The WORST episodes of Small Wonder
Every episode of Small Wonder ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Small Wonder!
When genius cybernetics engineer Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) brings home his top secret invention, a Voice Input Child Identicant or V.I.C.I. (Tiffany Brissette), life becomes anything but mechanic for the Lawson family. With Ted’s boss and nosy family next door, his family must pass off Vickie as a real child. It’s easy for his wife Joan (Marla Pennington) who can’t help dotting on her like a real daughter, but harder for his precocious son Jamie (Jerry Supiran) who uses Vickie to do his homework and ward off Harriet (Emily Schulman), the annoying red headed girl who has a crush on him. Also starring Edie McClurg (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Hogan Family) as Harriet’s busybody mom.
#1 - Book-It
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 7/23/1988
Prompted by Ted and his class to get his school reading assignment going, Jamie videos a book report based on a 1940s P.I. named Rick Savage.
#2 - The Strike
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/6/1989
A United Robotronics strike pits shop steward Ted against management rep Brandon; Joan has her students use the strike as a social studies exercise, which also goes awry.
#3 - The Promotion
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/12/1988
To win a promotion over Brandon's boss fawning, Ted decides to reveal Vicki's robot secret to his boss at a company picnic -- unaware that Brandon is out to sabatoge Ted's effort.
#4 - Radio Days
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/3/1988
Ted prepares for a robotics interview on a local radio talk show while Jamie looks for an idea for a class play.
#5 - The Tattletale
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 11/20/1988
Benny, an old college chum of Ted and Joan's is up to his same trashy school paper tricks in a big city rag now, fabricating a tabloid feature which by sheer chance ""exposes"" Vicki as a robot just as she's about to join a fashionable clique of girls.
#6 - The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/13/1988
In an international junior high quiz, Vicki's school pits its top pupil -- her -- against an equally quick and infallible Russian whiz kid who has a secret of his own.
#7 - Ronald McDonald House
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 10/30/1988
To help a withdrawn and bitter classmate cope with leukemia, Jamie and Joan help set up a play on fighting disease.
#8 - Safety First
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 7/30/1988
Vicky imitates Ted's demostration on saving a choking victim's life on Brendle. Brendle arrives the next day faking a broken neck and threatens to sue the Lawson's.
#9 - I'll Drink To That
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/20/1988
Due to Vicki's mishandling of terms, Child Services Officer Mrs. Fernwald thinks Ted is an alcoholic and threatens to take Vicki away unless he joins AA.
#10 - The Cat's Meow
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/9/1987
To train Vicki to be more affectionate, Ted buys her a toy cat that only makes her mimic Jamie's past jealousy and run away.
#11 - See No Evil
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 11/6/1988
Jamie regrets putting Vicki on guard duty for his pricey new bike when her eyes start to malfunction in a schoolyard of prowling thieves.
#12 - The Rock Band
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 10/3/1987
Jamie, Reggie, Harriet and Vicki try to start a rock group to play to Ida Mae's visiting agent friend.
#13 - Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 12/6/1986
To pay for a new bike he bought from the neighborhood bully, Jamie uses Vicki to run a school computerized match-making business.
#14 - When You Hear the Beep
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 8/6/1988
While running an unauthorized answering service for grounded kids which nearly wrecks Ted's respect with his boss, Jamie and Vicki play Cupids to help Reggie nerve up to meeting the girl of his dreams.
#15 - Big J, the D.J.
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 7/9/1988
Jamie, competing with Reggie for school radio D.J., uses Vicki's voice mimicry to fake an interview with football star Lyle Alzado -- who happens to be in town listening in.
#16 - Kid-O-Grams
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/17/1988
Ted's singing telegram birthday greeting makes him pine back to his ""youthful years"" with a surfboard and prompts Jamie to start a singing telegram for schoolmates -- and competing with Reggie.
#17 - Hooray for Hollyweird!
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/9/1989
Ted brings back ""Bad Seed"" Vanessa, who again takes Vicki's place, locks Vicki in her/its cabinet and joins the family to Hollywood, where Ted must repair a movie's robot while Vanessa mugs into a screen test on the sly.
#18 - Rashomon
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/5/1989
While on a company vacation at a health resort, Jamie, Vicki, Brandon and Harriet see a burglar hitting their residence -- each with a different eyewitness account.
#19 - Vicki Doolittle
Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 11/27/1988
A new language translation device (Random Access Multiple Concurrent Linquistic Analytical Sequencer) installed in Vicki enables her to understand any language...even animals, like the bosses' dog. Mrs. Jennings forces Mr. Jennings to fire Ted when Joan balks at doing uncredited work for an affair.
#20 - The Sheik
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 9/18/1988
To keep his company's presence in an Arab country, Ted lets its visiting young ruler draft Vicki into his harem.
#21 - Breakfast of Criminals
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/5/1987
Vicki is discovered by a marketing firm to play in a cereal commercial, but the Lawsons have second thoughts when her taste test reveals that the product isn't all it's crackled up to be.
#22 - For Sale by Robot
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/30/1988
Ted begins remodeling the house, and Joan's new real estate side job gets upstaged when Vicki sells the Lawson homestead to an unscrupulous cowpoke couple.
#23 - Double Dates
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/13/1988
Jamie winds up handling two dates on the same night, blind to the fact that one of them is Harriet in disguise.
#24 - Look into My Eyes
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/21/1987
After Vicki watches a TV hypnotist turn volunteers into clowns and animals, she starts practicing her new mesmerizing ""skill"" on the Lawsons with hysterical results.
#25 - Read My Lips
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1987
When Jamie befriends a deaf boy to score scout points, he learns a lesson in sensitivity and exploitation.