As we millennials keep growing, so does our nostalgia. This year alone has brought us an iCarly revival, Friends reunion, and reboot of Gossip Girl, and that’s not all. There are so many revivals and reboots on the way, including hit 90s sitcoms The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Smart Guy. While the Smart Guy reboot is in its very early stages, star Tahj Mowry has revealed some of the details.
Smart Guy originally aired in 1997 and followed 10-year-old genius TJ Henderson (played by Tahj Mowry) as he tries to live a normal life while navigating high school and experiencing premature growing pains. This was one of my favorite sitcoms growing up, and I was thrilled to hear that it’s being rebooted. I sat down with Tahj Mowry for an interview with CinemaBlend, and here’s what he shared about the reboot:
We're in the very early stages, so there's no release date or anything like that, but, you know, reboots take a little longer to get the ball rolling for licensing and rights and all that. But we have gotten the ball rolling, we have the possible home that it will live on, and I'm excited to sort of give the OG fans that nostalgic feeling, but in a new time. It's sort of a continuation type thing where we'll get to see TJ and his family, where they are now, but also leaving room for the new generation to enjoy something new that the OG fans already enjoyed. So it's kind of bringing both of those worlds together to create a new Smart Guy.
Okay, okay, let’s break this down, starting with the new Smart Guy’s potential home. Nothing has been set in stone at the time of this writing, so the best we can do is speculate, but it has to be Disney+, right?! The original Smart Guy first aired on the WB, but was distributed by Disney Channel as Walt Disney Channel was one of its production companies. Being a family show makes Disney+ the perfect home, and Disney already knocked it out of the park with Raven’s Home, the reboot of Disney Channel’s early 2000s sitcom That’s So Raven.
Tahj Mowry mentioned wanting to give the OG fans the nostalgic feeling in a new time, noting we will get to see TJ and his family. We can infer that this means that similar to Raven’s Home, the Smart Guy reboot will feature the original characters we know and love all grown up, and also introduce new characters. We’ll get to see how adult TJ turned out, and maybe he’ll even have his own kid genius! What do you think? Let me know in the poll below.
In my conversation with Mowry, he mentioned that the Smart Guy cast has kept in touch over the years and they are like family, so I’m hopeful we’ll see all the original characters back in the reboot. While you wait, you can stream all three seasons of Smart Guy right now on Disney+. Looking for more? Try these great family-friendly shows streaming on Paramount+.
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