all fail, and voodoo is real and works and other nonsense) the episode still has some charm and a few laughs. It's also interesting to see Seth Green so young. Even though he's still a relatively young man around 33, he's been acting a long time. Here he is at the age of maybe 10, this little skinny red-haired kid with a Madonna tee-shirt. That's a hint he ("Lance") isn't exactly an angel. He and his smaller brother "Dennis" (Joshua Rodoy) are hellish boys who have ruined every baby-sitter that has come their way. That is, until "Jennifer" arrives. I enjoyed the expressions on Mabel King's face as she portrays a Caribbean voodoo priestess.

This theme is still being repeated. "Nanny McPhee," a fine movie made recently, had the same premise, meaning somebody with supernatural powers taming incorrigible kids.

I did laugh at a couple of strange sites, like a horse sitting down on a sofa!

Beware of the Duppy

[sonnyschlaegel · 6/10 · 19 February 2007]

Ms Lynn, a divorced mother, has just moved to 'Sun Country' with her two sons, Lance and Dennis. They're quite young, so when Ms Lynn goes to work, she needs a babysitter for them. Getting one becomes more and more difficult because the boys are playing nasty tricks on every one of them. So Ms Lynn is happy when Jennifer agrees to babysit the boys. She is a woman from a Caribbean island. Soon after Ms Lynn leaves, the boys begin to play tricks on her. But it seems she is able to fight back using voodoo powers. She warns them not to be evil because else some evil Duppies (Caribbean word for ghosts) will come for them and perhaps even make them Duppies, too. Are there really Duppies? And will Jennifer manage to reform the boys?

I think this episode had some good moments. I liked the story about the Duppies that Jennifer tells the boys and what she tells them before she leaves. I liked the ending, too. I think the attack of the Indians was well done, and the acting was good, too. But other episodes are better in my opinion, they are funnier or have a more interesting plot, so I have given this episode only six points.

"Mr. Fields, how do you like children?" W. C. Fields: "Parboiled!"

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 23 May 2014]

If you don't care for bratty, entitled kids, this episode is for you. These are two monsters from the pit. A poor, divorced mother who has absolutely no strength of character, can't control these two. She has to work and needs to hire a sitter to take care of them during the day. They have moved to some boring setting in Arizona (I think) called Sun City. They hate it. They literally terrorize their sitters, leaving one screaming and the other taken away in an ambulance. Enter the sitter of all time. A large lady from the Islands (some islands somewhere). She smokes cigars and talks firmly to the boys. They try everything they can to get at her, but nothing works. They do the old bucket over the doorway thing and the water stops in midair. When they go to investigate, the water lands on them. She drums up a horrifying response to each of their devious efforts, including a tribe of stereotypical Indians to launch an attack (they have previously used their own version of this to go after sitter number two). She also keeps an ace in the hole called a Duppy. It's a thing that hangs out in closets and terrifies little boys. Have these two met their match? I thought the special effects were very good and the story gratifying to us old grumps.

A spell of strange magic will change the boys!

[blanbrn · 7/10 · 14 March 2019]

This "AS" episode from season one called "The Sitter" is well done and fun and well acted and turnabout is fair play. It involves two young California boys who drive sitters mad and crazy with their mean ways and cruel pranks only soon they meet their match when a different kind of woman sitter arrives . As a little magic and strange like spells gain the upper hand! Proving what comes around goes around and don't be cruel. Good little cute episode of discipline and note look for an early appearance from Seth Green as one of the young boys.

"You little mens like to play boys' games, don't you?"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 4 November 2021]

This episode is just about as silly as most of the other 'Amazing Stories', but it did have an element of fun that made it entertaining. An exasperated mom (Wendy Phillips) goes through baby sitters like water because her two boys are so unruly and rambunctious, a word she uses to describe them more than once. When a hefty Jamaican woman (Mabel King) shows up one day to babysit, the boys (Seth Green, Joshua Rudoy) see as her as another perfect target for their brand of hi-jinx. What they didn't count on was Jennifer's facility with voodoo witchcraft, which she uses in good measure to thwart the boys from their usual mischief. Her bag of tricks include war-whooping Indians and a gremlin duppy to stifle the boys back to timid obedience. NBC, who never missed an opportunity to promote their network (see the 'Fine Tuning' episode), cleverly placed a television in the Paxton home background with 'Leave it to Beaver' playing, sort of a nod from one mischievous kid to another.

About as subtle as a nudist hanging out at a Baptist barbecue! However, it still manages to be fun.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 23 June 2015]

This episode is about what I would expect for "Amazing Stories"--a very broadly written show with cartoon-like characters. Part of this is due to the show only being in a half hour time slot--but even then, the writing could have been so much better had there been the least bit of subtlety about it. I think part of the problem is lazy writing and part is that the shows were generally geared more towards kids than adults. Kids would love to see the antics of these kids--adults would just find it all terribly written and silly.

A mother has two hellions. These boys are completely unrealistic-- as no kids are really this creatively bad. You see a series of sitters come and go as their exasperated mother tries to find one who won't quit. Finally, a Jamaican sitter arrives and uses voodoo magic to get them under control. How she handles the boys IS pretty cool--it's just too bad that the entire production wasn't more subtle.

While I hated some of the show because of the juvenile writing, it still was reasonably fun to watch and the final 2/3 of the show quite enjoyable.. Seeing bad things happen to the boys was all good fun--perhaps good enough to make the writing lapses bearable.

By the way, the older of the two brats is played by Seth Green.