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Characters / Recess: Other Characters

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Recess character index
The Main Six | Other Students | Faculty Members | Other Characters
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Family Members

    Becky Detweiler 

Debut: "Prince Randall" (Mentioned), 'Recess: School's Out'
Voiced by: Melissa Joan Hart (Recess: School's Out), Tara Strong (Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade)

T.J's older sister.

  • Age Lift: She's twenty in the Italian dub, while she's sixteen/seventeen (possibly eighteen) in the show.
  • Big Sister Bully: Can be this way to T.J. sometimes—but to be fair, he doesn't make things easy for her.
  • Burger Fool: Works at Floppy Burger. Though she's really enthusiastic about her job.
  • Cool Big Sis: When she helps the kids rescue T.J.. Also, T.J. considered her one when he was younger, "back when she was nice."
  • Dub Name Change: In the Italian dub, her name is Maggie.
  • Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Responsible to T.J.'s Foolish.
  • The Ghost: She isn't seen until the Recess: School's Out movie.
  • Happiness in Minimum Wage: She works for the fast-food chain Floppy Burger, and is quite happy with it.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the movie, when TJ returns her diary to him, she admits that he is a decent younger brother.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Just averted. When the movie was in production, some of the later episodes before the movie was finished had T.J. mention her a few times, avoiding having her introduced without anyone mentioning her before.
  • Retcon: Becky was originally T.J.'s (unnamed and unseen) older brother, according to "The Great Jungle Gym Standoff" (Which, as an early episode of the first season, was filled with Early-Installment Weirdness).
  • Status Quo Is God: Despite mending her bond with T.J. at the end of Recess: School's Out, she goes back to being a jerk in Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade.

    Chad LaSalle 

Debut: "Big Brother Chad"
Voiced by: Kenny Blank

Vince's older brother, who is looked up to by his brother and fondly remembered by most of 3rd Street School students. Turns out their memories of him might be embellished.

  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Chad is fussy and fastidious with his clothing and grooming, wears a pink shirt, has a rainbow on his bicycle helmet, and owns a massive collection of Broadway albums ("geek music!"). He's also "out and proud" as a geek, unashamed of being who he is. Those traits, plus Vince's fear that he too will turn in to a closet geek, makes geekiness seem like a kid-friendly version of homosexuality. In addition, the entire "Big Brother Chad" episode reads as Vince learning a big, seemingly embarrassing secret about his brother, only to come to love and accept him for who he is. Sound familiar?
  • Expy: Of Steve Urkel, as he is also Black and Nerdy.
  • Good Is Not Soft: He's a grade-A geek with a love of chess, computing, and Broadway, and is generally a nice, even-tempered guy. But if you mess with younger kids—and especially his little brother—the gloves come off and he becomes downright terrifying.
  • Nerves of Steel: He may look like a skinny dork, but he still stands up for Vince and his pals when a bigger kid threatens them. When Chad threatens not to help the bigger kid with his math homework anymore if he doesn't leave them alone, it works.
  • Nice Guy: While younger students remember Chad as being a charming, ultra cool guy, in truth he's really a geek who was very nice to younger students and it left an impression on their young minds, making them remember him as much cooler than he actually was.
  • Proud to Be a Geek: When Vince tells Chad that the latter's a geek, Chad doesn't see anything wrong with it.
  • Rebuilt Pedestal: When Vince finally realizes that Chad is indeed a nerd, it's a Broken Pedestal situation for him at first. By the end of the episode, though, he learns that being a nerd doesn't mean Chad is a pushover.

Other Kids

    98th Street Elementary Kickball Team 

Debut: The Challenge
Voiced by: E.G Daily (Rigalli), Christine Cavanaugh (Greta Grobler), Alex Mckenna (CJ Rotweiler)

A group of friends that attend 98th Street Elementary School, which is overseen by Principal Prickley's brother Paul. The group is eerily similar to the 3rd Street School gang. Their members consist of Vance, Rigelli, Greta Grobler, Mickey, Russ Rimple and their leader, C.J. Rotweiler.

  • The Ace: Vance is by far the best player on the team, he and Vince are the only players able to score any points during the kickball game, since the others cancel each other out.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Unlike the other opposites who are mostly race-swapped, C.J. is essentially a female version of T.J.
  • Evil Twin: Averted; while the Recess kids are understandably freaked out about facing a group that are effectively their doubles, they ultimately turn out to just be another bunch of kids that just happen to have a few similarities. The episode ends with both groups running off to play together.
  • Hero of Another Story: It's heavily implied that the group serves the same role as the Recess kids, and are the protagonists of their own school. When T.J is giving his Rousing Speech to his friends, it cuts over to C.J giving the exact same speech to the 98th Street kids, complete with a remark about how their opponents don't have their "spirit".
  • Hypocritical Humor: Mikey complains that his counterpart Mickey has an unfair advantage because of his size. The two of them are virtually identical.
  • The Load: Russ is just as terrible at kickball as his counterpart Gus. During one round, he manages to kick the ball right into the opponents hands, tagging himself out.
  • Race Lift: Vance and Rigalli are white, Greta and Russ are black, and Mickey is Asian.
  • The Smart Guy: Greta serves as this for the team, same as Gretchen. She's able to put the unathletic Russ to good use.
  • The Voiceless: Only Greta, Rigalli and C.J have any lines.

