Small Wonder (TV series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For other uses, see Small Wonder.
Small Wonder

The cast of Small Wonder during the first season.
Format SciFi Sitcom
Created by Howard Leeds
Leslie H. Martinson
Selig Frank
Peter Baldwin
John Bowab
Dick Christie
Bob Claver
Starring Dick Christie
Marla Pennington
Jerry Supiran
Tiffany Brissette
Emily Schulman
Country of origin  United States
No. of episodes 96
Production
Running time approx. 22:15 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel first-run syndication
Original run September 7, 1985 – February 9, 1989
External links
Official website

Small Wonder is an American science fiction television sitcom in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1989. The show chronicles the family of a robotics engineer who, after he secretly creates a robot modeled after a real human girl, tries to pass it off as their daughter. Although the show was created under Metromedia Productions, the rights to the show were acquired by 20th Century Fox Television in 1986.

Contents

[edit] Characters

  • Victoria "Vicki" Ann Smith-Lawson (Tiffany Brissette) - A robot modeled after a real human girl. The robot was a Voice Input Child Identicant (V.I.C.I.), but was nicknamed Vicki for short. She has real hair and realistic skin. She possesses super human strength and speed and runs on atomic power. Vicki has an access panel in her back, an electric socket in her right armpit, and an RS-232 serial port under her left armpit. Vicki's artificial intelligence is not perfect. She is incapable of emotion, speaks in a monotone voice, and interprets most commands literally. She does manage to blend in to the real world to a point. Vicki attends school, and no one but her family members and a few trusted friends know her secret. Occasionally VICI had rare abilities that seemed to only appear in one or two episodes, such as elongating her neck to reach a door's peephole, shrinking her size to become as small as a doll or making herself ten feet tall to get noticed by everyone. One recurring theme was that VICI had a superpowered learning system which enabled her to improve upon something such as a new detergent or to greatly increase the gas mileage of cars, which Ted and Jamie often saw as a chance to get rich quick, only to find her improvements were not perfect. Vicki lives in a large cabinet in Jamie's bedroom, and becomes more human over the course of the show.
  • Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) - Jamie's father. Vicki's creator. A robotics engineer. He originally created Vicki as a domestic servant whose girl-child appearance was only meant to be a selling point.
  • Joan Lawson (Marla Pennington) - Ted's wife. Joan regards Vicki as a real person more than anyone else on the show does.
  • Jamie Lawson (Jerry Supiran) - The 12 year old son of Ted and Joan.
  • Harriet Brindle (Emily Schulman) - The young and nosy little neighbors' daughter who has a crush on Jamie.
  • Brandon Brindle (William Bogert) - Harriet's father. Becomes Ted Lawson's boss after stealing Ted's ideas.
  • Bonnie Brindle (Edie McClurg) - Harriet's mother. Written out after the second season.
  • Ida Mae Brindle (Alice Ghostley) - Brandon's outspoken, know-it-all sister, who is nearly identical to his wife Bonnie.
  • Reggie Williams (Paul C. Scott) - Jamie's best friend.

[edit] Awards

year Result award Category Recipient
1986 Won Young Artist Award *Best Young Supporting Actress in a New Television Series Emily Schulman
1987 Won Young Artist Award *Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress in a Long-running series Comedy or Drama Emily Schulman

[edit] Criticism

In 2002, Robert Bianco, TV critic for USA Today, listed it as a contender for one of the worst TV shows of all time[1], and according to the BBC, it "is widely considered one of the worst low-budget sitcoms of all time." [2]

[edit] 2009 reunion

On January 14, 2009, on FOX's The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, Tiffany Brissette appeared in-studio as a guest for a "Where Are They Now?" segment, where previously unbeknownst to her, Dick Christie, Marla Pennington and Edie McClurg appeared via satellite. Fond remarks and memories were shared about Brissette in the very brief segment. On the show Brissette had stated she was living in Boulder, Colorado and attending nursing school.[3]

[edit] References in other television series

[edit] International airings

In the United Kingdom, the show was screened regionally on the ITV Network and in the early 1990s on Sky One. In Italy, the show appeared in the mid-1980s on Italia 1 network and was titled "Super Vicky". In France, the series was shown as "Petite Merveille" on Canal+, starting in November 1985. In India, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other Asian countries, Small Wonder was syndicated on the Star TV Network in the mid-1990s. In Latin America, the show appeared on TV Globo and, later, TV Record in Brazil and was called "Super Vicky", VTV (Venezolana de Television) in Venezuela between 1987 and 1990, Canal 13 in Argentina, and Frecuencia Latina in Peru, where it was called "La Pequeña Maravilla". In the Philippines, it also formerly aired on GMA Network in the mid-1980s, and on ABC in 1992.

[edit] References

  1. ^ USATODAY.com
  2. ^ BBC Comedy Guide (saved at archive.org)
  3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu4ZHtOB3BQ

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Wonder_(TV_series)"
Personal tools