Small, still a Wonder!

Today I was watching the famous television series of the 80s named 'Small Wonder' which I guess most of you have atleast bumped into once, while changing channels.This show is one of my favourite all-time shows and today I was watching it for probably the 10th time or something.That might be seem like a hyperbole but it certainly is true.I have watched it lots and lots of times.So I thought why not put a post about it.

The basic story for all you people who have not been lucky enough to watch it goes like this - Tedd Lawson is a genius who works for a company named 'United Robotronics'.Joan, his wife and himself have a son named Jamie, who is quite saddened by the fact that he doesn't have a little sister.So their parents try hard day and night to make it possible for Jamie, but due to some reason Tedd works on a robot or shall we say android to satisfy Jamie.I think Tedd Lawson chooses to do this because he has to portray a characteristic of genius within him.Guess every geek ends up with some idea like this.So, he works on a robot on a more experimental basis and comes up with V.I.C.I. which stands for 'Voice Input Child Identicant'.But somehow they find it difficult to call her "Hey V-I-C-I" or "Hey V dot I dot C dot I" and instead come up with a totally novel idea of calling her "Vicki".

So Jamie is all happy to see his new sister Vicki, who has humanly features of a girl but has a monotonic voice in order to give Jamie and the viewers an effect that she is actually a robot.The whole series is about various anecdotes in the life of the Lawsons where Vicki indulges in unintentionally humourous and deliberate activities, which keeps the Lawsons happy at the end of every small trouble.The super-human strength of the robot is illustrated from time to time to remind us that she actually is a robot.But the stoic-faced robot also has a soft side to it or rather her, wherein she at times laughs and weeps profusely.

Then there are the nosey neighbours of the Lawsons called 'The Brindles'.Their head of the family is Brandon Brindle who happens to be Tedd's boss.His wife Barney is jealous, nosey and irritating like everyone else in the family.Their daughter Harriet, is a brat who has a crush on Jamie and is hell bent upon driving him nuts.Jamie's good friend is Redgie, who drops in every now and then and does fine.Everyone in the series contributes to the fun.Altogether its half an hour of good timepass.

The creator of this series is Howard Leeds and the director changes in some shows.The usual ones are Bob Claver and Someone else.The role of Vicki was played with much elegance by the sweet Tiffany Brissette.She received much accalim for her role of 'Vicki' in the series.Dick Christie plays Tedd lawson and the good-looking Marla Pennington plays his wife Joan Lawson.Jerry Supiran plays naughty Jamie and Emily Schulman his pestering neighbour Harriet.

This series was launched during the 1980s and captures the growing interest of the American public towards the world of robots and computers , which can actually work wonders.Its perhaps that reason why this series ran for about four years and later its re-runs where casted over and over, mainly because people loved the concept so much and identified themselves with it.The humour is unalloyed and is kind of childish at times, but nevertheless interesting as always.



To me the girl in that red-and-white frock ( black and white in the above pic ) will always give cherished memories of a childhood.Small Wonder is still so fresh everytime I watch it.It still does not make me laugh any more but I feel a lot at peace when I watch it after getting creeps from the day at college.It still gives a lot of happiness though it ain't anything exciting, but bland.The series is presently aired in Vijay TV in Tamil as a result of which it promotes a lot more of unintended comedy.Though however small it might seem to others it still beholds a wonder in me.

'She's a small wonder,
Lovely and bright with soft curls,
......
......
She's a small wonder,
Brings love and laughter everywhere.' -Title Song

For those of you interested in knowing what happened to Tiffany alias Vicki - She graduated in psychology and is a councillor at her church.It seems she is a very devout person.