    Yope Halberson 

Debut: "Yope From Norway"
Voiced by: Pamela Hayden
  • Accent Adaptation: A unique example, in the Swedish dub they had a Norwegian actor come in and played Yope in Norwegian as the languages are mutual intelligible.
  • Foreign Exchange Student: From Norway, arriving in the episode "Yope From Norway". And then he leaves in the same episode.

    Brock 

Debut: "The A.V. Kid"
Voiced by: Scott Mc Afee

A student who runs 3rd Street School's A.V. department.

  • Brainy Brunette: He's in charge of the schools media technology. Supposedly, he was good enough to be the only kid allowed to have the job for two years in a row.
  • Deadpan Snarker: His main way of dealing with people who get on his nerves.
  • One-Shot Character: He's the titular "A.V. Kid."
  • Only One Name: It's just Brock. He doesn't even have a nickname.
  • Put on a Bus: The main reason why he needed to find another A.V. Kid, because he was moving to Portugal.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Almost. He first appears in season four's "The A.V. Kid" with all the kids already knowing him, but it's also revealed that he doesn't go out for recess and is very solitary, giving the reason why he was never seen before.
  • Younger Than He Looks: He looks much older than eleven, he looks almost sixteen.

    Lance the Pants 

Debut: "The A.V. Kid"
Voiced by: Pamela Hayden

  • Cloudcuckoolander: He spends the entire episode on a completely different wavelength than everyone else. This actually works out in his favor, as Brock wants his successor to be very independent.
  • Dark Horse Victory: He eventually becomes the next A.V. Kid, because unlike T.J. and Vince, he works better on his own than with others. Much to their surprise.
  • One-Shot Character: He's just a gag character for "The A.V. Kid". He never shows up again after that.
  • Remember the New Guy?: He only appears in season four's "The A.V. Kid", yet the gang act as if they've known him prior to the episode.

    Johnny "Baby Tooth" V. 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnny_v.png

Debut: "That Stinking Feeling"
Voiced by: Erik von Detten
  • Embarrassing Nickname: He wasn't fond of his nickname. Lampshaded when Spinelli actually knocks out said tooth in a kickball game, after which he is extremely grateful to be rid of both.
  • Fang Thpeak: Due to his dangling baby tooth, Johnny V. talks with a lisp. And when Spinelli punches it out, he loses the lisp.
  • Girls Have Cooties: Learning that Spinelli has feelings for him terrifies the poor lad.
  • Older Than He Looks: He's about ten years old, but he looks slightly younger than that due to his Youthful Freckles and baby tooth.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Only existed to give Spinelli a temporary love interest. In fact, after "That Stinking Feeling", he's never seen again.
  • Temporary Love Interest: His only purpose is to serve this role to Spinelli for an episode.
  • Token Good Teammate: Johnny V. appears to be one of only two fifth graders who isn't a Jerkass or a bully, the other being Butch.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see him after "That Stinking Feeling", and unlike other one-shot students, he doesn't move away at the end or anything like that.
  • Youthful Freckles: Serving to make him look even younger than he already is. That and his baby tooth.

    Becky Benson 

Debut: "A Science Fair to Remember"
Voiced by: Tara Strong

     Jared Smith 

Debut: "Here Comea Mr. Perfecf"
Voiced by: Sam Gifaldi

A new kid at Third Street School, who quickly earns the ire of his fellow students by besting him at everything.

  • The Ace: The phrase "there's always someone better" might not actually apply to him.
  • Always Someone Better: Becomes this to the main six and the entire playground; he's faster than Vince, stronger than Spinelli, a better poet than Mikey, smarter than Gretchen, better at pulling off heists than TJ, and has been to more schools than Gus.
  • Child Prodigy: Even moreso than Gretchen.
  • Expelled from Every Other School: Well, not really "expelled", but "driven out by the student body being sick and tired of Mr. Perfect" in thirty-five schools prior to arriving to Third Street has the same effect.
  • Genius Bruiser: Solves complex math problems, writes poetry, and beats Spinelli at arm-wrestling.
  • Honor Before Reason: He wants to fit in with the other kids, and will avoid competetion to do so; but draws the line at letting somebody win.
  • I Am What I Am: His big speech calling out the gang (and the rest of the Third Street students) is pretty much that he did not asked to be perfect, he just is, and if everybody else in the school knows it and hates him for it is because too their own obsessions at beating him.
  • Lonely at the Top: He's been ostracized and bullied at every school he's attended because of his talents.
  • Nice Guy: He tries to be kind to everyone and only "shows off" when he's explicitly challenged.
  • Parody Sue:
  • The Rival: Eventually becomes a positive version; once the kids get over their jealousy, they realize that competing with him makes them better.
  • Teen Superspy: His only appearance ends with him being called by the President to do something and him hopping in a Harrier to fly off, implying he is this (or he is just that good).

Adults

    Mayor Phillip Fitzhugh 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mayor_fitzhugh.jpg

Debut: "Speedy, We Hardly Knew Ye"
Voiced by: Ronnie Schell

The mayor of the city Third Street is located in, Fitzhugh is a small and petty man who routinely abuses his authority.

