Our Miss Brooks / Tropes J to Z

Tropes A to I | Tropes J to Z

---

Our Miss Brooks provides examples of the following:

• Jaded Professional: Mrs. Carney in the 1952 "Christmas Show". Mrs. Carney is in charge of the gift exchange office at Sherry's Department Store. However, it is clear from the start that she is anything but cheerful about her duties. In fact, she is extremely frustrated by people exchanging their Christmas gifts (especially exchanging their gifts before Christmas). Outside her job, she is actually a charitable person, being part of Mrs. Conklins "Helping Hand Committee".
• Jailed One After Another:
  • Happens in "Bobbsey Twins In Stir". Mrs. Davis is tricked into selling counterfeit tickets to the Policeman's Ball and jailed overnight. When released she goes to stay with her sister Angela, too embarrassed to tell how she had been tricked. Mrs. Davis really should have said something; Miss Brooks decides to sell the tickets to help the charity drive. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin and Mr. Stone end up jailed in quick succession.
  • In the radio episode "Student Government Day". The Madison High School students were supposed to be elected to city positions for the day, but the police didn't get the memo. "Police Chief Denton" and "Mayor Harriet Conklin" try to order a raid on the "Jackpot Amusement Company", but are foiled by a patrolman. Walter Denton threatens to have the cop "pounding a beat in a swamp". Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, the "mayor" and "chief of police" and a number of other student government officials are jailed.
• Jingle: The show's sponsors had some pretty catchy ones:
  • "Brush your teeth with Colgate/Colgate dental cream/It cleans your breath (what a toothpaste)/While it cleans your teeth."
  • "Dream girl, dream girl/Beautiful Luster Cream girl/You owe your crowning glory to/A Luster Cream shampoo." (This one was set to the tune of "Toyland" from Babes in Toyland.)
• Jinglethe Coins: In "Old Marblehead", a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Mr. Conklin's Carelessness Code". Mr. Conklin jingles the coins in the tin with which he to collects the fines he levies under his "carelessness code". More notable in the radio original, for obvious reasons.
• Jive Turkey: Orville Mason, a dance instructor who hangs out at Elmer's Malt Shop, in "The Mambo". Walter Denton chooses to describe Mason as a "jive hound" instead of as a turkey.
• Jury Duty: In "Trial by Jury" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Traffic Court), Mr. Conklin is forced to cancel his fishing trip to attend jury duty. He is not pleased, as he relates to his daughter Harriet
  Mr. Conklin: I have been called for jury duty.
  Harriet: Can't you get out of it, Daddy?
  Mr. Conklin: Harriet, shirking one's civic duty is totally un-American. Jury duty, like voting, is an honour and a privilege. And a great American heritage. I've weaseled out of it twice already. I wouldn't have to be there at all today if it wasn't for a stubborn female who insisted on a jury trial for a traffic violation. She'll get a jury trial alright!
• Just Between You and Me:
  • In "Two-way Stretch Snodgrass", Mr. Conklin explains to Miss Brooks his plan to get All-American football player and high school coach Biff Mooney to work for Madison High School. Rather than first going about his plan and bragging later.
  • In the theatrical series finale, Mr. Stone threatens to fire Mr. Conklin once Stone's elected to the new post of "Coordinator of Education". This sets up the subplot where Mr. Conklin runs against Mr. Stone to head the school board.
• Karmic Jackpot: Happens several times:
  • One example is "The Festival", where, by loaning their money and exchanging outfits with the hardworking cleaning women and custodian (so they'll have something nice to wear to the festival) - Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton win the prize for best costume. True to form, they proceed to split the proceeds with the cleaning woman and custodian.
  • Also happens in the episode "Mr. Whipple". Miss Brooks organizes a food drive for Mr. Whipple, who she mistakenly believes is impoverished. This so affects the misery millionaire, that he donates the money to build the new gymnasium Madison High School needs.
  • Miss Brooks wins the Karmic Jackpot grand prize in The Movie Grand Finale. Miss Brooks' good deeds are finally awarded, when she achieves her Series Goal, marriage to Mr. Boynton.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Connie Brooks is often unwillingly made privy to Walter Denton's latest prank. Miss Brooks has to keep quiet or risk having Walter suspended or expelled, sometimes making her an almost de facto confederate to his schemes.
  • i.e. "Cure That Habit" forces Miss Brooks to stay quiet about Walter's having sent a postcard to the titular alcoholism support group in Mr. Conklin's name.
  • "Wild Goose Chase" has Miss Brooks be forced to keep quiet about Walter pretending to be a quiz show host, and having tricked Mr. Conklin in believing he won a free T.V. set.
  • "The Cafeteria Strike" sees Miss Brooks have to cover up an impending protest by the students, led by Walter Denton.
  • "Dress Code Protest" sees Miss Brooks try to dodge Mr. Conklin's discovering Walter's idiotic scheme to protest the principal's new dress code.
  • "The Sweater" has Walter Denton put Miss Brook's name to an expensive present purchased by Miss Enright and gifted to Mr. Boynton. Miss Brooks is quite unwittingly pulled into the deception, but is loathe to reveal it as it results in an atypically amorous Mr. Boynton.
  • "Stretch Has A Problem" sees a different kind of secret kept by Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks must keep secret Stretch's crush on Harriet Conklin, while keeping the lovesick Dumb Jock ready, willing and able to play in the state basketball tournament.
  • "The Grudge Match" again deals with the Stretch-Harriet-Walter love triangle, as Miss Brooks must cover up the fact that Stretch Snodgrass went to the movies with Harriet Conklin, Walter's designated squeeze.
  • Miss Brooks is quite the unwitting secret keeper. In "New School Bus", she has to hide the fact that Mr. Boynton bought an old paddy wagon to serve as a bus for Madison's sports teams.
