List of Mr. Box Office episodes
Mr. Box Office is an American syndicated sitcom that premiered on September 22, 2012. The series centers on Marcus Jackson (Bill Bellamy), a well-known movie actor who ends up in legal trouble due to a physical altercation with a paparazzo, leading to his sentence to teach a class of inner-city high school students in Los Angeles' infamous South Central neighborhood. The following is a list of episodes of the program, shown in order of its broadcast airdate.
Series overview
Season | Episodes | Originally aired (U.S. dates) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Season premiere | Season finale | |||
1 | 26 | September 23, 2012 | August 17, 2013 | |
2 | TBA | November 22, 2013 | TBA | |
Episode list
Season 1 (2012/13)
No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Pilot" | Shelley Jensen | Byron Allen & Scott Satin | September 22, 2012 |
Film superstar Marcus Jackson (Bill Bellamy) is sentenced to perform community service after punching a photographer. As he has a teaching license, Marcus is ordered to teach a class of inner-city teenagers in a South Central Los Angeles high school. After realizing that the kids there need all the help they can get to make it to graduation, Marcus eventually warms up to having to help them learn, and promises his class that he will pay for each of the kids' college tuitions if their grades improve. | |||||
2 | 2 | "Somebody's Watching Me" | Robert Countryman | Anthony Hill | September 22, 2012 |
Bobby offers Marcus the opportunity to do a reality show, though Marcus is initially against the idea. His colleagues at the school, however, convince Marcus that doing the show might be a good idea, in order to put a positive light on the teachers and students at South Central High. When the show's producer informs Bobby that Marcus needs to be a willing participant or the plug will be pulled on the show, Bobby takes things too far and the cameras start to invade Marcus' privacy against his wishes, leading Marcus to fire Bobby as his agent. Meanwhile, Tony becomes disgruntled when Jamal constantly eats his food. | |||||
3 | 3 | "Money, Money, Money" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | September 29, 2012 |
Marcus is informed that his accountants are being investigated for money laundering, his monetary assets are being seized and is accused of being knowingly involved in the scheme. Little does he know that the situation is all a ploy set up by Bobby in order to convince Marcus to appear in a feature film (in which the lead character is an outer space detective) with a $20 million paycheck attached. Meanwhile, Jamal and Tony get odd jobs in order to make some money, and end up making major cash operating a mexican soul food stand and selling toilet paper for $20 a roll to anyone who has a bad reaction from the food. | |||||
4 | 4 | "Histor-Vention" | Ted Lange | Brian Keith Etheridge | September 29, 2012 |
Marcus and Jamal discover that Tony failed his final history exam in high school and never graduated, so Marcus convinces Principal Martin to let him retake the test. Marcus recruits Jamal, Samantha and Freddy conduct a "histor-vention" to help Tony prepare, so he can finally get his high school diploma. When that fails, Marcus eventually comes up with the idea to use rap as a mnemonic device so Tony can remember the answers. Meanwhile, Bobby concocts another scheme to get Marcus to star in a movie by paying the South Central High students money to pass off movie scripts as their book reports. | |||||
5 | 5 | "Super Fan" | Ted Lange | Michele Marburger & Kevin Marburger | October 20, 2012 |
Marcus is on edge, concerned that his old stalker Debbie has suddenly reappeared when he discovers cupcakes made by the woman that have been left at the school and his house. When a new substitute teacher named Robyn is hired at the school, Marcus remembers her as the stalker in question, using an assumed name. Robyn denies that she is stalking Marcus, but he doesn't believe her – and ultimately gets Robyn fired. After Marcus invites her to his house to make amends, Robyn admits that she really is his stalker Debbie, but eventually ends up making a surprising love connection with one of Marcus' co-workers. Meanwhile, Tony and Jamal come up with another get-rich-quick scheme when they decide to sell items from Bobby's storage facility and discover a painting of Dogs Playing Poker that they sold to Principal Martin has another painting by what they believe is from Pablo Picasso underneath it. | |||||
6 | 6 | "Cyra-No You Didn't" | Ted Lange | Walter Allen Bennett Jr. | October 27, 2012 |
Ever since Marcus began working at South Central High, he has tried to deflect Cassandra's constant amorous advances; when he goes to Principal Martin to inform him of this, he tells Marcus that he cannot help him. When Bobby intervenes, he inimitably ends up wrangling a dinner date between Cassandra and Marcus instead of asking her to back off, but it is all part of a plan of Bobby's to help Marcus repulse Cassandra enough for her to lose interest in him. Meanwhile, Tony and Jamal decide to get their own taste of fame by starting their own online cooking show. | |||||
7 | 7 | "Man Up" | Ted Lange | Maiya Williams | November 3, 2012 |