  • Bratty Half-Pint: As a child, Fitzhugh deliberately tried to break the statue of Thaddeus T. Third III.
  • Child Hater: In his case, it's more to do with the fact that children can't vote, so he really couldn't care less about them.
  • Corrupt Politician: A mild example, but no less unpleasant for it. He only cares about his reputation and being re-elected, and cares little about the townspeople. He attempts to punish the "Destructive Six" severely in "The Biggest Trouble Ever" just to capitalize off the town's outrage at the statue's destruction, and when Prickly tries to interject during the sentencing on the kids' behalf, Fitzhugh threatens him with getting fired and being given a much worse job.
    Prickly: Your Honor, I must protest! Basically these are good kids, and I —
    Fitzhugh: Sit down and be quiet, Prickly, or I'll have you sweeping up the city zoo! [proudly] I swing that kind of lumber!
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He's utterly distraught by Speedy the hamster's death.
  • Hypocrite: In "The Biggest Trouble Ever," Fitzhugh took sadistic pleasure in punishing six defenseless nine-year-olds for breaking a beloved statue by accident and who were genuinely sorry for it, even though he (Fitzhugh) tried to do the same thing in his childhood, but intentionally.
  • Jerkass: Between dressing up as Santa Claus to get re-elected, trying to send small, defenseless children into six separate schools for accidentally breaking the statue of school's namesake, despite fact that they were sorry for it, and that he himself intentionally tried to break the same statue back when he was a kid and generally being nasty to everyone, Mayor Fitzhugh is the fourth biggest example of this trope in the show, after Benedict, Dr. Slicer and Mr. White.
  • Knight of Cerebus: The episode "The Biggest Trouble Ever" was already very dramatic, but it got really intense when he showed up and took active role.
  • Meaningful Name: While the patronym "Fitz" has the neutral meaning of "son of X", it was used historically to denote illegitimate children of royalty, suggesting that Fitzhugh is a bastard who acts like he's a king.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: He's pretty clear send-up of Richard Nixon.
  • Not Me This Time: He had nothing to do with Third Street not getting any replacement balls... although even he seems genuinely shocked when a bodyguard reminds him he is actually innocent this time.
  • Oh, Crap!: When Thaddeus T. Third V humiliates him by producing photographic evidence of what a nasty little would-be vandal he was as a kid, he tugs nervously at his collar and mutters, "I told them too good".
  • Smug Snake: He's a pompous blowhard who seems to want the job of mayor because it's easy.

    Miss Salamone 

Debut: "The Voice"
Voiced by: Glenne Headly

A music teacher brought to Third Street to help Mikey develop his singing talent.

  • Hot Teacher: A decidedly G-rated version.
  • Teacher/Student Romance: Mikey had a one-sided crush on her when she became his vocal coach in "The Voice".
  • Tuckerization: She was named after Lisa Salamone, a production manager at Walt Disney Television.

    Aaron Kelso 

Debut: "Economics of Recess"
Voiced by: Paul Willson

The owner and proprietor of Kelso's, the local soda fountain, gum shop and preferred kid hangout.

  • The Bartender: Kelso tends the soda fountain that Third Street students regularly visit.
  • Cool Old Guy: He's one of the few adults in the series that is actually helpful and friendly to the main cast.
  • Henpecked Husband: In the episode "This Brain For Hire", his wife gets onto him for convincing Gretchen to do the right thing and return the money she was going to spend on a new bike to the kids she "tutored". He responds with a very meek, "Yes, dear. I know, dear."
  • The Mentor: Can be this to the kids in various episodes.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Is rather understanding when Gus admits he shoplifted bubblegum from him when he was trying to impress some older kids.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He's the driving force behind the events of "Economics Of Recess" and "The Game", since he's the one selling the items that end up taking over the Third Street playground.

    Dr. Slicer 

Debut: "Prickly is Leaving"
Voiced by: Tim Curry

A cruel and sadistic man who worked his way to the title of principal on methods that border on child abuse.

    Franklin "The Dude" Dudikoff 

Debut: "The Dude"
Voiced by: Joey Lawrence

A former student of Third Street who has recently returned to become a teacher, "The Dude" was once the most popular kid on the playground, with a legend that still survives decades after his graduation.

  • Best Years of Your Life: Downplayed; he clearly loved his childhood at Third Street, but doesn't seem to hate adulthood. He refers to his school days as "some of the best times", implying they didn't end there.
  • Closet Geek: The whole reason he went into teaching is because despite his coolness, he actually loves science, history and other subjects.
  • Cool Teacher: At first he plays this trope too hard, before realizing that he's more concerned about the kids liking him than teaching them anything. By episode's end he finds a balance between the two extremes and earns Principal Prickly's approval for it.
  • Expy: He was the "original" T.J. at Third Street School back in the `80s.
  • Living Legend: Within the microcosms of Third Street, The Dude remains a legend long after growing up. Among other things, he rallied his classmates in the Great Cafeteria Revolt against the "Tuesday Surprise", and became King of the Playground as a third grader, the only kid ever to do so.

    Dr. Phillium Benedict 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dr_phillium_benedict.png

Debut: 'Recess: School's Out'
Voiced by: James Woods

Former Secretary of Education, Phillium Benedict was once best friends with Peter Prickly, and the youngest principal ever at Third Street Elementary, until his plan to cancel recess got him fired. His anti-recess crusade has cost him everything, his career, his friends and the love of his life - leading to Dr. Benedict taking drastic action to prove his theories right.

