Smart Guy: Difference between revisions
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The show centers on the misadventures of boy genius TJ Henderson.(Tahj Mowry), who at the age of 9 or 10 who goes to elementary school and gets transferred to Piedmont High School where he ends up becoming a high school sophomore with 15-year-olds as his classmates. He must adjust to the life with older but not necessarily wiser high school teenagers — his brother marcus (jason weaver)and Marcus's best friend Mo (omar gooding). He often deals with the usual missteps of trying to fit in as a kid genius, while being a small kid in high school. |
The show centers on the misadventures of boy genius TJ Henderson.(Tahj Mowry), who at the age of 9 or 10 who goes to elementary school and gets transferred to Piedmont High School where he ends up becoming a high school sophomore with 15-year-olds as his classmates. He must adjust to the life with older but not necessarily wiser high school teenagers — his brother marcus (jason weaver)and Marcus's best friend Mo (omar gooding). He often deals with the usual missteps of trying to fit in as a kid genius, while being a small kid in high school. |
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Older brother marcus the suave and underachieving older cute boy, also deals with teenage problems, such as finding a date,and his date is yasmin jackson (kirsten grinage) and doing homework (though he sometimes tries to get T.J. his buddy to do his homework for him). Their father Floyd (John Marshall Jones), a single father who owns his own roofing business, deals with handling the problems of his three kids |
Older brother marcus the suave and underachieving older cute boy, also deals with teenage problems, such as finding a date,and his date is yasmin jackson (kirsten grinage) and doing homework (though he sometimes tries to get T.J. his buddy to do his homework for him). Their father Floyd (John Marshall Jones), a single father who owns his own roofing business, deals with handling the problems of raising his three kids, Yvette, Marcus and T.J. since his wife's death. Floyd's only daughter, and Marcus and T.J.'s older sister Yvette (Essence Atkins), is (usually) the level-headed one of the family and is the typical overachieving student. |
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Episodes deal with T.J.'s attempts to fit in in high school, as well as the contrast between his smarts and his brother's underachieving nature. |
Episodes deal with T.J.'s attempts to fit in in high school, as well as the contrast between his smarts and his brother's underachieving nature. |
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Revision as of 06:34, 28 September 2009
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| Smart Guy | |
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| File:Smart Guy.jpg The series cast; Back row (l-r): Floyd (John Marshall Jones), Marcus (Jason Weaver) and Mo (Omar Gooding); Front row (l-r): Yvette (Essence Atkins) and T.J. (Tahj Mowry) | |
| Created by | Danny Kallis |
| Starring | Tahj Mowry John Marshall Jones Jason Weaver Omar Gooding Essence Atkins |
| Theme music composer | Kristian Rex (seasons 1-2) Hami (season 3) |
| Opening theme | Performed by: Kristian Rex (seasons 1-2) Hami featuring Omar Gooding (season 3) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 51 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Bob Young Danny Kallis Suzanne de Passe Suzanne Coston |
| Camera setup | Videotape; Multi-camera |
| Running time | approx. 22 minutes |
| Production companies | de Passe Entertainment Danny Kallis Productions Walt Disney Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | The WB |
| Release | April 2, 1997 – May 16, 1999 |
Smart Guy is an American sitcom that aired on The WB for three seasons from April 2, 1997 to May 16, 1999. Reruns of the program currently air on BET in the United States and Canada.
Premise
The show centers on the misadventures of boy genius TJ Henderson.(Tahj Mowry), who at the age of 9 or 10 who goes to elementary school and gets transferred to Piedmont High School where he ends up becoming a high school sophomore with 15-year-olds as his classmates. He must adjust to the life with older but not necessarily wiser high school teenagers — his brother marcus (jason weaver)and Marcus's best friend Mo (omar gooding). He often deals with the usual missteps of trying to fit in as a kid genius, while being a small kid in high school.
Older brother marcus the suave and underachieving older cute boy, also deals with teenage problems, such as finding a date,and his date is yasmin jackson (kirsten grinage) and doing homework (though he sometimes tries to get T.J. his buddy to do his homework for him). Their father Floyd (John Marshall Jones), a single father who owns his own roofing business, deals with handling the problems of raising his three kids, Yvette, Marcus and T.J. since his wife's death. Floyd's only daughter, and Marcus and T.J.'s older sister Yvette (Essence Atkins), is (usually) the level-headed one of the family and is the typical overachieving student.
Episodes deal with T.J.'s attempts to fit in in high school, as well as the contrast between his smarts and his brother's underachieving nature.
Characters
Marcus Henderson
The character of Marcus Henderson, played by Jason Weaver, is T.J.'s older brother. He is fairly popular and reacts remarkably well to his younger brother sharing nearly every one of his classes, although tensions do arise from time to time. He gets average grades because he 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.
Morris L. "Mo" Tibbs
The character of Mo Tibbs was played by Omar Gooding. He is Marcus's & T.J. best friend. It's been revealed that he was adopted and his birth mother is a fortune teller. Floyd is often annoyed with Mo's antics, such as eating from their fridge and sleeping in T.J.'s bed. He pretty much lives there and he hates eating at his own house (he once cracked a tooth off his mother's oatmeal). He works out and is very muscular. He plays bass guitar in the band. Also he is a talented chef. He is portrayed in the show as someone who is sometimes dimwitted and gullible. A recurring catchphrase of his is, "Hello der!" ("hello there").