News spreads among Marcus' friends, colleagues and students that he is in a relationship with famed supermodel Johari Jones. While they agree to keep things non-committal, Johari starts to move things in too fast a direction when she moves her plant into the house the morning after a lavish party she threw at Marcus' house, convincing Tony and Jamal that she plans to move in. Johari then takes her parents to visit Marcus, and even reveals to him that she wants him to be her future husband, leaving Marcus to have to break the news to her that he's not ready for a committed relationship. Meanwhile, Milton's attractive new girlfriend Rhonda has him catering to her every whim, and his friends try to convince him that she is just using him. | |||||
8 | 8 | "The Uniformed Strike" | Ted Lange | Anthony Hill | November 10, 2012 |
Principal Martin announces that South Central High will institute a school uniform policy the following month, much to the dismay of the students. So Marcus' class decides to stage a sit-in until the policy is lifted, after learning about the sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement from Marcus in class. The kids wrangle Marcus to help try to convince Principal Martin to change his mind, ultimately coming up with a dress code that allows the students to wear their own clothes but still look proper. But when Martin declines that, they go the route of showcasing some embarrassing photos of his past style missteps to convince him otherwise. Meanwhile, Tony tries to impress his new girlfriend by inviting her to meet Marcus, but when their famous friend is held up at school due to the sit-in, Jamal decides to pose as Marcus in his place. | |||||
9 | 9 | "Marcus Drops a Bomb" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | November 17, 2012 |
A film Marcus directed, wrote and starred in called The Ski Bum is finally being released after several years on the shelf. Marcus decides to hold a premiere screening of the film at South Central High. Unfortunately for him, the film turns out to be terrible thanks to Marcus' overacting, leaving him depressed when it gets bad reviews and ridicule from his friends, colleagues and students. Meanwhile, Milton fails a test after Samantha tells him that his high grades might inspire the other students to do better, causing him to drop out of school, leaving it up to Marcus to talk Milton into coming back. Guest star: Jimmie Walker | |||||
10 | 10 | "Who's Your Daddy?" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | January 26, 2013 |
At South Central High's "Back to School Night", Marcus reunites with Christina Bryant, a former flame whom he dated 15 years earlier (before he changed his name from Herman to Marcus), who just happens to be Milton's now-divorced mother. This revelation leads to Milton's assumption (and Marcus' chagrin) that Marcus may be the biological father of his nerdy 15-year-old pupil. Bobby arranges a paternity test to confirm whether Marcus is Milton's father. Meanwhile, Tony gets audited by the IRS, thanks to a suspect tax return that Jamal filed for him. | |||||
11 | 11 | "That's the Ticket" | Ted Lange | Brian Keith Etheridge | February 9, 2013 |
The faculty of South Central High participates in a lottery pool for the upcoming drawing, and the gang gets $3 million richer when one of the purchased tickets wins. As some of the staff starts spending money on lavish items and lets their newfound wealth change them, Marcus forgets where he hid the ticket upon trying to cash it. Meanwhile, Bobby believes that he has bad luck; when Tony and Jamal try to cure him of his apparent misfortune, Bobby stumbles upon the missing lottery ticket hidden inside a cereal box in the kitchen. When everyone finally gets their checks, they discover that they are getting only $26 in annuity payments for the next 30 years, since they did not choose to take the lump sum payment. | |||||
12 | 12 | "The Golden Apple Awards" | Ted Lange | Michele Marburger & Kevin Marburger | February 16, 2013 |
The time comes for the Golden Apple Awards, an accolade for South Central High's best teacher, and all the teachers are vying for the award. Marcus believes he can win, Samantha puts out a plan to sway the student voting. This leads Bobby to hatch a plan to derail Samantha's chances of winning and increase Marcus' chances, by taping a video of Samantha (claiming it is for a reality show about teachers) and re-editing her statements about the students to make her look bad. Marcus ultimately hears Samantha talking about why she wanted to win, leading to Marcus casting his vote for her, earning Samantha the Golden Apple. Meanwhile, Tony and Jamal are assigned to hire a new housekeeper, and settle for an attractive young woman named Isabella (Jocelyn Cruise), who is inexperienced when it comes to housekeeping. Note: Marla Gibbs guest-star as her character Florence Johnston from The Jeffersons in a cameo appearance as one of the women seeking to work as a housekeeper for Marcus. | |||||
13 | 13 | "The Honor Code" | Ted Lange | Maiya Williams | February 23, 2013 |
