Crap TV flashbacks: Webster

Author: The Troll

There are so many things wrong with this TV show I don’t even know where to begin. Another washed up sporty in Alex Karras just keeps with the them of all the sports has beens during the ridiculous 80s TV sitcom era with shows like this and Mr. Belvedere. The most disturbing part of the show was the little guy that played Webster himself. The little guy was actually about 40 years old or something at the time he was playing an 8 year old kid whose biological parents were recently killed in a car accident. He is then taken in by retired football star George Papadopolis (Alex Karras), with whom his late father played professional football in the 1970s, and his wife Katherine (Susan Clark), a blue-blooded socialite with no housekeeping skills whatsoever.

OK a slight exaggeration. He was actually only around 16 when the show finally went off the air. Emmanuel Lewis does need a bit of background info, however. He is an interesting character in that he appears to be much younger than he really is although that is not a condition in and of itself. This is due to him suffering from a condition known as Angelman Syndrome, which used to actually be called happy puppet syndrome. Clearly demeaning, and is no longer used. The disease itself is a neuro-genetic disorder named after a British pediatrician, Dr. Harry Angelman, who first described the syndrome in 1965. AS is characterized by intellectual and developmental delay, speech impediment, sleep disturbance, unstable jerky gait, seizures, hand flapping movements, frequent laughter/smiling and usually a happy demeanor. Hard to believe such a condition was present in the young Lewis. Certainly not a condition you would want to have while exercising on an elliptical machine.

Webster, ran on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989.

Webster TV Show Intro: