Recess (TV series)

Recess
Created by	Paul Germain Joe Ansolabehere
Starring	Ross Malinger (1997-1998) Andrew Lawrence (1998-2001) Rickey D'Shon Collins Pamela Adlon Ashley Johnson Jason Davis Courtland Mead Allyce Beasley April Winchell (1997-1999) Dabney Coleman Ryan O'Donohue Toran Caudell Erik von Detten Blake McIver Ewing Anndi McAfee Helen Slayton-Hughes (1999-2001)
Country of origin	Vereinigte Staaten
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	128 (Episode List)
Production
Running time	20 minutes with commercials (mostly two 10-minute segments)
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 13, 1997 – November 1, 2001

Recess is an American animated television series that was created by Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere, and produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. Recess focuses on six elementary school students and their interaction with other classmates and teachers.

Premise

The series is centered around the interaction between the six main characters of the series. Typical plots involved the group banding together in order to unravel government conspiracies, or attempting to outwit their teacher chaperons. Usually, every episode ends with one of the characters learning an important life lesson. Recess is at Third Street Elementary School, and usually focuses time the characters spend playing outdoors during recess. The outdoor environment of Third Street Elementary School is littered with typical playground equipment, and obscure structures (most notably the Ashley Clubhouse and the jungle gym, Ol' Rusty). During this time, the children are governed by a pseudo-monarchy, and required to conduct themselves according to a clichéd set of unwritten laws. The Show ends with the episode Halloween, which was just the third and last part of the TV Movie, ''Recess: Taking The Fifth Grade''.

Production

Recess premiered on ABC's One Saturday Morning programming block on September 13, 1997. Despite coexisting with big-name Disney shows like Pepper Ann and Doug, Recess established itself as one of the most popular and successful shows of its time. Recess 's success spawned two direct to video titles and one theatrical film, Recess: School's Out, which was released in 2001.

The series was canceled in 2001, and Disney stopped airing new episodes after November 1, 2001, but still continued to show episodes on ABC's One Saturday Morning until 2002 and UPN's Disney's One Too programming blocks until 2003 when both blocks were phased out. Re-runs also aired on ABC Kids until September 2005 (when the block turned into an all Disney Channel line-up). It also remained on the Disney Channel until 2003. Disney Channel has put it back in their weekday morning schedule and Toon Disney aired it also. So far, the episodes from Season 6 have not been shown again since their initial airing. The cancellation led to Disney still releasing the unaired episodes to video. In 2003, two direct-to-video movies were made of Recess. Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, one of the films, was actually made up of three different Recess episodes that take place in what can only be called a previously unreleased and unfinished seventh season where all the characters are now in the fifth grade. Reruns of the show still run on early mornings on Disney Channel, and were also shown on Toon Disney until the network's change to Disney XD in February 2009. Canada still shows reruns of Recess on Family, and is also being aired on Disney Channel Latin America. .

Characters

Main characters

File:Recesscast.png

The Six Main Stars Of Recess (actors above, characters below).

Along with the six main characters, Recess featured a plethora of other characters from various socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

• Theodore Jasper "T.J." Detweiler

Main article: T. J. Detweiler

T.J. is the 10-year old ringleader of his five best friends. He usually spends time planning pranks against the teachers at which he is quite talented. His siblings include an older sister named Becky who was seen in Recess: School's Out and was voiced by Melissa Joan Hart. T.J. has good leadership skills, and has a talent for speaking in public. He was voiced by Ross Malinger from 1997-1998, and Andrew Lawrence From 1998-2001. He also has a crush on Spinelli and it is seen in some episodes.

• Vincent Pierre "Vince" LaSalle

Vince is a talented African-American 10-year old athlete in school. Vince also has some cooking experience. His brother is extremley geeky, and this leads to some uncomfortable situations when he is around with his friends. His biggest rival is Lawson, a fifth grader who regularly engages him in competitions. Due to his Athletic nature he is sometimes very cocky. He was voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins.

• Ashley Funicello Spinelli

Spinelli is a 10-year old tomboy and a wrestling fan.Spinelli hates her first name, "Ashley", because of the other 'Ashley girls'. Both of her parents often embarrass her in front of her friends and in public and once her mother forced her to attend Ballet classes to make a girl of her--thus, she does not tolerate much interaction between her parents and friends. In one episode, Don't Ask Me, Spinelli demonstrated her usage of Savate, a French Martial Art. Spinelli's mother at one point remarks that Spinelli has a crush on TJ, but still gives hints to the audience that she does; however, it should be noted that this assertion is never confirmed or even referred to again in the show. She has twice in the show personally gotten on the good side of Miss Finster, once when Miss Finster babysat her for the weekend and when she rescued Miss Finster's cat from a tree. Spinelli's middle name is a parody of former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. Spinelli was voiced by Pamela Segall Adlon.

• Gretchen Priscilla Grundler

Gretchen is an academically talented and extremely intelligent 10-year old, and is known as "Smart Girl" on the playground. She has shown the ability to do Sixth Grade work and probably that of a higher level. Once one of her school projects was confiscated by the government (thankfully that didn't effect her grade) and she has an over bite. She is also assisted by a calculator sized hand held machine called a Galileo (probably a parody of the Apple Newton), voiced by Eric Idle. She was voiced by Ashley Johnson.

• Michael "Mikey" Blumberg

Mikey is a chubby, mild-mannered, and philosophical 10-year old.He is good at Goalkeeper in soccer due to his tallness. He writes poetry, performs ballet, doesn't stand up for himself, and believes in notions of peace that are often dismissed by the others.Mikey's speaking voice was provided by Jason Davis and his singing voice was provided by Robert Goulet.

• Gustav Patton "Gus" Griswald

Gus, an 8-year old, is the newest kid in Third Street. Gus is usually naive to the rules of the playground and its traditions. Gus comes from a very disciplined military family, which caused his family to move around frequently. He is also a master at dodgeball and has never been beaten. At his old school he was known as "El Diablo" (Spanish for "The Devil"). He was voiced by Courtland Mead. He always calls his Dad "Sir". Also, in return, Gus' Dad calls him "Private".

Other characters

• Muriel P. Finster

Miss Finster is an aging but harsh assistant teacher who reminisces of her days in Guam and is the children's constant nemesis on the playground. She seems to have the archtypal authoritarian teacher personality with a strong desire to make a school where kids aren't allowed to have fun or act like children. She is feared by all and is always closely followed by her teacher's pet, the equally nefarious Randall C. Weems, who is largely disliked by the other students. Miss Finster has a crush on Hank and she's friends with Spinelli's parents. She babysat Spinneli once and when Spinelli called her boring, she revealed that she actually used to be fun and reverted back to that temporarily and the two had fun. The only other ones to ever know were TJ, Gus, Mikey and Gretchen who promised never to speak of it again as they were too freaked out by what they saw.

• Principal Pete Prickly

Principal Prickly is the irritable head of Third Street School, though his personality may have been influenced by his older, nastier brother who is also an elementary school principal. In the episode featuring a hypnotist it is revealed that he was born in the month of June. In Recess: School's Out its revealed he got into teaching to help students but forgot that along the way. TJ reminded him of that during their adventure together and despite their differences, the two seemed to come to an understanding.

• Randall C. Weems

Randall is the resident snitch of the playground. He is at the beck and call of Miss Finster, who rewards him with various confiscated items. He pesters T.J. and his pals and seems to enjoy his position on the playground. He is hunched over and almost always seen with a notepad or recording device, waiting to report trouble makers. He bears a strong resemblance to Moe from The Simpsons. It reveals in some episodes that he is like his father yet his father is more kind and doting and his mom is a nosy workaholic.

• Theresa "Cornchip Girl" LaMaise

Cornchip Girl is a sweet, loving girl who always thinks of other people, and also gives people lots of useful advice. Gus is Cornchip Girl's friend and although Gus's dad and Cornchip Girl's dad were rivals during their military academy years, they now get along and are good friends.

• Menlo

Menlo is Miss Lemon's filing assistant, a very organized boy who wears a shirt and tie to school and spends most of his time inside Principal Prickly's office, rarely going outside to recess. Before the current timeline he was a rowdy kid, and T.J.'s best friend. Although Menlo is sometimes an antagonist to the main characters, T.J. still attends Menlo's birthday party every year.

• King Bob

King Bob is the unibrowed current ruler of the Third Street playground and the former prankster prince, whose throne sits atop the jungle gym. He is one of the school's older students (in sixth grade). Bob is regularly depicted with a number '8' hockey jersey, and carries a hockey stick as a scepter.