  • 0% Approval Rating: He hits this the moment he tries to axe recess the first time around, and then again when he earns the President's wrath for trying to abolish it nationwide. Even his own mooks don't seem to like him.
  • Arch-Enemy: He is this to Principal Prickly and Miss Finster, given to their history of being close friends with each other until Benedict tries to satisfy his hatred of recess. Benedict even becomes this to T.J. as the latter declares it personal after hearing about the former's history of abolishing recess and plan of eliminating summer vacation. Even both the students and teachers of Third Street School are more than happy to team up together against Benedict for such actions.
  • Beard of Evil: A pretty standard evil goatee.
  • Bad Boss: He can be considered this when he gets into an argument with his scientists as they tried to give in more pragmatic solutions for his plot; even ranting out against his main assistant Fenwick whenever things don't go his way.
    • He even had one of the scientists, Dr. Rosenthal, placed in 'detention' after the latter's failures with the tractor beam tests; even when Rosenthal tried to explain that the system had a few bugs that needed to be fixed, Benedict didn't care and ordered the bald guy and one of his Mooks to haul Rosenthal away. Whatever 'detention' constitutes under Dr. Benedict's watch, it clearly isn't pleasant. Perhaps most disconcerting is the fact that we never do see Dr. Rosenthal again after he's dragged away begging for mercy; even his fellow scientists show nothing but pity for him afterwards.
    • During the final battle, Benedict gets one of his scientists to fire up the tractor beam. The scientist does so by putting the machine into mid-power in order to warm up the beam, but Benedict (in an act of impatience) violently pushes the scientist away so that he can set the machine himself into full power.
  • Big Bad: Of The Movie. He can be considered this to the series as a whole, since he's the only true villain that the series has.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: He was the blond to Finster's redhead and Prickly's brunet.
  • Bourgeois Bohemian: Admitted to Prickly that he only joined the hippie movement to pick up chicks, and given he was able to afford a small army and a tractor beam in his later years, he likely came from money.
  • Child Hater: He claims that he wants to raise children's test scores, but he seems to be more interested in his career, clearly out of touch with what children want and need. Principal Prickly even snarks that Benedict is more concerned about his own appearance than about other people. Benedict in turn derides Prickly for, in his words, always standing up for the rights of children. Ironically, his behaviour is much more childish compared to the other kids at Third Street Elementary; even a disgusted Finster lampshades this by calling Benedict a 'two-bit recess-hating pretty boy' for his horrible plot to rid the world of summer vacation.
  • Corrupt Politician: Considering his brief jobs as a principal and Secretary of Education who tried to abolish recess to satisfy his desire of raising test scores at the cost of making children miserable, one can say that he's arguably this in general. This is lampshaded during his argument against the parents who protested against his anti-recess policy:
    Female Protestor: We'll be cool when you give our kids their recess back!
    Benedict: Hey, baby, I'll do what I want, 'cause I'm the principal of this school, and there's nothing anyone can do about it! Dig?
  • The Dandy: Fusses about his clothes in every scene he's in, reflecting his superficial and narcissistic personality.
    Benedict: Hey, by the way, Pete, you like this suit? It's Italian, raw silk. Nice, huh?
    Prickly: Yeah, you always were more concerned about appearances than people, Phil.
  • Diabolical Mastermind: In spite of the pointlessness of his beliefs and grand plot of eliminating summer vacation, Benedict was from stupid as his plan involves stealing a tractor beam from a military base without casualties, using Third Street Elementary as his main base of operations during the summer, rigging the school's front doors to teleport anyone inside the school in case anyone attempts to investigate, having the bald guy to pose as Prickly and cutting off all the school's phone lines to draw off the authorities, using a back-up generator when the students shut down the school's electrical system, and summoning more guards in case the students and teachers would show up to stop him. Even when the students and teachers manage to fight off Benedict's men, Benedict wastes no time in activating the tractor beam before having the mechanism jammed to ensure that his plot would succeed.
  • Drunk with Power: Following his promotion as Third Street Principal in 1968, Benedict abolishes recess in an attempt to raise test scores, though the results turn out to be the opposite as he expected, resulting the students' enraged parents to picket the school in protest. Despite this, Benedict stands his ground by refusing to oblige to the parents' demands to reinstate recess on the grounds that he's the principal and therefore he can do whatever he wants and they can't do anything about it. Even when Prickly brings in the Superintendent to put an end to it, Benedict argues with the Superintendent for this, which only resulted in his firing while Prickly becomes the new principal. During his tenure as Secretary of Education, he exploited his position in another attempt to abolish recess, this time on a nationwide scale, which only resulted in the President dismissing him from his administration.
  • Establishing Character Moment: After his henchmen break into the military base by blasting the door in and zapping the staff with a stun gun, the first shot of Phil in the film shows nothing but his feet and the bottom of his cane, which is still enough to see that he's finely dressed. Some of the next shots also show his body, but never his head. He walks nonchalantly into the smoky, alarm-blaring control room as if he owns the place, and carelessly gets his number two man Fenwick's name wrong when he compliments him on the neat break-in. He asks with no particular urgency whether the military men on the floor are dead, and when Fenwick says they're merely unconscious, he hypocritically says "Good, good! You know how I hate violence." Having confirmed this, he rubs his shoe against one of the unconscious men's shoulder and is pleased to see that he got a nice shine on it. Finally, in response to Fenwick's question about their next move, he declares they'll establish their base in the last place on Earth anyone would look: Third Street School. Thus, we've learned most of what we need to know about him in less than a minute of screen time: The fact that he's the leader of these bad guys and he's the only one whose face isn't shown indicates that he's the main antagonist of the movie; he's a Non-Action Big Bad who's too fastidious to get his hands dirty, but is happy to let his minions commit violence for him; he's A Man of Wealth and Taste, whose fashion sense reflects his elitism and narcissism; he's Faux Affably Evil, talking in a superficially affable manner but showing no genuine concern for his own minions, much less the victims of his crimes; and he's got a grandiose Evil Plan requiring advanced military technology, which he's going to put into action at Third Street School.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Still believes that Prickly intentionally sabotaged his career and got him fired as principal just to take his job. If he wasn't so self-absorbed, he might have seen that Prickly was genuinely concerned about the effect that ending recess would have on the kids, and never meant for Phil to lose his job. He also believes that Finster would harbor feelings for him despite their breakup, though Finster rightfully stated that she already abandoned such feelings as she had enough of Benedict's deluded nature; she even stated that she will not tolerate Benedict's attempts to harm the students; which drove an enraged Benedict to abandon whatever feelings he had for her in return.
  • Evil Cripple: Downplayed. He walks with the help of a nice cane. The flashback to the sixties shows him falling off the front steps of Third Street School and hurting his leg, implying that's how he got his limp. If so, it's an injury he got as a result of his spite and temper.
  • Evil Former Friend: To Prickly and Finster. The three were good friends in the 60s and started at Third Street together, only to become enemies when Benedict tried to get rid of recess and blamed Prickly for getting him fired.
  • Evil Is Hammy: His overly dramatic facial expressions and No Indoor Voice definitely qualify.
  • Evil Is Petty: A big part of the motivation for his massive and complicated Evil Plan is just to get back at Principal Prickly for a supposed betrayal that happened decades ago, and to prove a point to the President and the country that called his ideas crazy. He also makes a point of making his supervillain base inside Third Street School, overruling his scientists' warnings that it's not a practical place to put it, as revenge for being fired. On an even smaller level, he often taunts his enemies with put-downs aimed at their clothes or appearance.
  • Evil Plan: Getting rid of recess and summer vacation in order to raise test scores, by means of using a stolen military tractor beam to alter the moon's orbit and change the Earth's climate.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Makes an outward show of speaking in a friendly manner to his captives, but it's always tinged with passive-aggressive putdowns, and he quickly reveals his true pettiness and nastiness.
  • Hated by All: Benedict was despised by everyone for his deluded beliefs; this was shown when furious parents protested against his policy of banning recess during his tenure as principal in 1968, which resulted in being fired by the Superintendent. Even when going into politics to become Secretary of Education, Benedict ends up being fired by the President for trying to ban recess on a nationwide scale. Even when the news reported about the disappearance of Benedict and his cohorts, they take it in a serious tone, with T.J.'s father angrily calling Benedict's beliefs as a bunch of hogwash. And with his grand plot being exposed and foiled by the students and teachers of Third Street Elementary, Benedict and his cohorts are finally taken into custody and are likely to be more despised and receive a life sentence in prison for trying to endanger the world.
  • Hippie Teacher: He was one of these in the 1960s, but he admitted that he joined the subculture just to "pick up chicks".
  • Humiliation Conga:
    • He was the youngest principal in the history of the state when he started at Third Street in 1968...a distinction he lost immediately after trying to end recess when he lost his job to his best friend who outed him for it. His girlfriend also blows him off for his radical ideas right in front of the protesting crowds, and Phil stumbles away in disgrace seething at those who turned on him.
    • The conga continued when the President of the United States fired him for attempting to do this again as the Secretary of Education, and was finally dealt the final blow when the students and staff of Third Street foiled his scheme to create a permanent winter to end summer vacation.
  • Icy Blue Eyes: Made especially unsettling as he's the only character in the franchise to be drawn with an eye color (not counting T.J. in the pilot).
  • Ink-Suit Actor: The flashbacks show Benedict to look like a longer-haired version of his voice actor James Woods.
  • Insane Troll Logic: His belief is predicated on that abolishing recess would certainly help in raising standardized test scores, but it actually turns out to be the opposite. As shown in the episode "Recess Is Cancelled", abolishing recess only made the children extremely miserable and unable to concentrate on their studies without getting any breaks to alleviate their stress, thus only contributing to low test scores. Even Prickly and Finster are aware of this as they tried to reason with Benedict about his act of poor judgement; even the parents protested against Benedict for the same reason. But considering that he went Drunk with Power, he refused to see the flaws of his beliefs, which in turn leads to his dismissal.
    • His plan is predicated on the idea that countries like Canada, Iceland, and Norway have better standardized test scores because "it's snowing there all the time," so they don't have summer vacation.note  The notion that the difference may be in the public education system or the testing methodology never occurs to him, nor that summer vacation isn't actually linked to the summer season or that those countries have reasonably temperate climates during the summer. By the time he's hatched this plan, he's certifiably insane, so he's clearly not thinking rationally.
  • It's All About Me: In addition to, in Prickly's words, caring more about appearances than people, his personality is based around looking good. He figured that starting a new Ice Age would get him elected President because the population of the US would love him for increasing grades, when in actuality, he would likely be hated and tried as an infamous terrorist for such actions, which is exactly what happens after his plot is foiled.
  • Jerkass: The biggest example in the series: desires nothing more than to abolish recess and making children's lives miserable to satisfy his desire of raising test scores; even after being sacked of his careers for maintaining such a desire, he refuses to let go and instead formulates a complicated yet insane plan that would result a horrible catastrophe to the world; even humiliating his former friend Prickly when the latter catches up to his plan.
