HOLLYWOOD -- Dennis Quaid prides himself with having an eye for impending chaos.

That's why he appointed himself 'the boss' on the set of his new family comedy Yours, Mine and Ours which opens Friday.

His co-star Rene Russo had already usurped the role of kindly parent.

"Somebody had to be the referee," says Quaid. "We had 18 kids with their 18 stand-ins plus a crow, three dogs and their backup hounds, gerbils and a pig. It could have been a disaster waiting to happen."

Yours, Mine and Ours is a remake of the 1968 movie featuring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda as widowers, each with large families, who marry. In this remake, Quaid plays a Coast Guard admiral with eight children who marries Russo's fashion designer with 10 children.

Quaid's real motivation for signing on to Yours, Mine and Ours is he "grew up hooked on Abbott and Costello, Laurel and Hardy and The Three Stooges, so I've been a fan of slapstick as long as I can remember. That's why I was eager to do Yours, Mine and Ours."

"I quickly learned that there is a real art to taking pratfalls and that it can be very painful at times," says Quaid.

Raja Gosnell, who directed Yours, Mine and Ours, says Quaid was "a real trooper. No matter what I threw at him, he went for it.

"He let us pour paint on him, slide him through the mess on the floors and even land him face first in goo.

"The only thing we used a double for was the high fall... and Dennis wanted to do it. The insurance company wouldn't let him."

Besides the comedy, what appealed to Quaid was: "It is essentially a romantic comedy with lots of kids providing physical humour. That makes it a genuine family comedy and not a kids' movie."

Quaid, 51, knows the difference.

His son Jack Henry Quaid is 13.

"I've seen way too many kids' movies where there was nothing in them for adults. It was always nap time for me.

"I wouldn't have done Yours, Mine and Ours unless I'd seen that it could have appeal for children, teens and adults."

Quaid says Jack "very much wants to be an actor. He's taking drama at school, but I won't let him do anything until he's finished school. I was 22 when I started to act. I think that's a good age."