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The Nitti Family is the eighth episode of Season 3 of Supernanny USA.

Episode summary[]

Jo visits the Nitti Family in West Melbourne, Florida. Lisa has 4 boys: 10-year-old Darren, 8-year-old Matthew, 6-year-old Devin, and 5-year-old Jared. She has been with her boyfriend John for almost two years. When the boys act up, Lisa threatens to call him, whose temper intimidates the boys. Darren is the ringleader of the mischief and bully of the house. However, Devin is Lisa’s biggest challenge because his anger controls the house. Matthew is sensitive but can be a drama king while Jared is picking up his brothers’ habits.

Both Lisa and John are aggressive with the boys and get in their faces when they want respect. When Jo tries to put order in the house, John is resistant and even angrily confronts her.

Can Jo put out the fire in the Nitti’s household? Can she help Lisa and John with the boys, and can she try to get John on the same page when it comes to changing the household?

Recap[]

Submission Reel[]

Jo is in West Melbourne, Florida, to help the Nitti Family. Lisa (28) had four boys before meeting her boyfriend, John (44). John describes the house as "The Crazy House".

Darren (10) is the bully: taking advantage of being the eldest, he will do anything he can in his power to hurt his brothers. In one scene, he stabbed Matthew in the back with a thumbtack. Matthew (8) is the second-born child and the drama queen. He will cry over anything. Jared (5), the youngest, is a mommy's boy, something Lisa believes is the product of how much she gives into him. Lastly, Devin (6) is the one in charge of the house. Lisa refers to him as "a very angry kid" and because of his high aggression, he is prone to getting into fights with his brothers and mother.

As soon as John gets home, the first thing he does is yell at the boys. Both parents are especially bothered by the lack of respect the boys give to Lisa, and John is bothered by how he doesn't know how to change it.

Observation[]

Jo arrives to help the Nittis. Before her observation even began, John had put Devin in a timeout. The former admits that he felt embarrassed at Jo walking in on this scene. Soon afterwards, John leaves for work, and Lisa has an argument with Devin over a toy sword. This shockingly escalates into a fight that ends with Lisa putting Devin in a headlock, all while he claws, screams at, and bites her. Jo couldn't believe that Lisa allows all this disrespect and retaliates with physical violence. Darren describes Devin's treatment of Lisa as him "treating her like a punching bag." Jo comments that Devin "spits like a camel." Lisa eventually calms Devin down, but rather than discipline him, she gives him back his toy sword. She warns him that if he hits anyone else with the sword again, she would permanently confiscate it for the day.

With that incident over, Jo witnesses exactly how the boys treat each other: with disrespect. They get into constant scuffles to hurt each other. Jo observes that Darren, the oldest, violently beats up his younger siblings instead of acting as a role model. In an interview segment, Darren admitted that he is "a little bit of a bully." “The Nitti aggression,” as Jo calls it, is out of line. With what she's seen, she knows that it will be much harder to help change the boys' behaviour.

During lunchtime, the smallest thing turned into a huge crisis for Lisa. She sends all the boys (minus Jared) into the corner: Darren for throwing a ball, Devin for hitting Matthew with his sword, and strangely, Matthew for getting up from his seat to get mustard. With Matthew in the corner, Darren sneaks him some chicken nuggets. Lisa tries and fails to send Matthew to his room. She then calls John, something she frequently does if she is overwhelmed by the children. Jo realises that rather than deal with the boys herself, she threatens them through John.

Lisa has to run some errands with the kids, but getting them in the car was an absolute disaster. All of the boys refused to listen, but Devin was the most defiant. The situation comes to a head when he refuses to put on his seatbelt and Lisa tosses his toy sword- the same one that he fought Lisa over in the morning- in the trash. She snaps and takes everyone out of the car until Devin is ready to behave. Jo is shocked to see Devin dictating the entire house. Eventually, he declares that he is ready to go but he still fights with his mom over the belt resulting in the two (mainly Lisa) hitting one-another. With all four boys strapped in, Lisa finally began driving, but she hadn't even driven one block before the misbehavior escalates. Jared, and particulary Devin and Darren dangerously unbuckle their seatbelts, run around the car, and fight one another, with Darren throwing Devin out of his seat when the latter tried to bite him. After Lisa puts Devin back into his seatbelt, she finally snaps and drives all the way home. They achieve absolutely nothing.