• Key Confusion: The trope appears in "Key to the School".
  Mr. Jensen: Here it is. It's this fat little devil with the blue ribbon on it.
• Kid Sidekick: Walter Denton usually drives Miss Brooks to school. He often sees her at lunch in the cafeteria, and will play a major part or even instigate the Zany Scheme of the week.
• Kids Play Matchmaker: Teenagers Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin are constantly trying to help Miss Brooks get Mr. Boynton to marry her Miss Brooks' landlady Mrs. Davis helps Miss Brooks achieve her Series Goal in The Movie Grand Finale. In "Blind Date", they're successful in patching up a serious quarrel between Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton.
• King Incognito: In "King and Brooks'', Miss Brooks discovers that one of her students is an Indian prince, the son of a majaharajah.
• Kiss Diss: At the end of "Capistrano's Revenge", Miss Brooks kisses Mr. Conklin, Bones Snodgrass, and Walter Denton on the cheek in appreciation for helping her save a swallow's life. When she goes to kiss her Love Interest, the shy Mr. Boynton, he blushes and runs out the door!
  Miss Brooks: The big one always gets away!
• Knitting Pregnancy Announcement: Misread by Miss Brooks in "Little Visitor". The fact that Mrs. Conklin hasn't been seen at school for months, and is known to be knitting many of tiny outfits leads Miss Brooks to jump to the conclusion In fact, the only thing the Mrs. Conklin is expecting is to take care of her sister's pet monkey for a couple weeks.
• Known by the Postal Address: It's mentioned several times that Miss Brooks boards with Mrs. Davis at 295 Carroll Avenue, Madison. The Movie Grand Finale begins by retelling Miss Brooks' arrival in Madison and Madison High School. On that occasion, Miss Brooks answers Mrs. Davis' ad by directly walking over to Carroll Avenue with her suitcase. It's also revealed Miss Brooks' dream isn't only to have Mr. Boynton marry her, but to live in the cottage around the corner. Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton finally get married at the end of the film
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Mr. Boynton typically wears a labcoat whenever he's seen in his classroom, the Biology room, at school. In "Madison Country Club", Mr. Conklin dismissively refers to the coat as a "burlap smock".
• Lab Pet: Mr. Boynton has a habit of naming many of his lab animals. However, that doesn't prevent him from doing fatal tests on them. In "New Girl in Town", it's revealed that he has been burying his mouse martyrs to science in the athletic field. Moreover, Miss Brooks has been (reluctantly) helping him.
  • The trope is averted in the case of Mr. Boynton's pet frog Mcdougall. Although Mac is usually kept in the lab, he's a personal pet and not used for lab tests. Usually Mac's kept in a separate cage. However in the theatrical series finale, Mr. Boynton seems to have temporarily placed Mcdougall with a number of other frogs.
• Lady-In-Waiting: In "King and Brooks", Miss Brooks' dream sequence features several ladies in waiting serving her.
• Landline Eavesdropping: It happens on occasion to Miss Brooks. Either her friend and landlady Mrs. Davis is listening in, or Miss Brooks suffers the annoyance of a party-line.
  • In "The Big Jump", a third-season television episode, Miss Brooks is talking to Mr. Boynton and is suspicious that Mrs. Davis has just picked up the extension. Mrs. Davis loudly denies it, over the extension.
  • In earlier radio episodes, Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis suffer from being on a busy party line. In the episode "Party Line", not only is their "party line neighbour" monopolizing the phone line . . . it turns out her husband and her were listening in on Miss Brooks' and Mrs. Davis' conversations and gossiping about Miss Brooks' pursuit of Mr. Boynton.
• Large-Ham Announcer: In "The Grudge Match", Miss Brooks plays this trope to the hilt, sardonically giving a play-by-play of the boxing match between Stretch and Walter. Complete with faked commercials:
  Miss Brooks: As the fighters go the center of the ring, just a word of reminder. Boys, if like Walter Denton you're about to get your head knocked off, why not put an Adam patch on it first.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: "Mr. Conklin is Honored" begins with Mrs. Davis relating her sister Angela's recent brush with laser-guided amnesia. Later, Mr. Conklin fakes a case of his own.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • A good example is The Festival. Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton lend their clothes and cash to the hardworking cleaning woman and custodian, so they can attend a costume party. Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton wear the clothes of the cleaning woman and custodian. They win a large cash prize - and of course split it with the custodian and the cleaning woman.
  • In The Movie, Miss Brooks spends the movie tutoring Gary Nolan and helping him reconcile with his father. This, with a little subterfuge by Mrs. Davis thrown in, makes Mr. Boynton jealous enough to finally get serious. Later, Mr. Boynton's invitation for his lonely, recently widowed mother, to move to Madison, has him buy a house. Again, Mrs. Davis steps in and arranges to have the elder Mrs. Boynton as her new boarder. The upshot: Miss Brooks finally gets to marry Boynton, the two have their Happy Ending.
• Last-Minute Hookup: After eight years on the radio, and four years (concurrently) on television, Connie Brooks finally gets Phillip Boynton to propose marriage in the last ten minutes of the cinematic Grand Finale. Even then, the proposal is de facto delivered by Mrs. Davis and Mr. Boynton's mother.
• Last-Name Basis: Brooks, Boynton, and Conklin always address each other formally, even outside of school.
• Late to the Punchline: Miss Brooks remarks to Mr. Boynton that stealing a kiss is "petting larceny". A couple minutes later, Mr. Boynton gets the joke and starts to laugh.
• Late for School: Miss Brooks is late for school a couple of times. It's Serious Business, because she's a teacher!
  • In "The Party Line", Miss Brooks is too late to catch the city bus to school. Walter Denton tried to warn her that his car was in the shop, but her chatty party line neighbor had the phone tied up.
  • In "Wake-Up Plan", Miss Brooks sleeps in and misses half a day of school. Mrs. Davis had accidentally given Miss Brooks a sleeping pill instead of an aspirin.
  • In The Movie Grand Finale Walter Denton is late for English class. He nearly barrels over Mr. Conklin running through the hall. He arrives just in time to tell Harriet the drive shaft from his car fell out... then the bell rings and the class ends.
• Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Mr. Boynton did this on a regular basis, both on radio and on television. His jokes are rarely that funny.
  • In "Red River Valley", Mr. Boynton gives Miss Brooks a joke-book and cracks himself up trying to tell the joke.
  Mr. Boynton: Now, when I first pick "My Dog Has Fleas" on the banjo like that, Miss Brooks, we spring our first humorous anecdote. You can read it right from the book. Here we are.
  Miss Brooks: Thanks. What's that you played on the banjo, Mr. Interlocutor?
  Mr. Boynton: "My Dog Has Fleas".
  Miss Brooks: Funny kind of a dog. My dog has pups. OH NO!
  Mr. Boynton: (laughs)
  Walter Denton: (laughs) How corny can you get!
  • In "The Auction", Mr. Boynton breaks himself up over the idea of leading his frogs on a leash downtown and telling the public to "get hopping" to Madison High.
  • At the start of "Non-Fraternization Policy", Mr. Boynton tells a long, involved joke involving three turn-of-the-century Irish policemen and a horse. Mr. Boynton finds the joke funny. Nobody else does.
• Laughing Mad: "Hobby Show" ends with Miss Brooks laughing hysterically, and smearing finger paints over her face.
• Laugh of Love: "Poetry Mixup" and "Bones, Son of Cyrano" (the TV remake), Mr. Boynton writes down a poem from Cyrano de Bergerac. Boynton lends it to Walter Denton so the teen could use it to woo "the fair Harriet" by anonymously hiding the poem in Harriet's lunch. Unfortunately, Harriet recognizes Mr. Boynton's handwriting and immediately becomes a Smitten Teenage Girl. Harriet returns Mr. Boynton's poem as a gesture of her love, madly giggling.
• Layman's Terms: In "Life Can Be Bones", Mr. Boynton explains the concept of the "missing link" to Miss Brooks and Walter Denton. He uses layman's terms to describe what exactly the "missing link" between ancient man and the primates would be and how it's fossilized skull would look. Mr. Boynton doesn't realize that Miss Brooks had just read his definition in a introductory book on paleontology; in fact, Mr. Boynton plagerized the book's description word-for-word.
• Layout of a Season: The fourth season of the television series began with the aptly named "Transition Show". Madison High School is torn down for a freeway, and Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin find new work at Miss Nester's Private School.
  • The concurrent radio show and subsequent cinematic finale ignored this move and continued at Madison High as per usual.
• Lazy Bum: The hobo calling himself "The Earl of Peoria" in "Miss Brooks Writes About a Hobo".
• Lead In: Often, an episode begins with Miss Brooks conversing with Mrs. Davis over breakfast. While the conversation is usually relevant to the plot of the episode, occasionally it will just be a wacky interlude before the main story comes into play.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: An interesting example is found in the radio episode "Reckless Driving".
  • Miss Brooks, Mrs. Davis, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton, Harriet and Walter are on Mrs. Davis' porch listening to the radio.
  • Steve Allen suddenly drives up asking for the way to Hollywood - turns out he's going to host the summer replacement for Our Miss Brooks.
  • The radio is tuned to Our Miss Brooks Miss Brooks calling it the show "with the school teacher with my name".
  • Miss Brooks, incidentally, thinks Eve Arden is "a doll". Mr. Conklin hates the pompous principal, while Walter Denton likes "one character in particular."
  • Eve Arden announces her summer replacement, saying she would be listening to Steve Allen's show that summer. Everybody on the porch commending her nice speech. Allen, however, wonders if she'll really be listening. Cue Eve Arden saying of course she would, he has her job!
    • This scene wasn't duplicated in the television remake, "Trial by Jury". There, the program ended with Miss Brooks pleading her innocence in court before a jury with Mr. Conklin as a member.
• Leg Focus: Notably in "Friday the Thirteenth", where Miss Brooks produces a photo of herself in a "French-model bathing suit" for the school yearbook. Walter Denton, Stretch Snodgrass and Mr. Boynton notice her legs.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: In "Postage Due", Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin split up to cover more ground in their search for the missing postman.
• Let's You and Him Fight: In "Stretch Is Accused of Professionalism", teenaged Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass enters a circus wrestling contest and wins a prize. Unfortunately, this came to the attention of rival Clay City High School principal Jason Brille. By a technical reading of school board rules, this makes Stretch a "professional athlete" and ineligible for school sports. Miss Brooks tries to get the wrestler, visiting Madison High School to deliver Stretch the prize money, to attack school board head Mr. Stone. In that way, she hopes proof of the wrestler's violent nature would lead to Mr. Stone waiving any penalty against Stretch.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: A series of mistakes in "Dress Code Protest", gets Mr. Conklin stranded in his office pantless and forced to wear Miss Brooks' badly-torn skirt to coverup. Mr. Stone, head of the Board of Education, finds him dressed this way. To get him out of trouble (and get back at Mr. Conklin for, earlier in the episode, claiming only Miss Brooks ever gets into ridiculous situations, Miss Brooks claims Conklin is playing a native girl in a school play. Mr. Conklin dances a hula while Miss Brooks sings "it also happens to you" to the tune of "Aloha Oe". The scheme works. However, later that night, Mr. Stone asks Miss Brooks when the school play would be performed. The entire school board wanted to see Mr. Conklin sing, wear the skirt, and do the hula! Miss Brooks dryly informs Stone that Mr. Conklin wouldn't be doing the hula or dressing in a skirt ever again!
• Let X Be the Unknown: "Project X" has Mr. Conklin develop the eponymous secret project as a way of impressing school board president Mr. Stone.
• Licked by the Dog: Mr. Conklin softens on several occasions. One such example is the episode "The Miserable Caballero", where Mr. Conklin softens toward Benny Romero, a runaway Mexican boy.
• Limited Advancement Opportunities: At work with the adults characters. Miss Brooks, from near the start, is after the position of Madison High School Head of the English Department. She never gets it; obstructions include blabbermouths sharing the "Party Line" and a nervous nerve-specialist claiming she's overwrought "Noodnick, Daughter of Medic". At least once, Mr. Boynton suffers from this trope; his attempt to be hired as a college professor ends in Hilarity Ensues with Miss Brooks trying to masquerade as his mother ("The Wrong Mrs. Boynton). Even Mr. Conklin can't get a promotion; he's the subject of a false scandal in "The Little Visitor", and otherwise embarrassed in "Project X". In the penultimate television episode, "Principal For A Day", Miss Brooks' leadership of Mrs. Nestor's Private Elementary School is short-lived.
• List of Transgressions: In "Spare That Rod!", Mr. Conklin is tricked into believing he's about to be fired for being "flagrantly dictatorial" in his administration of Madison High School. As a result, he requests Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass provide him with a list of his transgressions:
  Mr. Conklin: Now, if you will read me your bill of particulars considering my various infamies...
  Mr. Boynton: We're all going to read some of it, Mr. Conklin. Will you begin Miss Brooks?
  Miss Brooks: Thank you, Mr. Boynton. Whereas I, Osgood Conklin, Principal of Madison High School, desiring to improve relations between myself, the faculty, and the student body... your turn, Walter.
  Walter Denton: Ahem. Do promise to keep the following ever before me as a reminder of past sins of which I am heartily ashamed.
  Stretch Snodgrass: Which I ain't never gonna repeat no more.
  Mr. Conklin: Splendid. Splendid. Please continue.
  Miss Brooks: Wait until you hear this! I readily admit on many occasions I have acted like a pompous, puffed up, ill tempered, addlepated blowhard.
  Mr. Conklin: Forgive me, but it seems to me you have omitted maladjusted.
  Miss Brooks: Please don't interrupt, that's in the next paragraph. Now, where was I?
  Mr. Conklin: Addlepated blowhard.
  Miss Brooks: Oh yes. Addlepated blowhard. And on other occasions, I have bellowed like a bull...
  Mr. Boynton: Screamed like an elephant...
  Walter Denton: Hissed like a viper...
  Stretch Snodgrass: Snorted like a buffalo...
  Miss Brooks: And otherwise exhibited the behavior of a maladjusted nincompoop.
  Mr. Conklin: Oh, oh, oh, there it is!
• Literal-Minded: Mr. Jensen, the school custodian, makes a few radio appearances. He insists on interpreting figures of speech and phrases literally. Thus, to Miss Brooks' consternation (i.e. "School Safety Advisor") any attempt at conversation with him quickly turns into a chore.
• The Little Detecto: Walter and Miss Brooks use a Geiger counter in "Rare Black Orchid" to search for uranium. Walter had discovered some on his shoe and concluded he had unknowingly stepped in uranium recently.
• Live-Action Cartoon:
  • A few Running Gags in early radio episodes harken to sheer zaniness. Mrs. Davis' initial love of bizarre recipes and Miss Brooks comically bad driving defy reality. A few of them would survive in the more straight-laced television episodes, at least when a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation was made of a story originally produced for the radio. For example, one morning Miss Brooks tells Mrs Davis she' can't drive her car because she left it parked in a hotel lobby (having driven it through the revolving doors).
  • Mr. Conklin suffers from the trope in "Home Cooked Meal". At the beginning of the episode, he ends up locked in the Cafeteria freezer. He emerges covered with ice. Later on, Conklin walks into Mr. Boynton's kitchen; he's unaware that the gas hadn't been connected properly to the new stove. Mr. Conklin can't see and light's a match. Fortunately, Mr. Conklin only suffers a suit full of suit and pieces of an exploded turkey that should have been cooking in the oven.
• Living Legend: Two, at least:
  • In "The Big Game", there's former high school football star "Snakehips", whose high score in the big game won him a job as a vice-president.
  • In "Safari O'Tool", there's Mrs. Davis's beau, a famous jungle explorer. He's a fraud.
• Living Statue:
  • In "Living Statues", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin and Walter Denton are accidently glued into place.
  • In "Hobbies", Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin pretend to be wax figures in order to dodge Mr. Stone. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Local Hangout: Marty's Malt Shop, located across the street from Madison High School, is popular with students and faculty alike.
• Locked in a Freezer: Happens twice:
  • In "Home Cooked Meal", Mr. Conklin is locked in the cafeteria freezer.
  • In "Male Superiority", Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks and Walter Denton are trapped in a meat locker. Miss Brooks is the only one who doesn't panic.
• Lonely at the Top: Mr. Whipple, in the episode of the same name. He is a grouchy, reclusive millionaire who is often called upon by governments or governing bodies (such as the school board) to provide financial advice (in-story he's referred to as a "dollar-a-year" man). Mr. Whipple keeps vicious dogs on his property to avoid being bothered by people asking for a handout. When a misunderstanding leads to the Madison High gang thinking he's starving, and bringing over food for the captain-of-industry, he relents in his miserliness and shows himself to have a Hidden Heart of Gold.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Gary Nolan in The Movie Grand Finale. Nolan frequently has dinner with his servants, as his father is usually too busy running his newspaper and television station. He has no friends among the students; in the movie even Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Harriet Conklin finds Gary stuckup.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • In "Wakeup Plan", after accidently ingesting Mrs. Davis' sleeping pills, Mr. Conklin is caught sleeping in his office by the head of the board, Mr. Stone, and his assistant, Mr. Gleason. Miss Brooks successfully argues that Mr. Conklin was only seen sleeping during the lunch hour and after school - that is, on his own time.
  • "Department Store Contest" features an unusual case of accidental loophole abuse. Miss Brooks wins a prize when a childhood letter to Santa Claus is accidently entered in a children's contest at Sherry's Department. As she wrote the letter when she was a child, she was able to walk away with the prize and avoid trouble.
• Lost Food Grievance:
  • In "The Honest Burglar", and "The Burglar, the television remake, Mr. Conklin is furious at a food thief who stole the fried chicken his wife left for him.
  • In the radio episode "Taking the Rap for Mr. Boynton", Miss Brooks tries to impress Mr. Boynton by framing Mr. Boynton for eating Mr. Conklin's chicken dinner and then taking the blame for him. It Makes Sense in Context. The plan goes south when teenager Walter Denton eats Mr. Conklin's chicken dinner before it can be delivered to Mr. Boynton.
• Lost Voice Plot: Mr. Conklin loses his voice in "Public Speaker's Nightmare", just before he's about to greet important officials from the national board of educations. Unusually for the trope, the cause is psychosomatic.
• Lovable Jock: Stretch Snodgrass, Madison High's star athlete. He's dimwitted, but good natured to the point where he's willing to transfer schools if it'll get his best friend Walter Denton on the Madison football team ("Two Way Stretch Snodgrass). Stretch is apparently very popular, when he accidentally vandalizes the school in "Stuffed Gopher", Miss Brooks and Walter gets a crew of students to fix the damage and cover for him.
• Lovable Rogue: The titular burglar in "The Honest Burglar" and its Sound-to-Screen Adaptation "The Burglar". Miss Brooks' catches him in the act at 5:00 AM raiding the refridgerator in the kitchen of landlady Mrs. Davis. He's been doing this for several months, ever since he's been out-of-work. He had recently stolen a bowl of fried chicken from Dean Bitterman Mr. Conklin. Rather than turn him in, Miss Brooks recommends him as a fill-in for the sick Crusty Caretaker Mr. Burwell.
• Love at First Sight: In The Movie Grand Finale, Miss Brooks falls in love with Mr. Boynton the first time they meet.
• Love Hurts: Miss Brooks is deeply in love with largely Oblivious to Love Mr. Boynton. Because Failure Is the Only Option, Miss Brooks' schemes to get Mr. Boynton to marry her inevitably fail until The Movie Grand Finale when Miss Brooks finally marries Mr. Boynton and lives Happily Ever After.
• Love Letter / Love Letter Lunacy: The plot of the episode "Bones, Son of Cyrano". A love letter gets misdirected and misinterpreted multiple times. Hilarity Ensues. Especially, when Mr. Conklin believes Miss Brooks is in love with him! This is a remake of the radio episode "Poetry Mixup". The only difference is Stretch Snodgrass is replaced by his brother.
• The Magazine Rule: In "Miss Brooks Writes About a Hobo", Miss Brooks seeks out a hobo to write an article about "The Vanishing Hobo" to submit to a schoolteacher's magazine. It so turns out the titular hobo is also writing a magazine article. The hobo's article is entitled "The Vanishing Schoolteacher" and he is paid handsomely by a hobo magazine for its publication.
• Maid and Maiden: Miss Brooks (who is in her late twenties) boards with her widowed landlady Mrs. Davis (who is around sixty years old). Mrs. Davis is like a second mother to Miss Brooks; she's usually Miss Brooks' closest confidante.
• Make an Example of Them: Part of Principal Osgood Conklin's modus operandi at Madison High School. There is, after all, a reason Miss Brooks considers Conklin to be Madison's dictator:
  Miss Brooks: Having expected a one way trip to Devil's Island, I thought the punishment Mr. Conklin meted out was comparatively just. However, it was just after 7:00 that evening when I got home.
  Mrs. Davis: Why Connie, I was getting to get worried about you! Where in the world have you been all afternoon?
  Miss Brooks: I was doing a little writing, Mrs. Davis.
  Mrs. Davis: Writing? What were you writing?
  Miss Brooks: Oh, I don't think you'd be interested, it's not your type of stuff.
  Mrs. Davis: I'm interested in everything you do, Connie. Please, tell me all about it.
  Miss Brooks: Well, if you insist, Mrs. Davis. But you'd better sit down, this may take quite a while.
  Mrs. Davis: Alright. (sits down) There. Now, what did you write?
  Miss Brooks: I wrote "Our principal is the best principal that any school ever had. Our principal is the best principal that any school ever had. Our principal is the best principal that any school ever had..."
• Make-Out Point:
  • On radio and television, the Everytown, America setting of Madison had Outpost Road, a scenic sight in the country outside of town. It's the focus of the radio episode "Outpost Road". Walter Denton and Harriot Conklin had been caught necking out on Outpost Road, but to avoid being identified after their narrow escape, they claimed to have loaned his jalopy to Miss Brooks and Mr Boynton. An interesting prospect for Connie, but she doesn’t want to be dragged into the mess. Connie only agrees to play along if Mr Boynton does. Amazingly, he does, and the two teachers plan to return to the scene of the crime for their own necking session.
  • Due to Executive Meddling, the fourth season of the television program was set in the Los Angeles area with little explanation. On a couple occasions, gym instructor Gene Talbot attempts to take Miss Brooks out to Mulholland Drive. Miss Brooks resists.
