A person at Vanessa's job has quit and Vanessa thinks she'll be promoted. When she isn't, she demands a better job. She gets fired. She starts looking for a job. Mark is beginning to think that he'll have to live in his car if Vanessa doesn't get a job until the next mortgage payment.   Vanessa gets job and she invites Mark, Geneva and Nicole over there. It turns out she's a waitress at a chinese restaurant. She isn't very good at it. She even makes the cook quit. Mark takes the cook's place. That doesn't work out very well. Vanessa gets fired but she gets the money to the mortgage payment through blackmail when she spots a cockroach.   In the end of the episode, Mark and Vanessa watch ""21 Jump Street"" on TV and make some comments on Holly Robinson (same actress that play Vanessa). Vanessa says she doesn't like her.

Free at Last

Mark Curry

Saundra Quarterman

Holly Robinson Peete

Marquise Wilson

Raven-Symoné

Nell Carter

Father Fairest

Limpin' Lizards

Mark and Vanessa get new roomies when his cousin and her daughter visit---and move in.

Baby Love

Mark solos as chaperone at Nicole's party when Geneva and Vanessa go shopping and don't return on time.

Slumber Party

Geneva has got a job as a music teacher at the High School. Mark tries to show her the ways around the school. They are getting a new principal and the rumour tells that she loves to fire people. It turns out to be Mark's sister's best friend, P.J. Moore. She says that Mark is the kind of teacher she hates.   Mark's schedule includes Driver's Ed. and he's not very happy about that. Mark drives the Driver's Ed. car home. Darnell takes it for a ride without Mark's promission. He accidentally hit a lawn mower and gives the owner Mark's name. The owner is going after the school.   Mark dresses up as a woman to play the role as the principal when they man is coming to the school. He wants a date with ""P.J."" (who Mark is pretending to be) at a karaokee bar. When they meet there, Mark gets him to sign the settlement. Then the real P.J. shows up. Mark tries to hide from her, but after a while she sees him. She realises that Mark really loves teaching and doesn't fire him.

School's a Drag

Nicole and Vanessa watches ""Lester the Lizard and the Crocodile Kids"", a kids' show on TV. They are searching for a new crocodile kid and Nicole wants to try out. Geneva won't let her. Vanessa wants to meet Lester since he owns a piece of his business and she wants to try to get his account to her company.   Mark is teaching Driver's Ed. Earvin and AndrÃ© has got hold of a piece of Lester the Lizard's tail. They got it when they nearly ran over Lester during one of Mark's classes. Mark wants P.J. to get him another class. Driver's Ed is too dangerous. Tyler provokes Geneva to let Nicole audition. P.J. gives Mark a new class. He becomes the school's new Home Ec. teacher. It turns out to be even more dangerous. His eyebrows get burned.   Mark takes Nicole to the audition and Vanessa joins them. It turns out that Lester is a woman who smokes and is hated by everybody on the show. She finds Mark attractive and she thinks she has seen him before. Vanessa doesn't get Lester's account. Nicole

It's Halloween time! P.J. orders Geneva and Mark to go chaperone the Halloween party at the high school. Mark teaches a science class and finds out that Earvin is mad at his father for leaving him when he was born. Mark decides to fly in his father from New York. Meanwhile, Geneva has to sew a costume for Tyler, Vanessa, Nicole, and herself. Geneva sews a horse costume and Nicole and Tyler can't decide who to wear the head. Can Geneva satisfy them all?   The father comes in but he is White. Earvin does not care if his father is a different race but is still mad at him for leaving him when he was born. Mark dresses up as a doctor and Earvin's father dresses up as a grape. Mark invites Earvin's father to go to the dance and try to patch things up with Earvin. Can Earvin forgive his father for leaving him?

Geneva is forcing more rules for Nicole's safety since they now live in Oakland instead of Georgia. Geneva catches Nicole riding her bicycle to the store to buy candy. Geneva punishes her and Mark and Vanessa think Geneva is being harsh on Nicole. Tyler recommends that Nicole should get a divorce from Geneva. Mark convinces Geneva to use reverse pshycology and soon Nicole would want to follow Geneva's rules. Nicole is having a fun time and Mark feels that the reverse pshycology is not working. Will Nicole obey Geneva's rules?   Meanwhile, Mark will play poker with his friends and Vanessa wants to get on a date with one of Mark's friends that came off of a divorce from his wife. Vanessa plans to play poker with the guys wearing some clothes that would attract Mark's friend. Instead, Mark convinces Vanessa to talk about sports and wear casual clothes. During the poker game, Vanessa wins everyone's money and Nicole puts hand-cuffs on Mark and Nicole and does not know where the key is.   M

The Goodbye Girl

Mark gets to be head coach of the high school basketball team. He is holding a try-out for the basketball team. One of the students, Sammy, is going to try out. He is a new student from South Korea. His parents wants to have him work in the family market but the student wants to be on the basketball team. Unfortunately, Sammy does not play very well at the try-out.   Sammy brings his parents over to make Mark convince his parents to let Sammy play basketball. Mark tells the parents and Sammy that he should work in the market and Mark agrees with his parents. Sammy does not respect Mark anymore.   Meanwhile, Geneva is trying to build Nicole a play house and she has a hard time doing it. Vanessa is still trying to find a job. So, Geneva hires Vanessa to build the desk for $5 an hour.   The next day, Mark promises P.J. that the school will win the State Championships. The opening games are a few days away when they find out that their star player is injured. Mark sees Sammy playing basket

Seoul Shake

Vanessa starts working at a ""Soul food"" restaurant. There she meets a prince from an African country who she starts seeing. The Prince likes her too and then he proposes to her and Vanessa says yes. Mark and Geneva think he is a con, and Nicole starts to act like a Princess! Dissappointed by the fact that he is accused of being a con the prince calls the wedding off and he leaves for home.   But it wasn't till they watch the news later that night that they realize he was really a prince after all. At the end of this episode Mark and Vanessa race off to the airport to stop the plane, but it's too late.

