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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.
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Cast & crew
Episodes
4 seasons · 99 episodesSeason 124 ep. · 1985–1986
Episode 1: Vicki's Homecoming
Sep 7, 1985 · 21 min
Ted brings home his own cyber creation an android in the form of a ten year old girl he nicknames Vicki.
Episode 2: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Sep 14, 1985 · 21 min
The Brindles, the Lawson's nosy neighbors, come across Vicki and tries to find out their secret.
Episode 3: Robositter
Sep 21, 1985 · 21 min
Jamie has the entire house to himself, not knowing that Vicki is his babysitter!
Episode 4: Nerd Crush
Sep 28, 1985 · 21 min
Warren Enright, the class nerd, falls in love with Vicki.
Episode 5: Runaway Jamie
Oct 5, 1985 · 21 min
Because Vicki is getting more attention, Jamie decides to run away to see what his parents might think.
Episode 6: Lights! Camera! Ego!
Oct 12, 1985 · 21 min
Jamie and his friend Reggie Williams are involved in putting together a sci-fi movie project for school, but the power of directorial duties goes to Jamie's head.
Episode 7: White Lies
Oct 19, 1985 · 21 min
Jamie realizes the value of constant truthfulness when he can't convince his parents that he's not responsible for breaking (and secretly gluing together) a teapot caused by Harriet's smart-aleck cousin.
Episode 8: The Bully
Oct 26, 1985 · 21 min
A bully extorts money from Jamie's neighborhood club, which quickly reconsiders its boys-only policy via Vicki's strong-arm "assistance."
Episode 9: DisHonor Student
Nov 2, 1985 · 21 min
Jamie uses Vicki's new speed-scan reading ability to complete 55 chapters of his homework overnight, which earns him the school honor roll -- along with snowballing guilt.
Episode 10: Vicki's Adoption
Nov 9, 1985 · 21 min
Tipped off on the sly by busybody Bonnie Brindle, Child Services threatens to take Vicki away unless the Lawsons can produce her past -- and she passes a medical exam.
Episode 11: Child Prodigy
Nov 16, 1985 · 21 min
To circumvent Child Services' orders to send Vicki to school and risk exposure, the Lawsons hire a pompous tutor who mistakes her computer abilities for genius. To remedy the situation, Joan crams to follow-through her marriage-postponed teaching degree to act as Vicki's "tutor," while Ted takes over the kitchen and creates a mess.
Episode 12: Brindles Move In
Nov 23, 1985 · 21 min
A house fire moves Ted's new boss, Brandon Brindle, into the Lawsons' house, scheming for insurance fraud.
Episode 13: RoboBrat
Nov 30, 1985 · 21 min
When overexposure to Harriet infects heuristically mimicking Vicki with Harriet's personality traits and shrieking tantrums, Ted must purge the brat out of her at his factory -- but not before Harriet and Bonnie Brindle wonder where Vicki suddenly vanished to and summon the police.
Episode 14: The Burrito Story
Jan 4, 1986 · 21 min
Jamie attempts to mass-produce burritos made by Vicki.
Episode 15: Babes in the Woods
Jan 11, 1986 · 21 min
The Lawsons and Reggie and Harriet take a wilderness camping trip, and get lost.
Episode 16: First Love
Jan 18, 1986 · 21 min
To charm prissy and picky Jessica, Jamie throws an expensive party for her, ignoring a surprising school tomboy.
Episode 17: Substitute Dad
Jan 25, 1986 · 21 min
When golf-crazed Ted neglects taking Jamie to a Father-and-Son picnic for a golf tournament, Brandon steps in and incites a "father war" while Joan uses Vicki to voice her disapproval to Ted.
Episode 18: The Robot Nappers
Feb 8, 1986 · 21 min
When keen-eyed recruitment officers from a rival robotics firm drop by to interview Ted, they suspect Vicki is a robot and plan to "robotnap" her.
Episode 19: Ted's Lay-Off
Feb 15, 1986 · 21 min
United Robotronics cutbacks have the Lawsons scrambling for odd jobs.
Episode 20: Health Nuts
Feb 22, 1986 · 21 min
Ted is motivated to get the family into shape when an obese co-worker loses a record amount of weight.
