The Small Wonder Production staff knew for some time that the intrinsic appeal of a little gynoid to males is the contradictory nature of a lovely lacy pixie that's as remote from anything coldly technological as one could imagine. The closest parallel of how most fathers regarded Vicki as an personable object might be of a shy single-child bookworm daughter who routinely wins beauty pageants. This contrasting blend of high-tech and high-cute titillated techies and fathers alike and doubtlessly contributed to her basic attraction in those demographics.
Though Vicki as portrayed in the first season was at her most technically accurate in possessing the perceived effected intelligence and countenance of a 4-year-old, (which A.I. consultants deem adequate for most to contend with in a functional command and even light conversational basis), it was a "maturity level" which seemed to titillate dads, much to the scorn of their bio-daughters. It was dad mail that most hinted that Man's Best Friend might be in for some serious competition in the 21st century. Those fathers who wrote in represent the most complex affections about Vicki ownership. Non-techie fathers didn't write in numbers, but the content of their fan mail suggested that there were several elements in play here in their Vicki interest, ranging from a possessiveness as owning a new flashy whiz-bang toy to seeing Vicki as a kind of surrogate golden retriever. Most were professionals, breaking down to engineers, programmers, salesmen, lawyers, middle management types (those who actually bothered writing to the show). Nearly all shared interest in SF and had some technical backgrounds, hobbies or interests.
Though it was amusing and heartening to tabulate such a mature audience (along with SF fans), the producers were late in realizing and failed to modify the show to play up that fact. Fathers, in a way more than techies, were fascinated by the notion of an intricate piece of machinery that could pass for an innocent pretty girl-child, and clucked about happily taking a Vicki apart and putting her back together every Saturday afternoon like tinkering with a delicate sports car whose graceful shell belies the complex technology within. The portrayal of Ted Lawson's regard of Vicki is very close to this, that Dad -- in terms of personal time -- would be closer to a Vicki than to a real daughter. One tired common joke in many letters told of Vicki's being a desirable "worry-free daughter who'll let you keep your hair." You almost got the feeling these dads were subconsciously making up for some former life's lost girlhood playing Barbie. Oddly enough, those same Vicki-owning dads sounded less enthused (or abashed?) about strolling the block with cyber-daughters than moms were unless Vicki's secret was out.
Fathers also fancied "their Vickis" trailing them around like a faithful hound and helping them in the house or shop, and weren't as reserved as moms were about pushing one into tasks inviting scrapes and scratches, evoking a common picture of a pretty-in-pink Vicki, in place of a reluctant son, helping her charmed dad at fixing the car and plumbing, and being a cute golf caddie. More than any other family member, it seems dads would turn their Vicki into a personal valet as some admitted doing with their cheerfully obliging under-eight daughters before they caught wind of what was going on. The possible relationships of a cyber-daughter and owner dad opens many intriguing social scenarios (the basis of one had prompted me to draft a second-season script, which I'll later translate to a newspaper format to better realize the plausibility of a seemingly nutty concept). Perhaps some of the soberest and uneasy letters to read came from parents who'd lost a child and pined a future where androids (male or female) were available as look-alike surrogates programmed with diaries which "are better than frozen photographs that only smile and stare back at you." While fathers with all-son families were eager at welcoming a Vicki in their midst like a new pet or an animated ornament to "liven up the house," those with daughters ignited the most sparks.
While only a tiny few dads wished their daughters were as passive as Vicki, nevertheless they conjured up the same wistful "Norman Rockwell" girlhood images (which seniors and older moms also held) whenever commenting on Vicki's appearance in the Lawson household. They often admitted a thrill of having a girl (Vicki) who "looks like Easter every day" and wished their own daughters "wore a nice dress at least once every blue moon too." Such opinions these fathers doubtless kept to themselves at home if they'd older daughters who took to Vicki like fire and oil. They were dutifully proud of their daughters, yet "confided" a surprising coolness at them turning into tomboys and hoydens "unlike Vicki," and chronic letters from some older fathers pined the loss of romantic femininity in their preteen/teenage daughters, that "they're just boys with bras," even though these fathers were too young to've experienced the 1950s themselves. Instinctively, most dads yearn for princess daughters, but in today's unisex climate princesses turn into female princes too fast for many. You sensed that this view wouldn't have turned up had the show aired in the '50s and early '60s, when gender differentiation was wide and refreshingly distinct in both behavior and style. It wasn't as though these dads were chauvinistic or saw in Vicki the "ideal" daughter who was obliging, dainty, and frequently in the kitchen; most clucked that their daughters longed to be doctors or programmers. Their chief lament was their daughters' lack of poise or "elegance" from just being "son-like". With the same disillusionment as seniors, they cited the "PC degradation" of the Girl Scouts and pop role models, and various other sociopolitical influences "making girls ashamed to be sweet and gentle" in the mold of traditional femininity. On the whole, teenage daughters were unamused, if not resentful, if their dads were Small Wonder fans, but even this split into noticeable geo-political boundaries in the U.S. wherein southern teens were a lot more tolerant of Vicki than their northern cousins (which will be discussed in a later Fan Mail Keyhole, Daughters vs. Vicki).
The one issue on which fathers and mothers unanimously agreed was housing a Vicki in their bedroom, as in "Smoker's Delight," as both shared appall in an situation that the producers held either in denial or as insignificant: that of keeping Vicki in Jamie's room. "In no way in real-life," one dad remarked, like many declaring some pretty severe "off-limits" penalties they'd implement for their sons, though moms were stridently harsher. So for obvious reasons I'm declining a feature of how boys and sons saw Vicki.