Smart Guy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Smart Guy | |
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Creator(s) | Danny Kallis |
| Executive producer(s) | Bob Young Danny Kallis Suzanne de Passe Suzanne Coston |
| Starring | Tahj Mowry as T.J. Henderson John Marshall Jones as Floyd Henderson Jason Weaver as Marcus Henderson Omar Gooding as Morris "Mo Tibbs" Essence Atkins as Tasha Yvette Henderson |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Original channel | The WB |
| Original run | March 26, 1997–May 16, 1999 |
| No. of episodes | 51 |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Smart Guy was an American sitcom that aired on The WB for three seasons from 1997 to 1999.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main characters
- T.J. - T.J. Henderson, played by Tahj Mowry, is the title character and the youngest child in his family. He's 10 years old in seasons 1 and 2, and, as the title suggests, is smart, with an I.Q. of 1000. He skipped from 4th grade to 10th, knows several different languages and has a photographic memory. Despite the normal unsociable tendencies that tend to develop in those with higher intelligence, is quite adept with people. Outside of the occasional moments of awkwardness that is bound to occur when a child interacts with high schoolers, T.J. has a peaceable existence in the school, and is eager to be involved in school functions. He spends a fair amount of time at school with his older brother Marcus, and Moe, Marcus's best friend. Although they have some tense filled moments, it is obvious that the two brothers care for each other deeply. T.J. plays keyboard for the band after the other member broke his finger, and never plays for it again.
- Marcus - Marcus Henderson is played by Jason Weaver, Marcus is T.J.'s older brother. He's fairly popular, and reacts remarkably well to his younger brother sharing nearly every one of his classes. He gets average grades and is probably of above average intelligence, but does not apply himself. He's a Forward on his school's basketball team and has several love interests throughout the run of the show. He is the vocals for their band which he created, Mackadocious.
- Moe - Played by Omar Gooding, he is one of Marcus and T.J.'s best friends. It's been revealed that he was adopted and his mother is a fortune teller. Floyd often is annoyed with Moe's antics, such as eating out of their fridge and sleeping in T.J.'s bed. He pretty much lives there, he hates eating at his own house, since he cracked a tooth off his mother's oatmeal. He works out and is very muscualar. He plays bass guitar in the band.
- Yvette - Tasha Yvette Henderson is played by Essence Atkins, she is the older sister of Marcus and T.J.. Yvette is intelligent, is a woman's rights activist, only shown in one episode though, and never mentions it again. She has a fake I.D. that says she's 28. She is in grade 11 in season 1, and graduates high school at the end of season 2. Having been rejected from Princeton, Yvette continues to live at home through season 3 and attends a local community college.
- Floyd - Floyd Henderson is played by John Marshall Jones, Floyd is the patriarch of the family and owns a roofing business.
[edit] Recurring characters
- Nina Walsh - Played by Tinsley Grimes, is one of Yvette's friends and is seen with her most of the time. She is White American and works at the store in the mall, where she was forced to follow black people becasue her boss thought they would steal. She is deep and poetic and drools over cute guys.
- Deon - Played by Arvie Lowe, Jr., is a short African American teenager who goes to Peidmont, his usual hijinks are taking pictures of Marcus and Moe and selling them to a company for profit. He has scammed Marcus and moe also into selling health bars and is called by Marcus "a little shrimp."In one episode it showed that Deon had a crush on Yvette and asked her out to the school dance.
- Mackey Nagle - Played by J.D. Walsh, is a student who is is Marcus and Moe's grade. He is fairly popular and is definately not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He tries to fit in at school also, by buying new clothes. He has a dream about Yvette kissing him as she tells him about her dreams about Moe. He often wears flannel shirts.
- Mr. Militich - Played by James K. Ward, is the vice-president of the school. He is cheap when it comes to school neccesities, he is also incompotent.
- Coach Gerber - Played by Dann Florek, is the gym teacher at the school. He is bald and aging and went through divorce and has to pay 500 dollars to his wife. He partially teachers math and gets angry easily. He sleeps in his office since he possibly can't afford a home of his own. He once mentions that he has prostate problems.
