this is "nightline." >> tonight -- >> cody! >> i didn't do that! >> the family behind youtube channel daddy o five rising to fame and some say small fortune with home videos of so-called pranks. >> it was more for shock value. >> no one is laughing now. angry backlash from viewers, the parents aaccused of inflicting trauma, two of the children temporarily removed from the home. >> videos are exaggerated. >> you be the judge. is this just a joke? plus space cadets. with the stars of the anti-superhero blockbuster "guardians of the galaxy volume 2." the surprising revolution from kurt russell. some hard-core diet advice from chris pratt. >> if you don't have a reason to be skinny, don't do it.

>> also why the sequel is even more fun than the original. plus tonight, toast of the town. behind the greens of the new avocado-themed restaurant. how you can bring your avocados to rapid ripeness. first here are the "nightline 5." >> i was out here smoking instead of being here for my son's winning shot. that was it for me. that's why i'm quitting with nicorette. >> nicorette mini relieves sudden cravings fast. >> every great why needs a great how. >> why does your tummy go rumble, rumble? >> no questions for you. the milk in your cereal was messing with you. lactaid is the real milk without the

good evening. thank you for joining us. the story of a family who may have taken their pursuit of social media fame and fortune too far. the parents behind the popular youtube channel daddy o five say they thought they were playing innocent pranks on their children. instead they're sparking outrage and accusations of abuse. now they're telling their side of the story to abc's t.j. holmes. >> what the hell? >> dad! >> cody! >> i didn't do that! >> you tell me what you did! >> i swear to god i didn't do that! >> reporter: the video is shocking. >> i didn't do that! >> why did you do that? >> reporter: 9-year-old cody martin, berated with profanities by his father and stepmother mike and heather martin. he cries hysterically while the screaming continues for more than three minutes. >> you did it! you both did it!

>> reporter: what it seems cody doesn't know, it's a so-called prank. >> i got a prank for cody. i bought this here invisible ink. and i'm going to squirt it all over his carpet and start flipping out. >> reporter: even after the big reveal -- >> you just got owned. it's just a prank, brah. >> reporter: the kids aren't laugh. the entire 84 deal was uploaded to the maryland family's popular youtube page daddy o five which features many similar stunts. the video sparked outrage. "this makes me shudder." "mental abuse." >> i am ashamed. this just -- it started out as family fun. it started with me and my kids. then it was just about making a video and then making the next video more crazier than the next. >> they would get exciting when they would get a lot of views. it was more for shock value. >> i'm tired of this. >> reporter: what they also got was backlash from fellow video

bloggers. >> i am personally concerned for these kids. >> it is not okay to treat children like this. and just call it a prank, brah. r: many use the hash tag help cody and emma. law enforcement is stepping in. cody and emma were both removed from the home and at least temporarily placed with their biological mother rose. >> emma and cody are with me. i have emergency custody. >> reporter: child protective services and the frederick county sheriff's office are investigating the martin household but declined to comment to abc. >> a lot of times abuse takes place behind closed doors. >> go and take the camera with you. >> no! >> it's this uber documentation and videoing of what's been going on that's so different. >> reporter: with more than 750,000 subscribers, daddy o five was once a lucrative channel. although the martins doesn't disclose how much they made. >> we were all enjoying it, everyone had confidence from this, everybody was so happy to be a youtuber and to be making

these videos. everything clouded my judgment. i was able to do so many things for my family because of this youtube channel. we were able to give the kids college funds. we were able to move out of a neighborhood of crime. >> go upstairs, check that out first. >> i ended up destroying my family. thinking that i was helping my family. >> reporter: when the controversy first began, michael and heather allege their videos were dramatizations. >> stop it! >> reporter: they say cody was in on that ink prank. >> i didn't do that! >> reporter: in a post titled "family destroyed over false accusations." >> a lot of people apparently don't get it. a lot of people don't see the humor in it. >> you all were initially defensive before you were apologetic. why? >> because the kids loved the youtube channel. so they kind of felt like they were being attacked. then we felt the offense of those parents. >> we didn't do this!

>> reporter: many credit ins say the children's emotions seemed painfully real. >> you did! yes, you did! >> we did do pranks. but most of the time the kids knew about them. they were planned. some stuff is real. some stuff was acted out, scripted. >> you're not suggesting that your kids and the crying and the sobbing and that emotion we see was not real, are you. >> um -- not every single time. some of it was acted. some of it was. >> listen! it's just a prank. >> the fact that the parents said that this was a prank does not make what happened any better or any less problematic. what's so disturbing is that the kids were really being used. >> did he roll his eyes? >> reporter: even in the more reserved slice of life videos, little cody often seems to be a target. >> cody's going to nan's because

