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 - 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.
#4 - 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.
#5 - 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.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - 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.
#9 - Mommy Dearest
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 9/25/1988
Joan's doctor father drops by to visit and Ida Mae smells a plump husband. Meanwhile, Vicki vies for school cheerleader.
#10 - The Jailbirds
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 8/20/1988
Jamie and Vicki are arrested for spray-painting a wall -- and its owner's $60 shirt.
#11 - 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.
#12 - 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.
#13 - 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.
#14 - 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.
#15 - Tag, You're It
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/30/1988
On their first day in junior high, Vicki becomes a hall monitor and Jamie tries to avoid Harriet for a dance while vying for a class fox. Meanwhile, Ted prepares to host a cybernetics conference.
#16 - Movin' Up
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/10/1987
While Vicki learns to spend a day without duties or instructions, Ted's new prestigious job offer in Massachusetts tests the family's taste to social climb vs. its price of morality.
#17 - 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.
#18 - 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.
#19 - 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.
#20 - No Laughing Matter
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 10/2/1988
A digestion feedback problem with Vicki's polynucleotide processor generates nitrous oxide gas that brings laughs to anyone near her, but not to Vicki herself -- just as Ted's boss is about to visit about lay-offs.
#21 - The Older Woman
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/25/1986
Jamie pushes Harriet aside in an unrequited crush on her 16-year-old cousin, who teaches him a lesson in respect.
#22 - 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.
#23 - 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.
#24 - 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.
#25 - The Gang's All Here
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/26/1987
Jamie stumbles into the membership of a junior high gang whose vandalism tests his sense of belonging with right and wrong -- and inducts Vicki as its moll.