It stars John Candy and Amy Madigan with Jean Louisa Kelly, Laurie Metcalf, Jay Underwood, Macaulay Culkin, Gaby Hoffmann, Elaine Bromka, and Garrett M. Brown appearing in supporting roles.

Bob and Cindy Russell have recently moved from Indianapolis with their three children, 15-year-old Tia, 8-year-old Miles, and 6-year-old Maizy, to the Chicago suburbs.

Over the next several days, Buck takes the children bowling, ejects a drunken party clown from Miles' birthday party, defends Maizy from her school's strict assistant principal, and washes laundry in the kitchen sink because he cannot operate the washing machine.

After Tia sneaks out to a party, Buck decides to look for her instead of attending a horse race that would provide him with enough money for the entire year, and begs Chanice to look after Miles and Maizy.

As he prepares to leave, Buck invites Tia to meet up with him in the city before exchanging a loving goodbye.

Notable additional voices were provided by Patricia Arquette, Jack Blessing, Leigh French, and Julie Payne.

The exteriors and practical locations were shot in Chicago, Cicero, Skokie, Northbrook, Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Riverwoods.

After it was moved to Friday, in an attempt by CBS to establish a comedy night there, its ratings quickly plummeted and it was cancelled.

In June 2016, ABC premiered a second television adaptation featuring an African-American cast with Mike Epps in the title role, James Lesure as his brother, and Nia Long as Buck's sister-in-law.

It suffered a similar fate as the previous TV adaptation, as it was poorly received by critics and then cancelled after eight episodes.