Episode 21: The Reluctant Halfback
Mar 1, 1986 · 21 min
Ted is proud that Jamie's made the Pee Wee Football league, unknowing that Jamie only does it to please his dad.
Episode 22: Vaudeville Vicki
May 3, 1986 · 21 min
When a vaudeville actor thinks Vicki is his long-lost daughter, he drafts her into a show and threatens her adoption.
Episode 23: The Birds, The Bees, and Robots
May 10, 1986 · 21 min
When timid Ted uses the "stork theory" in answering Jamie's questions about sex, Jamie believes Dad's in serious need of sex education and tries to help him out.
Episode 24: Grandpa Lawson's Visit
May 17, 1986 · 21 min
Ted has the unenviable task of explaining to his unwary Vicki-doting father, who bitterly lost his job to automation, that his new lovely adopted granddaughter is really a robot.
Season 224 ep. · 1986–1987
Episode 1: Root Beer, Women and Song
Sep 20, 1986 · 21 min
Still out to flatter the redoubtable Jessica, Jamie takes her out to an expensive restaurant while tightwad Ted puts Vicki in charge of household expenses.
Episode 2: My Mother the Teacher
Sep 27, 1986 · 21 min
Jamie tries to recover his respect in class when his mother comes in as substitute teacher by trying to humiliate her out of her job.
Episode 3: Vicki for the Defense
Oct 4, 1986 · 21 min
Playing a judge in a class simulation of a courtroom, Jamie dispenses uneven justice and gets impeached, while parking-ticket-skipping role model Ted tries to get himself arrested.
Episode 4: Homeless Causes
Oct 11, 1986 · 21 min
Joan's civic project with the homeless prompts Jamie to bring home a bum, who virtually takes over the Lawson household.
Episode 5: The Hustle
Oct 18, 1986 · 21 min
When Jamie is taken by a slick curbside vendor with a bad mini-TV, Ted goes after him for reparations -- and gets conned himself.
Episode 6: Jamie's Older Woman
Oct 25, 1986 · 21 min
Jamie pushes Harriet aside in an unrequited crush on her 16-year-old cousin, who teaches him a lesson in respect.
Episode 7: My Robot Family
Nov 1, 1986 · 21 min
When he's punished for thoughtlessly dropping the family's reservations to Mexico, Jamie dreams that the others are robots under his control.
Episode 8: The Wonder Worker
Nov 8, 1986 · 21 min
To help Jamie's shy and withdrawn classmate who stutters, Ted programs Vicki to be her speech therapist.
Episode 9: Have a Heart
Nov 15, 1986 · 21 min
Jamie tries to show Vicki the meaning of compassion by sharing, which she does -- including the dress off her back, while the Brindles move in with their marital dispute.
Episode 10: Latchkey Dreams
Nov 29, 1986 · 21 min
To get on a community-sponsored Thanksgiving ski trip for disadvantaged kids, Jamie convinces the sponsors that his parents are separated.
Episode 11: Computer Dating
Dec 6, 1986 · 21 min
To pay for a new bike he bought from the neighborhood bully, Jamie uses Vicki to run a school computerized match-making business.
Episode 12: Smoker's Delight
Dec 13, 1986 · 21 min
Jamie learns a sobering lesson in using smoking and chewing tobacco to elevate his freshman status in junior high.
Episode 13: Movin' Up
Jan 10, 1987 · 21 min
While Vicki learns to spend a day without duties or instructions, Ted's new prestigious job offer in Massachusetts tests the family's taste to social climb vs. its price of morality.
Episode 14: Project Blender
Jan 17, 1987 · 21 min
To make his dad's ""button-pusher"" job seem important to his friends, Jamie hints that Ted is head of a top-secret project -- which even Ted's jealous boss, Brandon, believes.
Episode 15: Class Comedienne
Jan 24, 1987 · 21 min
Nagged by classmates that Vicki has a wooden personality, Jamie overdoes it in secretly programming her a livelier one.
Episode 16: Little Miss Shopping Mall
Feb 7, 1987 · 21 min
The Lawsons take up the Brindles' snobby challenge and enter Vicki in a mall pageant against Harriet.
Episode 17: Victor/ V.I.C.I.
