Looking Back On My Wonder Years: A Wonder Years Podcast

Small Wonder: S4E21: The Tattletale, S4E22: The Strike, S4E23: See No Evil S4E24: Thy Neighbor's Wife

Hey Everyone, Angela Bowen here, the host of She's A Small Wonder: A Small Wonder Podcast. Well, after 6 years of covering all the episodes of the show Small Wonder, we've finally reached the end of the Series with the four final episodes of Season 4. Today, I covered S4E21: The Tattletale, which aired on April 29, 1989. In this episode a gossip reporter reveals Vicki's secret. I was a little surprised by this episode, because I just assumed the reporter was a woman, when it turns out to be someone who went to college with Ted and Joan. This was creative and had Harriet, Jamie and Reggie dressed like Vicki towards the end of the episode and doing a song and dance routine. S4E22: The Strike, which aired on May 6, 1989. In this episode Ted's union strike inspires the whole family. This episode also has a side plot of the kids in Jamie's class going on strike after their demands are not met, one of these demands is allowing the kids to bring their pets to school in a daycare situation. Interesting, Joan meets them halfway and tells them they can have a pet day show and tell once a month. The vending machine part of their demands is a kid wish list of things they wish they could have in school. Ted's demands from his co workers to the Union board aren't wrong, increase percentage in profit sharing and more coverage for dental as well as a pay increase. Normal things any employee would want. S4E23: See No Evil, which aired on May 13, 1989. In this episode Vicki's eyesight is failing, so she cannot identify bike thieves. This was a goofy episode, Vicki wearing eyeglasses, granted it's understandable, things wear out and often need to be replaced. Ted gets Jamie a new bike, which then proceeds to get stolen in the schoolyard and Vicki has to help identify the thieves based on their voices. This episode was just ok. and finally the last episode of Season 4 and the final episode of the show. S4E24: Thy Neighbor's Wife, which aired on May 20, 1989. In this episode Joan poses as Mrs. Brindle to impress a businessman. I hated this episode because it centered around Brandon and him trying to impress a Japanese businessman because he wants to hire a "family man" and after a fight with Bonnie who takes Harriet and moves into a hotel, Brandon is in a bind and begs Joan to pretend to be Bonnie, he even has Joan and Vicki dress in what now a days would be considered racially insensitive kimonos and delivering lines that would not pass for appropriate by todays TV standards. Ted was written out for most of the episode for a flight to Texas, but then comes back in the last 5 minutes. Richard Christie (Ted Lawson) actually directed this final episode. He did a good job. Well, there you have it, I hope you all enjoy these last episodes of the show and thank you so much for listening to this podcast on Small Wonder for the last 6 years. Have a great Summer everyone!

Small Wonder S4E17: More About L.E.S., S4E18: Hooray For Hollyweird!, S4E19: Minnesota Vicki, S4E20: Vicki Doolittle

Hello Everyone, Angela Bowen here, the host of She's A Small Wonder: A Small Wonder Podcast. Today I covered S4E17: More About L.E.S., which aired on February 4, 1989. In this episode 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 as its own. Honestly, this episode was a dud. I didn't care about L.E.S. when I first met him and I was pissed off that Ted didn't learn his lesson from the first time. We see this same thing happen in the next episode S4E18: Hooray For Hollyweird!, which aired on February 11, 1989. In this episode Ted's robot, Vanessa, wreaks havoc in Hollywood. This was the episode I was most looking forward to and I kind of wish we got more Vanessa. It was nice to see Tiffany Brissette, stretch her acting legs and speak normally when she has to do a robot voice 99% percent for of the show's run. This episode was over too quickly. S4E19: Minnesota Vicki, which aired on February 18, 1989. In this episode To land a new promotion with the boss, Mr. Jennings, Ted invites him to dinner and a playful game of pool until Jennings starts betting the shirt off his back, and a lot more, playing against Vicki. If we took out Brandon, this would have been a better episode, Ted's boss is a major dumb butt, he plays pool with Vicki and almost loses his house betting against her. We don't see Brandon get fired, I wish that would have happened, apparently this episode the writer's love to crap on Ted's character always vying for a promotion he will never get because Brandon is also vying for it. Also how many bosses does Ted have, between Brandon, Mr. Jennings's son and Mr. Jennings himself. Good grief! and an adorable episode S4E20: Vicki Doolittle, which aired on February 25, 1989. In this episode Ted installs a new language translation device (Random Access Multiple Concurrent Linguistic Analytical Sequencer) into Vicki that enables her to understand any language, including even animals', like the boss' dog; Mrs. Jennings forces Mr. Jennings to fire Ted when Joan balks at doing uncredited work for an affair. This was a cute episode and Mrs. Jennings gets her comeuppance, finally. I hope you enjoy the episodes and I'll see you in June for the final 4 of Season 4 and the final 4 of the Series as we wrap up this podcast finally, 6 years later.