South Central High starts an "honor code" system (in which those accused of breaking the code have to face an "honor board" presided by Principal Martin as judge) after a string of cheating on tests among the students, which causes problems when the faculty throws one another under the bus in honor board for breaking the code. Principal Martin asks Marcus to serve as the proctor for the district standardized test, which leads Principal Martin to suspect that one of the students cheated after the scores for the entire class improve from the year before and the envelope holding the test answers goes missing. Meanwhile, Jamal and Tony each try to land a date with package delivery girl Kelly – leading them to buy nicknacks from a catalog in order for her come deliver them to the mansion – but both guys are in for a shock when they discover that she already has a husband. | |||||
14 | 14 | "Mr. Jackson Goes to Washington" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | March 30, 2013 |
In a crossover episode with The First Family, Marcus goes to Washington, D.C. to accept the "Pay It Forward" award from the President of the United States William Johnson and First Lady Katherine Johnson (Christopher B. Duncan and Kellita Smith) for his decision to put his film career on hold to teach the students of South Central High. Despite previous incidents they've caused during past vacations, Tony and Jamal convince Marcus to let them join him in Washington, D.C., and the two manage to sneak into the Oval Office to take a picture with President Johnson, without his – or the Secret Service's – knowledge. During his visit to the White House, Marcus mistakenly believes that Katherine is flirting with him. Meanwhile back in South Central Los Angeles, Cassandra substitutes Marcus' class where she tries to teach the students the importance of a college education. | |||||
15 | 15 | "No Pass, No Play" | Ted Lange | Anthony Hill | April 18, 2013 |
Carlos, the star player of South Central High's basketball team, fails an English test that is worth 30% of his grade. Coach Thompson asks Marcus to change his grade in order to let him play the next game – where a college recruiter (Omar Gooding) will be scouting Carlos, but Marcus instead arranges for Carlos to retake the test. Carlos gets benched from the next game after he fails the retest, leaving Marcus and Coach Thompson to convince Carlos to try harder in school, because of the uncertainty of his future career as a basketball player. Meanwhile, expert amateur chef Jamal helps Cassandra cook chicken cacciatore for her new (and recently divorced) boyfriend Marvin, a plan that gets derailed when Tony gives Bobby the finished dish. | |||||
16 | 16 | "My Favorite Martin" | Ted Lange | Walter Allen Bennett Jr. | April 25, 2013 |
South Central High is suffering from Principal Martin's penny-pinching, leading to Marcus and Principal Martin to make a bet to see if the other can be better at doing the other's job for one week. While making improvements at the school (including replacing the gym floor and arranging for a new computer lab), Marcus accidentally spends the school's entire annual budget, leaving Marcus to rectify the situation – especially when the new school superintendent (Carla Renata) gets wind of the budget mishap and Marcus gets Principal Martin fired after telling her about the bet. Meanwhile, Bobby arranges for Marcus to appear on The Crib, a show in which celebrities show off their homes; but a mouse ends up running loose within the mansion, when Jamal and Tony fail to catch it on their own, Samantha uses her own humane mouse-catching skills to help them before The Crib's camera crew comes. | |||||
17 | 17 | "Marcus Stands Up" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | May 4, 2013 |
South Central High is in need of money – $1 million – so Marcus comes up with the idea to have a fundraiser for the school. When Marcus' pleads to his celebrity friends to help with the event prove fruitless, Tony and Jamal convince him to perform a stand-up routine. The South Central faculty audition to perform at the fundariser with Marcus, though everyone else is far from talented. When his stand-up act starts bombing at the fundraiser, Marcus resorts to making insult jokes at his friends and colleagues, leading to scorn at the school and Jamal deciding to move out when he realizes that Marcus' jokes about being lazy have merit. Meanwhile, Carlos wants to ask Maria out on a date to the school dance, but Danielle and Camille misunderstand Carlos when he tells them that he wants to go to the dance with a "friend" (both not knowing that the friend is Maria); Maria asks Milton out when Carlos doesn't ask her to the dance; but Camille, Danielle and Milton help sort everything out when Carlos clarifies everything. | |||||
18 | 18 | "Weekday With Ernie" | Ted Lange | Kevin Marburger & Michele Marburger | May 11, 2013 |
Film producer Ernie Finkelstein (Dakin Matthews), who gave Marcus his big break, offers him a cameo in a new movie called Mute Rapper – much to the chagrin of Bobby, due to the fact that Ernie's films (all except for one) have been box office bombs. But Marcus finds out that when Ernie asked him to sign his contract for the film, that Ernie tricked him into starring in the film. Ernie reveals to Marcus that he has a heart condition, and later drops dead on Marcus' couch (only for Marcus, Bobby, Tony and Jamal to discover that he is a narcoleptic). Meanwhile, after Carlos takes his lunch in the hall, the roles end up reversed when Milton ends up turning into a bully himself. | |||||