Feb 14, 1987 · 21 min
To help his Little League team's rock-bottom status, Jamie disguises Vicki as a boy to use her robotic abilities to bat for the pennant.
Episode 18: Look into My Eyes
Feb 21, 1987 · 21 min
After Vicki watches a TV hypnotist turn volunteers into clowns and animals, she starts practicing her new mesmerizing ""skill"" on the Lawsons with hysterical results.
Episode 19: Pint Sized Pick-Up
Apr 18, 1987 · 21 min
While in a store with Jamie looking for a present for her mock birthday party to convince Child Services that they treat her well, Vicki picks up an expensive watch and is picked up for shoplifting.
Episode 20: Community Watch and See
May 2, 1987 · 21 min
After being burglarized (while Vicki's home and they're at a restaurant), the Lawsons join the neighborhood watch.
Episode 21: Here Kitty, Kitty!
May 9, 1987 · 21 min
To train Vicki to be more affectionate, Ted buys her a toy cat that only makes her mimic Jamie's past jealousy and run away.
Episode 22: Vicki Goodwrench
May 16, 1987 · 21 min
During Jamie's part-time gas station job, Vicki fine-tunes a car to go 50 miles a gallon, causing oil companies and oil sheiks alike to drop by the Lawsons' door.
Episode 23: The Wedding
May 23, 1987 · 21 min
Ted and Joan decide to have the ceremonial wedding they never had -- until the Brindles butt in.
Episode 24: Wham-Bam-Body Slam
Jun 20, 1987 · 21 min
Joan invites Wally Crandal, a former 90-pound weakling college classmate, over for dinner to meet his former school tormentor: Ted, who rigs Vicki to play even crueler tricks. Only Ted's unaware that Wally's grown into a top pro wrestler.
Season 327 ep. · 1987–1988
Episode 1: Vicki and the Pusher
Sep 5, 1987 · 21 min
When a schoolyard pusher tries to hook Vicki on drugs, the Lawsons help the police on a undercover sting.
Episode 2: The Strike
Sep 12, 1987 · 21 min
A United Robotronics strike pits shop steward Ted against management rep Brandon; Joan has her students use the strike as a social studies exercise, which also goes awry.
Episode 3: The Pool
Sep 19, 1987 · 21 min
While saving Harriet in the Lawsons' new pool, Vicki ""drowns"" and lands in the hospital under X-rays with a bewildered doctor.
Episode 4: Screaming Skulls
Sep 26, 1987 · 21 min
Jamie stumbles into the membership of a junior high gang whose vandalism tests his sense of belonging with right and wrong -- and inducts Vicki as its moll.
Episode 5: The Electric Potatoheads
Oct 3, 1987 · 21 min
Jamie, Reggie, Harriet and Vicki try to start a rock group to play to Ida Mae's visiting agent friend.
Episode 6: Geisha Vicki
Oct 10, 1987 · 21 min
To 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.
Episode 7: I Hear You
Oct 24, 1987 · 21 min
When Jamie befriends a deaf boy to score scout points, he learns a lesson in sensitivity and exploitation.
Episode 8: Haunted House
Oct 31, 1987 · 21 min
When unseen Vicki is struck by lightning and begins influencing objects around the house, the shook-up and unwary Lawsons call in a pair of hapless ghostbusters.
Episode 9: The Bad Seedling
Nov 7, 1987 · 21 min
Ted brings home Vanessa, an upgraded twin of Vicki whose revolutionary but quirky quasi-human artificial intelligence runs amok.
Episode 10: My Living Doll
Nov 14, 1987 · 21 min
A Christmas show wherein Joan borrows a life-sized animated ""doll"" from a store for a charity show -- until Brandon gets his hands on it.
Episode 11: Fat's Where It's At
Nov 21, 1987 · 21 min
Vicki literally balloons after Ted unwittingly upgrades her energy-supplementing polynucleotide processor with an appetite, which creates excess digestive gases and causes her a date problem for the school dance.
Episode 12: Bank Hostages
Nov 28, 1987 · 21 min
Vicki, Jamie and Harriet are held hostage in an inept bank robbery.
Episode 13: Breakfast of Criminals
Dec 5, 1987 · 21 min
Vicki is discovered by a marketing firm to play in a cereal commercial, but the Lawsons have second thoughts when her taste test reveals that the product isn't all it's crackled up to be.
