Smart Guy
| Smart Guy | |
|---|---|
The series main cast (clockwise); Floyd (John Marshall Jones), Marcus (Jason Weaver) and Mo (Omar Gooding), T.J. (Tahj Mowry) and Yvette (Essence Atkins)
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| Created by | Danny Kallis |
| Starring |
Tahj Mowry John Marshall Jones Jason Weaver Omar Gooding Essence Atkins Anne-Marie Johnson (pilot only) |
| 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(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 51 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Bob Young Danny Kallis Suzanne de Passe Suzanne Coston |
| Camera setup | Videotape; Multi-camera |
| Running time | approx. 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
de Passe Entertainment Danny Kallis Productions Walt Disney Television |
| Distributor | Buena Vista Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | The WB |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original release | April 2, 1997 – May 16, 1999 |
Smart Guy is an American sitcom centering on the exploits of child genius T.J. Henderson (Tahj Mowry), who moves from being an elementary school student in the fourth grade to a high school student in the tenth grade, attending the same school as his two elder siblings Yvette and Marcus. Created by Danny Kallis, the series ran for three seasons on The WB from April 2, 1997 to May 16, 1999. The series was produced by de Passe Entertainment and Danny Kallis Productions, in association with Walt Disney Television.
Set in Washington, D.C., the show centers on the misadventures of boy genius and youngest child T.J. Henderson (Tahj Mowry), who at the age of 10 moves from elementary school and gets transferred to Piedmont High School, where he ends up becoming a high school sophomore with teenagers as his classmates. He must adjust to the life with older, but not necessarily wiser, high school teenagers – including his brother Marcus (Jason Weaver) and Marcus's best friend Mo (Omar Gooding). Episodes typically deal with T.J.'s missteps of trying to fit in as a kid genius, while being a small kid in high school, as well as the contrast between his smarts and his brother's underachieving nature.
Older brother Marcus Henderson, the suave and underachieving middle child, also deals with teenage problems, such as finding a date and doing homework (though he sometimes tries to get T.J. to do his homework for him). Their father Floyd Henderson (John Marshall Jones), a widowed single father who owns his own roofing business, deals with 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), usually is the level-headed member of the family – similar to Floyd in that respect – and is the typical overachieving student.
Played by Tahj Mowry, the character of T.J. Henderson (whose full first and middle name were never revealed) is the youngest child in his family, portrayed as 10 to 11 years old in seasons 1 and 2, and 12 in season 3. As the show's title suggests, T.J. exhibits exceptional intelligence with an IQ of 180, knows several different languages and has a photographic memory. He skips six grades from fourth to tenth grade due to his intelligence, after his teachers at his previous school discovered that T.J. was not feeling challenged enough by a fourth grade curriculum. 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 ("Pugnacious Pete, the Powerful Piedmont Penguin"), which leads to occasional bullying.
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