The 1980's were a prime era for silly, ridiculous TV Guide advertisements and even sillier programming. And nothing was sillier or more ridiculous than Small Wonder, a show about a robotics engineer who invents a robot that looks like a little girl. Not only did she "live" in his son's closet, but she was dressed like a refugee from Little House on the Prairie and spoke in a monotone voice. Definitely nothing suspicious here, right?
For extremely flimsy reasons, the fact that she was a robot had to be kept secret, so every episode pretty much just showed the family trying to keep their "secret" from nosy neighbors and the company that the father worked for. As if the creep factor wasn't already off the charts here, the access panel to program the young lady was on her back and required unzipping her dress.
The show inexplicably lasted for 96 episodes in syndication, often airing on Saturday evenings right before real network programming. The show was apparently popular enough to inspire the creation of a Small Wonder costume as shown below:
Yes kids, it's the most frightening costume you'll see this Halloween. This 'Small Wonder' will cause huge nightmares! Sweet dreams!