  • Knight of Cerebus: In spite of his comedic quirks, Benedict's actions are played seriously compared to other antagonists, as his endgame would result a catastrophic disaster that would condemn all life on Earth. Even the gang's frequent antagonists (such as Prickly, Finster, Randall, the Ashleys, Lawson, Gelman, and Kurst) all find Benedict to be despicable for the same reason, therefore cementing his place as the most despicable and dangerous villain in the Recess franchise.
  • Knight Templar: The reason he wants to put the whole world in a permanent ice age is because he believes the reason students are falling behind in education is because of summer vacation. So he wants to literally destroy the season of summer out of existence, so summer vacation will no longer have a reason to exist and students will have no choice but to remain in school longer and benefit not only America, but the whole world's education systems. T.J. rightfully calls him out on it.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: For sticking to his deluded beliefs of abolishing recess and summer vacation and attempting to send the Earth to a terrible fate that no one would ever survive, Benedict and his cohorts end up being arrested and (presumably) sent to prison for life for their crimes, as Benedict is last seen being shoved into a police car in handcuffs, much to his complete anger.
    Benedict: (being arrested) Get your hands off the suit, you CLASSLESS FEEB!! I am the FORMER SECRETARY OF EDUCATION!!
    Cop: (sarcastically) Yeah, yeah, and I'm the former princess of Morocco. (angrily shoves Benedict into a police car) Get in the car!!
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: A grandiose villain whose fashion sense makes him more sinister.
  • Mask of Sanity: One with a very tenuous grip. For all that Benedict tries to portray himself as a suave Man of Wealth and Taste, even minor setbacks send him into a frothing rage.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Presumably its a doctorate in education. It's just for show since he clearly doesn't have a clue how to properly educate kids. On the other hand, it could be in a science or engineering subject, given his ability to build a doomsday device and given that he doesn't have a clue to how to educate kids.
  • Moral Myopia: In the opening, when a military base holding the tractor beam technology is being raided, Dr. Benedict asks if any of the personnel were killed by the stun rays. His lackey confirmed that none of them are, and Benedict is pleased with this as he hates violence. Justified, as he was a school principal during the late 60s when he was into the beliefs of peace and unity. However, this all goes moot in the final battle when he furiously ordered his men to attack both the students and teachers when they ganged up together in an attempt to foil his plot; even T.J. points that Benedict's plot would only cause bigger problems to the Earth as it would endanger billions of lives instead of raising test scores.
  • Motive Rant: Delivers a pretty hammy and angry one when T.J. and Prickly are in the office with him.
    Benedict: You see, all those years, no matter how big I got, no matter how successful, I always thought about you. HOW YOU EMBARRASSED ME! HOW YOU HUMILIATED ME! HOW YOU DESTROYED MY RELATIONSHIP WITH MURIEL FINSTER, THE ONLY WOMAN I EVER LOVED!
    T.J.: That part still grosses me out, sir.
    Prickly: Shhhh!
    Benedict: But this time, Pete, I'm gonna humiliate you! This time, I'm gonna prove to the world that you were wrong, and I was right!
    Prickly: About what?
    Benedict: About recess! About freedom! About test scores! I've found a way to prove my theory. I'm gonna get rid of the biggest recess of 'em all! I AM GONNA GET RID OF SUMMER VACATION!
  • Near-Villain Victory: Benedict will stop at nothing to ensure that his plot succeeds without any setbacks; even when being told about the flaws of his plan and the severe consequences that it will bring, Benedict doesn't care as he still wants to accomplish it. Even when all of the students and teachers team up together to take down most of his men while Prickly manages to punch down Benedict, the latter still manages to activate the tractor beam while having the mechanism jammed to ensure that it wouldn't be stopped; he even taunts Prickly for it. If Vince hadn't threw the baseball at the photon channeler to destroy the beam, then Benedict would've won.
  • Never My Fault: He blames everybody else for all his own failings, blatantly ignoring that it was his own radical and downright idiotic ideas that have forced him to go underground.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: He was likely named after former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett.
  • Non-Giving-Up School Guy: A very dark version. He is completely obsessed with keeping kids in the classroom as long as possible. His methods are shown to be brutally ineffective at actually teaching kids anything, but he's too narcissistic to realize that.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: His stated goal is getting better performance from kids in school, but he's really only concerned with his career and reputation, even at the cost of endangering the Earth.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: He is the only character in the franchise to have color in their eyes, as opposed to the Black Dot Pupils everyone else has. He has Creepy Blue Eyes instead.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: He is unperturbed of the fact that his grand plot of ending summer vacation would only result a new Ice Age that would endanger trillions of lifeforms; even when T.J. angrily points this out to him, Benedict spitefully states that he would rather try to accomplish it. What's even more disturbing is that prior to locking up T.J. and Prickly in a cage earlier, he makes it clear that he's perfectly aware of the results would be if his plot would succeed.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Despite being in his sixties/seventies, he is incredibly self-centered, petty, stubborn, delusional, petulant, smug and has temper tantrums when things don't go his way. Even his feelings towards Finster, despite her wanting nothing to do with him, is similar to a lovelorn teenager not getting over his high school crush. He basically acts like an angry, narcissistic teenager; even Finster herself lampshades this by calling him a 'two-bit recess-hating pretty boy' for his insane plot.
  • Put on a Prison Bus: The police place Benedict in one of their cars when they arrest him and drive away from the school at the end of the film.
  • Sadistic Teacher: If by any means during his tenure as principal, his no-recess policy has caused a lot of misery among students; this was shown when the furious parents protested against his radical policy, and he scoffs back at them by claiming that he's free to do what he wishes as long as he's principal, implying that he doesn't care for the children's happiness. Even a horrified Prickly and Finster find this to be more extreme than their own methods.