• Malevolent Mugshot:
  • Mr. Conklin has an extremely large portrait of himself over his living room fireplace, as first seen in the television premier "Trying to Pick A Fight". It's Played for Laughs, as it indicative of his pomposity and his self-regard. It's worth noting, although Mr. Conklin has a wife and teenage daughter, their portraits are nowhere to be seen.
  • The episode "Old Marblehead" sees Mr. Conklin scheming to get a bust of his head to replace that of Julius Caesar's in the school library. He makes the students and teachers pay for it by levying arbitrary fines via his "Carelesslessness code."
  • In "Friday the Thirteenth", Mr. Conklin posts a photo of himself on the school bulletin board. He is regaled complete in black suit, black hat and midnight-blue tie. His photograph is there to suggest to students and faculty the value of proper dress and deportment. Walter Denton nails a picture of Miss Brooks' body in a French bathing suit beneath Mr. Conklin's head.
  • In "Mr. Conklin's Wax Effigies," Mr. Conklin makes a wax statue of himself. Miss Brooks believes it to Mr. Conklin himself.
  • "Space, Who Needs It?" sees Mr. Conklin, again pranked by Walter Denton, firm in the belief he's discovered a new planet. Conklin names it "Conklin Junior."
  • In "Fargo Whiskers", Mr. Conklin has a small portrait of himself upon his desk. State school-board official Mr. Fargo can't stand sitting there, looking at the photgraph. So, Fargo pushes the portrait face-down.
• Malicious Slander: In "April Fools' Day", Miss Enright writes to a romance columnist using Miss Brooks' initials. She plans to use it to humiliate Miss Brooks in front of Mr. Conklin and his dinner guests.
• Malingering Romance Ploy: In "Pensacola Popovers", Walter Denton mentioned he enjoyed being sick so his girlfriend Harriet Conklin could fuss over him.
• Malt Shop: Marty's Malt Shop, found across the street from Madison High it's practically an institution amongst students and faculty alike.
• Man in a Kilt: Mr. Conklin dresses as a Scotsman in "The Festival", complete with kilt. He's also carrying about bagpipes for good measure.
• Manipulative Editing: In "Public Speakers Nightmare" and "The Tape Recorder", innocuous recordings are accidentally misplayed to produce Miss Brooks saying scandalous things about Mr. Conklin, and Mr. Conklin insulting Mr. Stone, Head of the Board of Education. These recordings, incidentally, are played in front of Mr. Stone...
• Marriage of Convenience:
  • In "King and Brooks", a Indian maharajah proposes marriage to Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks refuses to marry for convenience, it's only a marriage for love that appeals to Connie. However, the fact that Miss Brooks would be the polygamous maharajah's fourth wife had something to do with her reluctance!
  • Refused in the cinematic Grand Finale, Miss Brooks refuses a heartfelt marriage proposal from Lawrence Nolan because she likes, but doesn't love him. Miss Brooks again refuses to marry for anything but love, although Nolan is very wealthy. At the end of the movie, Miss Brooks married Mr. Boynton and lives Happily Ever After
• Married Animals: In the episode "Minerva's Kittens", Mrs. Davis and Miss Brooks wait at the veterinary hospital for Minerva to give birth. They share this exchange:
  Miss Brooks: Please, Mrs. Davis, calm down. Even Timothy isn't as jumpy as you are. You're as nervous as a cat.
  Timothy: ''Meow''.
  Mrs. Davis: What is he doing here?
  Miss Brooks: Why shouldn't he be here? He's Minerva's husband. It's very nice of him to take such an interest.
• Married in the Future:
  • In "The Dream", not only does Mr. Boynton marry Miss Brooks, but teenagers Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin also get married. Mr. and Mrs. Conklin also have a son. Time flash-forwards many years, where it turns out that Mr. Boynton's and Miss Brooks' daughter is going steady with Mr. Conklin's son Osgood Junior.
  • In The Movie Series Finale, Miss Brooks fantasizes about her future married life with Mr. Boynton.
• Married to the Job:
  • Mr. Conklin is devoted to his job at Madison High School. Although he doesn't really need the money, he acts as principal during the summer school months. In the radio episode "Carelessness Code", Mr. Conklin gives his reasons:
  Mr. Conklin: It doesn't matter what time of year it is, Madison High is my baby!
  • In the episode "The Hobby Show" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "The Work Horse"), Miss Brooks' friends fear she's overworking herself. They throw her a hobby afternoon. Hilarity Ensues.
  • In The Movie Grand Finale, Lawrence Nolan is so focussed on running his newspaper that he neglects his son Gary, most nights leaving him to eat with the servants. Gary becomes moody and resentful, deliberately failing English and becoming disliked by his peers. Connie does a good job diagnoising the problem, and helping set father and son to right. Lawrence is so taken with Connie he proposes marriage; Connie likes but does not love him, so she declines. Ultimately Connie marries longtime Love Interest, shy biology teacher Phillip Boynton at film's end.
• Masquerade Ball: Not one, but two:
  • In "The Festival", a masquerade festival is being held in a park near Madison High School.
  • The masquerade in "Cinderella for a Day" is a swankier event, a dance held at the local country club.
• The Matchmaker:
  • In "Weekend At Crystal Lake", Mrs. Conklin tries to play matchmaker for Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton. It backfires horribly.
  • Many times throughout the series, teenager Walter Denton lends his "skills", usually with little positive effect. "Trying to Pick A Fight" and "Life Can Be Bones" are just two of his more flatfooted attempts.
  • It is, however, Mrs. Davis who eventually emerges as the champ. Mrs. Davis' advice in "Tears for Mr. Boynton", nearly gets Miss Brooks a proposal of marriage. However, in The Movie Grand Finale, it is Mrs. Davis' matchmaking that finally gets Miss Brooks married to Mr. Boynton and achieving her Happily Ever After.
