TV Reviews : ‘Fudge-A-Mania’ a Too-Cutesy Outing

If you want to share a giggle with your kids, you can’t do much better than to spend quality time reading Judy Blume’s books about New York City kid Peter Hatcher and his pesky little brother, Fudge.

If you want to share a few smiles that soon become winces and yawns, sit through tonight’s interminable ABC movie, “Fudge-A-Mania,” which serves to introduce “Fudge,” a half-hour Saturday morning series based on Blume’s best-selling children’s books.

In the film, written and directed by Bob Clark, 10-year-old Peter (Jake Richardson) thinks his summer will be a total loss when he learns he and his family are sharing a vacation home in Maine with obnoxious Sheila (Queen of the Cooties) Tubman (Nassira Nicola) and her parents. It’s bad enough being around the equally obnoxious, 4-year-old Fudge (Luke Tarsitano).

Surprises await, however, as romance blooms between Sheila’s nifty grandpa (Darren McGavin) and Peter’s exercise-happy grandmother (terrific-looking Florence Henderson), while baseball legend Big A (Alex Karras), one of Peter’s heroes, is discovered living nearby.

Despite pleasant performances from the adult cast (including Eve Plumb, Henderson’s “Brady Bunch” daughter, as Peter’s mother) and a respectable effort from the child actors, the film’s forced, cutesy hilarity quickly wears out its welcome.

Sheila’s ear-assaulting screaming fits and Peter’s grumpy, sour grapes asides to the audience get old fast, as does Fudge’s gravelly voiced, wise-cracking precocity, even though the truly precocious 4-year-old little Tarsitano handles it like a pro.

Here’s hoping that Blume and her fans are better served by the “Fudge” series.

* “Fudge-A-Mania” airs 8-10 tonight on ABC (Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42). “Fudge,” the series, begins next Saturday at 9:30 a.m.