Three Men and a Baby tells the story of three unmarried roommates—Ted Danson, Tom Selleck, and Steve Guttenberg —who suddenly have to take care of a child left on their doorstep. Danson and Selleck appeared in the 1987 film despite starring on popular TV shows at the time (Danson on Cheers and Selleck on Magnum, P.I.). Still, the payoff was worth it, as the movie turned out not just to be the most successful comedy of the year, but the biggest hit of the year, period. It raked in nearly $168 million at the box office, which is especially impressive when you consider that it was directed by someone who had no experience with making comedies.
Leonard Nimoy, best known for playing Spock on Star Trek, believe it or not, directed the movie after the director of the original French film dropped out. And while he’d directed an episode of Night Gallery in 1973, and a couple of Star Trek movies in the ’80s, working on a project like this was completely out of left field for Nimoy. Regardless, he was determined to get the best possible performances from the stars, according to Guttenberg. He wanted them to be a family and encouraged them to have dinner together.
Even so, Selleck had his reservations about Nimoy. He told Seth Meyers that he was skeptical of a guy with no emotion being chosen to direct a comedy. Selleck eventually came to the understanding that Nimoy was nothing like his Star Trek character. In fact, Selleck described Nimoy as not just a “lovely guy,” but a “warm, funny guy” as well.
Guttenberg and Selleck, along with Danson, all returned for the 1990 sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, however, Nimoy wasn’t involved. It was also very successful, ranking second at the box office behind Home Alone that year. Nimoy directed only two more comedies: 1990’s Funny About Love with Gene Wilder, and 1994’s Holy Matrimony starring Patricia Aquette and a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Both films were critical and commercial failures, and Nimoy gave up directing altogether by the end of the ’90s.
Even though Nimoy died in 2015, Guttenberg thinks that a third movie could work if his other co-stars were up for it. He also acknowledged that Nimoy was a key ingredient to the magic of the original, saying that it was really “four men and a baby” behind the scenes, which didn’t stop any of them from doing the first sequel without him. Still, Guttenberg finds the idea of a sequel with the original cast more exciting than a reboot because he says it reminds people of a better time: “When you see a sequel, it reminds you what happened before. And you can come back to that.” What happened before also involved a helluva lot of money being made, so there’s that selling point as well.
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