19 | 19 | "Fifty Shades of Gray Hair" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | May 18, 2013 |
Marcus is shocked to find a gray hair, prompting fears he is getting old, the matter is made worse by the fact that a role he is being courted for in a new movie co-starring hot young actress Tatiana has him playing her father. Marcus decides to change his habits to turn back the hands of time by exercising more, changing his diet (as well as Tony and Jamal's), dressing younger and getting botox injections to fight off wrinkles – which end up leaving lumps on his face. After he reveals that he wants to get plastic surgery, Bobby, Tony and Jamal concoct a plan to make Marcus realize that it does not matter that he is getting older. Meanwhile, Maria, Camille and Danielle decide to attract the sympathy vote in order to compete for the title of homecoming queen against a wheelchair-bound student named Cindy (Bria Murphy). | |||||
20 | 20 | "Marcus Gets Kung Pow'ed" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | June 7, 2013 |
Bobby gets Marcus a $10 million deal to become spokesperson for Kung Pow energy punch (along with 5% ownership of the company), but problems arise when South Central High's students and faculty become hooked on the drink when it gets sold in one of the school's vending machines. This concerns Marcus enough that he tries to get out of his contract with Kung Pow, but the company's president Larry Kung (Randall Park) – who knew about the side effects of the punch and shredded the evidence – tries to hold Marcus to the contract. Marcus decides to create a new "commercial" for the drink, acknowledging Kung Pow's side effects, and forcing the company's president to take the drink off the market. Meanwhile, Tony goes on a genaeology website and discovers that his great-great-grandfather was a Belgian king. | |||||
21 | 21 | "A Star is Born" | Ted Lange | Anthony Hill | June 14, 2013 |
Bobby tries to convince Marcus to audition for a role in I Married a Mutant Space Hamster, but when he turns the offer down, Cassandra expresses interest in the role and Bobby gets her an audition on the basis that he can make anyone an actor. Cassandra lands a supporting role in the movie (in which she only has one line and is eventually killed off), and becomes famous after her audition is uploaded online. Feeling satisfied about how his life is going as a teacher, Marcus decides to quit acting. Samantha's 15 minutes of fame come to an end, when she blows an audition; Marcus then informs Bobby that he was acting when he said that he was quitting, and will still do that and teach. Meanwhile, Samantha gives the students an assignement to live without modern technology, but while the students learn how to cope without cell phones and tablet computers, Samantha has a bad experience when she is stuck without her cell phone when she gets a flat tire. | |||||
22 | 22 | "Single Momma Drama" | Ted Lange | Kevin Marburger & Michele Marburger | June 21, 2013 |
Marcus is surprised to find out that his new girlfriend Gabrielle (Natashia Williams) has a 9-year-old son; faced with having to compete for his mom's attention with a new man in her life, Trey (Tyree Brown) tries to make Marcus look bad in order for his mom to break up with him. But when Marcus and Trey hang out for a second time, and Marcus introduces Trey to Marcus' game room, the two start bonding. But Marcus' newfound bond with her son, causes him to ignore Gabrielle. Meanwhile, when Samantha makes a phone call to a veterinarian and receives the news that her cat is pregnant, Camille, Danielle and Maria mistakenly jump to the conclusion that their teacher is pregnant, leading a lot of confusion when her classmates and colleagues throw her a surprise party for Samantha's "pregnancy". | |||||
23 | 23 | "Holy Matriphony" | Ted Lange | Anthony Hill | June 28, 2013 |
Samantha's parents Helen and Vernon (Vernee Watson and Bennet Guillory) come to visit, expecting to meet her husband (which she does not have). In order to appease her parents (especially her mother), Samantha lies that Marcus is her new beau – which in turn, results in them both lying that Tony is their chef and Jamal is their driver. The web of lies gets tangled even further when Marcus finds out that Helen and Vernon are staying at his place for a month, and Samantha claims that she and Marcus are having marital problems. Meanwhile, Bobby offers Camille and Danielle the opportunity to become a member in a new girl group, but when Danielle is picked to join, leading to discord between the two friends when she breaks the news to Camille. | |||||
24 | 24 | "There Goes the Neighborhood" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | July 19, 2013 |