cody was bad and didn't earn going to disney. >> reporter: with 11-year-old emma caught in the crossfire too. rose says she was stunned by the video. >> he's abusing my kids, hurting my kids, making them feel bad about themselves. >> hey, everybody, we're going to set the alarm off. >> reporter: the pranks frequently seem to fly out of control. one video even appears to show mike drawing a gun after an apparent joke gone wrong. >> i'm going to [ bleep ]! somebody's going to get shot! >> was this scripted? when it was supposed to be someone, an intruder in the house? >> 100% scripted. the characters that you see on our youtube channel is not a reflection of who we are. it's not. it's a character. it was a show. a bad show, but it was a show. >> a show that children should not be involved in. >> they shouldn't. >> the problem with things that

are online is there's no escape. so once it's out there, it's not like you can go to your room, close the door, in the old days, and say, i can shield myself from this abuse, or the embarrassment. the humiliation feels so present, so permanent. >> reporter: the martins pulled all their videos and replaced them with this tearful apology. >> we're the parents. and we should have made better decisions. >> reporter: but they maintain that at the core of it all, their intentions were good. >> good job! >> you've got dads that are lawyers. i'm not no lawyer. you've got dads that are doctors. i can't do that. i felt like i'm not being the dad that they deserve. i'm no hero to them. but then starting youtube, seeing how happy these kids get when they get these views -- >> i'm a dad. and it hurt my gut to hear you say what you just said. do you really think your kids -- you aren't a hero to your kids before this? >> i didn't feel like it.

i swear to god, i didn't feel like it. >> we love our kids. they're the most important thing in the world to us. we do everything for them. our whole world revolves around our kids. we made poor parenting choices by portraying ourselves this way. but we are not bad people. >> reporter: if and when the martins will get custody of cody and emma again remains uncertain. as of now, no charges have been filed. they are due to appear in court tomorrow. a spokesperson tells abc, on behalf of the martins, the martins accept full responsibility for their parenting decisions and remain transparent and cooperative with oversight agencies. their primary focus continues to be their family during this extraordinarily difficult time. >> they're doing better. it's going to take a long time to get them back on track. i want them to be happy. i want them to feel safe. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm t.j. holmes in frederick, maryland.

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sweet cinnamon-sugar on the outside, crazy on the inside. crave those crazy squares. ♪ sweet cinnamon-sugar on the outside, crazy on the inside. crave those crazy squares. a few years ago, both chris pratt and the "guardians of the galaxy" comic book series were relatively unknown. now pratt is one of the biggest movie stars in the galaxy and the franchise has grossed more than $700 million. this weekend the guardians are back and they've got a new hollywood mega star in their orbit. here's abc's nick watt. >> the beast's hide is too thick

to be pierced from the outside, i must cut through it on the inside! >> huh? no, no! >> reporter: if you're not a superhero movie person company, not change channels, believe me. you might really like this movie. >> the same level of thickness from the inside as the outside -- >> i realize that. >> there's 94 out-loud laughs in this than most comedies. >> don't call me a raccoon! >> i'm sorry, i took it too far. i meant trash panda. >> watch it purely for the soundtrack. >> good. >> and maybe should? ♪ >> when you're making a movie that's cosmic, that's outside of birth, to be able to have touchstones, something to bring you back, some sense of familiarity. the music itself really brings it back. makes it an earthly story. >> reporter: it's a sequel. >> i've made many mistakes. >> reporter: kurt russell comes in to play chris pratt's long-lost dad. >> perfectly cast.

>> you're called ego in this film. >> can't deny it. >> hot hell are you? >> reporter: there's that complicated father/son dynamic. zoe saldana's issues. >> all you do is yell at each other. you're not friends. >> reporter: and a mission by this band of misdid its to save the universe that i'm not going to spoil. >> this is weird, a sovereign fleet approaching from the rear. >> why would they do that? >> probably rocket stole their batteries. >> you're not expecting superheroes so be so clumsy and rude. >> what were you thinking? >> they were easy to steal. >> they're so human. flawed and everything. >> hey, zoe's talking, that's it. none of you are mum but it's a human story. >> they're orphans, runaways, they come from broken families, they're grieving. these are topics that are universal. >> reporter: the first "guardians of the galaxy" movie came out in 2014. many saw it as a risk. >> people are like, why guardians? >> yeah.