He rules fairly in the hopes of being remembered when he has left the school, though does occasionally take things too far, such as building a pyramid by forcing the playground to build it, but later has to apologize to those he wronged. He is said to be a 6th grader, though he appears in T.J.'s class in at least one episode.

He was known as the former Prankster Prince, a role that he personally bequeaths to T.J. after the latter pulls a prank on him. He initially grows jealous of the attention T.J. receives after gaining the role, but the two later bury the hatchet. King Bob later is shown to be quite fond of T.J., personally inviting him to a roast with the other Elementary School Kings. He later calls T.J. and the gang "his most loyal subjects."

• Earwin Lawson

Lawson, as he is always known, is the fifth-grader archenemy of T.J. and his gang. Like T.J. he usually wears a baseball cap, but unlike him, Lawson's visor sticks out in front and he is tall and lanky. He bullies Gus and athletically competes with Vince. When against Vince he always loses but still thinks he is better than him.

• Alordayne Grotke

Miss Grotke is the somewhat mystical, hippie-like fourth-graders' teacher. She is adored by her pupils because she is possibly the only teacher who stands up for the kids. She performs magic tricks at clubs as a hobby. Miss Grotke loves to meditate and she has an over bite like Gretchen. When she was absent from school for a few days everyone except T.J. forgot her until T.J. presented his independent studies project, a get well card. Her hippie outlook is reflected in her appearance with her long robe-like dress and *sometimes* clearly visible unshaven legs.

• Miss Lemon

Principal Prickly's old and miserable secretary. Her voice was done by Tress MacNeille. She is always seen at her typewriter and co-ordinates Menlo's schedule.

• The Ashleys

The Ashleys are a secretive group of the students named Ashley A., B., Q., and T., four gossip girls who are known to shout "Scandalous!" in unison. In the playground, their secret club house on the outside is a pile of tires, with a lavish interior.

They each also have a younger brother all equally named Tyler. Like The Ashleys, the Tylers have catchphrases which they say in unison. The Tylers say "Notorious." The Ashleys also each have a sister in Kindergarten named Britney. The Megans, who are four girls very similar to the Ashleys, were only seen in the "Dance Lessons" episode "Ludicrous".

As an in-joke by Disney, Ashley A. once referred to the creators of the show by expressing her horror at the thought of dating boys named "Paul" or "Joe". The Ashleys are some what thought to be a parody of the girls of the Golden Afternoon from Alice in Wonderland.

• The Kindergartners

Making up their own unique group among the students, the kindergarteners live as uncivilized and even dangerous little urchins that wear face paint, carry tribal weapons, and harass the older children. Most of them are voiced by Elizabeth Daily, Pamela Segall, and Kath Soucie.

• Gelman

Gelman is the chubby bully at school. He mainly likes to pick on Gus and even though Gus has stood up to him, Gelman continues to mess with him. Voiced by Justin Shenkarow.

• Brandon the Singer

Brandon is the boy in a red sweater and slicked back hair. He is the prized vocal performer in school. He often sings instead of speaking, much to the annoyance of his fellow students.

• Sam and Dave the Diggers

Two boys, looking like twins but are not, who enjoy digging holes. They are close friends with T.J.'s gang and often have fairly large roles in episodes.

• Swinger Girl

A girl who likes to play on the swings every recess. She wears her trademark pilot's costume.

Her ultimate goal is to swing so high that she loops the swingset bar, but has never yet achieved it. She nearly made it once, but jumped off before she made it because she left for a vacation, causing Spinelli to think she went into another dimension.

• Phil the Woodchuck Scout

A woodchuck scout, who is known for his trademark Scout like costume. At one point, Mikey and Gus decide to join the troop and Phil puts them through extremely difficult trials to get them to give up wanting to be scouts. When the high scout master demands to know why he denied Mikey and Gus membership to his troop, he admits he likes being the only Woodchuck Scout at Third Street and yields to letting Mikey and Gus join.

• Upside Down Girl

A girl who hangs upside down on the monkey bars every recess. As a result, her pigtails always stand up.

