Whiz Kids (1983)

Debuting Oct 5, 1983. CBS, 8/7pm Central.

Whiz Kids featured 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. Although a little dramatic license was taken, much of the technology presented on the show was fairly realistic, and a trio of technical consultants were used to make it all work (or at least appear to work on screen). 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. With much of the target audience likely watching Colt Seaver on ABC, the show was never able to do well in the ratings. A mid-season production shakeup resulted in Bob Shayne leaving the show, with showrunning duties turned over to James Crocker. There was also a directive from the studio, the network, or possibly both – to make an attempt to widen the appeal of the show to a more adult audience than was the original concept. Thus, stories became darker and emphasized the cold war issues of the time. A mysterious organization called The Athena Society was added, further complicating the show. CBS moving it 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.

Although the episode count was only 18, Whiz Kids was surprisingly sold into syndication by Universal as part of a package along with Voyagers! It ran nationally on cable channel WOR on Saturday mornings in the summers of 1986 and 1987, as well as airing on local stations. The series also ran overseas and was quite popular in France. Although the series has not been seen since the 1980s domestically, France’s Elephant Films released 13 of the 18 episodes on a DVD set. Note it is a region 2 DVD, so you need a multiregion player or computer software to play the discs. The remaining five episodes are supposedly ‘missing’ at Universal. The entire series is also up at Internet Archive in both DVD rips and recordings from syndicated reruns.

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.