Small Wonder (TV series)

For other uses, see Small Wonder (disambiguation).

Small Wonder
Promotional poster
Genre	Science fiction sitcom
Created by	Howard Leeds
Directed by	Peter Baldwin John Bowab Bob Claver Dick Christie Linda Day Selig Frank Leslie H. Martinson
Starring	Tiffany Brissette Dick Christie Marla Pennington Jerry Supiran Emily Schulman
Theme music composer	Rod Alexander Howard Leeds Diane Leslie
Opening theme	"She's a Small Wonder"
Ending theme	"She's a Small Wonder" (Instrumental)
Composers	George Greeley Ed Lojeskie
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	96
Production
Executive producer	Howard Leeds
Producers	Budd Grossman Bruce Taylor
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	20th Century Fox Television (1986-1989) Metromedia Productions (1985-1986)
Original release
Network	Syndication
Release	September 7, 1985 (1985-09-07) – May 20, 1989 (1989-05-20)

Small Wonder is an American science fiction sitcom that aired in first-run syndication from September 7, 1985 to May 20, 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.

Premise

The storylines revolve around V.I.C.I. (an acronym for "Voice Input Child Identicant", pronounced Vicki), an android in the form of a 10-year-old girl, built by Ted Lawson, an engineer/inventor for United Robotronics, in an effort to assist handicapped children. The robot is taken home by Lawson so that it can mature within a family environment. V.I.C.I.'s features include superhuman strength and speed, an AC outlet under her right arm, a serial port under her left arm, and an access panel in her back. Despite this, the Lawson family tries to pass the robot off as their adopted daughter.

The Lawson family tries to keep the robot's existence a secret, but their disagreeable neighbors, the Brindles, keep on popping up at the most unexpected moments — especially nosy red-headed girl-next-door Harriet and her parents, Bonnie and Brandon; the latter just happens to be Ted Lawson's co-worker. The show's humor frequently derived from V.I.C.I.'s attempts to learn human behavior, V.I.C.I's literal interpretation of speech and the family's efforts to disguise the robot's true nature.

To explain child actress Tiffany Brissette's aging during the show, Ted gave V.I.C.I. an upgrade in the series' third season. He aged her face, dressed her in modern clothes, and allowed her to eat and drink. The food passed through her naturally and the drink cooled her internal system.

Characters

The cast of Small Wonder during the first season

• 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. 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 Vicki 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 Vicki had a super-powered 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.
• Jamie Lawson (Jerry Supiran) - The 12 year old son of Ted and Joan.
• Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) - Jamie's father. Vicki's creator. A robotics engineer who 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.
• Harriet Brindle (Emily Schulman) - The young and nosy little neighbors' daughter who has a crush on Jamie.

Recurring

• 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.
• Jessica (Lihann Jones) - Jamie's sometime girlfriend.
• Warren Enright (Daryl Bartley) - Jamie's sometime school friend.
• Vanessa (Tiffany Brissette) - Evil robot who looks identical to Vicki, but does not speak in monotone. (Seen in seasons 3 and 4)

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; unbeknownst to her until the segment began, Dick Christie, Marla Pennington, and Edie McClurg were all present for the interview via satellite. Fond remarks and memories were shared about Brissette in the very brief segment. On the show, Brissette had stated that she was living in Boulder, Colorado and attending nursing school.

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 Spain, the show was broadcast on Antena 3 Televisión as Un robot en casa in December 1995. In India, China, Pakistan and other Asian countries, Small Wonder was syndicated on local TV stations and the Star TV Network in the mid-1990s. In Latin America, the show appeared on Rede 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. It aired on GMA Network in the mid-1980s, and on ABC in 1992. In Saudi Arabia, it was aired during the 80s as a daily family show during the month of Ramadhan on Saudi TV (Channel 2).

Awards and critical reception

In 2010, Vicki ranked 4th in a Futurama Buddy TV ranking of the 40 most favorite TV robots.

Year	Award	Category	Recipient
1986	Young Artist Award	Best Young Supporting Actress in a New Television Series	Emily Schulman
1987		Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress in a Long-Running Series, Comedy or Drama	Emily Schulman

In 2002, Robert Bianco, TV critic for USA Today, listed it as a contender for one of the worst TV shows of all time. This was repeated in 2003 by Mark Lewisohn of the BBC who referred to the program as, "widely considered one of the worst low-budget sitcoms of all time." In the audio commentary for the South Park episode "Simpsons Already Did It", co-creator Matt Stone lamented that "for some reason, people lump South Park and The Simpsons and any animated program together... which is unfortunate that we have to be compared to one of the best shows on television ever and one of the most popular shows on television ever, we never get compared to Sister, Sister or Small Wonder."

Episodes

First Season

Episode #	Prod #	Episode Name	Original Air Date
1-01	101	Vicki's Homecoming	September 7, 1985
1-02	102	The Neighbors	September 14, 1985
1-03	103	The Sitter	September 21, 1985
1-04	104	The Suitor	September 28, 1985
1-05	105	Sibling Rivalry	October 5, 1985
1-06	106	Spielberg, Jr.	October 12, 1985
1-07	107	The Lie	October 19, 1985
1-08	108	The Bully	October 26, 1985
1-09	109	Slightly Dishonorable	November 2, 1985
1-10	110	The Adoption	November 9, 1985
1-11	111	Child Genius	November 16, 1985
1-12	112	Ted's New Boss	November 23, 1985
1-13	113	Brainwashed	November 30, 1985
1-14	114	The Burrito Story	January 4, 1986
1-15	115	The Camping Trip	January 11, 1986
1-16	116	Love Story	January 18, 1986
1-17	117	Substitute Father	January 25, 1986
1-18	118	The Robot Nappers	February 8, 1986
1-19	120	The Company Takeover	February 15, 1986
1-20	123	Good Ol' Lou	February 22, 1986
1-21	121	The Reluctant Halfback	March 1, 1986
1-22	122	Show Biz	May 3, 1986
1-23	119	The Real Facts of Life	May 10, 1986
1-24	124	The Grandparents	May 17, 1986

