MovieChat Forums > Weird Science (1994) Discussion > Just rediscovered the series, some refle...

Just rediscovered the series, some reflections, plus a quesdtion.

posted 11 years ago by smashsmack
6 replies | jump to latest

I remember seeing an ad for this in some random magazine (I think it was a videogame magazine) when I was in fifth or sixth grade, I had always liked the movie as a kid, so I thought it was cool when I saw that they were making a TV show. We didn't get cable until well into my 6th grade year, so I didn't see the actual show probably until that summer, but I remember enjoying the hell out of it when I finally did. I watched the show up until I reached High School, then I'm not too sure what happened, I guess I had simply forgotten about it.

Well flash forward to the other night and I suddenly remembered it's existence, which lead me to tracking down all of the episode and seeing exactly how well it has aged. Much to my surprise, the series has actually aged quite well, right down to the intentionally cheesy effects. What could and probably should have been a complete disaster, ended up having a solid cast and equally solid writers. I don't quite remember how the series turns out later in the series (only that Chett eventually finds out about Lisa and has a thing for her), but so far the first season is pretty good, with some solid one moments and a lot of heart.

The series must have done rather well to get 5 seasons, but I can't really find anything about it outside of a brief Wikipedia page, where I found out that USA suddenly yanked the series off the air and never showed the final episodes. Was there even an official reason why, or some insight given from any of the cast and/or crew? It seems kind of silly that they would simply yank the show off the air without showing the series finale, even if the ratings were abysmal, they could have just shown them marathon style and gotten it out of the way.

Because sponges never have bad days.

[–] ryansassy1 11 years ago

Agreed that it held up better than expected. I never saw seasons 3,4 and 5, and I hope somebody can answer this question for you. Also, I can't find 3,4, and 5 on dvd or Netflix.
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"I'm sorry, but.." is a self-contained lie.

[–] smashsmack 11 years ago

I had to find the series by other means on the Internet, with the last three seasons being VHS rips, although I think I read somewhere that the last 3 seasons were released on DVD in other countries. I also kind of found the answer to my question, USA had an internal change and were the reason why the series (a long with Duck Man) got axed. I'm not sure how true this is tho, since it came from an old post off a forum and I couldn't find any other information backing up the claim.

I also have another reflection, there are way too many Gary heavy episodes and he can get incredibly annoying. I'm about half way through Season 3 and it feels like it's turning into the "Watch Gary be a Selfish Prick" show, even when the episode tries to be focused on another character. The episode that really grinded my gears was when Gary and Wyatt switched places and Gary literally ruined Wyatt's life without even a thought about the consequences, then in Season 3 Gary almost ruined Wyatt's Dad's career for his own selfish reasons.

It gets to the point where I don't understand why Wyatt even remains friends with him, I'm surprised that Lisa even grants some of his wishes at times, since she's put her foot down in the past about the boys abusing her powers. I guess it isn't as apparent when watching the series weekly, compared to binge watching half the series within in a few days.

With that rant put aside, Chett is as awesome as I remembered. For a character you'd normally want to hate, he's often the best part of the show, especially in the weaker episodes. Even when he's a complete douche to Wyatt (which is quite often), I can't help but like the guy.

As of right now, the two best episodes of the series are Universal Remote and Sci-Fi Zoned.

Because sponges never have bad days.

[–] markradell 9 years ago

Huluplus has it bud!:)

[–] xmjivex 9 years ago

I loved this show when I was a kid. Watched the first two seasons, some of the third, and then kind of fell off as I got older.

So, watching them as an adult, what I can say is that those first two seasons are still brilliant. The third starts out decently enough, but quickly goes downhill. The fourth season is fairly bad, and the fifth is almost unwatchable. The episodes that focus on Chett--and there are several in the last season--are absolutely mind-numbing, aside from a few good one-liners now and then.

The show sort of lost its heart after Season 2; the further the storylines got from a magic genie helping two nerds get girls, the more it lost my attention. Eventually, it's just a totally slapsticky, goofball show, and you couldn't care less about any of the characters.

I sorta wish the show had ended after those first two seasons. Not that it matters so much, though; can always just watch the good ones.

[–] jessiey416 10 years ago

I too loved this show as a teenager in the 90s. I was happy to see Hulu has all 5 seasons. They are missing about half the episodes from season 4. Show has so many guest stars that have gone on to do much bigger things. Fun to re watch.

[–] Dan_Garten 9 years ago

Cool.