Diagonaldi Very well executed

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Yrmy There was a time when personal computers were something new and exciting, and films like Wargames would have us all believe that any kid with a computer and a modem was just a few keystrokes away from full access to your bank account or the US missile launch computer. Whiz Kids was another product of this age, and certainly caught the attention of many juveniles who were into video games and home computers (myself included) with its displays of blinking lights, voice synthesizers, easy hacking and seemingly computer-run corporate worlds where even doors could be opened and whole buildings reduced to chaos by just one nondescript nerd behind a keyboard. Those were potent fantasies and partially helped to camouflage the ordinariness of the actual series.Apart from the computers, it was a standard juvenile adventure series where a group of resourceful kids (demographically comprising a mastermind nerd, a semi-jock, a token female and a token African-American) solved crimes and outwitted overconfident criminals with the help of a sympathetic reporter (Gail's ever-grinning, elbow-patched Farley, a ponytailed throwback into those post-Watergate times when reporters still seemed like the champions of truth and watchdogs of the system) and a less sympathetic but ultimately understanding police detective (the future soap prince Martinez giving an admirably stone-faced performance). The stories ran the usual gamut from big business baddies and individual criminal masterminds to an obligatory supernatural romp ("Amen for Amon Ra", which reached a surprisingly memorable climax with its glowing statues and levitating mummies). Though the general level of action was kept suitably safe and harmless, there could still be a surprisingly grave bit of violence or subject (e.g. nerve gas) for such a juvenile show. But everything was tempered with a necessary educational angle and familial trimmings, as the computer whiz Richie Adler had an irredeemably irritating little sister and a single mother frowning over the escapades of her son and his friends. Extra sheen came from the playful, mainly synthetic score with some nice quasi-classicism and borrowings.Watched now, the overall shabbiness and graininess of early-1980s television production values aside, this still seems like fun and nostalgic series, though I obviously no longer belong to its target audience. Those who would belong there, would probably find it too simplistic and too hilarious to watch. For like any series relying so heavily on state-of-the-art computer technology to hook its audience, Whiz Kids has been rendered utterly antediluvian by two decades of febrile progress. Furthermore, now that computers are ubiquitous and mundane, and everyone knows that no kid or adult could ever use them for any criminal or disruptive activity that would anyway bother the carefree computer-assisted existence of institutions or private individuals, you really can't take a series like Whiz Kids seriously, can you? Can you?

rgaine While looking back at the show over 20 years later, it seems really cheezy, but in 1983 it is what helped get me involved with computers. Funny though seeing Albert Ingalls from Little House on the Prarie working with computers. I still have the shows on video tape.... well, if the tapes haven't erased themselves by now. It has been a while since I looked at them.Many movies of the time caught my interest, but being close in age to Richie and his friends this show was most interesting to me. War Games was also fun to watch, but not as realistic as Whiz Kids. I never could figure out how they got a coupler mount modem to auto dial though. That one is still a mystery.I'd like to see a Whiz Kids reunion show. I don't think that will happen though. I don't think the show was popular enough. Would be nice to see what the writers would do with all the characters though.

shaunh I was 13 when this show aired, and remember really liking it. It was well written (at least to a mature 13 year old), and I looked forward to it every week. The problem was, the programming geniuses at CBS blew it. It was on one week, preempted the next 2, moved to a different night, preempted again. It never stayed in a location long enough to gain any audience following. Here I was TRYING to watch the thing and they made it quite difficult. I remember being quite frustrated and ticked off when it was cancelled.It would be interesting to see it again today, 20 years later, and see how it compared to other shows of its day.

Victor Field The problem wasn't with O'Herlihy (it never is), it was his character. Prior to his coming on, the show was an entertaining adventure about a quartet of junior crimefighting computer experts that was every bit as much fun as Philip DeGuere's other then-current show "Simon & Simon" (Jeffrey and company even joined forces with A.J. Simon in one episode) - it was closer in tone to "WarGames" than "Scooby-Doo," which was fine with me even then; it also had some good writing to boot, such as one episode ending with their teacher informing the class that even though the FBI had commended them for their work that week, she was still going to punish the boys (the token female had done the homework) for not doing an assignment!Unfortunately, when they were recruited to work for O'Herlihy's organisation (in secret of course), the thrill of their being freelancers was gone. It was the same mistake made when the Hardy Boys (Stevenson and Cassidy version) were taken on by the Justice Department - they went from playing outside the system to being part of it, and the show was never the same. But it was fun while it lasted...