Whiz Kids Debuts Oct 5, 1983

 

𝙒𝙃𝙄𝙕 𝙆𝙄𝘿𝙎 debuted on this day 41 years ago! Featuring Matthew Laborteaux, Todd Porter, Jeffrey Jacquet and Andrea Elson as the titular “whiz kids”, 9th graders who became amateur detectives using computer technology to solve mysteries. The show also starred Max Gail as newspaper reporter and A Martinez as the sometimes-friendly police detective. 

The series was notable for its early depiction of home computer technology, including the use of modems, speech synthesizers, laptop computers, etc. The main character Richie had an ad-hoc patchwork computer system he called RALF. Concepts such as wardialing, password brute-forcing, man-in-the-middle and denial of service attacks, and the dangers of talking to strangers online were all presented to viewers many years before any of this became mainstream.

As originally envisioned by co-creator Bob Shayne (who was working on Simon & Simon at the time), he intended it to be a modern take on the Hardy Boys featuring junior high aged kids investigating mysteries. He specifically envisioned it for the early Sunday evening timeslot for either NBC or ABC to compete against 60 Minutes. Meanwhile, Phil DeGuere (creator of Simon & Simon) had long been interested in computer technology and had already presented what likely was the first instance of "computer hacking" on television in a Simon & Simon episode featuring Robbie Rist. 

DeGuere took Shayne to pitch the idea to Universal Television, who was producing Simon & Simon. In the pitch meeting, once Shayne had related the concept, DeGuere added "and they'll do it all with computers!" and came up with the title on the spot. The two concepts were combined, and Whiz Kids was born. However, the series was unexpectedly sold to CBS who slotted Whiz Kids on Wednesdays as a lead-in show against Real People and The Fall Guy. The show was never able to do well in the ratings, and a January move to Saturday night did not help matters. The series was canceled early, and episodes were burned off in random airings over the next few months. 

The fact that the series debuted in the fall after WarGames had been released that June, as well as Newsweek using the term 'hacking' for the first time exactly one month previously, bringing kids and computer 'hacking' to nationwide attention, was entirely coincidental. DeGuere had envisioned a 'computer kids' series by the summer of 1981, and what became Whiz Kids was pitched to Universal in late 1982, some 8 months before WarGames was released.

A series of documentary podcasts is available from Forgotten TV here on this website which thoroughly covers the series and features interviews with several actors from the show as well as co-creator Bob Shayne.