In "Small Wonder," how did Vicki get her name?

The answer is: It's an acronym

"Small Wonder" debuted in 1985, providing the answer to a question nobody asked: What if you combined "Leave It to Beaver" with "The Terminator," but made it family-friendly? The show followed Ted Lawson, a robotics engineer who built the world's most advanced android, then decided the logical next step was to enroll it in elementary school.

Tiffany Brissette starred as Vicki (the Voice Input Child Identicant), delivering every line with the emotional range of a speaking calculator – and somehow making it endearing. Her signature red pinafore dress became the must-have fashion item for young robots everywhere, while her monotone voice made Siri sound like a Shakespearean actor.

The show ran for four seasons, following the Lawson family's attempts to raise both their human son Jamie (Jerry Supiran) and their robotic daughter without attracting attention from nosy neighbors or, apparently, any government agencies interested in sentient AI. Dick Christie and Marla Pennington played the parents with the kind of straight-faced commitment that suggested they fully understood the absurdity of explaining to their robot why she couldn't join the swimming team.

Each episode walked the fine line between family sitcom and sci-fi farce. Vicki would solve complex mathematical equations, then struggle to understand why humans say "it's raining cats and dogs" when no pets were actually falling from the sky. She could lift a car to change a tire but couldn't grasp why her brother Jamie was suddenly interested in girls.

In retrospect, "Small Wonder" was less about the wonders of technology and more about family dynamics – just with occasional servo motor malfunctions and superhuman strength. It remains a perfect time capsule of an era when we thought the future of AI would involve red pinafores and perfect posture, rather than chatbots arguing about whether they have feelings.