McGee and Me!


McGee and Me! is an American Christian television series created by Ken C. Johnson and Bill Myers. The series premiered on June 4, 1989, spanning twelve episodes and one special until its conclusion on June 11, 1995. Each half-hour-long episode centers on Nick, his cartoon friend, McGee, and the moral lessons they learn as Nick grows up after moving to a new town. McGee and Me! deals with issues such as honesty, bullying, and faith in God.

Premise

McGee and Me! stars Nicholas "Nick" Martin, an 11-year-old aspiring artist and cartoonist who lives with his family in the town of Eastfield, Indiana. His father, David, is a newspaper journalist while his mother, Elizabeth, works at a counseling center. Nick, his parents, his older sister Sarah, and their younger sister Jamie, all first move to Eastfield in the first episode, moving into their grandmother's house to live with her. Nick often spends his time drawing and conversing with his imaginary friend, an animated cartoon character named McGee, who has wacky adventures of his own and serves as Nick's constant companion and confidant. Nick's life is constantly challenged by worldly trials and tribulations that put his morals and convictions to the test, with Nick learning valuable lessons along the way and, at times, facing the consequences of his actions.
His friends include Louis Armstrong, a streetwise kid and Nick's best friend, Renee Johnson, a pretty girl and a good student who hangs out with Nick and Louis, Phillip Monroe, a young "nerdy" boy in Nick's class who's very smart and sometimes picked on by older kids, and, in the last two episodes, Jordan Michaels, an athletic football-playing student who's also into computer graphics. In the first nine episodes, Nick's main adversary is Derrick Cryder, a bully who constantly picks on Nick, Phillip, and other kids, but by the end of the Christmas episode, he reforms when he saves Nick from a gang member after Nick shows him kindness. Derrick later serves as a voice of reason for Nick in Episode 12 after Nick strains his friendship with his other friends.
The first nine episodes feature Nick in waning years of elementary school, while the final three episodes, titled The New Adventures of McGee and Me!, see Nick enter junior high school. The actors at the time were much older than their characters' ages, giving Nick the appearance of a high schooler instead, due to the final three episodes having been produced a couple of years after the first nine.

Cast

Martin family

  • Joseph Dammann as Nicholas "Nick" Martin: The series' protagonist. A kid cartoonist who regularly faces moral decisions in everyday life.
  • Ken C. Johnson as voice of McGee: Nick's goofy cartoon creation, conscience, and imaginary friend. Though he often provides Nick with good advice, he also sometimes gets Nick into trouble. McGee is also the star of the series' animated segments, some of which represent glimpses of Nick's imagination. Ken C. Johnson also voices all other animated characters in the series.
  • Terry Bozeman as David Martin: Nick's father. He works as a newspaper journalist. David and his wife are often trying to set a good example for their kids, guiding Nick along the way to do what's right and follow God's plan. In "Take Me Out of the Ball Game", he briefly becomes obsessed with winning a Little League Baseball championship game, putting all his faith in the team's star player in hopes of beating the opposing team, which happened to be coached by a rival of his. David learns a hard lesson about payback and misplaced faith when his team loses the game as a result.
  • Vaughn Taylor as Elizabeth Martin: Nick's mother. She works at a counseling center. Like her husband, Liz wants to raise her kids on a righteous path and helps to guide Nick to do the right things. In "A Star in the Breaking", she learns a lesson in humility when she discovers that the job she was hoping to get at the counseling center turns out to be for secretarial work answering phone calls.
  • Sarah Dammann as Sarah Martin: Nick's older sister. She often picks on Nick as older siblings do, but ultimately has a good heart and, at times, advises Nick to make good choices when she sees him succumbing to negative influences. She is played by Joseph Dammann's actual sister.
  • Chelsea Hertford as Jamie Martin: Nick's younger sister. She looks up to Nick for his artistic skills, but can sometimes act like a brat. When Nick becomes conceited for being chosen to be on a game show in the episode "A Star in the Breaking", his rude behavior puts off his other friends and he yells at Jamie, but in the end, she is the first and only one willing to forgive him.
  • Eve Brenner as Grandma Martin: Nick's grandmother, whom the family lives with. In "Back to the Drawing Board", she helps Nick to put aside his jealousy of his artistic classmate, Todd Burton, and to focus on what he and Todd have in common.
  • Poundcake as Whatever: The Martin family dog. Whatever often gets into things he shouldn't be. Despite McGee being from Nick's imagination, Whatever can see and interact with him too, with McGee even scaring off Whatever a few times.

