A youth-aimed sitcom about a tennis wunderkind, Angela Doolan, the 'phenom' of the title. Fifteen years old, she has the potential to be a sports superstar but worries about losing her normality and severing her family ties. Angela's father has deserted the family, to rediscover his youth and dally with younger women, leaving her mother Dianne to raise the family and to try to keep a lid on her bitterness. There were attempts to portray the family as dysfunctional, with older brother Brian depicted as inarticulate and introverted, and younger sister Mary as undisciplined and prone to mischief, but the group was too cute to pull it off. Even the obsessive tennis coach Lou, who was determined to bring out the champion in Angela regardless of the cost to her growth as a human, didn't come across as the one-track minded monster that he was obviously intended to be - instead he was like a smart-talking, boastful uncle who had made good. Although he did lust after Angela's mother, he was quite upfront about it and didn't attempt to hide his desires behind innuendo.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)