• Matte Shot: Used often. A good example is the final scene of "The Big Jump", where the action takes place on the Madison High rooftop with a matte background in behind.
• May–December Romance: Miss Brooks is the subject of two unwanted aged geriatric suitors. ** In "The Telegram", she's the object of affection for Mrs. Davis' nonegenarian Uncle Corky.
  • Meanwhile, the younger, but still senior citizen, Mr. Barlow falls for Miss Brooks in "Puppy Love and Mr. Barlow".
• Maurice Chevalier Accent: French teacher Monsieur LeBlanc. Likewise with any French character that appears on the show (or was heard in the radio version).
• Mayor Pain:
  • Mayor Rimson in "Student Government Day" is a mix of the evil and incompetent. Rimson is so corrupt, he's even getting a kickback from the gangsters running the "Jackpot Amusement Company". The company puts rigged slot machines in candy stores, getting children and teens to gamble away their money on machines that don't pay out. Rimson is reluctantly forced to turn on the crooks; he only does so because his campaign advisor "Honest John" tells him the situation is too hot. In a glaring example of incompetence, Rimson's police force had arrested the Mayor-for-a-day Harriet Conklin, the Police-Chief-for-a-day Walter Denton, and Miss Brooks for good measure.
  • Averted in "Faculty Band" and "Public Property on Parade". Mayor Rimsom had been replaced by an honest, and, based on his appearance in "Public Property on Parade", a competent mayor.
• The McCoy: Miss Brooks routinely made her life difficult bending to the rules to help students avoid trouble or otherwise help friends in need. Or, particularly in "The Birthday Bag" and "The Festival", she'd contribute more to charity than she could afford.
• Meaningful Background Event: It happens occasionally on the program:
  • In "Mr. Casey's Will", Mrs. Davis' sister Angela briefly mentions that her late cat "Mr. Casey" had a widow, a Siamese Cat named "Mrs. Casey". When it comes time for Miss Brooks to read the titular will of Angela's pet cat, she finds out she inherits Mr. Casey's treasure chest. The treasure is a box with Mrs. Casey and the Caseys' newborn kittens.
  • Early in "Fisher's Pawn Shop" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of the radio episode "Baseball Uniforms"), Miss Brooks mislays a letter from principal Jason Brille of Madison High's arch-rival Clay City. There's no time to focus on this: due to Mr. Conklin's mismanagement of the atheltic fund, there's no money to buy baseball uniforms and Madison High School may be forced to cancel the season opener. Throughout the episode, Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton are trying to raise money to buy Madison High School some baseball uniforms so they won't have to cancel the season opener with Clay City. At the end of the episode, the money raised (in Fisher's Pawn Shop), Mr. Fisher looks into the loving cup being pawned. Miss Brooks opens the letter to find out that arch-rival Jason Brille has mismanaged his own school's athletic fund, and has written Madison cancelling the game to the fact the Clay City team has no uniforms!
• Measuringthe Marigolds: Mr. Boynton is prone to this behavior. In "The Magic Tree", when Miss Brooks points out mistletoe, Mr. Boynton takes it as a cue to begin a lecture on the characteristics of the plant.
• Medals for Everyone: In "Mr. Whipple", the eponymous Mr. Whipple, a curmudgeonly millionaire, is impressed by the Madison High crew's kindness. Mr. Whipple drives them to a department store in his limousine, buys them new formal clothes, pays for a band for the school dance, and agrees to browbeat the school board into building a new Madison High School gymnasium.
• Meddlesome Patrolman
  • In "Public Property on Parade", Mrs. Davis' electricity is turned off when she doesn't pay the bill. Miss Brooks types out Mr. Conklin's speech using a card table set up under the street lamp on the sidewalk. A polite, but meddlesome rookie cop comes by and informs her she can't work on the street. He does, at least, carry the typewriter, card table and folding chair back to Mrs. Davis' house!
  • In "Four Leaf Clover", Miss Brooks is plagued by a far less courteous cop. When she accidentally knocks over Mr. Morelli's barber pole, the policeman forces her to go to Morelli's house right away - making Miss Brooks (and Mr. Boynton, who she was supposed to drive to school) very late for school. To add insult to injury, no one is at home and Miss Brooks is required to return later in the day. Hours later, the policeman comes by Madison High and makes Miss Brooks settle with the man whose yard from whom she picked the four-leaf clover. It turns out Miss Brooks caused $50 worth of damage to very expesive golf sod. Finally, when Miss Brooks finally finds Mr. Morelli at home, the meddlesome policeman comes by and quarantines Miss Brooks (and Mr. Conklin, whose airplane tickets Miss Brooks had accidentally pocketed) at Mr. Morelli's house. It seems as if Morelli has the measles, and someone stole his quarantine sign!
• Medium Awareness:
  • Occurs in a rare Breaking the Fourth Wall moment in the episode "Traffic Court". Miss Brooks is sitting on her landlady Mrs. Davis' porch along with Mr. Conklin, Conklin's daughter Harriet, and Walter Denton. A young man drives up to the house, lost and asking for directions:
  Mr. Conklin: Just what is your destination, young man?
  Steve Allen: Hollywood, California. My name is Steve Allen.
  Audience: lengthy applause
  Miss Brooks: Well, judging by the hand you got on this porch, you must be famous!

  • This segment was meant to introduct Steve Allen, whose show aired in same timeslot during the summer of 1950. Three years late, the episode was remade for television as "Trial by Jury", albeit that episode closed with Miss Brooks' appeal to the skeptical jurors.
