Season 1

27 episodes · 27th August 1992

Brash Detroit radio host Martin talks a big game on air, but his hot takes stir up trouble with his girlfriend, Gina, and their lovably chaotic crew.

Episodes

Episode 1

Beauty and the Beast

Martin gets in trouble with Gina when she listens in on his radio show and hears his insensitive remarks about women. When Martin gets home, Gina calls him into the bedroom, away from his friends Tommy and Cole. Martin gets chewed out, but give her attitude. So she threatens to leave him. Martin eventually gives in. But then Gina agrees to put on an act in front of Tommy and Cole by pretending that Martin won, if he attends a fancy dinner with her that night.

Episode 2

The Gift Rapper

Martin forgets to get Gina a gift for their first anniversary. Gina is angry. So he runs out to a lingerie shop to get her some intimate apparel. But he ends up getting her a foot stool instead. In the end, Martin learns the importance of gift giving.

Episode 3

Things I Did for Love

Tommy's new relationship with his new girlfriend Danice prompts Martin to take Gina out for a romantic evening at a dance club, called the Savoy club. Meanwhile, Martin makes insensitive remarks and, as a result, receives numerous calls from his listeners stating that he isn't romantic enough.

Episode 4

Boyz 'R Us

When Martin finds out that Gina makes more money than he does, he becomes irrate and has major ego problems once the entire city of Detroit finds out. Now he has to prove to the whole city that he is really the ""man"" in the relationship.

Episode 5

Dead Men Don't Flush

Martin is having trouble with his toilet and tries to fix it himself. After he's made a wreck of things, Gina finally convinces him to hire a plumber to come out and fix it. But the when the plumber seems to be taking a very long time to complete the job, they find his body collapsed on the floor. What should they do now? Can they revive him, or is it too late?

Episode 6

Forever Sheneneh

When Sheneneh wins a date with Christopher ""Kid"" Reid on Martin's radio show, Martin soon fears that Kid's career is over. Kid arrives at Sheneneh'a apartment and learns that she is his biggest fan. Sheneneh's hospitality towards Kid makes him uneasy when she serves malt liquor and makes sexual advances at him. Ultimately, Kid flees out of the apartment and resurfaces at Martin's place where Gina convinces Kid to go back and finish the date.

Episode 7

The Parents Are Coming, the Parents Are Coming

Gina wants Martin to meet her conservative parents but Martin's feeling nervous. Wanting to make a good first impression, he takes advice from Tommy and Cole that causes him to act like an idiot.

Episode 8

Woman with a Past

Martin becomes jealous after learning that his recent radio show guest, Keith Washington, once dated Gina when they were younger.

Episode 9

Baby, It's Cole'd in Here

Cole's mother interrupts Cole's evening with his girlfriend and demands back rent from her son. Following Martin's advice, Cole stands up to his mother but finds himself homeless when he is thrown out of the house. So he is forced to move in with Martin but soon drives Gina insane with his bad manners and disgusting habits. Martin informs Cole to persuade his mother to let him move back home. He comes to a mutual agreement with his mother and returns home.

Episode 10

The Night He Came Home

On Halloween, Martin and his friends gather at his apartment to share scary ghost stories. But they all get scared out of their wits after they perform a seance to communicate with the dead and call forth the spirit of old man Ackerman.

Episode 11

The Great Payne Robbery

When Martin's elderly neighbor's apartment is robbed, Martin holds a neighborhood crime watch meeting. But then his apartment soon becomes the next target. So he devises a plan to catch the burglar.

Episode 12

Three Men and a Mouse

After Gina wakes up in the middle of the night, hearing noises in the kitchen, she wakes up Martin and sends him to investigate. Martin spots a mouse running under the refridgerator. The next day he contacts an 'exterminator' who Stan referred him to.

Episode 13

Radio Days

Stan decides to hire a new female talk show host and place her as co-host of Martin's show, to boost the station's ratings. At first Martin feels threatened by the move and is very stand-offish. But she soon warms him up with her charm, and Martin finds that he has become very attracted to her. Even though he loves Gina, he still feels a strong attraction to Monica, and tries to resist the temptation to be with her.

Episode 14

I've Got a Secret

Martin reveals a secret that Gina told him about Pam on the air which later turns into a big mess when everyone starts revealing past secrets.