Tasha Yvette Henderson
The character of Yvette Henderson was played by Essence Atkins. She is the older sister of Marcus and T.J. Yvette is intelligent and is a women's rights activist. She has a fake I.D. that says she's 28. She is in 11th grade in season 1 and graduates high school at the end of season 3. After being rejected from Princeton, Yvette is planning to attend Georgetown University as the series ends.
Floyd Henderson
The character of Floyd Henderson, played by John Marshall Jones, is the father of the family and owns a roofing business. Unfortunately, his wife Christina[citation needed] (as mentioned in an episode) died of a heart attack. After the loss of his wife, he would have trouble finding another woman to date. He is frequently a comic foil to most characters including T.J. He also gives good moral advice to all of his children (and Mo, too).
Recurring
- Nina Walsh - Played by Tinsley Grimes, Nina is one of Yvette's friends and is seen with her most of the time. She works at the store in the mall, where in one episode she was forced to follow "black people" because her boss thought they would steal. She is deep and poetic and drools over cute guys.
- Deon - Played by Arvie Lowe Jr., Deon is a teenager who goes to Piedmont High. His usual hijinks include taking pictures of Marcus and Mo and selling them to a company for profit, and scamming Marcus and Moe into selling health bars, among other things (Marcus refers to him as "a little shrimp"). In one episode, Deon had a crush (more like an obsession) on Yvette and asked her out to the school dance.
- Mackey Nagle - Played by J.D. Walsh, Mackey is a student who is in Marcus and Mo's grade. He is fairly popular and is definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He tries to fit in at school by buying new clothes and speaking slang, but most of the time makes a fool of himself and ends with a comment stating "it's because I'm white huh? (Which is usually replied with nods by everyone who was listening). He has a dream about Yvette kissing him as she tells him about her dreams about Mo. He often wears flannel shirts. He actually ends up streaking in one episode (After TJ's plan of a revenge prank on the Seniors backfires).
- Mr. Militich - Played by James K. Ward, he is the vice-principal of the school. He is cheap when it comes to school necessities, and sometimes is presented as incompetent.
- Coach Gerber - Played by Dann Florek, he is the gym teacher at the school. He is bald and aging and went through a divorce (which includes paying 800 dollars to his wife monthly). He once taught math and gets angry easily. He sleeps in his office since he can no longer afford a home of his own. He once mentioned that he has prostate problems.
- Brandi Dixon - Played by Kyla Pratt, Brandi 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 to T.J. being upset with her when she begins starting and T.J. is benched. She wears "ghetto fabulous" clothing and depicts an exaggerated stereotype of youth. It is obvious that they have crushes on each other, but it is never focused on.
- Yasmin Jackson*
Yasmin has a crush on Marcus and then goes out with him. Henderson (whose full first and middle name was never revealed), played by Kirsten Grinage. The youngest child in her family, she is 15 years old in seasons 1 and 2. Outside of the occasional moments of awkwardness that are bound to occur when a girl interacts with high school males, Yasmin has a peaceable existence in the school, and is eager to be involved in school functions. So much so, that he becomes the mascot for her school basketball team, which leads to bullying. She spends a fair amount of time at school with Marcus and Mo. Yasmin plays drums for Marcus's band in several episodes after another member broke his finger from an accident.
Episodes
Reruns/syndication
Three months after Smart Guy was canceled 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 was recently removed from the Canada-based Family Channel and was replaced by Wizards of Waverly Place though it is still on Disney Channel in the United Kingdom, but not on a recurring basis in the UK. In late 2006, the show started airing on Disney Channel in Australia and New Zealand.
The series began airing on BET on September 6, 2008-June 6, 2009 and again since July 2009, but episodes airing on BET omit the Walt Disney Television production tag at the end of most episodes.
Production notes
Tahj Mowry and Omar Gooding are the only cast members not to appear in every episode. Tahj Mowry did not appear in the Season 3 episode "Get a Job" and Omar Gooding did not appear in "A Little Knowledge".
The establishing shot of the fictional Piedmont High School later appeared on another DC-based Disney show, the Disney Channel Original Series Cory in the House.
Theme songs
The theme song for the first and second seasons was performed by Kristian Rex. The theme song for the third and last season was performed by Hami and featured cast member Omar Gooding.
Awards and nominations
| Year | Nomination |
|---|---|
| 1998 | Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Comedy TV Series - Tahj Mowry (nominated) |
| Year | Nomination |
|---|---|
| 1998 | Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series - Leading Young Performer - Tahj Mowry (nominated) |
| 1999 | Best Performance in a TV Comedy Series - Leading Young Performer - Tahj Mowry (nominated) |
| Year | Nomination |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress - Tahj Mowry (nominated) |
| 2000 | Outstanding Youth Actor/Actress - Tahj Mowry (nominated) |
American Cinema Foundation, USA
| Year | Nomination |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Television Series - Comedy (nominated) |
References
External links
- Articles lacking sources from April 2008
- 1997 television series debuts
- 1999 television series endings
- 1990s American television series
- American children's comedy series
- High school television series
- Black sitcoms
- Disney Channel shows
- Family Channel shows
- Television series by Buena Vista Television
- Television shows set in Washington, D.C.
- WB network shows