As Lisa attempts to send all the boys to their rooms, John comes home from work, only to hear about how disrespectful the boys have been. As usual, he screams orders at the boys. Darren puts soapy water all over the upstairs floor to slide on, but John catches him doing it and he orders him to clean it up. In an interview segment, John states that he is completely fine with how the boys do what they're told, due to the fact he raises his voice at them to do so. Lisa meanwhile, admits her frustrations from how the boys, respect John more thanks to his authoritative behaviour. She feels as if she should have all the respect, since she’s the one with the boys all the time. Jo concludes her observation stating that intimidation running the house is not working. John and Lisa need to find a different way to handle things.

Parents Meeting[]

Jo gets straight to the point and declares that all the boys are punching the living daylight out of themselves. Jo asks how long this behavior has gone on, and Lisa believes that Devin's fury started when he was a baby. Jo turns her the subject torwards Darren, whom Lisa believes doesn't have anger issues. Jo is shocked by this while John laughs, knowing that Lisa is wrong. Jo knows that that behavior needs to stop, and John wholeheartedly agrees: that's why she's here. Jo finds it shocking that the boys walk all over Lisa, who retaliates back by becoming highly aggressive in their faces. Lisa explains that her anger eventually gets a point where she simply can’t take it. This boils her blood and leads to her yelling at the boys, before then making them do something.

Jo says that the times when John and Lisa do discipline is comparable to war. She points out how frightening it was for her to witness Lisa putting Devin in a headlock. While admitting that the only way she can control Devin is holding him, Lisa claims to have not hurt him because of one thing: he didn't bite her. John also steps in to defend her and suggests that rather than "beating her up about it", Jo should be telling Lisa what she should do. Jo quickly explains that she wasn't beating Lisa up about anything. Back to talking about the discipline, Jo states that although the use of the corner is good, the technique is used only for anger.

Humbled, John admits that he is completely guilty of that; he's tried things in the past, but all of them have failed. As a result, he doesn’t know what to do. At the end of the meeting, he declares that while Jo was harsh about what she said, he knows she was right and that it is the truth.

Teaching[]

Jo's first step to instilling order in the Nitti household is putting up the house rules. Shortly after, Devin became very aggressive and kicks Lisa. Jo and Lisa put Devin in the corner, which is now called the Naughty Corner. He kept pushing John's buttons, but Jo refused to let him step in and made Lisa do this alone. As the timeout drags on and on, John became very frustrated. His frustration quickly turns to resistance, and he declared that he wasn't entirely onboard with Jo's techniques. After two hours, Devin finally stayed in the corner. She also managed to make Devin pick up his mess and apologize. John admits that he was wrong and apologizes to Jo.

Jo knows how angry the boys get, so she brings in the Chill Out Zone: whenever the boys get overwhelmed and angry, they will head to the zone, which presents a variety of techniques to calm the boys down, such as pillows and art supplies. According to Darren, he and Devin have anger issues. Once again, Devin gets aggressive, prompting Lisa send him to the Chill Out Zone. In there, he draws on an easel until he calms down, at which point Lisa wraps things up and comforts him.

Jo knows that car rides are a disaster, so she introduces reward charts for all four boys. Lisa lays down the ground rules for the ride and tells the boys that they will be rewarded a sticker ( worth five points) for following them. Then she does a countdown of the clock for how much time is left. The boys did kick off, but, when Lisa reminds them of the reward system, they behave for the entire journey. They earned their stickers.

Jo goes to Darren's football practice and finds out that Darren behaves differently at football than at home. She discusses this dichotomy with Lisa, boiling it down to a simple explanation: his coach uses a very strict and firm but fair tone with Darren and his teammates to keep them in line. Jo already begins concocting ideas for another activity while Lisa sits with this realization. After that, Jo leaves for 4 days.

DVD Meeting[]

Clip 1[]

Lisa utilized the Easy Riders technique perfectly. Once the family returns home, she rhetorically and enthusiastically asked the boys if they thought they deserved a sticker. They all declared that they did.

Clip 2[]

Matthew kicked off and had an outburst fit for a drama queen. He throwed items, screamed at Jared, and violently threw him to the floor.

Jo asks Lisa why Matthew wasn't placed in the Chill Out Zone. Lisa simply didn't know that that was the appropriate response, so Jo reminded her that she has the power to defuse it.

Clip 3[]

When Lisa finally sent Matthew to the corner, he tried to escape and threw papers on the floor. Lisa took a step forward in discipline while Matthew kept escaping, but she kept communicating with him. She followed through by warning him that if he kept acting up, he will lose his afternoon playtime. Matthew jammed the fan with a towel, which causes him to lose all of his playtime and escalates his anger. Later, Matthew apologized to his mom and cleaned up the mess he made.

Clip 4[]

A verbally abrasive John put Devin in the Naughty Corner. Whenever he escaped, John put him back but kept communicating. However, what John did next was shocking: he held Devin down in the corner, came very close to his face, and yelled at him. In his bout of anger, John suddenly stated that he didn't agree with Jo's tactics.

