| 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 | USA |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 88 (List of episodes) |
| 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 |
Weird Science is a mid-1990s American comedy series made for television, based on the 1985 film of the same name.
Contents |
The series 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 Illinois). 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 freak lightning storm brings the computer simulation to life, creating a real woman named Lisa (Vanessa Angel) - a drop-dead gorgeous genius with the powers of a "magic genie."[1] The show followed in the tradition of 1960s fantasy sitcoms like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, combining a sitcom format with supernatural stories.
In the pilot episode, Gary claims that creating Lisa is possible because he "saw it in a John Hughes movie" - that is, of course, Weird Science.
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. However, new episodes ceased airing in 1997 with the final six still unaired. They would eventually air in America the following year on The Sci-Fi Channel.
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 television version of his film. The creators and showrunners of the series were 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 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.” [2]
Seth Green was one of the finalists for the part of Gary. This is mentioned on the DVD commentary for the pilot of Weird Science. He later had a guest appearance in season 2, episode 1 "Lisa's Virus"
On January 1, 2008, A&E Home Video released the complete first and second seasons of Weird Science on DVD in Region 1.[3]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete Seasons 1&2 | 26 | January 1, 2008 |