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Small Wonder
1985 · TV series · 21 min episodes · 4 seasons
Created by Howard Leeds
When genius cybernetics engineer Ted Lawson brings home his top-secret invention, a Voice Input Child Identicant or V.I.C.I., life becomes anything but mechanical for the Lawson Family. With his boss and his nosy family living next door, Ted, his wife Joan and their son Jamie must pass Vicki off as a real child. It is easy for Joan, who cannot help doting on her like a daughter, but harder for precocious Jamie, who uses Vicki to do his homework and to ward off Harriet, the annoying redheaded girl next door.
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The unusual name ("The Small Wonder Joint Venture") is because the television show was the first product of a "joint venture" between 5 television stations [1], not because it was made by some secret home robotics manufacturer or marketing firm.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Program_Group
This isn't even the most elaborate market-research stunt I've seen.
Some of you older folk may remember an 80s sitcom called Small Wonder, which was a typical American suburbia family sitcom, except the youngest daughter, Vicki, was a robot. What I found unusual about the show was its copyright message: "©1987 The Small Wonder Joint Venture". In later years I found out that the show was produced in part for market research purposes, to solicit feedback about how Americans might feel about robots in the home -- especially robots that look and behave like humans. It was the 80s and we all thought that was coming Real Soon Now.