SMART GUY

'''Smart Guy''' was an American sitcom that aired on The WB for three seasons from 1997 to 1999. 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.
In creator Danny Kallis' style, this show is always comical as it tends to avoid having real serious discussions. Notable examples including Mo's personality, T.J.'s questionable intelligence and open-ended elements would sometimes serve as a running gag, though the series does not have any true running gags.

Contents

Characters

Main characters

Recurring characters

Episodes

Confusion

Reruns/syndication

Trivia

Error

External links

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, all of which are never truly explained. 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 after the other member broke his finger from an accident, and never plays for it again. Although the show lasted three seasons, it was never explained as to what his name stood for.
'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. 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.
'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 out of 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 also has interest in beatboxing, which was humorously played in his mind. He is portrayed in the show as someone who is sometimes dimwitted and gullible, he also have the famous word "HELLO DEAR!" 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 (this was only shown in one episode though). 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 continuing to live at home after season 3 while attending Georgetown University.
'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.

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 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.

★ '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 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 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 articles: List of Smart Guy episodes

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 there is one guest appearance of twin sisters (Tia and Tamera Mowry of ''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 real life 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 despite the noticeable fact that the two shows are set in Washington, D.C. and Detroit, respectively.

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 2, episode 10. The old members such as Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland, Latavia and Letoya Luckett.

★ Kyla Pratt guest starred on a few episodes.

★ In one episode various computer game names such as Tomb Raider are viewable on TJ's computer screen

★ Jason Weaver did 3 of his songs band (mackadocious) in season 1,2 and 3

★ in the episode (''chy Breaky Heart'', Shakira did not say one word and she was the girlfrind of Mo's throughout the whole episode.

★ Mowry make a comical performance on tap dancing with ''Dulé Hill'' in Season 2, though the tapping noises are added through post-production.

Error

★ There is an Episode when T.J make a rebellion for dog burger then he and the Student's of the School Locked there self's up in the office, the Error is that deons mom yells at him from the outside but when the camera go's to the outside there just (Floyd) and it was in the same second. That is not a error deons mom was yelling from outside of the school.

★ 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 there is no type of connection.

★ in the episode 9 from season 2 the boy Yvette (Essence Atkins) wanted to date was Garret but in episode 16 His name is Antony and he doesn't even know Yvette

External links

★ Web-site at Disney Channel
smart guy from the IMDB