Second Season

Episode #	Prod #	Episode Name	Original Air Date
2-01	215	Chewed Out	September 13, 1986
2-02	201	Money, Money, Money	September 20, 1986
2-03	203	My Mother the Teacher	September 27, 1986
2-04	213	Here Comes the Judge	October 4, 1986
2-05	209	Homeless Causes	October 11, 1986
2-06	212	Crazy Like a Fox	October 18, 1986
2-07	210	The Older Woman	October 25, 1986
2-08	204	Who's the Boss?	November 1, 1986
2-09	207	P-P Paula	November 8, 1986
2-10	211	You Gotta Have Heart	November 15, 1986
2-11	202	The Shoplifter	November 22, 1986
2-12	208	Thanksgiving Story	November 29, 1986
2-13	206	Neighborhood Watch	December 6, 1986
2-14	205	Movin' Up	January 10, 1987
2-15	221	Top Secret	January 17, 1987
2-16	218	The Personality Kid	January 24, 1987
2-17	216	Matchmaker, Matchmaker	January 31, 1987
2-18	223	Little Miss Shopping Mall	February 7, 1987
2-19	214	Victor/ Vicki-toria	February 14, 1987
2-20	222	Look into My Eyes	February 21, 1987
2-21	217	Wally the Wimp	February 28, 1987
2-22	219	The Cat's Meow	May 9, 1987
2-23	220	Vicki Goodwrench	May 16, 1987
2-24	224	Double Wedding	May 23, 1987

Third Season

Episode #	Prod #	Episode Name	Original Air Date
3-01	303	Woodward and Bernstein	September 12, 1987
3-02	312	Everyone Into the Pool	September 19, 1987
3-03	314	Whodunit?	September 26, 1987
3-04	306	Bride and Groom	October 3, 1987
3-05	302	It's Okay to Say No	October 10, 1987
3-06	307	Read My Lips	October 17, 1987
3-07	316	The Promotion	October 24, 1987
3-08	320	The Lawsonville Horror	October 31, 1987
3-09	308	The Bad Seed	November 7, 1987
3-10	318	Breakfast of Criminals	November 14, 1987
3-11	317	The Fats of Life	November 21, 1987
3-12	309	The Bank Job	November 28, 1987
3-13	305	Oooga Mooga	December 5, 1987
3-14	301	Here Today, Gone Tomorrow	January 16, 1988
3-15	304	Bye Bye Brindles	January 23, 1988
3-16	319	For Sale by Robot	January 30, 1988
3-17	411	Ronald McDonald House	February 6, 1988
3-18	325	The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming	February 13, 1988
3-19	311	I'll Drink to That	February 20, 1988
3-20	313	Big J, the D.J.	February 27, 1988
3-21	324	The Rock Band	April 30, 1988
3-22	415	Book-It	May 7, 1988
3-23	310	Safety First	May 14, 1988
3-24	320	When You Hear the Beep	May 21, 1988

Fourth Season

Episode #	Prod #	Episode Name	Original Air Date
4-01	409	Divided We Stand	September 17, 1988
4-02	413	Double Dates	September 24, 1988
4-03	315	The Gang's All Here	October 1, 1988
4-04	422	Rashomon	October 15, 1988
4-05	410	Come Fly With Me	October 22, 1988
4-06	322	Love at First Byte	October 29, 1988
4-07	405	The Sheik	November 5, 1988
4-08	403	Togetherness	November 12, 1988
4-09	416	My Favorite Martian	November 19, 1988
4-10	406	Mommie Dearest	November 26, 1988
4-11	407	No Laughing Matter	December 4, 1988
4-12	401	Tag, You're It	December 11, 1988
4-13	404	The Jailbirds	January 7, 1989
4-14	408	Riches to Rags	January 14, 1989
4-15	418	Radio Days	January 21, 1989
4-16	421	Kid-O-Grams	January 28, 1989
4-17	402	More About L.E.S.	February 4, 1989
4-18	420	Hooray for Hollyweird!	February 11, 1989
4-19	419	Minnesota Vicki	February 18, 1989
4-20	417	Vicki Doolittle	February 25, 1989
4-21	414	The Tattletale	April 29, 1989
4-22	323	The Strike	May 6, 1989
4-23	412	See No Evil	May 13, 1989
4-24	326	Thy Neighbor's Wife	May 20, 1989

DVD releases

Shout! Factory has released the first two seasons of Small Wonder on DVD in Region 1. Season 2 was released as a Shout! Factory select title, available exclusively through their online store.

DVD Name	Ep#	Region 1
The Complete First Season	24	February 16, 2010
The Complete Second Season♦	24	June 22, 2010
The Complete Third Season	24	TBA
The Complete Fourth Season	24	TBA

♦ - Shout! Factory select title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store as well as eBay and Amazon.

See also

• Not Quite Human, a series of novels in which a scientist creates an android, passing him off as his son, telling only his daughter the truth. The series was made into several TV movies for the Disney Channel.

External links

• Small Wonder at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Small Wonder at epguides.com
• Small Wonder at Retrojunk
• Small Wonder at TV Acres