Marcus' rapper friend Big Whane (Faizon Love) rents a mansion next door to Marcus' place. But Big Wayne's all-night house parties create a nuisance for Marcus, leading him to run out his friend from the neighborhood by any means necessary, including trying to get the president of the Homeowners' Association to evict Big Whane – a plan that ends in Marcus, Tony and Jamal being given their 90-day notice when Big Whane doctors security camera footage to make Marcus look like the bad guy, leading Marcus to take matters into his own hands to get Big Whane out. Meanwhile, with his high school reunion coming up, Bobby asks for help to learn how to dance to impress his former flame, so Cassandra and Samantha both offer their services; he later discovers that his high school crush is now a woman of the cloth. Note: Rick Fox (Andrew Thompson) and Gary Busey (John Anderson) are no longer credited as series regulars. Jeffrey Garcia (Freddy Lopez) is upgraded to a series regular. | |||||
25 | 25 | "Screenplayed" | Ted Lange | Michele Marburger & Kevin Marburger | August 9, 2013 |
Principal Martin gives Marcus a script for a movie he wrote called Planet of the Grapes. When Marcus tells Martin the truth about how bad the script is, Principal Martin punishes him by assigning him to preside over Saturday detention; now in the doghouse, Marcus lies to Martin about what he "really" felt about the script, leading to problems when Martin decides to quit his job as South Central High principal and become a film writer. When Principal Martin finds out about the lie, Marcus concocts a plan to obtain Martin's letter of resignation before Superintendent Yearwood (Carla Renata) reads it. Meanwhile, Bobby makes a bet with Tony and Jamal as to who can lose the most weight in one week; however Bobby tries to sabotage Tony and Jamal by giving them smoothies intended to fatten them up. | |||||
26 | 26 | "Painfully Employed" | Jackée Harry | Anthony Hill | August 16, 2013 |
In order to pay for the damages to Marcus's leather jacket, Marcus arranges for Tony to become a security guard at South Central High. But the power of the job gets to Tony's head, ticketing students and faculty for various infractions, while constantly making passes at Cassandra to her disdain. Marcus is pushed to fire his friend, until Tony tells him that the job has finally given him a sense of direction. After Tony sends the students and faculty members to detention, Principal Martin forces Marcus to fire Tony once and for all. Meanwhile, Bobby tries to court reality star Jackie Summers (Raquel Lee) to become his newest client; when Jamal starts dating Jackie, he discovers that Jackie is controlling, Bobby convinces Jamal not to break up with her by offering a $10,000 bribe to stay together with Jackie until Bobby can sign her. |
Season 2 (2013/15)
No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
27 | 1 | "Major Justice" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | November 22, 2013 |
A self-styled, real-life 'superhero' saves Marcus' life. | |||||
28 | 2 | "Robin in the Hood" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | November 28, 2013 |
A thief steals students' lunches from their lockers every day. It turns out to be Samantha who was secretly taking food over to Carlos' house due to his family having financial troubles, but without his consent knowing he wouldn't accept charity due to being ashamed of his situation. | |||||
29 | 3 | "Samboozled" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | November 3, 2014 |
Marcus is pranked by famed prank show and vows to return the favor by targeting the shows boisterous host. | |||||
30 | 4 | "Funky Friday" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | November 10, 2014 |
Bobby hires a Marcus impersonator so the real Marcus can meet with an important studio executive, but the impersonator has some plans of his own he's about to put into action. | |||||
31 | 5 | "Dead Marcus Walking" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | November 17, 2014 |
Marcus receives a message from his doctor's office leading him to believe that he doesn't have long to live. | |||||
32 | 6 | "Save the Music" | Ted Lange | Josh Goldstein | January 30, 2015 |
Marcus decides to fight the school board's decision to shut down South Central High School's music program, even if his students aren't on his side. | |||||
33 | 7 | "A Matter of Principal" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | February 6, 2015 |
Marcus finds out that being the boss isn't always so easy when he lands the job as temporary Principal at South Central High School. | |||||
34 | 8 | "Night of the Living Students" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | February 13, 2015 |
On the annual recurrence of SCHS's tradition, "Dread Night," Marcus's students decide to sneak back into school and chase some ghosts, much to his concem. | |||||
35 | 9 | "There's No Place Like Homecoming" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | February 20, 2015 |
Everybody is shocked when Marcus and Samantha admit they are in love, fire Bobby and throw Jamal and Tony out of the mansion or do they. | |||||
36 | 10 | "Why Am I Not Surprised?" | Ted Lange | Scott Satin | April 23, 2015 |
Marcus becomes depressed when he discovers that none of his pals have planned him a surprise party for his birthday. |
References
- General references
- "Mr. Box Office episodes". TV Guide. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
- "Mr. Box Office: Episode Guide". MSN TV. Retrieved October 22, 2012.
- "Mr. Box Office Episode Guide". Zap2it. Retrieved October 22, 2012.