List of Smart Guy Episodes - Season 1: 1997

T.J. Henderson goes from being a fourth grade elementary student to a high-school sophomore at ten years old, much to the dismay of his brother, Marcus, who is in the same grade. T.J. ends up getting sent to the guidance counselor's office, twice in the same week: first for laughing at the word "breasts" in class, and then defending Marcus when he gets into a fight with his best friend Mo over a girl they both like. Things get worse for Marcus when T.J. becomes the school's penguin mascot, and the eventually tells T.J. in anger that he wishes that T.J. would disappear from his life. Later, T.J. hides out under the bleachers during his first basketball game as the mascot after hearing Marcus' outburst. Marcus and their father Floyd manage to get T.J. on the court after Floyd lets T.J. know that he is not the only one who is the "odd man out" in life, and Marcus apologizes for the things he said to T.J. T.J. helps orchestrate a play that leads Piedmont High to win the basketball game.

Guest Starring: Oliver Muirhead as Mr. Taylor, Venus DeMilo Thomas as Mariah, Michael J. Cutt as Coach
Co-starring: Joseph Ashton as Eldin, Phil Buckman as Barry, Jill Jaress as Receptionist, Jennifer Lyons as Celia, Kimberly S. Newberry as Mrs. Neiter

T.J. finds himself being ostracized after he tattles on Mo for smoking in the bathroom, going against "The Code", a rule in which friends are not supposed to rat another friend out if they do something wrong. T.J. ends up getting Mo suspended from the basketball team for two weeks, and he cannot play in a game against rivals Truman High. After the basketball team's mural gets defaced by the Truman High basketball players (making them look like women), T.J. comes up with a plan in which he, Marcus, Mo and their friend Lester sneak into the school so T.J. can change the grades of the players to make sure they don't qualify to play in the game. After successfully carrying out the plan -- despite Mo not getting enough rope to lower T.J. to the floor of the Truman High computer room, Principal Dowling finds out that a note from Mo's stationery -- signed with his name on it -- was left in the Truman High computer room, and rather than risk getting kicked off the basketball team, they choose to rat out T.J. as being the third member in the plan. In the end, T.J. learns that it is better to do the right thing when he sees someone doing something wrong.

Guest Starring: Marsha Warfield as Principal Dowling, Cirroc Lofton as Lester, Omar Gooding as Mo

Marcus unwittingly asks twin transfer students named Rochelle and Roxanne out on a date, not knowing until asking Roxanne (thinking she's Rochelle) what they are going to do on their date that they are twins. With the help of T.J., he creates a suave, worldly and sensitive twin of his own, named Marquise, and goes out on dates with Rochelle and Roxanne at the same coffee shop on the same night. But the plan eventually hits a snag when both twins fall for Marquise, and he reveals his real identity, leaving Marcus with neither twin. Meanwhile, Principal Dowling enlists T.J. to look for a new computer system for Piedmont High, and he ends up getting wooed by two companies, who offer him cool presents in order to sway his opinion. However, T.J. gets carried away letting the companies shower him with cool gifts, and forgets to do the task at hand. After Principal Dowling comes to the Henderson household to talk to T.J. about his final decision on the computer system, he informs her that neither of the two computer companies that lavished him with gifts had the best computer; he also reveals that the company that had the best computer system out of the ones he scouted had only gave him a keychain as a gift -- with a key on it that belongs to a Jaguar.

Guest Starring: Tia Mowry as Rochelle, Tamera Mowry as Roxanne, Marsha Warfield as Principal Dowling
Co-starring: Kenya Moore as Vivian Kennedy, Jack Tate as Hank, Granville Ames as Gary
Title Reference: Fellow ABC/WB sitcom Sister, Sister

When the keyboard player in Marcus' band Mackadocious breaks his finger and gets sidelined, T.J. steps in to save the day, but Marcus is not willing to let T.J. play during their big gig at the school's "Battle of the Bands" competition. T.J. shows his talent for tickling the ivories at the competition, interrupting Marcus' performance and making him jealous. Frustrated with T.J. getting the limelight instead of him, Marcus decides to fire T.J. as keyboard player. But when a budding music producer scouts Mackadocious to be one of his clients, Marcus changes his mind -- only for T.J. to refuse his invitation back into the band. After the two are caught fighting by Floyd and he finds out about Marcus firing his little brother, Marcus admits that he was jealous that T.J. was good at everything, even music and T.J. admits he wishes he could sing as good as Marcus does. T.J. also admits that he offered to show the record producer some tax loopholes in exchange for getting him to get Mackadocious phony gigs where they would play for nobody as revenge for getting kicked out of the band. Meanwhile, Yvette is utterly shocked and disgusted when her friend Lydia admits to having a crush on Floyd. But when Yvette tries to get Floyd to talk reason to Lydia about her crush on him, they find out that Lydia has a new crush on someone her own age.

