Smart Guy

Smart Guy
File:Smart Guy.jpg The Cast Of Smart Guy
Created by	Danny Kallis
Starring	Tahj Mowry John Marshall Jones Jason Weaver Omar Gooding Essence Atkins
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	51 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Bob Young Danny Kallis Suzanne de Passe Suzanne Coston
Running time	22 minutes
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 1997 to 1999. The show is about the misadventures of an adolescent student who skips from elementary school and moves up to high school, though more trouble occurs when T.J. learns about the life of a teenager.

Characters

Main characters

T.J. Henderson

T.J., 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 180. He skipped from 4th grade to 10th, knows several different languages and has a photographic memory. Outside of the occasional moments of awkwardness that are 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. So much so, that he becomes the mascot for his school basketball team, which leads to bullying. He spends a fair amount of time at school with his older brother, Marcus, and Mo, Marcus's best friend. Although they have some tense moments, it is obvious that the two brothers care for each other deeply. T.J. plays keyboard for Marcus's band in several episodes after the other member broke his finger from an accident.

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 and is probably of 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.

Morris L. "Mo" Tibbs

The character of Mo Tibbs was 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 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. He is portrayed in the show as someone who is sometimes dimwitted and gullible. He also says the famous phrase, "Hello der!" (said "hello dare"), and he is lovable at the same time.

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 woman's rights activist. She has a fake I.D. that says she's 28. She is in 10th grade in season 1 and graduates high school at the end of season 3. Having been rejected from Princeton, Yvette is depicted as going to attend Georgetown University after the series ended.

Floyd Henderson

The character of Floyd Henderson, played by John Marshall Jones, is the patriarch of the family and owns a roofing business. Unfortunely, his wife Christina (as mentioned in an episode) died by 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 characters

• Nina Walsh - Played by Tinsley Grimes, Nina is one of Yvette's friends and is seen with her most of the time. She is a White American and 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 short African-American 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 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. 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.
• 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 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.
• 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 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 African American youth.

Episodes

• Main article: List of Smart Guy episodes

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 and on Disney Channel in the United Kingdom, but not on a recurring basis. In late 2006, the show started airing on Disney Channel in Australia and New Zealand.

Trivia

• John Marshall Jones, Essence Atkins, and Jason Weaver are the only cast members to appear in every episode. Tahj Mowry did not appear in the episode "Get a Job" from Season 3. Omar Gooding appeared in all except one episode.
• Ashley Tisdale, who would later star in the Disney Channel series The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and the Disney Channel original movie High School Musical appeared in an episode when she was only 12 years old.
• Destiny's Child, appear in season 3 episode 10. Those were the original members, Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland, Latavia and Letoya Luckett.
• Jason Weaver did 3 of his songs in his band, Mackadocious, in seasons 1, 2, and 3.
• Mowry makes a comical performance on tap dancing with Dulé Hill in Season 2, though the tapping noises are added through post-production. Mowry is a a tap dancer in real life.
• A laugh track was added in order to keep the actor's facial expressions intact.

Error

• There is an episode when T.J makes a rebellion for Dawg Burger. When he and the other students of the school lock themselves in the office, the error is when Deion's mom yells at him from the outside, but when the camera goes to the outside there's just Floyd, and it was in the same second. The question is "Where is Deion's mom?"

• In the Season 2 Episode 2, "Working Guy", in the main office you can see the camera that makes the connection, but in T.J's house it isn't there.