    Nick's friends

  • Brent Kelly as Louis Armstrong: Nick's smooth-talking, wise-guy best friend. He befriends Nick after saving him from nearly getting beaten up by Derrick in the first episode. He is unsure about his faith and has a tendency to exaggerate the truth about things, but generally tries to be a good friend to Nick. While his last name is never given in the show or its credits, when his parents debut in Episode 8, they are each given the surname of "Armstrong", making Louis' name a pun based on Louis Armstrong. Louis doesn't appear in The New Adventures series, having apparently moved from Eastfield to Indianapolis between Episodes 9 and 10, but does still keep in touch with Nick, as evidenced by Nick conversing with him over the telephone in "Beauty in the Least".
  • Johnny Green as Derrick Cryder: A bully that Nick regularly has problems with. Derrick is initially presented as violent and malicious, willing to beat up anyone who crosses him and prone to threatening others. He and Nick are constantly at odds throughout the first nine episodes, but Derrick reforms by the end of the Christmas episode after Nick shows him compassion. He ends up saving Nick's life when Nick is attacked by gang member Ray, whom Derrick fights off. In Episode 12, Derrick watches Nick from afar and confronts him when he sees Nick has forsaken his friends for a new crew, who send Nick down the wrong path, with Derrick becoming the voice of reason for Nick, and helping him make up with his real friends.
  • Shaylisa Hurte as Renee Johnson: Another friend and classmate of both Nick and Louis. She is pretty, smart, a good student, and has the ability to match wits with Derrick's snark and bullying, snapping back at him with quips and comebacks that put him in his place. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old, with her father moving out to California.
  • Whitby Hertford as Phillip Monroe: Introduced as a school geek who frequently gets picked on by Derrick. He eventually becomes another friend of Nick and Renee. By The New Adventures, he has become a fully-fledged member of Nick's circle of friends, along with Renee and Jordan. While Derrick is no longer a bully at this point, Phillip still feels intimidated by him, as seen in "The Blunder Years". His actor, Whit Hertford, is the real-life brother of Jamie's actress, Chelsea Hertford.
  • Sonny Kelly as Jordan Michaels: Another friend of Nick's who replaces Louis for The New Adventures episodes. Jordan plays on the junior high's football team and is into computer graphics. He has an easygoing, sarcastic personality but also strong sense of loyalty.

    Other characters

  • John Paul Sipla as Troy: The most frequently seen of Derrick's crew of bullies. Troy appears in "The Big Lie", "Skate Expectations", "Back to the Drawing Board", and "Take Me Out of the Ball Game"; the latter of which being the first and only time he is credited with an actual name, as his previous appearances credited him only as "Derrick's Dork".
  • Linda Dangcil as Mrs. Harmon: The elementary school teacher of Nick, Louis, Renee, Phillip, and Derrick. She is caring and considerate and wants her students to succeed and always give their best at what they do. She is first mentioned as Nick's teacher in "A Star in the Breaking", but does not actually appear until "Skate Expectations". She reveals in "Twas the Fight Before Christmas" that Derrick had previously failed her class the year before and that this is currently his second year taking her class. She also appears in "Back to the Drawing Board" and "Do the Bright Thing".
  • Joe Bonny as Coach Gus Slayter: He is the elementary school's gym teacher and football coach. A large, intimidating man, Nick claims that the students actually really like him because " were afraid not to". In the first episode, he catches Nick standing in the hall trying to find his homeroom class, and mistakenly thinks Nick is playing hooky. Later, when some boys make graffiti of Coach Slayter at recess, they pass their spray paint cans off to Nick, whom Coach Slayter sees with the cans and assumes Nick was the one who made the graffiti. In Episode 2, Coach Slayter substitutes for Mrs. Harmon in her absence, during which he is revealed to be somewhat illiterate, struggling with the word "Aluminum" before he decides to postpone the class's spelling test in favor of him telling the students about one of his football plays. He appears only in the first two episodes.
  • Stephen Burks as Mr. Oliver: The elementary school's principal. He first appears in "A Star in the Breaking", in which he walks in on Nick's class as Coach Slayter is substituting to congratulate Nick on his getting chosen to appear on the game show Trash TV, and that he and the others will be rooting for him to win. In "Twas the Fight Before Christmas", he informs Mrs. Harmon about Derrick's having some serious problems at home, which would explain Derrick's recent misbehavior and lack of showing up to rehearsals for the school's Christmas pageant. Mr. Oliver only appears in these two episodes.
  • Robert Crow as Bob Armstrong: Louis's father. In "Take Me Out of the Ball Game", he and his wife attend Louis and Nick's little league baseball games. In "Twas the Fight Before Christmas" Bob and his wife both attend the school's Christmas pageant and assist with the pageant's rehearsals.
  • Connie Fredericks as Barbara Armstrong: Louis's mother. In "Take Me Out of the Ball Game", she and her husband attend Louis and Nick's little league baseball games. In "Twas the Fight Before Christmas" Barbara and her husband both attend the school's Christmas pageant and assist with the pageant's rehearsals.
  • Amy Allen as Carol Johnson: Renee's mother who works as a member of the press, possibly with Nick's father. Carol has allowed her faith to wane, as she mentions having not prayed in a while, presumably since her divorce. She appears only in "Twister and Shout".
  • John Sanderford as Ted Johnson: Renee's father and Carol's ex-husband. Ted and Carol divorced when Renee was ten, with Ted moving out of Eastfield over to California. Since then, Ted hasn't gotten to spend much time with Renee and, much to Renee's chagrin, dotes on her too much when the two of them go on a mountain climbing trip together with Nick, Phillip, and their fathers. He appears only in the episode "In the Nick of Time".
  • Jerry Houser as Phil Monroe: Phillip's father. He is a fun-loving practical joker who loves to play pranks on people, but his son does not share his same sense of humor. He appears only in the episode "In the Nick of Time".
  • Carol Lawrence as Mrs. Pryce: The principal of Eastfield Junior High, which is attended by Nick, Renee, Phillip, Jordan and Derrick. Mrs. Pryce, herself, also attended the school twenty-five years ago, alongside both of Nick's parents. She appears only in "The Blunder Years".