MovieChat Forums > Small Wonder (1985) Discussion > Why Wasn't This Show Canceled Sooner?

Why Wasn't This Show Canceled Sooner?

posted 14 years ago by MercurialAquarian
45 replies | jump to latest

How did the awful show exist for as many seasons as it did. Four (4) seasons? Ack! I am a child of the 1980's, too, and I've read a number of profiles here gushing how much they really loved the show. I was a kid then and remember NOT liking it because it was just plain lousy. The bad acting, the over-the-top laugh track and gags... The only explanation I can think of is that, as kids, you really did like the show (sort of like the dim-witted and badly acted kids'/teens' shows on Disney) and held your parents hostage by insisting weekly to tune-in, and that syndication was a Godsend to the producers, cast, and crew.

A lot of pretty good shows were canceled in the '80's - probably because your parents couldn't watch them - yet this one stayed on. Nostalgia can clearly cloud the mind. Then again, if you liked this drivel, I'll bet you also liked Out of This World. Of course, I probably just jiggled that in your nostalgic memories, too. How did THAT one stay on for so long? Ack!

*June, 2015: It's been almost five years since I first typed the above remarks and after re-reading them I realize that I had indeed made several mistakes, namely the placement of a comma after tune-in and and (though I'm tempted to add a semi-colon, but can't quite justify it), not to mention adding the word good between the words pretty and shows. I was drinking then and clearly didn't proofread. I have since corrected these errors. I stand behind my original thoughts, tone and expletives.

[–] BWRocks 14 years ago

The fact that you not only remembered it but chose to get on a worldwide network to discuss it, 21 years after SW was canceled reflects that SW was one of the most popular and well known family sitcoms of the '80s.

[–] FloatingOpera7 14 years ago

Nostalgia is a very strong power and you should never underestimate. It has been around for ages. 60 years ago, kids of the Depression Era in the 30's were probably nostalgic for kid's radio shows like Little Orphan Annie by the 1950's when radio was out and "Television" was in. Kids of the 50's were nostalgic for the 50's by the 1970's, which was an entirely different, more vulgarized and liberal era compared to the sweet 50's with their cowboys, clown host shows, and family wholesomeness. Also, by the 70's, Disney was dead so 50's children who had seen Walt Disney live on their TV sets hosting The Walt Disney Presents hour must have been missing him tremendously.

And then you have us 80's kids (which includes me) who has strong nostalgia and love for the 80's with its original MTV videos, the music, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, and characters like Pee Wee Herman, Mr. Belvedere, and of course Vicki the Robot from Small Wonder. The TV shows were not entirely family friendly. There was plenty of family shows, but as I switched channels, I also found the darker, adult stuff like 21 Jump Street which was about teenagers doing undercover work for the police. That was a very dark show. There was also some violence and danger in all those cop shows like Miami Vice or Hunter, which dealt with drug dealers and violent cop versus bad guy stuff. There was also the mild violence in The A Team. There was Murder She Wrote, there was also Beauty and the Beast with Linda Hamilton. That could get scary and violent sometimes. I couldn't even watch some of these mentioned shows because my parents banned it for me, saying they were too violent. I had to sneak in to other friends houses or older teenager's houses to see these "adult" programs.

So you have a very wrong perception of the 80's, even if you were there, Original Post. You obviously didn't switch that channel other than the channel that showed Small Wonder. There were indeed many dark adult shows in the 80's, they even had cussing and showed scenes of rape, death and violence.

Out of this World was a great show. Absolutely loved it. Man, in the 80's, there was just too much good stuff. It was pleasure overload. Don't forget the millions of cartoons - He Man, She Ra, My Little Ponies, Duck Tales, Inspector Gadget, Heathcliff, Muppet Babies, Dennis The Menace, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Thundercats, God the list goes on and on and on.... excellent time to be a kid.

Small Wonder was a great show. It really was. You were just a weird kid is all. LOL

[–] BWRocks 14 years ago

"Small Wonder" during it's initial run was the top-rated family sitcom in first run syndication. Part of the reason for this is the fans, the kids of the '80s that watched it. The '80s was really the first generation and time when homes had multiple TV sets and this allowed kids to watch whatever they wanted. I used to watch "Small Wonder" on my tiny TV with rabbit ears.

[–] Defenseman13 9 years ago

agreed, this show sucks balls. And the logic of "oh you commented so you must like it"... lol. Nope.

[–] bloodthirstyworks 14 years ago

BWRocks

you just hit the nail more precisely than anyone ever could...I applaud you...

[–] andyofne-75813 8 years ago

I would need to see some stats that show this is one of the most popular and well known family sitcoms of the 80s. Because, honestly, I don't think it was.

[–] Stratego (29237) 4 years ago

I know many sitcoms from the 80s and this is not one of them!

[–] roboh-1 13 years ago

I agree. Really, this show was so incredibly bad! The acting, the stories, the laugh track, the cheesy credits, and on and on and on... I think the fact that it was so bad is why I remember it so vividly. Some things are so horrible that you only wish you could purge them from your memory.

Granted, I was 12 at the time this started, so I might not have been the target demographic. Similarly, I loved Diff'rent Strokes as a child, then saw an episode probably when I was 16. My goodness, was it bad! But not as bad as Small Wonder.

