The big trend from studios lately is an effort to try and revive the 1990s, as many sitcoms from that era have been resurrected for modern audiences. Disney is looking to reboot a not-so-classic series that was middling at best, to cash in on the trend and create more content for its Disney+ streaming service.
That series in question is Smart Guy, which starred Tahj Mowry as T.J. Henderson, a quirky, 10-year-old genius who jumped grades from elementary school to high school and continued to upstage the rest of his family with his remarkable intellect. In other words, it was a slightly less annoying version of Young Sheldon. Slightly.
Although it was a Disney series, the show ran on the Warner Bros. network from 1997 to 1999 and also starred John Marshall Jones, Jason Weaver, Essence Atkins, and Omar Gooding. Smart Guy enjoyed reasonable success at the time but wasn’t able to maintain the formula that made it work for its brief three-year run. Now Disney wants to bring it back and with the original cast involved in some fashion, as Mowry revealed to ET:
There’s been lots of Zoom meetings and talks about this, so we do have the ball rolling on it. It’s just a matter of time and timing, but we do have a possible home for it. We do have a writer, and I feel like I came up with a really fresh take on how we can bring that back with the whole cast and something that is fresh and new. But also, something that the diehard fans will still get that nostalgic aspect of it as well.
I can’t imagine too many die-hard fans for this show exist but given the success of Young Sheldon and Big Bang Theory, it might find better traction this time around with a young audience that thinks that they know everything. Though it will be interesting to see what the producers do with this show for now and if it will try and repeat the formula of a younger kid with exceptional intelligence or simply focus on Mowry’s character as an adult trying to navigate normal adult life with his vast intellect. Nothing makes you feel less intelligent than having to pull off mundane day-to-day chores.
Last Updated: June 3, 2021
