"Small Wonder" (1985) TV series 1985-1989

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Release Date:

7 September 1985 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Father Ted Lawson creates robot, Vickie. The family, Ted, Joan, and Jamie, keep the information that Vickie is a robot secret...

Plot Keywords:

Robot | Artificially Created Girl | Sitcom

Awards:

2 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Dick Christie	...	Ted Lawson (96 episodes, 1985-1989)
Marla Pennington	...	Joan Lawson (96 episodes, 1985-1989)
Jerry Supiran	...	Jamie Lawson (96 episodes, 1985-1989)
Tiffany Brissette	...	Vicki the Robot (96 episodes, 1985-1989)
Emily Schulman	...	Harriet Brindle (96 episodes, 1985-1989)

Runtime:

30 min (96 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Fox Television Studios - 1999 S. Bundy Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Candace Cameron Bure, Taylor Neff and Heather O'Rourke all auditioned for the role of Vicki.

Goofs:

Continuity: Despite being "made of plastic, microchips here and there" the robot and her costume grew from season to season to accommodative the actress. However, in one of the episodes there was an explanation from the father who put in a special chip that enabled her to grow to avoid suspicion from friends and neighbors why she never grew and remained the same age.

Quotes:

[imitating a snobby girl]
Vicki the Robot: We don't have skeleton's in our closet... their in the back of the condo.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Still Standing: Still the Fun One (#4.8)" (2005)

Creepy example of 80's fad for high-concept sitcoms.

I'm not sure who started it, or when... all I know is that in the mid to late 80's, there was a slew of sitcoms based around wacky premises; Alf, Harry & the Hendersons, My Secret Identity... Small Wonder was one of the group, and probably the most cloyingly sweet of them all.

The show always had a seedy edge to it; you were never quite sure why the dad had built an automated little girl, nor why he wanted to keep her at home. Vicki (an Anglicization of some idiotic made-up acronym about voice-input) talked like a female Speak 'n' Spell, had telekinetic powers (!) and in the grand tradition of "high-concept" sitcoms, the plot would always seem to go like this.

(1) Vicki screws up, blows dad's cover. (2) Dad tries ineptly to keep people from figuring out Vicki isn't human. (3) Vicki does something wacky, that "proves" to the low-IQ neighbors she's human. (4) Everyone laffs.

After 4 years, somehow the American viewing public's IQs rose above Vicki's neighbors, and they figured out the plot was the same from show to show, and went on to other things.