When the clip ended, Jo's face had a cocktail of emotions: shock, disappointment, fury, to name a few. She asked John if he liked how he looked like in the video, but he kept repeating, "that's me". Finally, he snaps and asks, “What do you wanna hear, lady?” Finally, he admits that he dislikes how he saw himself.

Jo states that John's failure to change will result in them regressing to square one. Jo decides that he and Lisa need to show their self esteem and confidence to the boys.

Reinforcement[]

Jo wants to bring back brotherly love in the household. To this end, she has Darren teach his brothers some of the things he does at football. Once that exercise was over, Jo puts together an obstacle course. She hopes that this would not only bring the boys together, but sublimate their anger. Darren rises to the occassion, putting on a very encouraging, dynamic coach persona.

Then, John walks the boys through building a birdhouse. Throughout the activity, John demonstrated a very gentle, encouraging, and quiet tone. The entire family saw another side to one another and enjoyed every moment.

After that, Jo's work with the Nitti family is done!

Family Members[]

Person Age (Then) Age (Now) Relation to Family
Lisa Marie Bonn (now Reyes) 28 (born August 27, 1978) 46 Mother
John Nitti 44 (born February 5, 1962) 62 Live-In Boyfriend/Stepfather to Darren, Matthew, Devin, and Jared
Darren Burrows 10 (born August 22, 1996) 28 Son (Maternal)
Matthew Adkins 8 (born June 9, 1998) 26
Devin Adkins 6 (born May 21, 2000) 24
Jared Bonn 5 (born May 2, 2001) 23
This child was disciplined using one of Jo Frost's techniques, and was mistreated badly via one of the parents.
The child was disciplined, but not with one of Jo Frost's techniques (she may or may not have approved of these methods)
The child was disciplined, but not with one of Jo Frost's techniques, and the reasoning, execution, or method itself was criticised.
The child was supposed to be disciplined with one of Jo Frost's techniques but never received it.

Events Post-Episode[]

  • Lisa and John broke up.
  • Lisa got married. Her last name is now Reyes.
  • Devin got married and became a father.
  • Darren became a father.
  • John was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and heroin on December 22, 2019. He was arrested again on April 13, 2021, for driving with a suspended license.

Fan Reception and Controversies[]

The Nitti Family is considered to be one of the most divisive episodes in the Supernanny series. Some fans would consider this episode to be one of the worst. For starters, Lisa was heavily disliked amongst fans, as many criticised her violence: they vilified her for headlocking Devin under the guise of controlling him and later denying she ever hurt him all for the reason he didn't hurt her. They also critiqued her for claiming that she, not John, should have commanded all the respect from the boys. The boys themselves were also quite disliked, with people taking an obvious disliking to their roughhousing and aggression. In particular, Devin was very unpopular.

Undoubtedly, the most divisive aspect of this episode was John. Some fans viewed him as too authoritarian, owing to his aggression at the beginning of the episode. However, some defended his behavior as responding to the boys' aggression. Many were shocked at the sudden twist in which he didn't agree with Jo's techniques and rudely yelled at her during the DVD meeting, especially given that John had shown no signs of disagreement, and for the most part, sided with Jo. A handful of viewers even believed that Jo should have given up on the family right then and there, and a small amount of these people believed that what John said was sexist. People were especially shocked by the fact that despite admitting to it, Jo never acknowledged John’s disagreement, choosing to focus on whether he liked how he saw himself, rather than confronting him. Two theories have been created to explain John's actions:

  1. Given the lack of motive behind the sudden turn, it is believed by some that the producers had manufactured John’s disagreement to induce more drama. Once again, people use the lack of a motive as evidence for this theory.
  2. John had always been against Jo’s techniques, and that siding with her was simply a facade in order to bring out his true colors when she eventually left. They believe that John did not feel like needing Jo's help, given the boys already listen to him, and do what he wants them to.

However, detractors offer positives about all of the family members. They have empathized with Lisa's frustrations and praised her for persevering. Similarly, these fans have pointed out redeeming qualities about all four boys: whilst rarely showing it, Darren had the potential to be a loving, nurturing brother, while they empathized with Matthew for his unjustified timeout over mustard. Devin's behavior had already began to show improvement, while Jared simply wanted his mother's attention. Finally, they posit that John had always supported Jo's techniques. Him disagreeing with her techniques and snapping during the DVD Meeting were the result of frustration and defensiveness rather than pure opposition. They also appreciated his commitment to Lisa and her children despite their aggression, his attempts (albeit misguided) to instill some order, and his ability to be nurturing and gentle. In addition, they say that his defense of Lisa during the Parent Meeting was a symbol of his love for her. Finally, these people pointed out that John calling Jo "lady", was never sexist in the slightest, as it is a natural response to some; they also pointed out that the interaction would have been the same if Jo was swapped for a male, as instead of what he said in the episode, John would say "What do you want to hear, man?"

