15 TV shows you forgot about (and some you wish you could)

Small Wonder

The ’80s cult classic offers more outdated technology and science, but Small Wonder has left a real mark on the popular culture. It ran from 1985-1989, but at the time, it didn’t really set the TV landscape on fire. Viewers of a certain age will remember it, and all the Gen-X nostalgia has propelled it to its status as a cult fave.

The show chronicles the family of a robotics engineer who creates a human-like robot. He then proceeds to pass her off as his own daughter. Vicki, the robot, isn’t of the artificial intelligence caliber that we’re used to here in the 21st century, and you really need to be able to suspend your disbelief to think anybody would buy her as a real girl.

The dearth of “robots as humans” has come a long way since the mid-1980s, but this Small Wonder wasn’t really about technology at all. Like its most popular sitcom counterparts, it was about the wacky shenanigans of a family, and to love it you definitely had to appreciate silliness. Most of its charm came from Vicki as she woodenly tries to fit in among her human loved ones, and if you could get past the nonsense, it really was a sweet show.