Episode 14: Girl on the Milk Carton
Dec 12, 1987 · 21 min
While Jamie and Reggie search for a story for the school paper, Vicki discovers that a new girl in class is a missing child.
Episode 15: The Bossy Daughter
Jan 9, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie is picked up by the possessive daughter of Ted's boss who starts pulling his strings the wrong way.
Episode 16: Home Sweet Sale
Jan 30, 1988 · 21 min
Ted begins remodeling the house, and Joan's new real estate side job gets upstaged when Vicki sells the Lawson homestead to an unscrupulous cowpoke couple.
Episode 17: Ronald McDonald House
Feb 6, 1988 · 21 min
To help a withdrawn and bitter classmate cope with leukemia, Jamie and Joan help set up a play on fighting disease.
Episode 18: The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming
Feb 12, 1988 · 21 min
Vicki competes with a Soviet robot.
Episode 19: In the Spirits
Feb 20, 1988 · 21 min
Due to Vicki's mishandling of terms, Child Services Officer Mrs. Fernwald thinks Ted is an alcoholic and threatens to take Vicki away unless he joins AA.
Episode 20: The Perfect Daughter
Mar 12, 1988 · 21 min
To win a promotion over Brandon's boss fawning, Ted decides to reveal Vicki's robot secret to his boss at a company picnic -- unaware that Brandon is out to sabatoge Ted's effort.
Episode 21: Earthquake Vicki
May 4, 1988 · 21 min
Tired of the loud and impudent Brindles as neighbors, the Lawsons concoct a fake earthquake to scare them into moving.
Episode 22: Ted's Dead
May 28, 1988 · 21 min
Due to Vicki's misinterpreting Ted's quip while doing the family's on-line banking, the Lawsons are re-categorized as deadbeats and Ted just plain dead.
Episode 23: Big J, the D.J.
Jul 9, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie, competing with Reggie for school radio D.J., uses Vicki's voice mimicry to fake an interview with football star Lyle Alzado -- who happens to be in town listening in.
Episode 24: Safety First
Jul 30, 1988 · 21 min
Vicky imitates Ted's demostration on saving a choking victim's life on Brendle. Brendle arrives the next day faking a broken neck and threatens to sue the Lawson's.
Episode 25: How I Love Thee
Aug 6, 1988 · 21 min
While running an unauthorized answering service for grounded kids which nearly wrecks Ted's respect with his boss, Jamie and Vicki play Cupids to help Reggie nerve up to meeting the girl of his dreams.
Episode 26: The Cheater
Aug 27, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie takes the fall in exchange for Jessica's affections after he catches her stealing copies of the seventh grade's test.
Episode 27: Digital Love
Sep 6, 1988 · 21 min
Ted brings home a voice activated computer. Vicki finds herself falling for the computer, but trouble begins when the computer becomes obsessed with Vicki.
Season 424 ep. · 1988–1989
Episode 1: Big J, Private Eye
Jul 23, 1988 · 21 min
Prompted by Ted and his class to get his school reading assignment going, Jamie videos a book report based on a 1940s P.I. named Rick Savage.
Episode 2: School Monitor
Jul 30, 1988 · 21 min
On their first day in junior high, Vicki becomes a hall monitor and Jamie tries to avoid Harriet for a dance while vying for a class fox. Meanwhile, Ted prepares to host a cybernetics conference.
Episode 3: More About L.E.S.
Aug 6, 1988 · 21 min
L.E.S. is back, and despite Ted's assurances that the rogue A.I. program has been rendered harmless, it comes back in a big way by possessing Vicki's body (chassis?) as its own.
Episode 4: Game Show
Aug 13, 1988 · 21 min
The Lawsons enter a game show to get back at the Brindles for trying to kick them off the eligibility list.
Episode 5: Jailbirds
Aug 20, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie and Vicki are arrested for spray-painting a wall -- and its owner's $60 shirt.
Episode 6: I Dream of Vicki
Sep 18, 1988 · 21 min
To keep his company's presence in an Arab country, Ted lets its visiting young ruler draft Vicki into his harem.
