At the time this series came out I was watching the likes of "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", so it was little surprise that this show disappointed.
When I say disappointed, I mean I tolerated it. Ok, when I say tolerated, I mean I had to be dragged kicking and screaming in front of the TV, with all the enthusiasm I'd have mustered if I was told I was to be watching Pavarotti do naked calisthenics.
Quite simply, this show sucked the big one. Hard.
Basically, it was the story of a "typical" UK family whose son built a robot to help around the house. However, I don't know any families that I wanted to slap into the middle of next week quite as much as this one. They were intensely irritating, even more so than the Diff'rent Strokes clan.
The robot (Metal Mickey) was almost, but not quite, as annoying as Crichton from Buck Rogers. Somewhere along the way, the boy who created it imbued it with artificial intelligence, so I never understood why they didn't sell the obnoxious tin monstrosity and move into better accommodation.
Mickey was vaguely humanoid but had the look of something that had been made, then squashed slightly in an industrial pressing machine. Oh yeah, and the head reminded me somewhat of R2D2's dome, though squashed and without any of the charm of R2.
Mickey had a catch-phrase of sorts "Boogie, Boogie" which, when uttered, had the cast start to dance (a truly horrifying experience). And about the voice.....about half way between normal and a dalek. And yes, that was annoying, too.
And there's more. Mickey had "magical" powers over electrical appliances and could get them dancing and doing all manner of retarded things.
Apparently this series was the brainchild of Mickey Dolenz (of The Monkees). If this is an example of his creativity, I'd seriously vote for lobotomies to be made legal again. I actually watched him babbling about the show on some flashback TV show. He was clearly passionate about the show. In fact, I'd say too passionate about something twenty years in the past. It was scary to watch him ranting and nearly drooling over the show, in the same way that it's scary to see Gary Glitter's hairstyle is STILL the same after thirty years. But enough said about Gary, the better. Some people never change.
As for Metal Mickey, it's the sort of show that, if you had a choice between being set on fire and watching the show, you'd ask for extra petrol. It's that bad.