"iron man," we get it. "spider-man," we get it. captain america, everybody knows him. i don't know who the guardians of the galaxy is, no one does. >> reporter: the 1996 marvel comic book brought to the movie by marvel, owned by our parent company disney. despite lack of name recognition -- >> there's one other name you might know me by. star lord. >> who? >> star lord, man. the legendary outlaw. guys? forget it. >> reporter: volume 1 was a smash. it cost $170 million to make, raked in nearly $775 million at the global box office and scored a 90-plus rating from rotten tomatoes. >> they call themselves the guardians of the galaxy. >> what a bunch of a-holes. >> reporter: it made such a star out of chris pratt, he just landed a star on the hollywood walk of fame. all on social media thanks to his wife anna faris, and he has a massive following for his

snack critiques. ♪ what's my snack >> reporter: on instagram. >> a lot of people ask me what i had to give up to maintain this level of physical fitness. turns out it's my personality. and what i'm left with on instagram is talking about the [ bleep ] i eat. we kid ourselves into thinking that we're satisfied with the crap that we have to eat if we want to stay skin skinny. at the end of the day, don't do it. if you don't have a reason to be skinny, don't do it. >> reporter: he has to because he's a superhero on the screen. in real life, a dad to jack. >> he's 4 1/2. he was able to come to set, tour the ship, he's seen "guardians 1." he has an idea that i'm an actor and play these parts. >> does he think you have special powers in real life? >> yeah, i'm going to let him think so as long as i can, yeah. >> my boys think that i'm related to the hulk. >> it's so funny. >> because you're green? >> at first i thought they'd find it cool their mom was

green. i saw -- i saw the thinking trail in their eyes. they were just like, mama? gomora? hulk? i was like, okay, go with it. yes, i know the hulk, you have to eat your vegetables, pick up after yourself, go peepee in the potty. >> reporter: volume 2 will make them even bigger, though they say it's all about writer/director james gunn. >> he earned their trust on the first movie so they'd give him carte blanche to make movie he always wanted to make, that's what this is. >> were you nervous about the sequel? >> i was a little nervous. sequels are meant to supersede their first movies. >> i can tell you what you don't want to do coming into something very successful, you don't want to be responsible for wrecking it. >> you hadn't seen the first one? >> no, i'm not a big moviegoer. >> reporter: the star from "escape from new york." "overboard." >> that sup comes out --

>> reporter: the hateful 8." >> i'm taking this woman into red rock to hang. >> reporter: not a big moviegoer? a little cgi and makeup takes us back to '80s kurt in this movie. he got excited. >> they don't let you take pictures. i did. i took a picture and sent to it goldy and the kids. and they said, oh my god. >> kind of will they, won't they but do they, don't they? >> it will cost you 13 bucks to find out. >> reporter: there's talk of a volume 3 all but confirmed. >> i can't say who's back for the third one. >> kevin bacon. >> kevin bacon? you're making that up. >> no. >> reporter: i've become a fanboy. i'm not really a superhero movie guy. it doesn't matter, you don't have to be for this. remember, neither is kurt. >> i've seen "iron man." i've seen "spider-man" i guess or something. i don't know which ones i've seen. this one's -- look, this lives

in its own little universe. >> i think it transcends genre. it's a very complete and even film. i really think it's a masterpiece. >> i do like how you can say these lines and not break a smile. >> saying that the film's a masterpiece? >> no, just any line. i'm not entirely sure if you're serious. i'm not entirely sure if you're joking. but you don't break. >> that's just saying they got the right guy for the job. >> reporter: yes, kurt russell, that's exactly what i'm saying. i'm nick watt for "nightline" in los angeles. next, on the eve of cinco de mayo, we're in an avocado-themed cafe. the secret to making them perfectly ripe for your fiesta. ♪ at lincoln, we're all about making things simpler for you. like, imagine having your vehicle serviced...

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finally tonight, it's the signature food of cinco de mayo. everybody is loco for avocados. here's my "nightline" coanchor juju chang. >> reporter: it's one of the world's trendiest snacks. flooding news feeds.

inspiring hundreds of variations. avocadoia in brooklyn is an entire cafe, taking the creamy fruit to a whole new level. >> we started to develop this concept together about healthy and tasty food options for people to have every day for lunch. >> reporter: started by italian natives alessandro and francesco, they knew trishs concept an insta-hit. loaded with healthy fatty acids they're served up with other avocado goodies. customers have been lining up to get a taste. >> the very first day we actually ran out of avocados. >> reporter: what's the secret recipe to getting an avocado perfectly ripe? >> he's the master. >> what you can do to speed up the process is to put the avocados with other fruits that are ripe, for example bananas or apples. this will speed up the process a

lot. >> we're trying to create a casual, fresh, healthy fast food. also if it makes your dishes look beautiful, why not. >> our thanks to juju. our thanks to you for watching abc news tonight. as always we're online 24/7 at abcnews.com and our "nightline" facebook page. thanks again for watching and good night. food. water. internet. we need it to live. but what we don't need are surprises, like extra monthly fees. i see you, fee, played by legendary actress anjelica huston. you got me, mark. we just want fast internet for one, simple rate. for all the streaming and the shopping and the newsing, but most of all... for the this. internet for one everyday simple price and no extra monthly fees.