Small Wonder S4E13: The Jailbirds, S4E14: Rags to Riches, S4E15: Radio Days, S4E16: Kid-O-Grams

Hey Everyone, Angela Bowen here, the host of She's A Small Wonder: A Small Wonder Podcast. Today, I covered S4E13: The Jailbirds, which aired on January 7, 1989. In this episode, Jamie and Vicki are arrested for spray-painting a wall--and its owner's $60 shirt. This was a fun episode. I love the lesson that Ted and Joan teach Jamie and Vicki also the female cop was played by Jo Marie Payton who later went on to play Harriet Winslow on Family Matters. S4E14: Rags to Riches, aired on January 14, 1989. In this episode Vicki and Jamie invent a cleaning solution. This episode is pretty much a Jamie get rich quick scheme that gets out of hand when he gets in over his head and it only gets worse when he Brandon and Harriet get involved. S4E15: Radio Days, which aired on January 21, 1989. In this episode Jamie produces a radio play about World War II. This was a creative episode, mostly the last 10 minutes was the best part. S4E16: Kid-O-Grams, which aired on January 28, 1989. In this episode Jamie starts up a singing-telegram business. This was a fun episode with the telegram business and the songs that were created were catchy. Vicki and Harriet's outfits at the end were cute.

Small Wonder S4E9: My Favorite Martian, S4E10:Mommie Dearest, S4E11: No Laughing Matter, S4E12: Tag, You're It

Hey Everyone, Angela Bowen here, the host of She's A Small Wonder: A Small Wonder Podcast. Today, I covered S4E9: My Favorite Martian, which aired on November 19, 1988. In this episode Brandon sees Vicki's hologram of an alien spaceship. Just Brandon being a massive dum dum per usual. The family decides to have fun with him by using Vicki to pretend she's an alien, after Brandon alerts (what I refer to thanks to the show ALF) as the ATF (Alien Task Force) to investigate this strange phenomenon. Vicki the alien tells Brandon that if he says he never saw any spaceship than her kind will make him King of their planet, he of course buys this charade and pretends he didn't see anything. Weird episode, but a bit better than the other 3. S4E10: Mommie Dearest, which aired on November 26,1988. In this episode, Joan's father comes for a visit, and Ida Mae decides he's going to be her next husband, since he's a doctor and she's a money hungry be-otch. I could not stand this episode or Ida Mae, this character does not need to exist on this show at ALL! S4E11: No Laughing Matter, which aired on December 4, 1988. In this episode Vicki leaks nitrous oxide ( we don't see this until the last 10 minutes of the episode, Jamie teaches for a week ( we don't get to see any of him teaching just the after effects of the kids failing the test (what a cop-out, I know we weren't going to get Cory/'Mr. Feeny level Teacher of the Week episode), but honestly it would have been nice to actually see him teach. S4E12: Tag, You're It, which aired on December 11, 1988. Ok, so this episode must have been filmed earlier because Jamie's already been in school for a while and now it's talking about the first day of 8th grade and also Harriet is now going to his school because she skipped a grade and is now in 6th grade (I call bullsh*t on this). Jamie's trying to get this valley girl speaking airhead of a girl to ask him to the dance ( I swear most of the girl's he's been into this season all have that (like whatever valley girl tone to their dialogue) it's grating on my nerves. It's basically a Sadie Hawkins dance where the girls ask the boys or (according to Full House a Backwards Dance)> Harriet makes it her mission to get Jamie to take her she just has to tag him (you know, like the game). Vicki is made the Hall Monitor giving out demerits to the students thanks to the new Vice Principal played by Marcia Wallace known for her role of Ms. Krabappel on The Simpsons. As far as these episodes go, they were all that good, not too surprising, since it's the last Season of the show. Have a good April and I'll see you towards the end of the month for the next 4 episodes in Season 4.

Small Wonder: S4E5: Come Fly With Me, S4E6: Love At First Byte, S4E7: The Sheik, S4E8: Togetherness

Hey Small Wonder Fans, Angela Bowen here, the host of She's A Small Wonder: A Small Wonder Podcast. Today, I covered Season Episodes 5-8. S4E5: Come Fly With Me, which aired on October 22, 1988. In this episode the Lawson's accompany Brandon and Harriet on a flight to Florida (business reasons) when their flight is hijacked. Art Linkletter guest stars. I thought this episode was clever and humorous in some scenes. S4E6: Love At First Byte, which aired on October 29, 1988. In this episode Vicki falls for a computer program called L.E.S., that Ted installs in the family computer, unaware that L.E.S.'s growing attraction to Vicki takes a possessive and controlling turn, leading the family to take drastic measures to save Vicki. S4E7: The Sheik, which aired on November 5, 1988. In this episode, Ted and the family entertain a Sheik who intends to do business with the Robotics company that Ted works for, however when the Sheik sets his sights on marrying Vicki (to go along with his 4 other wives) this kid is 13 BTW, Ted has to decide if he can save Vicki from a lifetime of servitude (like she doesn't already have that with the Lawsons) marriage to a 13 year old boy or risk a business venture between his company and the Middle East. S4E8: Togetherness, which aired on November 12, 1988. In this episode the Brindles and the Lawsons compete on Beat Thy Neighbor, a gameshow. This was a fun episode. I hope you enjoy the episodes and I'll be back in late March with episodes S4E9-S4E12.