Bedtime Stories
Skeeter Bronson is a hotel handyman who was promised by his father to be the manager of the family hotel. The promise was agreed to by Barry Nottingham when the Bronson family sold their hotel to him. When Nottingham announces plans to build a new hotel he instead appoints another man, Kendall, to become the manager.
Skeeter's sister Wendy asks him to watch her kids, Bobbi and Patrick, because the school she works at is being closed and she is looking for employment elsewhere. Skeeter does not know his niece and nephew very well, but agrees. After the day shift babysitter Jill leaves, he settles them into bed as they ask him to read a story. He makes up his own story, modeling it around his own life as a medieval story about a squire named "Sir Fixalot" and his rival "Sir Buttkiss". Throughout the story the kids make their own additions, such as the king giving Sir Fixalot a chance to prove himself. During the celebration, Patrick announces that it starts raining gumballs, and the story ends. The following day, Skeeter is called to fix Nottingham's television and during the visit, he tells Skeeter the "secret" theme that he had announced for the hotel—a rock and roll theme much like that of the Hard Rock Hotel. When Skeeter points this out he is offered the opportunity to compete with Kendall for a better theme. While driving, Skeeter is suddenly greeted with a shower of gumballs raining down from above, which he does not see is caused by a crashed delivery truck. Skeeter concludes that the story had come true and quickly develops a plan to use it to his advantage.
For the next story, he elaborates a Western-theme in which he receives a free "Ferrari" horse from an Indian chief. The children do not corroborate the story, but have him save a damsel in distress from several criminals. They claim he should be rewarded with a kiss, only to have a dwarf kick him instead. That night, Skeeter goes out in search of his Ferrari and meets a man, who steals his wallet. Violet, hounded by paparazzi, is rescued by the passing Skeeter. Just as he is about to kiss her, he is kicked by a dwarf. From this point, he determines that it is only the changes made by the children that actually affect reality. The following night, Skeeter tries to sell the kids on the theme ideas contest, but they are more interested in romance and action in their stories. The next story begins with Skeeticus, a Greek gladiator who, after impressing the emperor and a stadium of onlookers, attracts the attention of the most beautiful maiden. After a meal in which all the girls who used to pick on him in high school were impressed by the beautiful maiden he is with, they start randomly singing the "Hokey Pokey". After Skeeticus saves a man's life, a rainstorm sends him and the maiden into a magical cave which has Abraham Lincoln in it. Skeeter loses his patience with the story and upsets the children. Unable to get them to continue, the story ends.
The next day, Skeeter learns Violet will not be meeting with him per the story design, but unexpectedly runs into Jill, who invites him to lunch. The girls from Skeeter's high school are at the restaurant, so Skeeter asks Jill to pretend to be his girlfriend. After the girls break into the "Hokey Pokey" and Skeeter casually saves the life of a man on the beach, a sudden rainstorm sends them under the dock where he realizes that he is falling in love with her. A penny falls through the dock, completing the story.
For Skeeter and the kids' final night together, a space-themed story begins with Skeeter's character who battles Kendell's character in anti-gravity. Skeeter's hard-to-understand character wins and Skeeter quickly ends the story. Patrick interjects that the story is too predictable and says that Skeeter is then incinerated before ending the story.
At Nottingham's birthday party, among the fiery hazards that Skeeter is trying to avoid, his tongue is stung by a bee, making him hard to understand when competing with Kendall's new Broadway-themed hotel. Nottingham enjoys Skeeter's approach over the showy approach that Kendall had provided. A panic attack on a fiery birthday cake causes Skeeter to be "fired" by Nottingham. Afterward Jill, Patrick, and Bobbi are all upset as they learned where, which Skeeter had just discovered, the hotel was going to be built: on the property of the school which they all work and attend. Wendy believes he did not know, but is upset because he had inadvertently taught the children there are no such things as happy endings. When they attend the demolition to protest, Skeeter is inspired to prevent the school from being demolished. After finding Nottingham an alternative location, Skeeter takes Jill on a wild motorcycle ride which ends at the school and manages to stop the countdown. Sometime later, he marries Jill and founds a hotel named after his late father. Kendall and his scheming partner Aspen are demoted to Skeeter's hotel wait staff.