  • Shadow Archetype: To Prickly and Finster. All three used to be far more idealistic, are very concerned about their reputations, can be extremely petty, and don't have the best people skills (especially when dealing with children). However, Benedict lacks all of Prickly and Finster's good qualities and turned outright bitter over the years instead of apathetic. Even at their worst, both Prickly and Finster still maintained a basic and genuine understanding of what was good for children and avoided taking it away from those who need it the most (whether they are well-behaved or not). Also, Prickly and Finster were sincere believers of the hippie subculture while Benedict admits he only got into the subculture to hang out with women for his own ego.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: After being away for so long, he's still very much in love with Muriel. Unfortunately for him, she no longer feels anything for him due to his heinous acts.
  • Silver Fox: He is, arguably, still a very handsome man even in late middle-age, which makes sense, considering what a narcissist he is. Taking care of his looks would have been one of his main priorities. Really, his good looks only makes the contrast to what a rotten person he is even stronger.
  • Start of Darkness: In the 60's, Benedict was a newly elected school principal who tried to abolish recess at his school, believing it to be a distraction from learning and that children's grades would improve without it, only to be fired by the superintendent for it. Refusing to accept that his ideas were wrong, Benedict doubled down, starting a career in politics and working his way up into becoming the Secretary of Education so he could abolish recess nationwide, only to be fired by the president for it. Still refusing to believe that his ideas were wrong, Benedict ''quadrupled down'' and decided to prove he was right by setting out to force ''all children in the world'' into staying in school longer.
  • Straw Hypocrite: Benedict believes himself to be a man of peace who detests violence (given to his past as a hip teacher in the late 60s), yet he willingly orders his men to violently attack the students and teachers of Third Street Elementary from foiling his plot.
  • Stupid Evil: He labors under the delusion that summer vacation is directly connected to the season itself, when in reality, it has more to do with the school curriculum. Even if his attempts to cause a permanent winter had succeeded, it would have likely led to an extended winter break, and numerous snow days would likely occur, thus causing schools to be closed more often. T.J. even points this out, but Benedict decides to go through with his plan anyway. He even has the nerve to think that everybody would thank him for doing this and that he'd get a shot at becoming the US President, when in truth, he'd be forced to reverse the process (if that's even possible) and then get thrown in prison for life for his downright terrorist-level (or even enemy of mankind) crimes.
  • Surrounded by Smart People: His henchmen, mostly comprised of scientists, ninjas and agents are obviously smarter and rationally-minded than he is. But then again, they are still in league with his desire to end summer vacation and raise test scores.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In the episode "Recess is Cancelled" the "Secretary of Schools" tries to cancel Recess with the school as a pilot scheme; in the movie, Benedict is established as a former Secretary of Education who also tried to cancel Recess. The two characters have different names, voice actors and designs, but it is very likely that Benedict was somehow supposed to be the same guy originally (or was even retconned into being the same guy), as his own role as a former Secretary of Education was otherwise a throwaway line.
  • They Just Dont Get It: Simply does not, or perhaps refuses to grasp, that the low test scores in the U.S. simply has nothing to do with recess or summer vacation. The countries that outperform the U.S, such as most of the Scandinavian countries, not only have smaller populations but also vastly different school systems, but their recess and summer vacation systems are mostly the same. By the time the movie takes place, he's almost certainly gone insane with his obsession, but he's been pushing this idea since the 60's! Even when T.J. points out the flaws of Benedict's plan, Benedict still remains firm on his deluded beliefs.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: The only moral scruple he shows is an unwillingness to directly commit murder in the pursuit of his goals. However, given to his grand plot of bringing in a new Ice Age, which would endanger billions of lives if accomplished (which he himself is aware of), and that he has no qualms of allowing his ninja henchmen to use deadly weapons against chidren, this is just a horrible understatement.
  • Unknown Rival: Prickly remembers Benedict all too well, but they hadn't seen each other in 30 years, so he never gave him much thought. Benedict, however, admits he never stopped thinking about how (in his view) Prickly humiliated him and ruined his relationship with Miss Finster. A big part of Benedict's motivation is proving that he was right all along and that Prickly was wrong.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The man is willing to permanently wreck the planet's climate and endanger trillions of lifeforms, just to keep kids in school more days out of the year. He'd be a pretty legit villain even in a more mature show.
  • Villain Ball: His plan would have worked if it wasn't for his utter demand that this be done at Third St School. His own scientists even told him that the school wasn't the ideal location.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Unraveled like a cheap sweater after losing his job and accused his friends of betraying him for not agreeing with his anti-recess agenda. Does another one after his ultimate plan of destroying summer vacation is foiled by the teachers and students of Third Street Elementary.
    Benedict: All my plans..... my hopes and dreams...... ruined..... RUINED!!!!
  • Would Hurt a Child: Given to his belief that banning recess would help raise test scores, Benedict doesn't care of the fact that his belief would make children very miserable in life. He makes no hesitation to order his men to capture T.J. and his friends when they were spotted spying on him, though he succeeds in capturing only T.J. while his friends escape after being chased off by Benedict's ninjas, who almost killed Spinelli by throwing a shuriken at her. Even when T.J.'s friends and Miss Finster rally up the rest of the students and teachers to help Prickly and T.J. to stop Benedict in his tracks, Benedict furiously orders all of his men to beat up both the students and teachers.
    Benedict: (to his men after seeing that all the students and teachers have ganged up against him) GET THEM!!!

