Small Wonder
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Small Wonder (1985–1989) was a low-budget half-hour American sitcom, created by Howard Leeds. The storylines revolved around V.I.C.I., 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 parallel 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 try to keep the robot's existence a secret, but their disagreeable neighbours, the Brindles, keep on popping up at the most unexpected moments - especially nosey red-headed girl next door Harriet and her parents Bonnie and Brandon, who just happens to be Ted Lawson's boss. The show's humor frequently derived from V.I.C.I.'s attempts to learn human behaviour, V.I.C.I's literal interpretation of speech and the family's efforts to disguise the robot's true nature.
The show was produced for first-run syndication by Metromedia Producers (taken over by 20th Century Fox Television in 1986) and the joint-venture consortium New Program Group (NPG). The show ran from September 7, 1985 to February 9, 1989. While the show initially got high ratings, they sagged over time, and the show was cancelled during its fourth season.
In the United Kingdom the show was screened regionally on the ITV Network. A typical timeslot as followed by Yorkshire Television was a weekly Monday 6.30pm screening.
In 2002, Robert Blanco, TV critic for USA Today listed it as contender for one of the worst TV shows of all time. [link]
Characters
- Ted Lawson (Dick Christie), father and engineer.
- Joan Lawson (Marla Pennington), mother.
- Jamie Lawson (Jerry Supiran), son.
- V.I.C.I. (Voice Input Child Indenticate) Lawson (Tiffany Brissette), robotic daughter.
- Harriet Brindle (Emily Schulman), nosy neighbor with a crush on Jamie.
- Brandon Brindle (William Bogert), Harriet's father and Ted's boss from stealing Ted's ideas.
- Bonnie Brindle (Edie McClurg), Harriet's mother.
External links
- [Small Wonder] at the [BBC]
- [Small Wonder fan site]
- Small Wonder at [Entertainment Geekly]
- Small Wonder at [Jump the Shark]
- [Review at X-Entertainment]
- Small Wonder at [Retrojunk]
- Small Wonder at [TV Acres]
Other References
Small Wonder may also refer to:- , a book by Barbara Kingsolver.
- Small Wonder Records, an independent UK record label that specialised in releasing records by punk rock bands.
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