When genius cybernetics engineer Ted Lawson brings home his top-secret invention, a Voice Input Child Identicant or V.I.C.I., life becomes anything but mechanical for the Lawson Family. With his boss and his nosy family living next door, Ted, his wife Joan and their son Jamie must pass Vicki off as a real child. It is easy for Joan, who cannot help doting on her like a daughter, but harder for precocious Jamie, who uses Vicki to do his homework and to ward off Harriet, the annoying redheaded girl next door.
The best episode of "Small Wonder" season 2 is "Root Beer, Women and Song", rated 7.5/10 from 28 user votes. It was directed by N/A and written by Howard Meyers. "Root Beer, Women and Song" aired on 9/20/1986 and is rated 0.0 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "My Mother the Teacher".
Still out to flatter the redoubtable Jessica, Jamie takes her out to an expensive restaurant while tightwad Ted puts Vicki in charge of household expenses.
Director: N/A
Writer: Howard Meyers
Jamie tries to recover his respect in class when his mother comes in as substitute teacher by trying to humiliate her out of her job.
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Writer: N/A
Playing a judge in a class simulation of a courtroom, Jamie dispenses uneven justice and gets impeached, while parking-ticket-skipping role model Ted tries to get himself arrested.
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Writer: N/A
Joan's civic project with the homeless prompts Jamie to bring home a bum, who virtually takes over the Lawson household.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
When Jamie is taken by a slick curbside vendor with a bad mini-TV, Ted goes after him for reparations -- and gets conned himself.
Director: Peter Baldwin
Writer: N/A
Jamie pushes Harriet aside in an unrequited crush on her 16-year-old cousin, who teaches him a lesson in respect.
Director: N/A
Writer: Michael Poryes
When he's punished for thoughtlessly dropping the family's reservations to Mexico, Jamie dreams that the others are robots under his control.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
To help Jamie's shy and withdrawn classmate who stutters, Ted programs Vicki to be her speech therapist.
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Writer: N/A
Jamie tries to show Vicki the meaning of compassion by sharing, which she does -- including the dress off her back, while the Brindles move in with their marital dispute.
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Writer: N/A
To get on a community-sponsored Thanksgiving ski trip for disadvantaged kids, Jamie convinces the sponsors that his parents are separated.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
To pay for a new bike he bought from the neighborhood bully, Jamie uses Vicki to run a school computerized match-making business.
Director: N/A
Writer: Jeffrey Duteil, Jerry Ross
Jamie learns a sobering lesson in using smoking and chewing tobacco to elevate his freshman status in junior high.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: Jerry Ross
To make his dad's ""button-pusher"" job seem important to his friends, Jamie hints that Ted is head of a top-secret project -- which even Ted's jealous boss, Brandon, believes.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
Nagged by classmates that Vicki has a wooden personality, Jamie overdoes it in secretly programming her a livelier one.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Lawsons take up the Brindles' snobby challenge and enter Vicki in a mall pageant against Harriet.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
To help his Little League team's rock-bottom status, Jamie disguises Vicki as a boy to use her robotic abilities to bat for the pennant.
Director: Peter Baldwin
Writer: N/A
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.
Director: Peter Baldwin
Writer: N/A
While in a store with Jamie looking for a present for her mock birthday party to convince Child Services that they treat her well, Vicki picks up an expensive watch and is picked up for shoplifting.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
After being burglarized (while Vicki's home and they're at a restaurant), the Lawsons join the neighborhood watch.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: Jack Gross Jr.
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: Donald Ross
During Jamie's part-time gas station job, Vicki fine-tunes a car to go 50 miles a gallon, causing oil companies and oil sheiks alike to drop by the Lawsons' door.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Ted and Joan decide to have the ceremonial wedding they never had -- until the Brindles butt in.
Director: Leslie H. Martinson
Writer: N/A
Joan invites Wally Crandal, a former 90-pound weakling college classmate, over for dinner to meet his former school tormentor: Ted, who rigs Vicki to play even crueler tricks. Only Ted's unaware that Wally's grown into a top pro wrestler.
Director: Peter Baldwin
Writer: Dick Christie