Toony Throwback Thursday: Recess

I’ve watched many cartoons when I was a kid--both on broadcast (syndication and broadcast television), and on cable (both pay AND penetration). And yet one of my consistent favorites across all of these mediums is Recess.

Recess, created by Joe Ansolabehere and Paul Germain (the latter previously best known as co-creator of another iconic and beloved western animated series that starts with R, Rugrats) revolves around six fourth grade kids as they go about their young lives attending Third Street Elementary School, along with a wide, colorful range of other students whom interact with the main group, are the focus of their antics or are just there for a good joke.
These students are, in this particular order:
-T.J. Detweiler--the popular and clever leader
-Vince LaSalle--the cool and confident athlete
-Ashley Spinelli--the tough and headstrong tomboy
-Gretchen Grundler--the sharp and extroverted genius
-Mikey Blumberg--the gentle giant with the Pavarotti pipes
-and Gus Griswald, the shy (but occasionally brave) latecomer

Their attending Third Street Elementary garners mixed responses (depending on the activity), but the one period of the day they (and the other students) look forward to the most and enjoy as


It had a lot of things I loved:
-A large ensemble of kids with different personalities that resemble all kids at a normal real-life elementary school, with our main heroes standing out themselves
-A wide-ranging faculty of either wide rage or sweet cheerfulness
-How this series is modeled like -- of all things -- escape heist films (specifically when the kids want to escape the long-boring confines of the classroom for the fun, fresh air and -- of recess). Seriously, you’ll feel like you’re watching something else, despite it being a kids show. Even if you’re a kid, you feel like something was off about this one (well, at least I did)

There’s also many moments of characters (both kids and adults) realizing something about one another that changes our perspective of them.
-When Gus was introduced in the second half of the very first episode "The New Kid", and his new friends did his best to remove the titular title most new kids get at Third Street, leading to his awesome moment of confronting King Bob to get his name back. And he does.
-When Vince praises on about his big brother Chad and accepts him as a geek. (Before the Big Bang Theory, nerds were always seen as scum of the school campus. So watching this episode and watching Vince love his big bro no matter what makes me humbled.)
-When Principal Prickly was hypnotized to being 6-years-old and the kids see something new (and odd) in him and enjoy a new perspective of their grumpy-but-well-meaning principal
-And in “Weekend at Muriel's”, Spinelli goes to Ms. Finster’s house for a weekend while her parents are away. After a while when she (and us) expected Finster to be her loud, boring disciplinarian self, she realizes this and begins a self reflection, of which she loosens up and shows Spinelli how she has a good time. Spin enjoys it and leaves with more respect for Finster than ever, and we’re treated to a newer, more mellow and more fun Ms.  Finster (at least for that episode, because she’s back to being a cruel, soulless old meanie by the next episode [with some open shades of her having a good time in several later episodes.])
-and many more too hard to list

If you’ve ever wondered why this show lasted nearly a decade on television in reruns (on ABC Kids after 1SM ended, and on Disney Channel & Toon Disney)? Those reasons are why. Most kids watching could relate to at least one of these kids , remember the times of having fun at recess at their school, laugh at the jokes about them or the Third Street Elementary faculty, well up from the Tear Jerking moments, feel swelling after the Heartwarming moments, and cheer in astonishment from witnessing a character (and ANY character) perform an action that is too awesome for words (and there were many).

When I began watching this series for this review again, I was immediately transported back to my childhood, watching the title sequence and listening to the theme song--humming along to it of course, excitedly waiting for another episode to begin. And when it begins, I sit and stare at the TV as the action unfolds, laughing or feeling good from every other moment.

Ehh, sure, it wasn’t all the way perfect; there were some notable episode/moments that didn’t go well with everyone over the years. Take “Nobody Doesn’t Like T.J.” for instance, in which T.J., apparently the coolest kid on the playground, finds out that Gordy doesn’t like him. Teej tests his temperament to turn Gordy to his team, but failed. The problem here is that he’s forcing Gordy to like him, but this gives the latter even more reason (well one reasonable reason--since he has none at the start) to dislike the former. This half-episode did have a message that needed to be told in a kid’s show--”not everyone can like a certain person”. Or was supposed to, But the execution was not a figure 8, instead showing itself like this--”people can dislike you for no good reason, and it’s okay!”. It just didn't work the way the writers intended.

But for episodes that I'd find great. there are many across this one to list (so I'll get to that another time)

These kids find recess as escapism from life, and I find Recess as escapism from real life.
And that is why I love Recess.

Thanks for joining me here, everyone. And I'll be back next month with something special involving a certain weekly block full of summer (hint: this series aired as part of it). See you in September!

I'm Andrew, and may the good toons be yours!