More and more contemporary viewers have started to appreciate this episode. They loved the growth that everyone displayed and realized that every family member truly committed themselves to Jo's teaching. At the end of this episode, the entire family changed from an angry, violent household to one that was taking the first steps to becoming more unified and gentle. Some even joked that this episode featured more character development than popular film sagas such as Star Wars. While The Nitti Family may never truly be considered one of the greatest episodes of Supernanny, it remains an infamous one. As attitudes toward parenting change and fans gain more empathy for the families featured in this series, more and more people will like it in the years to come.

Trivia[]

  • The family owns a 1998 Dodge Durango.
  • This is the first episode to have a reward chart.
  • This is the first episode involving parents as dating partners instead of spouses.
  • This is the first episode to have someone with a purely physical disorder: Lisa suffers from hypertelorism, which increases the distance of a person's eye sockets.
  • John is the second parent to oppose Jo’s techniques. The first is Arthur Webb.
  • When Jo was going through the house rules, one says “Do your chores.” This implies that prior to Jo's arrival, the boys had chores.
  • While what Devin did to end up in the corner before the observation began remains unknown. It could be assumed that he hit one of his family members.
  • Matthew's timeout during the Observation has been widely criticised because he simply did not misbehave: he just got up from the table to get mustard. Some fans have joked that Lisa has an irrational hatred of mustard, which may have been the result of a traumatic experience with the condiment.
    • Brandon crying over skateboarding shoes from The Kerns Family, and Max letting go of a shopping cart in The Swift Family, are also instances of when fans, particularly in this community, have criticised the usage of timeout on a child. However, those two were only done during the Teaching stage.
  • This was the first episode in Melbourne, Florida. The second one was The Colombo Family.
  • With the exception of Matthew and Devin, all of the boys are all half brothers. Darren’s last name is Burrows, Matthew and Devin’s is Adkins, and Jared’s is Bonn. As established by Lisa in the Submission Reel, all four were born before she met John. From this, it can be deduced that the boys were born in different past relationships of Lisa’s.
  • When Lisa is fighting with Devin over the seatbelt she is heard saying "Sometimes I feel like pulling my hair out, I was pissed." This line appears to have been edited, due to it not making any sense: if Lisa was trying to say how angry she was in that moment, she would've said that she felt like pulling her hair out, rather than feel like pulling her hair out.
  • Devin was ranked #3 on the “Top 10 Worst Children on Supernanny” list by Catherine Ray on the WatchMojo website.
  • For a while on this wiki, most notably in mid-2021, a rumour had been added claiming Devin, Matthew and Darren were responsible for the death of a boy named "James Jenkins." The rumour claimed that the three boys had beaten James to death, and that the mother was so severely traumatised from the incident, she could only ever say "My son is dead!" Following it. In addition, it was claimed the rumour was quite big in the Supernanny community, stating it took a year for the rumour to have been disproven. In addition, another rumour focusing on James Jenkins, was 'The Jenkins Family', the supposed true finale of Season 5, where Jo not only helped the Jenkins', but also featured appearances from the Nittis, all of whom had returned to kill off the rest of the family. Both rumours were proven false and taken off of this page at the start of 2022. A page made about The Jenkins Family rumour was even created, but was archived and can be seen here.
    • The episode's page claims that all Nittis received consequences for their actions in the episode. John and Lisa were arrested for Conspiracy to Murder, the older boys were placed in a juvenile detention center for James' death and Conspiracy to Murder, and Jared was placed into foster care. Coincidentally, whilst these too would be proven false, John would be arrested in 2019 and 2021 respectively, as mentioned earlier on this page.

Behind the Scenes[]

  • This episode was filmed in July-August 2006.

Pop Culture[]

  • When Jo meets Matthew and Jared, they were playing on a Nintendo GameCube. However, the game was censored out to avoid copyright issues with Nintendo.

Transcript[]

The Nitti Family/Transcript

Gallery[]

External Links[]

Season 3
The Bowersock FamilyThe Weinstein FamilyThe Fager FamilyThe Swanson FamilyThe Mihalik FamilyThe Smith FamilyThe Haines FamilyThe Nitti FamilyThe Bruno FamilyThe McAfee FamilyThe Goins FamilyThe Williams FamilyThe Walker FamilyThe Cantoni FamilyThe Amouri Family
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