    Paul Prickly 

Debut: "The Challenge"
Voiced by: Martin Mull

Peter Prickly's older brother, and Principal of 98th Street Elementary School.

    Señor Fusion 

Debut: "The First Picture Show"
Voiced by: Frank Welker (in-universe movie)

A fictional superhero who's comic books are very popular amongst the Third Street kids, especially T.J, his self-proclaimed biggest fan.

  • Animated Adaptation: "Some Friend" implies that there's been at least one Senor Fusion animated series, or possibly a run of theatrical cartoons similar to the Superman Theatrical Cartoons.
  • Atomic Superpower: His powers revolve around nuclear fission. His original name was Senor Electricity, due to him debuting during the Golden Age of Comics, before nuclear energy became mainstream.
  • Big Damn Movie: In-universe, Senor Fusion: The Motion Picture which becomes the plot of his first major appearance.
  • The Cape: Is essentially the Superman of the Recess universe.
  • Dashing Hispanic: Averted, despite his name, skin color, and his costume consisting of a blue matador uniform. His personality is The Paladin, he doesn't use Gratuitous Spanish, and in his few speaking roles, he doesn't even have a Spanish accent.
  • Long Runner: Like his real-life counterparts, Senor Fusion has been continually published since the late 30's.
  • Minor Major Character: Despite being a fictional character, Fusion is a driving force behind many episodes because his comics are treated as currency on the playground.
  • Practical Currency: Senor Fusion comic books are used as currency in Third Street School.
  • The Paladin: This is very openly his trademark character. One tagline of a comic Principal Prickly owns even says "Right is Right". It's also a plot point in "The First Picture Show" when Prickly and TJ make a bet about who's the biggest Fusion fan, and Prickly wins on a technicality (TJ didn't pronounce the name of Fusion's only sidekick exactly right). While accepting defeat, TJ points out to Prickly that winning through trickery, cheating and sneakiness is what villains do, not Senor Fusion. After some soul searching, Prickly is forced to concede.

    Mr. White 

Debut: The Story of Whomps
Voiced By: Robert Vaughn (The Story of Whomps), Gary Cole (Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade)

A Board of Education employee who is used as a method last resort when situations get out of control.

  • Code Red: Has his own code and a hotline when the Board of Ed need his services called a "Code White".
  • Insane Troll Logic: His line of thinking seems to based around the idea that letting kids use dirty words, or words that just sound dirty, will lead to social collapse.
  • Jerkass: The third biggest example in the series, as he thinks of nothing more than satisfying his own sense of warped justice; even if it means trying to set up an example against T.J. (a young fourth-grader) in court over a silly word that the latter invented to avoid swearing.
  • My Greatest Failure: He relates the story of how the word “dang” was made up to be used in place of another “bad word” which spread like wildfire among kids to the point that he considers it as bad as the original dirty word it was meant to replace. He claims to have let that slip it away from him and intends to stomp out “whomps” at Third Street.
  • Red Baron: He’s known as “The Cleaner”.

    Mr. E 

Debut: The Substitute
Voiced By: David Rasche

A mysterious, no-nonsense substitute teacher filling in for Miss Grotke during an operation.

  • Cool Teacher: Despite his cold and uncaring exterior, Mr. E is a very effective teacher who wins the class' respect quickly. Not only is he willing to help some of the kids with their projects personally (in fact, he outright states he wants their projects to be something that stirs their souls and represents them as people), he's able to catch a paper ball Gordy threw at the back of his head without even flinching.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: He makes frequent references to the armed forces and comes across as ex-military from how he carries himself. Whether or not he is remains unknown.
  • Hidden Depths: He may be a mysterious and stern man who can be tough on the outside, but his episode also shows why he's such a good teacher.
    • After saving Gus, he makes the bully write out an essay on why it's wrong to bully - unless it's in the direct geopolitical interest of the United States, suggesting he's quite a patriot.
    • He's surprisingly well-versed in poetry and helped Mikey fix his for the project.
    • According to Principal Prickley, Mr. E. is very well-travelled and has taught children across the world.
    • He admits that TJ's loyalty to Miss Grotke is something to be admired and signs the card.
  • Hot Teacher: The Ashleys describe him as "dreamy". And indeed, he's quite the looker.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's stern, serious, demanding and intimidating, but as the kids of Third Street learn, he can be very compassionate, fair, encouraging and respectful. He wins over the whole school (even TJ by the end) because of this.
  • Literal-Minded: When TJ has to explain recess to him, he takes the description of "get a little exercise" as an impromptu PE lesson. This doesn't endear him to the kids at first (well, the ones not named Vince anyway).
  • Loved by All: By the end of the episode, pretty much the whole school loves and respects him.
  • Mysterious Past: Aside from teaching around the world, rumours abound of what he did before coming to Third Street.
  • Only Known by Initials: "Mr. E" is all he's known as. And no, we never find out what it stands for.
  • Punny Name: Mr. E is quite the mystery.
  • The Spook: We know nothing about Mr. E. or what his life was like before he became a teacher (and even his reputation as a teacher is the subject of gossip among the kids). We never even learn his real name.
  • Stern Teacher: He proves to be a far cry from Miss Grotke, taking no nonsense from any student and being quick to shut it down whenever it arises. But he starts to win the class over as it becomes clear that he's very good at what he does, and surprisingly compassionate to boot.

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