I wondered the same thing myself. I know it's a "he said/she said" type of thing, but how would the rumor get started that he was wanting them for free/peanuts if there wasn't some truth to it. Personally I'd love for someone that has the missing episodes to put them up for free on YouTube like...
All this time I kept thinking of the similarities of My Living Doll and Small Wonder. If Wikipedia is to be believed, I now see why. Howard Leeds was involved in the production of both series.