Episode 15

I Saw Gina Kissing Santa Claus

Martin shares a unique version of the Christmas story when he reluctantly steps in to play Santa for the kids in Tommy's mentoring program.

Episode 16

Do the Fight Thing

Martin's radio listeners love it when he and Gina have an on-air argument. But Martin is against the idea when Stan wants to hire Gina permanently as co-host on the show.

Episode 17

Blackboard Jungle Fever

Martin returns to his elementary school to participate in Career Day. He discovers his favorite 3rd grade teacher, Ms. Trinidad, is still teaching there. They decide to go out to eat and catch up on old times. They end up at his apartment where she begins making moves on him, just as Gina walks in. She tells Gina that Martin made the unwanted advance on her, and Gina runs out in anger. The next day, Martin returns to the school to confront his former teacher. She makes another move on him in the classroom, but this time Gina's watching and she's ready to defend her man!

Episode 18

The Break Up: Part 1

Martin and Gina fight over Gina's unusual Valentine's Day gift, and escalates out of control until they finally break up. When they try and reconcile they discover that maybe they are just too different from each other.

Episode 19

The Break Up: Part 2

With Martin & Gina now broken up, Pam sets a lonely Gina up with her cousin Leon, who is a minister struggling to keep his fleshly desires under control. Meanwhile, Cole and Tommy take a despondent Martin to a nightclub hoping to cheer him up. While there, he meets a beautiful woman named Nicole, and they begin dating. By coincidence, the 2 couples happen to meet at a restaurant during dinner. Martin is extremely jealous of the fact that Gina is out with another man, and decides to 'help' him out when he begins choking on his food.

Episode 20

The Break Up: Part 3

Martin and his new girlfriend Nicole realize that they both are still in love with their rgeir former lovers, and break up. Billy Dee Williams guest stars on Martin's radio show and convinces him that he'd be foolish to lose Gina. Martin barges in on Gina while she's with another man, and tries to win her back.

Episode 21

I'm Not Your Superwoman

Martin gets the flu and he expects Gina to stay at home and take care of him. But Gina gets fed up with him acting like a baby and comparing her with his mother.

Episode 22

Credit Card Blues

Martin and an old friend get arrested for committing credit card fraud. So, Gina and the gang quickly scramble to come up with bail money.

Episode 23

Jerome's in the House and He Won't Get Out

After Pam gets dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to go out on a date with somebody 'different' out of sheer desperation. She decides to go out with Jerome, the player, even though Cole is trying to ask her out.

Episode 24

Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with Martin

Tommy's new girlfriend Shannon has an ex-lover that can't seem to let her alone. Eventually he and his gang of thugs confront Tommy and beat him up. Martin and Cole go after this angry group of little people to avenge Tommy's beating, by throwing their weight around and bullying the patrons in the little people's bar. But in the end, they almost get beaten up themselves.

Episode 25

Variety Show

Martin is chosen by his radio station manager to be the producer of a charity variety show for Aids. But in typical Martin Payne fashion, he lets the job go to his head, acts like a tyrant on the set, and alienates everyone around him, even Gina. In the end, Martin is left to do the whole show by himself, and bombs miserably.

Episode 26

Baby, You Can Drive My Car

Everybody pools together to get a raffle ticket from Roscoe the snot-nosed kid, and wind up winning a brand new SUV. They decide to share it, by assigning each of them to drive on a different day of the week. Tommy ends up giving a ride Sheneneh, and her 2 friends, Bonquisha and Keylolo. Gina ends up fighting with Jerome, the player, trying to wash her window at an intersection, and breaking off the side view mirror. Cole ends up driving his mother, Mama Payne and a friend around, and crashing into the curb. Pam takes the car to a drive through bank window and gets hassled by Otis the security guard, who takes out his frustrations on the car. They all wind up running the vehicle into the ground and have to get rid of it.

Episode 27

Checks, Lies and Videotape

Martin and Gina try to expose a crooked preacher, Reverend Leon Lonnie Love, as a fraud, after he cons thousands of dollars from his church members, including Mama Payne. To do so, they decide to have Gina lure him to her apartment so she can elicit a confession out of him and then capture it on videotape.