Summary
- Jason Bateman caused trouble on set of Silver Spoons with co-star Ricky Schroder, mirroring their on-screen antics.
- Bateman’s production company is now located on the same Universal lot where Silver Spoons was filmed.
- Despite a career dry spell in his twenties, Bateman has made an impressive comeback in both TV and film industries.
One of Jason Bateman’s earliest acting roles was in the NBC sitcom Silver Spoons, and it turns out he was something of a menace on set. The 1980s series follows wealthy playboy Edward Stratton III (Joel Higgins) who learns at the outset of the series that he has a son, Ricky (Ricky Schroder), who comes to live with his ne’er-do-well father. The series sits firmly in the camp of ’80s shows that wouldn’t fly in modern times, but it’s a fun concept backed by an enjoyable cast of characters.
One of these characters is played by Jason Bateman, and while this is not Bateman’s acting debut, it’s pretty close, as Silver Spoons premiered when he was 13 years old. Bateman played Derek Taylor for the first two seasons of the show, an important recurring character who was just outside the main cast. This was only Bateman’s second performance, and he has since gone on to a prolific career in both movies and television. Bateman was comfortable on set from an early age and on Silver Spoons he managed to get himself into plenty of trouble.
Jason Bateman’s 5 Most Hilarious Roles (& 5 Most Serious)
Jason Bateman started young in Hollywood but transitioned into an adult actor. Here are his best roles in both his serious and funny movies.
Jason Bateman Was A Troublemaker With Silver Spoons Co-Star Ricky Schroder
In Silver Spoons, Ricky befriends a group of neighborhood kids including “bad boy” Derek Taylor, played by Jason Bateman. Together the boys got into all kinds of hijinks, learning lessons about growing up along the way. As it turns out, the story on screen closely mirrored what was happening on set. In an interview with GQ, Bateman mentions how he and Schroder used to careen around the Universal Studios lot, grabbing onto tram cars and trespassing in the Jaws pool,
“We’d ride our bikes around the lot for exercise, or f*****g around, and we’d hold on to the back of one of those trams, and we’d let the tram pull us along this route right here with the people in the back of the tram going, ‘Oooh, it’s those two kids from Silver Spoons!’ We’d have the tram pull us all the way up to Jaws Lake, where we’d roll up our pants and wade in and net a bunch of goldfish and put ’em in a plastic bag to take back to Ricky’s fish tank in the schoolroom… Eventually, the tram people sent a letter to our parents saying, ‘Can you please have your kids stop wading in Jaws Lake? They’re ruining the effect.’…”
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Bateman spoke to Jimmy about some more trouble he and Ricky used to get into. Bateman told Kimmel,
“Ricky Schroeder and I almost ran over Michael Jackson with our bicycles. This is while we were doing Silver Spoons at Universal, and we’d need to have our bikes because kids got to play and Michael was there to see him. Hey he was a fan of the show and a fan of the ‘Ricker’. And he was coming onto this stage while we were zooming off and [we] almost took him down.”
Despite starring on a major network show and rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest stars, Bateman and Schroder were still just kids. Instead of playing in the creek in the woods behind their house, they played in the Jaws ride lagoon. Instead of nearly running over a neighbor in an alley, they were nearly running over Michael Jackson in the Universal Studio lot. Kids tend to be kids, no matter the situation.
Bateman’s Production Company Is Located On The Same Universal Lot As Silver Spoons
Coincidentally, Bateman’s production company is located on the same Universal lot that Silver Spoons was filmed on. He even works in the same bungalow he used to complete his schoolwork in, telling GQ,
“See this office right here? This is where I did my schoolwork when I was doing Silver Spoons on Stage 42. Having an office here, in this same bungalow, is just like this incredibly humbling full-circle kind of great thing.”
He even recalls a time seeing Schroder get stung by angry bees on the hill just behind where he now works,
“I remember Ricky Schroder was coming back from rehearsal one day, and he slid down this hill by accident—he was trying to show off—and he slid right over a hole, a yellow-jacket hole. I’ll never forget that image, looking out that window and watching this cloud of yellow jackets around him…”
His return to the place where he started acting isn’t just a nostalgic trip, it’s also a symbol of how far he’s come after going through an acting dry spell in his twenties and early thirties. He says to GQ,
“I had all the money a 21-year-old could ever want, and I’d moved out when I was 18… I spent ten or fifteen years having so much fun with all of my buddies and obviously losing my place in the business. By the time I regained an appreciation for a career and a work ethic and all those types of things, I had to do a lot of catching up. It wasn’t necessarily there for me when I wanted it, and that was difficult and frustrating and
extremely
humbling. I just kind of had to start over—rebuild an ego and self-esteem and an identity.”
Bateman had to play catch-up on his career after resting on the laurels of his early successes. Despite not caring about his career for a period, the actor did always have an understanding that he needed to get back to work,
“During my twenties, I spent every day playing golf here. This is the fifth hole. Every time I’d be on this fifth fairway, I would look across and I would remember
Silver Spoons
and
It’s Your Move
just on the other side of the castle walls, and I’d think, ‘I’d love to be able to have another crack at it.’ I kind of clocked these bungalows. So these sort of moments, they’re not lost on me, because I’m so appreciative of the chances that I’ve gotten. It’s so easy to be irrelevant in this business, and it’s so easy to be relevant, too. Everybody is just a job away.”
Bateman’s early career was marked by success in shows like Silver Spoons, but his young adult life was hindered by the general waywardness of youth. Fortunately, for fans and Bateman, he built himself an incredible career with his starring roles in Arrested Development and Ozark, which have earned him numerous accolades. His film career has been equally impressive with major roles in Air, Horrible Bosses, and Game Night. It’s a long way to come for a boy who used to not be able to ride further than the Jaws lake on the Universal lot between filming episodes of Silver Spoons.