Season 4 • Episode 24
LatestTo help Brandon get promoted to a job in Japan, Joan pretends that she's his estranged wife and that Vicki and Jamie are their kids.
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.
Practical Effects
Vicki's rigid robot movements are genuinely impressive puppetry
Costume
That red pinafore dress haunts my dreams
Creator
Howard Leeds
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tiffany Brissette did all her own robotic movement work, often holding uncomfortable poses for hours. The 'whirring' sound effect was added in post-production because her joints were actually silent.
The show was essentially a sitcom response to E.T. and Short Circuit's success, trying to domesticate sci-fi into family-friendly Reagan-era suburbia where even robots learn 'traditional values.'
US
