Weird Science was a 1985 film by John Hughes that asked: what would two high-school boys do with an all-powerful magic-wielding sex goddess if they could create one on their computer? It’s a concept that needs more than an hour and a half to explore, so just under a decade later, fans were given a television show for more wacky adventures. In many ways, this 1994 series may have been better than the original movie, but this Weird Science still had some experimenting to do.
Airing on the USA Network, Weird Science ran for 88 episodes stretched out over five seasons. I was a pretty big fan of the series back then, but had no clue they had produced so much of it, as all but six of those installments were released between 1994 and 1997. These ‘lost episodes’ debuted during the series time on the Sci-Fi (Syfy) channel in 1998, meaning there were a couple I’d never seen until my recent re-watch.
The story for this show is a retelling and expansion of the concepts from the film, with one of the characters even commenting about the creation of Lisa, “I know it can be done, I saw it once in a John Hughes movie,” even though the director had nothing to do with the series. Our main characters are Gary Wallace (John Mallory Asher) and Wyatt Donnelly (Michael Manasseri), who use Wyatt’s computer to make Lisa (Vanessa Angel), a stunning perfect image of the ‘90s woman who also happens to be an electronic genie with magical powers. Let’s not get stuck on how they did it as much as what they’ll do with her now that she’s in their lives—okay, they explain why they don’t do the obvious.
Gary and Wyatt want the same thing, to get women, but they both have different paths of trying to achieve that goal and various ways of using Lisa’s abilities to pursue it. Wyatt is smart, likable, and usually shows himself to be the careful one, especially when magic is involved, while Gary is a bit lazy, less sincere, and kind of an asshole at times, seeing magic as an answer for everything. The show is centered on their relationship with each other, the boys’ reliance on Lisa, and the interactions they have with their families during these magical hijinks. The final main character is Chett (Lee Tergesen), Wyatt’s brother, who is fresh from the military academy and tortures his younger sibling. He’s also constantly being affected by Lisa’s spells, usually after drooling over her.
The main reason a lot of us were attracted to this show, myself included, was Lisa. Angel’s beauty is a focus of the character aligning with the plot, but she also grows as a character throughout the show and is shown to have several defined personality traits. She is more like a big sister to the boys, attempting to facilitate and guide them in their quest to understand women more than be any type of fantasy slave. She can manifest, has feelings, loves chocolate, and is sometimes vindictive or cruel if she believes it will teach them a lesson. In most episodes, she is moving the plot, but those stories focused on Lisa are usually quite enjoyable and give her a chance to show off some comedic skills as well as a wealth of jaw-dropping outfits.
The origin of this self-proclaimed ‘magic-genie’ isn’t explained, but over time we learn most of the rules for her powers (they even joke about her having a manual). Lisa can grant Gary and Wyatt’s wishes, but certain things are prohibited by her programming and she can deny their request if she believes it isn’t helpful or capable of providing growth. These are often referred to as spells, because sometimes her magic seems endless, while in other cases it is weaker to fit the story. Once cast, any of the major spells cannot be undone and are set on a time limit, though it isn’t always clear what will remain permanent afterward, especially in episodes where time travel, dreams, and golem-like creations are involved. The boys have to be careful with her taking their words too literally, and sometimes it seems like she twists them on purpose when they aren’t listening to reason. In a few cases, she even takes the initiative when the boys don’t make a direct wish, but seem like they want something, usually leaving them in a spot where they’re thrown into an unexpected situation or one of them is unhappy.
“If I told you every time I put your lives in danger, we’d never get out of the house.” – Lisa
Her only real weakness is that she’s tied to Wyatt’s computer and is technology-based, making her easy to deactivate, and she can contract viruses. In the beginning, summoning her costs a ton of power and messes up Wyatt’s room, but this is dropped before season one even ends. It’s also established that Lisa can make most people forget seeing magic and manipulate their minds to make them believe what she wants, but this has happened to Chett so much that by the later seasons, his mind can’t be affected anymore and they simply tell him about their magical construct.