• The Hustler Kid

Francis, the Hustler Kid, is a kid that offers the children of the playground trivial toys and food, often discreetly. Sometimes however, the items he sells are actually a scam. In one episode, Gus begins working for Hustler Kid to earn a replacement glider for the one he broke (taken out of his house without his father's permission). Gus really gets into being a hustler but starts working on his own when he and Hustler Kid disagree on selling fake hall passes (Hustler Kid insists it's against the Hustler code and refuses to sell them but Gus sees them as good merchandise). By the end of the episode, the gang figures out how to get Gus back by creating a demand on the playground for short-string paddleball toys that he can't fill so he quits hustling for good.

• Hector

Red headed kindergartner who calls Gus "Safety Man." He was part of a group that the kids mentored. In the episode where Gus refused to wear his glasses (enjoying the newfound popularity received from wearing them), Hector was the only one who could convince Gus to wear them, insisting that he was no longer "Safety Man" without them because he couldn't see, making him careless (he almost walked out in the street in front of a car).

• Butch

Bearer of bad news, he tells the kids horror stories from when his brother was in school. He has a white streak in his hair caused from seeing his brother kiss a girl. He was voiced by Kath Soucie.

• Gordy

The only kid who does not like T.J. despite the fact that when they were in detention, T.J. tried his best to force Gordy to like him.

• Knarf

The nerd who usually hangs out in the school basement during recess with his three nerdy friends playing RPG games, reading comic books, and collecting trading cards. He is friends with T.J. whom he refers to by his name backwards as J.T. He was voiced by Eddie Deezen.

• Jared

The perfect boy who can beat everyone at everything. At first everyone hates him, but then they start to like him. He appeared for only one episode because the president of the UN requested his help.

• Guru Kid

A boy who offers Buddha-like wisdom to kids who seek his advice. He wears a pair of striped shorts and his shirt on his head as a turban. Spinelli takes his place at recess one day so he can use the bathroom and starts giving advice to the kids of the playground as they ask for it and Guru Kid returns from the bathroom to find the kids like her advice more than his. However, Spinelli's combative attitude reflects in her advice to the kids and leads to an all-out playground brawl. Despite how violent the playground got however, Guru Kid did not step in for quite some time, until at least when a large crowd formed to beat up Spinelli for the advice she gave people to use against them. His real first name is Jimmy.

• Bob and Flo Spinelli

Spinelli's parents who have the marked tendency to embarrass her in public. Also, they are secret agents a fact unknown to all other characters.

• Tubby

Tubby is an overweight kindergartner who has red hair and is really fast as shown in "The Kindergarten Derby". He is one of Mikey's best friends. Upon seeing Mikey for the first time, another kindergartner asked Tubby if Mikey was his "daddy". Tubby is good at burping. In "THE BREAKUP" when Spinelli became leader of the kindergartners she sicked Tubby on T.J. and Randall, all Tubby did was say "Tubby hungry" and walk towards them and T.J. and Randall ran away screaming "RUN!! RUN!!".

• Captain Sticky

Captain Sticky is the king of the kindergartners and has purple around his lips from eating candy and wears a paper crown.

• Skeens

Greg Skeens is known around the playground as graffiti kid. He hangs out behind the school with his 4 friends Lazy Kid, Mundy, Sue Bob Murphy and Kurst the Worst. He was banned from Kelso's for stealing. He is the 3rd worst kid in the school.

• Conrad Mundy

Mundy is a bad kid. According to Gretchen, he's the second worst kid in the school. He makes frequent visits to the principals office. He was banned from Kelso's for stealing. Mundy's insecure due to having a gap in his teeth. His dream is to do something so rotten that it would make the news. In one episode, he became known as a nice person after he stopped a ball from hitting a few children. Despite his best efforts, he could not regain his bad boy reputation.

• Lazy Kid

Lazy Kid is a bad kid who hardly gets any sleep. He's the 5th worst kid in school. He was banned from Kelso's for stealing. He also caused trouble on the playground on day by falling asleep right in front of the door to the kindergarteners, leading them to riot. The gang moves him out of the way, quelling the ensuing riot.

• Sue Bob Murphy

Sue Bob Murphy is a bad kid who is seen in the principal's office a lot. She is the 4th worst kid in the school. Presumably, she was also banned from Kelso's for stealing.

• Kurst the Worst

Kurst the Worst is commonly seen as the worst kid in the school. She is commonly found stealing food from the cafeteria. In "Kurst The Not-So-Bad" she befriended Mikey, and started to act nicer.

