Small Wonder (TV series)

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 secretly creates a robot modeled after a real human girl, then tries to pass it off as their daughter. The show was created under Metromedia Productions and its rights were acquired by 20th Century Fox Television in 1986.

Premise

The story lines 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. V.I.C.I. was 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 the cousin of their son.

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 next-door neighbor Harriet, whose dad 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, the robot'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, the series' producers had 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 superhuman 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 into 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 something such as a new detergent or to greatly increase the gas mileage of cars, which Jamie often saw as a chance to get rich quick, only to find her improvements were not perfect. Vicki lives in a cabinet in Jamie's bedroom, and becomes more human-like 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 and Vicki's creator. A robotics engineer who originally created the Vicki robot as a domestic servant with a female child's appearance.
• Joan Lawson (Marla Pennington): Ted's wife. Joan, more than anyone else on the show, regards Vicki as a real person.
• Harriet Brindle (Emily Schulman): The nosy 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. Also a neighbor to the Lawsons.
• Bonnie Brindle (Edie McClurg): Harriet's mother and Brandon's wife. Written out after the second season after McClurg joined the cast of The Hogan Family, though Bonnie appears one more time in a third season episode.
• 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 and sometimes rival.
• 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. In the Philippines, 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 Ramadan on Saudi TV (Channel 2). In 1994, It was aired in India on Star Plus first in English then in Hindi the same year most of the time, until 1998. In Indonesia, it was aired on TVRI. In Iraq it was presented to children with Arabic subtitles and called (الاعجوبة الصغيرة); it aired on تلفزيون العراق - ألقناة ألاولى in 1987.

Awards and critical reception

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

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."

Episodes

Main article: List of Small Wonder episodes

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

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.

• Karishma Kaa Karishma, the Indian television sitcom remake. The series aired on STAR Plus.

• Dr Slump, where a crazy Japanese inventor makes an android daughter so he can become closer to a local teacher he is in love with.

External links

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