[–] moralesantjr 13 years ago

this show was great and you know the 80's ruled

r.i.p corey haim

[–] johnwills3 10 years ago

Agreed. Im watching it right now getting my nerd on.

www.soundcloud.com/professorwobbleswerth

[–] mandapanda16 11 years ago

I want to say there's something about your age group, because my 12 year old cousin hated that I made everyone watch the show when I was younger. She's 8 years older than me.

But Seth MacFarlane references Small Wonder in all his shows every so often, and he's 10 years older than me.

So I think it's just one of those polarizing shows where you liked it or you didn't. Of course, when MacFarlane references Small Wonder, it's never that it was a bad show, just simply one that existed so - I mean, he's really had chances to call it out on being bad if he felt that way, and it would have been funny. But then again, Seth Green did try out for the role of Jamie, so... who knows.

[–] violet_yoshi 12 years ago

I recall that Small Wonder was on sometime after Muppet Babies right? Because I remember watching Muppet Babies, and then either my parents or sister wanted to watch Small Wonder, and even that young I thought it was lame. I do remember thinking Tiffany was super cute, and wanting to look like her. I'm guessing my sister liked the show, as she still watches Disney shows with the lame puns and what have you, I mean this with the live shows. I watch Disney Junior because it's cute, but you have to expect a good amount of bad punnery in shows for very young kids.

[–] mandapanda16 12 years ago

I loved Small Wonder, and Out of This World, and Punky Brewster and the cartoon Punky Brewster. Those and Alvin and the Chipmunks are my top 5 of the 80s (with Jem and She-Ra earning honorable mentions).

And the only one of those shows my mom actively tried to stop me from watching was - Punky Brewster. Parents aren't held hostage, parents want their kids to be kids. She wouldn't tell me this until I was old enough to understand, but my mom truly hated Punky Brewster because Punky's mom abandoned her at a shopping center and we never found out what happened to her, and she felt that was a terrible plot for children.

To put it all in perspective, I was 7 and a half by the time Out of This World was cancelled. I did watch stuff like Married with Children and The Simpsons by then, and even Degrassi High "because [I] liked the twins" according to my mother, but seriously - what else were my parents supposed to let me watch? 80s shows had heavy issues not necessarily appropriate for small children.

Oh, and my parents were on top of it in the 80s. We had three TVs - two with cable, and a black and white with an antenna - and a VCR. If they really wanted to watch something, they could. In fact, I knew how to use the VCR when I was 3, so my parents even just recorded my shows and then let me watch them whenever I wanted in another room while they watched whatever they wanted. Nobody held anybody hostage.

[–] New_malkatrazzz 12 years ago

I was very young at the time and I literally remember nothing about the show except that I loved it and one time there was a scene where someone put dry spaghetti in a pot and put it in the oven.

I don't know what I liked about the show, but I know for a time it was my very favorite:-)

Hey there's baggage and then there's owning the luggage store.

[–] gambitcolumbus 12 years ago

Small Wonder was in syndication, not prime time. So no matter how bad it was, it being cancelled wouldn't save another show. Stations bought Small Wonder and Out of this World to air during the daytime, often Saturday afternoons in these two shows' cases.

[–] mandapanda16 11 years ago

Out of this World wasn't syndicated. It was a network show, NBC had it, and they usually aired in the 7:00 hour of primetime - the hour nobody watches - because it would appeal to children.

[–] BWRocks 11 years ago

“Out of This World” was both a syndicated program and a primetime network coast-to-coast program. It started out during a brief time in the ‘80s when the NBC network began their primetime schedule prior to 8PM, this was a new marketing idea and when this didn’t work out, "Out of this World" later became a syndicated series. Another series like this was the Suzanne Somers TV show “She’s the Sheriff”.

[–] hack-stone 12 years ago

The reason this lasted so long? Two words; Guilty Pleasure. It's a show that everyone watched, but only watched it to see how bad it could get. And from what I remember, which is not much as I was a casual viewer, was that it was a bad show.

[–] dbrockskk1 8 years ago

well said! You beat me to it!

suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008

[–] jaybeebos 11 years ago

I too remember HATING this show...and i was a kid in the 80s, and a TV junkie. There is somehting just unsettling about bad about this show is. And it still bothers me!, all these years later! im happy there are some other sane people out there. For reasons i dont know, i decided to check the IMDB of the show...I was happy to see your thread. Thank you.

Just to double-check - I watched the opening on youtube. and just seeing it for 10 seconds made me honestly upset...physical pains... Whether i need to get a life or not is beside the point - all i know is this how is among the worst shows of all time! It is horrible!

[–] lockon_stratos 11 years ago

This thing about the 80s is whether something is good or bad, people still like it for nostalgia. And I already like the show to begin with.

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[–] helderuto 11 years ago

It lasted four seasons? OMG the robot girl must have grown up (!) during the series then.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2389) 5 years ago

Both of those shows were bizzare. the premise of out of this world was that the mom gets knocked up by Burt Reynolds??

Small Wonder has the dad make a cyborg daughter--okay fine, but she wears the exact same clothes every day and sleeps in a closet in the son's room!! EWW

If they tweaked it like giving her additional clothes or even her own room it wouldn't have been as creepy. Would have been cool--like a suburban terminator. Then it MIGHT have been watchable.