- Brandy - Played by Kyla Pratt, Brandy is a girl around T.J.'s age, and met T.J. at the arcade. She is very good at basketball, and joined the team T.J. plays on, but she stopped playing due T.J. upset with her. She wears ghetto fabulous clothing and depicts an exaggerated African American youth.
[edit] About the show
The show is about the misadventures of a grade school student who skips to high school. Though more trouble occurs when T.J. learns about the life of a teenager.
Like most African-American sitcoms, the show is filled with deadpan and exaggerated humor. It is also one of the few WB African-American sitcoms to use a laugh track.
As of February 2006, Smart Guy was the last series produced by Walt Disney Television for a broadcast television network in primetime.
[edit] The initially banned episode by Disney Channel
One episode was initially omitted from Disney Channel broadcasts due to its suspected subliminal sexual content. "Strangers on the Net," from the show's second season, featured T.J. and his friend Karen getting an Internet connection in order to buy bootleg games from a guy Karen met online. When they told Marky412 (an online predator) the games they wanted, they then agreed to meet at a local pizza place. He then told them he had a new upgrade to a virtual reality game (a surfing-cam game that placed you ((your image)) into the game). So they then went to his house to play it. So Marky412 then said it would look more realer if they took their clothes off (like they were on a beach). Karen then agreed, but TJ knew what Marky was leading onto. So he got Karen and they both left. TJ later told his dad and Marky412 went to jail.
The episode had educational value — so much so, in fact, that Disney Educational Productions released the episode on video in order for teachers to show students about the dangers of being online. Yet, Disney mysteriously didn't air the episode until a year after Smart Guy began airing on the channel. It was one of the first TV shows to feature the internet.
Disney aired nearly all of the Smart Guy episodes in their entirety, not editing for adult content. Unusual for a series produced by Disney, some episodes featured mild adult language. In "Get a Job," Marcus and Mo volunteer to become late night DJs at a radio station. When Floyd angrily calls into the show, and after Marcus asks if he can pick them up, Floyd replies "Oh, hell ... " Mo points out later that "I know you can't say the H word [on the radio]". Mo also thought you couldn't say "butt" on the radio.
In the final episode, "The Graduate", Coach Gerber (Dann Florek) is the guest speaker at graduation. He mentions his brother in his speech and adds that "[he's] got a full head of hair, looks like freakin Fabio".
There were even a couple of closed caption errors (at least in the Disney Channel broadcasts), in which the caption denoted a character as having said "damn," when in fact he or she said something else entirely though very few characters said "damn" for comical purposes. Disney Channel would normally edit these words, but they were left in these episodes.
[edit] Confusion
Many Smart Guy viewers thought the series was a spin-off of Sister, Sister, both of which aired on The WB. However, this can be disproved by the fact that Smart Guy and Sister, Sister are set about 600 miles apart from each other. Smart Guy is set in Washington, D.C., while Sister, Sister is set in Detroit, but there is one guest appearance of twin sisters (the twins from Sister, Sister) in "Smart Guy" but no genius brothers in "Sister, Sister".
Also, despite the fact that Tahj Mowry appeared on Sister, Sister three times, he played different characters. Also, none of the actors from Smart Guy who appeared in Sister Sister did so as their characters (Jason Weaver, in fact, is the only other Smart Guy cast member besides Mowry to appear on Sister, Sister).
In turn, Tahj Mowry's sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry appeared in a Smart Guy episode titled "Brother, Brother" (an obvious play on the name of Tia and Tamera's series). The only cross-over episode ever filmed, titled "Child's Play," for Tia and Tamera's series Sister, Sister involved Tahj as T.J. Henderson being sent to tutor Tia, Tamera and their friends for the SATs. This crossover occurred dispite the noticable fact that the two shows are set in Washington, D.C. and Detroit, respectively.
[edit] Reruns/syndication
Three months after Smart Guy was cancelled on The WB, reruns began airing on the Disney Channel from September 1999 to September 2003, and again in a Back to School themed marathon of the show in August 2004. The show can still be seen on the Canada-based Family Channel. The show is still on Disney Channel in the United Kingdom, but not on a recurring basis.
