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Weird Science (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the 1985 film on which this is based, see Weird Science (film)
| Weird Science | |
|---|---|
| Format | Science fiction / Sitcom |
| Created by | Tom Spezialy Alan Cross |
| Starring | John Mallory Asher Michael Manasseri Vanessa Angel Lee Tergesen |
| Country of origin |  |
| No. of episodes | 88 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Leslie Belzberg John Landis Robert K. Weiss |
| Producer(s) | Adam Barr Ed Ferrara Robert Lloyd Lewis Peter Ocko |
| Running time | 23 min. (per episode) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | USA Network |
| Original run | March 1, 1994 – July 25, 1998 |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Weird Science is a mid-1990s American comedy series made for television, a spin-off of the 1985 movie of the same name. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, A&E Home Video has announced that the first and second seasons will be released on DVD January 1, 2008.[1]
Contents |
The show follows the adventures of Gary Wallace (John Mallory Asher) and Wyatt Donnelly (Michael Manasseri), two socially inept high school students in an unspecified town in California (unlike the movie, which was set in Chicago). Together, using Wyatt's computer, they try to create a computer simulation of a perfect woman in order to practice communicating with women. However, a magical lightning storm brings the computer simulation to life, creating a beautiful woman named Lisa (Vanessa Angel) - a genius with the powers of a "magic genie."[2] The show followed in the tradition of '60s fantasy sitcoms like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, combining a sitcom format with supernatural stories.
In an unusual twist, Gary claims in the pilot episode that creating Lisa is possible because he "saw it in a John Hughes movie" - that is, of course, Weird Science.
- John Mallory Asher replaces Anthony Michael Hall as Gary Wallace. Unlike his counterpart in the movie, Gary is a poor student and a slacker, always looking for shortcuts to get what he wants (usually to impress girls). His father, Al (Jeff Doucette) is a tow truck driver.
- Michael Manasseri replaces Ilan Mitchell-Smith as Wyatt Donnelly. Wyatt's wealthy parents are usually out of town, leaving him and his older brother Chett alone in the house. Most stories have him as the more cautious member of the group, more reluctant than Gary to use Lisa's magic. He is more popular with girls than Gary, and several episodes feature Gary being interested in a girl who likes Wyatt instead.
- Vanessa Angel replaces Kelly LeBrock as Lisa. Lisa describes herself as a "magic genie," able to grant the boys' wishes, though she does this out of choice rather than duty and is free to deny them any wish she doesn't want to grant. Once she grants a wish, Lisa is unable to reverse it, no matter how badly it turns out; however, most of her spells wear off after an indeterminate amount of time. Other than those basic rules, the limits of her powers are never clearly defined, and she seems to get more or less powerful depending on what a particular episode's plot requires. She is addicted to Chunky Monkey ice cream.
- Lee Tergesen replaces Bill Paxton as Chett Donnelly. Chett is a military school graduate who turned down his commission, claiming that he didn't want to be sent overseas to work for "Third-World slackers"; he lives with his parents and shows no interest in getting a job. Paranoid and angry, he takes out his frustrations on Wyatt, though less sadistically than in the movie; mostly he takes Wyatt's things without asking and calls him names like "wuss-boy" and "pit-lick." He also has a vendetta against Principal Scampi (Bruce Jarchow), principal of the boys' high school, who was assistant principal when Chett was there and whom Chett calls "Ass-Istant Principal Scampi." Most episodes have Chett getting caught up unwittingly in the magical shenanigans, often getting hurt or transformed without knowing what's going on. Near the end of the show's run, to expand Lee Tergesen's role, Chett was let in on the secret of Lisa's existence (Lisa was unable to wipe his memory due to a "brain callous") and occasionally had hints of sexual tension with Lisa.
Weird Science was produced by St. Clare Entertainment in association with Universal Television. Premiering on March 1, 1994, the show ran for five seasons on the USA Network for a total of 88 episodes.
The theme song for the series was "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo, the same as that used in the movie (though they received no on-screen credit for the series).
John Hughes had no involvement with the TV version of his movie. The show was created and run by Tom Spezialy and Alan Cross, who had both been key writers on Parker Lewis Can't Lose and brought along many other writers, directors and producers from that show, giving Weird Science the feel of a fantasy version of Parker Lewis's light high school comedy.
Kari Lizer, one of the staff writers, who later went on to create the Emmy-winning show The New Adventures of Old Christine, remembered her Weird Science years very fondly: "Weird Science turned out to be the best job because it made me realize I was more than an actress who could write monologues for herself. It turned me into a real writer because I had to write about things that weren’t close to home.” [3]
Episodes of the series often spoofed other TV series, including The Twilight Zone, The X-Files and Quantum Leap, as well as James Bond and slasher movies. Most plots involved Gary and/or Wyatt making a "wish" with unexpected consequences.
The show is also deliberately similar to I Dream of Jeannie not only in the story of a beautiful female genie but in the way it characterizes the male leads: Wyatt is the stolid, cautious one in the tradition of Major Tony Nelson, and Gary is the impulsive, goofy one like Major Roger Healey. Several episodes reference I Dream of Jeannie and in one episode, a guest character (played by Emma Caulfield) steals Lisa and forces her to dress in the costume Barbara Eden wore on Jeannie.