Guest Starring: Gabrielle Union as Lydia, Christopher "Kid" Reid as Ernie Tracy
Co-starring: Sean Parhm as Keyboard Player, Justin Urich as Goose, Terrence Paul Winter as Ace, Ken Lawson as Tiko, Jeanine Michele as Pianist, Christina Milian as Kiki, Amarillis as Natasha
Title Reference: That Thing You Do!
Notes: This is the first time Marcus' band Mackadocious is shown in the series; however, the only permanent members of the group when the band is seen in later episodes turn out to be T.J., Marcus and Mo (a drummer named Goose is seen in this episode, but not in season two's "Big Picture" (in season three's "Achy Breaky Heart", he is forced to quit by his mother due to failing grades and is replaced by a female drummer named Stacy) and a different keyboard player (the one whose finger gets broken) is seen in this episode's teaser scene). Essence Atkins and Gabrielle Union would later co-star together in the 2003 film Deliver Us from Eva. Guest star Christina Milian is credited as Christine Flores. In Disney Channel airings, the first commercial break appears after the scene where T.J. asks Marcus why he isn't given a cue to play the keyboard during rehearsal (instead of after the opening credits), and the second is played after the scene where Marcus throws T.J. out the band (instead of after the scene at the "Battle of the Bands", where T.J. performs a keyboard solo).

When T.J. and Mo are paired for a science project to observe animal behavior, T.J. decides to observe and alter the romantic lives of Marcus and Yvette. He decides to teach Yvette to train her boyfriend Tyler -- by using a dog training manual, and get Marcus' crush Alina to notice him by getting him to wear a red sweater. But the plan goes awry when Tyler starts to literally begin acting like a dog and Marcus has to face Alina's big ex-boyfriend Warren, who threatens to beat him up. T.J. tries to remedy Marcus' problem by getting Mo to act like a tough guy to scare him out of fighting Marcus, claiming that he is dating Alina. That plan goes awry as well, when Warren tells Marcus that Alina is Mo's woman, and he gets angry, not realizing the plan at hand and almost starts a fight between him, Mo, T.J. and Warren in the school hallway when Warren finds out that Mo isn't so much of the tough guy he talked himself up to be. T.J. learns that he shouldn't interfere with people's love lives, though he tries to trick Floyd out of punishing him by making a sob story -- which backfires when Floyd overhears that T.J. tricked him. T.J. gets punished, and has to do the dishes that Marcus had to do that night.

Guest Starring: Wesley Jonathan as Tyler, Natashia Williams/Natasha Williams as Alina, Sam Monroe as Warren

T.J. realizes that the family is having some money troubles after Floyd has to buy bulk foods, and denies Marcus a motorcycle and Yvette a winter coat because the family doesn't have enough money, so he decides to audition for a "Junior Edition" of the game show "Knowledge College". Marcus announces to everyone in school that T.J. is going on the show, and even buys the motorcycle he wants from a student in advance, knowing that T.J. will win the money needed. But he gets more than he bargained for when T.J. stays up all night studying, hopped up on chocolate and coffee, and crashes and burns during the show. Floyd tells T.J. that he shouldn't worry about the family's finances, and that they are doing fine. When Floyd decides to take a tired T.J. off the show, Marcus has to play the rest of the game in T.J.'s place, which doesn't turn out well. He then is forced to take a job as a janitor at the chicken restaurant that Nina is working at to pay back the money for the motorcycle.

Guest Starring: John O'Hurley as Hugh Sterling, Ashley Tisdale as Amy, Kristopher Kachurak as Travis
Co-starring: Noreen Reardon as Amy's Mom, Brian Kaiser as Travis' Dad, Natasha Pierce as Kimmy, Martin Maurice Davis as Craig
Absent: Omar Gooding as Morris Tibbs

As the school prom looms, Floyd, Marcus and Yvette wish to ensure that T.J. has a date, even though T.J. claims that he does not want to go -- and they set him up with a girl his own age. However, this causes them to unknowingly set T.J. up with three different girls to take without conferencing one another. T.J., afraid he'll disappoint his family if he tells either one of them that he can't accept their offers for the dates they set him up with, decides to go with Marcus' plan (orchestrated by Mo) to take all three dates without them meeting each other. But the plan backfires as T.J.'s three prom dates all meet each other in the kitchen, leaving T.J. to learn a lesson that he shouldn't have to say "yes" to something just to please his family. In the end, T.J. decides to take all three dates to the dance -- with Mo coordinating the time T.J. has to dance with them.

Guest Starring: Kyla Pratt as Lillie Simms, Richard Gant as Rev. Simms, Bianca Lawson as Shirley, Lauren Robinson as Andrea, Omar Gooding as Mo
Co-starring: Venus DeMilo Thomas as Mariah, Naya Rivera as Tonya/Tanya, Christine Miller as Tina