Coming from the land of “not very clever titles” is the WB show “Smart Guy” that I used to watch back when we first got cable on Disney. I remember my friend Brandon used to be really into it, but likely he doesn’t remember since that was in 4th grade and we’re 23. I remember though because my brain decided to remember my friend getting me into this show in 1999 rather than learning calculus. That is my point of reference on the world. I’m almost ashamed at how much television I have watched because most of these reviews are off the top of my head with little research needed. Luckily being an adult has cut back a little of my tube time. Let’s just say I’m useful in a game of Trivial Pursuit but nowhere near as useful as T.J. Henderson.
I also can't dance like that
or like this:
I have a feeling this show isn’t completely original, but I don’t know of one like it. We’ve got a little kid moving on up to high school because he’s so dang smart. Here is the trip up: he is transferred into the same class as his idiot older brother. Marcus is a slacker who plays in a band and thinks he’s great at basketball. Sadly he kind of sucks at both and most everything else. He gets very jealous of his brother but he keeps finding ways to believe that he’s somewhat worthwhile. I would just mooch of T.J. but that’s me. Good luck Marcus.
He looks smart to me.
The rest of the family is single Dad Floyd and Sister Yvette. Dad is a very caring man. He’s a working class and owns a roofing company. He tries very hard to coddle his three children but being a pretty combustible man makes that hard. It really strains him having three kids in high school, especially when one is a slacker, one is like 9 and the other is a crazy hippy.
Don't they look happy though?
Ah yes, Ms. Yvette. She is just the cat’s pajamas. She is a very strong willed and opinionated black woman. She’s kind of standard fair in that regard. She is the lone woman in this sea of testosterone, so I don’t blame her patience for running thin fairly often. She especially has a lot to deal with because Marcus’ best friend Mo is driving strong to the hoop at all times.
Like many shows, this ancillary character stole the show on many occasions. He’s one of the Gooding kids and former host of “Wild and Crazy Kids” on Nickelodeon. He then portrayed a steroid ridden, jerk of a man on the ESPN show “Playmakers.” The man is versatile, but I liked him most in this playing Mo Tibbs. He was even dumber than Marcus but he was a genuine and good person. Marcus just always seemed like a petulant little jerk. And Mo? He was just great.
“Smart Guy” tries to tackle race issues from time to time. Yvette’s friend Nina works in the mall and had to follow black people in case they stole. Eventually they ousted the boss and everyone learned a lesson. They also throw in a little black history which then causes T.J. to throw a sit in. He ends up being assuaged by his father. The main racial issue in this show is actually with one man:
You know him from every commercial on television
Yes Mackey is the continuation of having the white character in a “black” show act like a moron. It’s similar to the black guy in a “white” show being ghetto. Mackey somehow is on the basketball team and seems to get along with people, but they wouldn’t let him in the sit in because he was white. He also streaks at graduation to which the phrase “pretty fly for a white guy” is thrown around. I’m just pointing out the archetypes.
Don’t worry though because in the same show they managed to squeeze in the stereotypical shady black fella with Deion. He dresses like he’s in a MC Hammer video and in constantly trying to scheme and take money from people. He’s fairly harmless, but I’d like to think if this show is on FX that Deion would kill Mackey and sell T.J.
The little man agrees
Lastly I’d like to talk about my favorite character on the show; one Coach Gerber. He was likely an undercover cop with the NYPD because he was a police captain until 1993 then took that position again in 1999. For some reason he must have been stationed in Washington D.C. on special assignment. I’d like to think he was trying to steal T.J. away to do government work. Clearly he was simply pretending to be a crotchety old man who was forced to coach high school basketball. His wife divorced him and he lived in his office? Sounds like a cover to me. T.J. is probably handcuffed to a computer in New York and is assisting in catching bad guys. That would be an interesting follow up TV movie. Or maybe we can just put them on “Maury”?