The Prince of Soul

Vannessa new boyfriend decideds to put Mark in a commerical advertsing these new shoes, since he played with the Warriors and all. If agress to do and ask P.J. if they could you the school gym for the commercial. She said that if he got her a pair of the tennis shoes then it would be a deal. On the other hand Nicole has to do a report on the person that she thinks is a hero to her and she is not allowed to do her parents so she decide to do Mark as her hero. She follows him around and then tells the kids at school that he will be staring in the commercial. Vannessa goes over to her boyfriend/the director for lunch. She finds out that Mark will be wearing the brand X shoes while a superstar actually gets to wear the other ones.   They decide to tell Mark but he says that they should just go ahead. Then the director puts a banner up which says ""Those Who Can Play, Those who can't teach"" They decide to put a stop to the commercial. Well the dircector gets fired and his boss made the chang

Air Cooper

Santa's Got a Brand New Bag

Mark is assigned to a private school by P.J. to teach American history. The school is nothing like what Mark is used to. Everyone is properly uniformed, preppy, and all white! He ends up teaching them all about black history ""from slavery to Soul Train"".

Private School

In this episode, Geneva has a hard time at the grocery store. Nicole asks why men treat women differently than others. Nicole decides to dress and act like Vanessa and see men, or usually Tyler, will respond to a woman like Vanessa.   Mark teaches a drama class at Oakland High. Mark receives a letter that his assistant coach, when he was playing high school basketball, has died. The coach's son asks Mark to give the speech at the funeral. One problem, Mark does not know who the man is. Mark's plan is to look at the body of the dead man in the coffin to see who he is. Unfortunately, he was cremated. Now Mark has to give a speech on the man he does not know. Will Mark remember the assistant coach?

For Whom the Heck the Bell Tolls

Mark is turning 30. Vanessa and Geneva decides to arrange an over-the-hill party. Tyler discovers a strange lump on Mark. Mark goes to the doctor to have it tested. A misunderstanding leads to Mark thinking that he's going to die because of the lump. He goes sky-diving and gives away his stuff. He even gives most of his money to Thaddeus to name a park after him.

It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To

Mark is dating an attorney named Denise (Lela Rochon). And when Mark tells her how he really feels about coming over to the house unannounced, she then breaks up with him. Meanwhile, the student hold a car wash to raise money for a school dance.   Mark receives a court supbeona stating he damaged Thaddeus White's car on the driveway where the students held the car wash. Mark and Denise battle it out. Mark finds out why Denise wants him to meet her parents - it's not because she wants to get married, they're just big NBA fans.

The Courtship of Mark Cooper

PJ and Victor are planning to get married, and this couldn't make Mark any happier, cause that would mean she would be leaving to go to Chicago.  But Mark discovers something about Victor and wrestles with whether or not he should tell her or not.

Wedding Bell Blues

Mark catches Vanessa lying on the phone to Thaddeus. They make a bet. So, when P.J. invites them to her fund raiser thay can't get out of it. P.J. wants Mark to take her niece Luttie to the fund raiser, and that's the way it goes since Mark can't lie about not having a date. Tyler falls in love with Geneva.

Truth or Consequences

Vanessa wants to get a job at a Christian, conservative radio station. She can't tell them that she's living single together with a man. So, she tells the manager, when she has him over for dinner, that Mark is her husband and that Geneva is her wild cousin.

Trading Places

Vanessa wants to show Geneva how to have a good time. Geneva tries to hit on a man who turns out to be a police officer. He mistakes her for being a prostitute and arrests both her and Vanessa.

Pros and Convicts

During detention, Mark gets the kids to write job applications. Earvin gets a job and drops out of scool. He starts working at a hamburger restaurant (Clown Burger). Since it was Mark's idea to write the application, Earvin's mother tells Mark to go to that restaurant and talk Earvin into coming back to school. Mark brings Tyler and Nicole when he goes down there.   In the hamburger restaurant, Mark argues with Earvin and tries to embarass him. Finally, he gets Earvin top come back to school. But Earvin's mother still wants Earvin to have a part-time job and Mark is going to help him get one.

Double Cheeseburger, Hold the Diploma

Mark stands in the way of Geneva's happiness when she receives a marriage proposal from a man willing to take on being a father figure to Nicole.

Groom and Doom

Mark mother comes to visit him because she wants to start working and get out of the house but Mark dosen't want her too so he calls his father so he can try and get her back. Mark finds out that his mother is a great teacher after P.J made her subsitute his English class after he called in sick. Mark doesn't like it so he runs over to the school and finds Earvin and Andre and the rest of the class looking at dirty pictures. He takes them. Then his mother comes in he tries to hide but she sees him. When she starts teaching he realizes that she's a good teacher. At dinner Mark father comes and talks to his mother and they get back togther. Nicole writes an ad in the newspaper so she can get her mother a date for Mother's Day. Tyler comes over and gives Geneva a piece of string for Mother's Day because she been so nice to him. At the end of the show Nicole's gift (a man) comes and Geneva grabs him by his tie and rushes out the door. At the end of the episode Mark gets his Mom to cook for

Hangin' with Mrs. Cooper

Former NBA player Mark Cooper becomes a dedicated teacher and basketball coach in Oakland after his playing career ends. When he's not dealing with his students and players, Mark spends time with his gorgeous female roommate and other friends.

Free at Last

Seasons5

Season 2 Episodes22

Cast6

Discussion

Episode Summary