Working on this show seems like it would have been a blast. So many of the actors – even the secondary characters – are skilled comedians and the silliness of most episodes probably meant no one knew what they were going to be doing each week. Gary, Wyatt, and Chett are all hilarious, and most of the great moments happen when they are interacting with each other, watching their dynamic personalities butt heads as they show off some of the most amazing reactions and facial expressions. Chett also gets a special shoutout for enduring so much body horror and trying to make some of the incredibly dated CGI work. There are many excellent guest stars from other popular shows of the time and people who would be recognizable soon. Notably, Seth Green appears in an episode, perhaps as a consolation prize, since he was in the running to play Gary, and his future Buffy co-star, Emma Caulfield Ford also popped up later. Interestingly, Gary’s mom, Emily, is played by Joyce Bulifant, who is Asher’s real-life mother, and in the season one episode where the boys are turned into female versions of themselves, it’s Manasseri’s actual sister who stands in for him.
Most viewers of the show appreciated the humor and writing, even the obvious sexual cheap gags. Several writers who worked on shows like Parker Lewis Can’t Lose were brought over and it shows, but that may not work for everyone. What most people can appreciate is the dialogue, which is usually strong, or at least entertaining. Many of the jokes work because they’re based on strong aspects of the characters themselves and the ability to throw them into situations that encourage outlandish tongue-in-cheek responses. Weird Science hits its stride in season two, where the pacing becomes solid and more of that “backlot charm” shines through. Most of the episodes have a similar conceit, helping the boys to impress women, attempting to become popular, or taking revenge on others in some way, but the methods are usually clever with witty outcomes, and many of the adventures become parodies of popular stories filled with pop culture references. The show has some light satire, and much of the actual social commentary is shown through the characters learning lessons that they’ll have to forget by next week to preserve the status quo, but that doesn’t mean the important points aren’t there.
Not everyone was on board with that. Some people hated the way Lisa was portrayed, from her blatant sexuality and using Angel’s body to market the show down to the idea that the boys ‘owned’ her, which doesn’t stick around for long. Even though Weird Science was a ‘90s show, a lot of situations and social aspects were still reaching back to the previous decade (their high school is even one of the buildings from Back to the Future), especially with the TV-rated raunchiness and some of the flatter jokes. Some elements didn’t age well, but considering the sitcom’s focus, parts of the humor felt progressive if viewers could get past Lisa being “pre-ogled.”
The show was popular, and not just because they secured that catchy theme song by Oingo Boingo, but the intro IS STILL fantastic. There were several promos, some guest spots, and I had forgotten that Gary, Wyatt, and Chett all show up in an episode of Duckman. Weird Science was popular in international markets, though in France, it was called Code Lisa for some reason.
Some countries received most of the seasons on DVD, but North America only saw seasons one and two released, which is a shame, because tracking them down can be difficult. The episodes are also not easy to find streaming, as only the first two seasons are up on Apple+ and seemingly nowhere else at the moment. Thankfully, there are other places to look, but it sucks that the show isn’t more available.
Perhaps we should be thankful for how much of the show we did receive. Weird Science was canceled somewhat abruptly, further evidenced by the unaired episodes. It also almost saw a major change, as Angel was set to take on the role of the warrior princess, Xena, meaning Lisa would need to be recast, but perhaps fate intervened as an illness kept her from flying out to New Zealand for filming. This looked like such a ‘done deal’ that producers had already started looking at potential replacements, but were probably happy not to need them. Maybe they would have asked Kelly LeBrock again like they did when the show was initially casting.
Weird Science is the show that happens when two dudes are given a cheat code for all of their insecurities and curiosities in high school, but decide to be frivolous and petty about everything. In that way, it’s kind of legit. The show taught me a lot about women back in the day, at least, what not to do. I like the movie a great deal, but this is what I think of when I hear Weird Science, and I kind of hate more people aren’t finding it all these years later.