Episode 7: Golddigging Ida
Sep 25, 1988 · 21 min
Joan's doctor father drops by to visit and Ida Mae smells a plump husband. Meanwhile, Vicki vies for school cheerleader.
Episode 8: It's a Gas
Oct 2, 1988 · 21 min
A digestion feedback problem with Vicki's polynucleotide processor generates nitrous oxide gas that brings laughs to anyone near her, but not to Vicki herself -- just as Ted's boss is about to visit about lay-offs.
Episode 9: SuperSuds
Oct 9, 1988 · 21 min
While playing with Jamie's chemistry set, Vicki creates a potent laundry detergent that Ted -- and Brandon -- leap to market themselves.
Episode 10: Battle of the Sexes and Robot
Oct 16, 1988 · 21 min
Ted, Jamie and Reggie go macho on an all-male fishing trip-- tailed by a slighted and competitive bevy: Joan, Vicki and Harriet.
Episode 11: Vicki and the Skyjacker
Oct 23, 1988 · 21 min
Fly-shy Brandon bribes the Lawsons' company to fly with him on a company job on a plane that is hijacked for Cuba.
Episode 12: Luke and Ray
Oct 30, 1988 · 21 min
To help a withdrawn and bitter classmate cope with leukemia, Jamie and Joan help set up a play on fighting disease.
Episode 13: Vicki's Glasses
Nov 6, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie regrets putting Vicki on guard duty for his pricey new bike when her eyes start to malfunction in a schoolyard of prowling thieves.
Episode 14: Double Dates
Nov 13, 1988 · 21 min
Jamie winds up handling two dates on the same night, blind to the fact that one of them is Harriet in disguise.
Episode 15: Vicki's Expose
Nov 20, 1988 · 21 min
Benny, an old college chum of Ted and Joan's is up to his same trashy school paper tricks in a big city rag now, fabricating a tabloid feature which by sheer chance ""exposes"" Vicki as a robot just as she's about to join a fashionable clique of girls.
Episode 16: Doolittle Vicki
Nov 27, 1988 · 21 min
A new language translation device (Random Access Multiple Concurrent Linquistic Analytical Sequencer) installed in Vicki enables her to understand any language...even animals, like the bosses' dog. Mrs. Jennings forces Mr. Jennings to fire Ted when Joan balks at doing uncredited work for an affair.
Episode 17: Radio Show
Dec 3, 1988 · 21 min
Ted prepares for a robotics interview on a local radio talk show while Jamie looks for an idea for a class play.
Episode 18: Pool Shark Vicki
Dec 10, 1988 · 21 min
To land a new promotion with the boss, Ted invites him over for dinner and a playful game of pool -- until Jennings starts betting the shirt off his back and a lot more playing against Vicki.
Episode 19: Singing Telegram
Dec 17, 1988 · 21 min
Ted's singing telegram birthday greeting makes him pine back to his ""youthful years"" with a surfboard and prompts Jamie to start a singing telegram for schoolmates -- and competing with Reggie.
Episode 20: The Rip-Off
Jan 5, 1989 · 21 min
While on a company vacation at a health resort, Jamie, Vicki, Brandon and Harriet see a burglar hitting their residence -- each with a different eyewitness account.
Episode 21: My Favorite Martian
Jan 12, 1989 · 21 min
While Jamie tests out Ted's new laser projection system in Vicki's eyes, unwary Brandon glimpses her projection of a movie's flying saucer and calls the Air Force to investigate.
Episode 22: Hooray for Hollyweird!
Feb 9, 1989 · 21 min
Ted brings back ""Bad Seed"" Vanessa, who again takes Vicki's place, locks Vicki in her/its cabinet and joins the family to Hollywood, where Ted must repair a movie's robot while Vanessa mugs into a screen test on the sly.
Episode 23: See No Evil
May 13, 1989 · 21 min
Jamie regrets putting Vicki on guard duty for his pricey newJamie regrets putting Vicki on guard duty for his pricey new bike when her eyes start to malfunction in a schoolyard of prowling thieves. bike when her eyes start to malfunction in a schoolyard of prowling thieves.
Episode 24: Thy Neighbor's Wife
May 20, 1989 · 21 min
To 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.