Cast

Major cast

• Ross Malinger - T.J. Detwiller #1 (Season 1)
• Andrew Lawrence - T.J. Detwiller #2 (Season 2 - 6)
• Myles Jeffrey - T.J Detwiller #3 (Direct-to-video Films)
• Pamela Segall - Ashley Spinelli
• Ricky Collins - Vince LaSalle
• Ashley Johnson - Gretchen Grundler
• Jason Davis - Mikey Blumberg
• Courtland Mead - Gus Griswald
• April Winchell - Miss Finster
• Ryan O'Donohue - Randall Weems
• Blake Ewing - Menlo
• Toran Caudell - King Bob
• Allyce Beasley - Miss Grotke
• Anndi McAfee - Ashley A
• Erik Von Detten - Erwin Lawson
• Dabney Coleman - Principal (Peter) Prickly
• Anndi McAfee - Ashley Q
• Francesca Smith - Ashley B
• Ashley Johnson - Ashley T #1 (Season 1)
• April Winchell - Ashley T #2 (Season 2 - 3)
• Helen Slayton Hughes - Ashley T #3 (Seasons 4-6)
• Robert Goulet - Mikey Blumberg (singing voice)

Minor cast

• Ricky Collins - Hustler Kid
• Ashley Johnson - Cornchip Girl
• Ross Malinger - Sam and Dave (The Diggers)
• Francesca Smith - Upside-Down Girl
• Ross Malinger - Guru Kid
• E.G. Daily - Tubby and Sticky
• Dabney Coleman - Hank and Mr. Kelso
• Francesca Smith - Swinger Girl
• Eddie Deezen - Knarf
• Pamela Hayden - Evets
• Jeffrey Jones - General Griswald
• Ross Malinger - Butch
• Jason Davis - Phil (Woodchuck Scout)
• April Winchell - Miss Lemon
• Tress MacNeille - Lunchlady
• John Astin - Superintendent Skinner
• Erik Von Detten - Jerome
• Dabney Coleman - Mayor Philip Fitzhugh
• Erik Von Detten - Jordan
• Tress MacNeille - Bus Driver
• Rosie O'Donnell - Kurst the Worst
• Edward Asner - Thadeus T. Third V
• Dabney Coleman - Coach
• Jeremy Kissner - Skeens, Jocko, Sue Bob Murphy,Gelman and Mundy
• Toran Caudell - Principal (Pauly) Prickly
• Eric Idle - Galileo
• Allyce Beasley - Bonky
• Frank Welker - Various animals
• Kath Soucie - Various characters

Episodes

Main article: List of Recess episodes

Season	Ep #	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	13	September 3, 1997	January 10, 1998
Season 2	13	September 9, 1998	April 10, 1999
Season 3	7	September 11, 1999	January 22, 2000
Season 4	21	September 12, 1999	July 17, 2000
Season 5	5	September 9, 2000	January 6, 2001
Season 6	3	August 21, 2001	November 21, 2001

Movies

Recess: School's Out

Recess: School's Out is an animated film directed by Chuck Sheetz and is based on the television series. The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and was released theatrically nationwide on February 16, 2001.

Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade is a Disney direct-to-video animated film.

Lilo & Stitch

Lilo & Stitch featured a thirty minute special, which included Recess, when TJ and the gang go on a school summer vacation to Hawaii.

Disaster strikes when a giant alien called Gantu tries to use another alien to make everyone relaxed while he takes over the world. Luckily, Gretchen (from Recess) saves the day!

DVD Releases

Recess: School's Out

(Released August 7, 2001)

It is an animated film based on the television series. This film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, and released to movie theatres by 2001.

Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street

(Released November 6, 2001)

It is s a Disney direct-to-video animated film. It compiles four unrelated episodes, including the program's Christmas special "Yes Mikey, Santa Does Shave".

Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade

(Released December 9, 2003)

It is a Disney direct-to-video animated film.

Recess: All Growed Down

(Released December 9, 2003)

It is a Disney direct-to-video animated film.

• Episodes
  • The Legend of Big Kid
  • Wild Child
  • The Kindergarten Derby
  • All Grown-Up (un-aired episode)

• Bonus DVD Episodes titled as "Fans' 3 Favorite Episodes"
  • Die Herausforderung
  • The Story of Whomps
  • One Stayed Clean

External links

• Disney's Recess at Toon Disney
• Recess at IMDb
• Recess at TV.com
• Recess titles and air dates guide

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