  • At the end of "Buddy", Ricky Velasco asks that the words "The End" appear above his bullfighter's cape. They do
• Meet The Inlaws:
  • Miss Brooks first meets Mr. Boynton's parents in the radio episode "Mr. Boynton's Parents". Unfortunately, when Miss Brooks first meets them she's helping landlady Mrs. Davis clean the house, so she, in her own words, looks "like a rat drowning in a Quonset Hut". Once Miss Brooks cleans up, she makes a better impression. Mr. Boynton brags about how gay and youthful the kids think Miss Brooks is. Alas, Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin arrive to present Miss Brooks with a special reward for being their "Mother away from Mother".
  • Miss Brooks has occasional, indirect, trouble from Mr. Boynton's parents. Usually, it's Boynton's mother being overprotective or Boynton going to visit his parents instead of spending a vacation with Miss Brooks (i.e. "Magic Christmas Tree")
  • By the time of The Movie Grand Finale, Mr. Boynton's father had passed away. to Miss Brooks surprise, Mrs. Davis eventually conspires with Mrs. Boynton to have Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton Happily Married
• Memorial Statue: The bust of Madison High School's founder and first principal, Yodar Kritch, sits upon a pedestal in the principal's office. In at least one episode, "Fisher's Pawn Shop", Mr. Conklin speaks to the statue of his predecessor.
• Men Can't Keep House: Averted. Mr. Boynton's apartment is seen in "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton". All Miss Brooks has to criticize is the abundance of wildlife specimens and an abundance of doors.
  Miss Brooks: Not bad. If you like wildlife... and doors.
• Men Like Dogs, Women Like Cats: Miss Brooks' landlady Mrs. Davis has a cat named Minerva. In the first episode of the series, "First Day", Mr. Conklin had a pet dog.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Mrs. Davis' reference to increasing "absentmindedness" (as well as that of her sister Angela's and brother Victor) isn't funny if you view it as the first signs of dementia. Most of the time Mrs. Davis' absentmindedness is plain forgetfulness. However, there are exceptions. Especially notable is "Phone Book Follies", where Mrs. Davis' is inadvertently and absentmindedly pocketing people's phone books when she visits.
• Mess on a Plate: Some of Mrs. Davis' Cordon Bleugh Chef dishes fall into this category.
• Military Salute: The Movie Grand Finale retells Miss Brooks' first arrival at Madison High School. Mr. Boynton warns Miss Brooks that Mr. Conklin had served in the army during the war. Boynton warns Conklin was strict and had a military demeanor. Miss Brooks states that she's willing to meet Mr. Conklin halfway, but if he expects to treat her like a buck private he's mistaken. Mr. Conklin then walks up and introduces himself. Miss Brooks immediately stands as straight as a ramrod and salutes.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Miss Brooks' elderly landlady, Mrs. Davis, is shorter than the other characters - including the teenagers. Mrs. Davis' sister, Angela, is also short.
• Mirthless Laughter: An overstressed Miss Brooks laughs nervously in "Hobby Show".
• Misplaced Wildlife: In "Indian Burial Ground", Miss Brooks reads a newspaper article about the lost burial ground of a Arapaho war party that used gold spears decorated with peacock feathers. This raises the question where an Indian tribe would have obtained a supply of peacock feathers in the 19th century United States.
• Missed Him by That Much: Miss Brooks keeps missing Mr. Boynton in "Mr. Boynton's Return". She finally catches him at the airport as he's about to leave town to visit his parents. Mr. Boynton decides to skip his flight, and spend the weekend in town so he can spend time with Miss Brooks.
• Missing Mom: In The Movie Grand Finale, Gary Nolan's mother succumbed to Death by Childbirth, leaving his father Lawrence a widower. Lawrence proposes to Connie Brooks, but Connie ultimately marries longtime Love Interest Mr. Boynton.
• Mistaken Age:
  • In "Mr. Boynton's Parents", Mr. Boynton's parents mistake a housecleaning Miss Brooks for old Mrs. Davis.
  • In "Former Student Visits", Miss Brooks is desperate to appear young. She tries to hide the fact that she's already been teaching high school for several years. Unfortunately for her, the "former student" visiting had been in her very first class. He's since graduated from medical school and become a doctor!
• Mistaken for Dying: The episode "Have Bed - Will Travel" sees Mrs Davis' medical records mixed with an ill nonagenarian friend, making Miss Brooks believe her landlady is mortally ill.
• Mistaken for Fake Hair: In the episode "Mister Fargo Whiskers", Miss Brooks has reason to believe that Walter will be impersonating a state school board official by the name of Fargo. Especially when it turns out that Mr. Fargo's first name is Walter! When Miss Brooks meets Fargo, she insulting mimics his twang (thinking it's a fake accent of Walter Denton). Then she tries to pull of Mr. Fargo's titular whiskers. Miss Brooks makes a hasty retreat when Walter Denton walks into the room... asking for help putting on his fake beard!
• Mistaken for Servant: In "Marriage Madness", Mrs. Davis pretends to be Miss Brooks' maid. Mrs. Davis wants to test her fiancé to see if he wants to marry her for the Davis money. The man's a con artist. He does only want to marry Mrs. Davis for her money.
• Mistaken Identity: Several times, naturally Hilarity Ensues:
  • In "Red River Valley", Mr. Conklin, Harriet, Walter, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton confuse state board official Mr. Jones with Deacon Jones, the "Hillbilly Heifetz" and leader of a square dance troupe.
  • In "Fargo Whiskers", Mr. Conklin believes school official Fargo is a disguised Walter Denton.
  • In "Head of the State Board of Education", thanks to Stretch Snodgrass' bungling, Miss Brooks and company accuse the man with the eponymous title of being an unemployed park bench loafer.
• Mistaken Message: Figures prominently in "Bones, Son of Cyrano".
• Mock Millionaire: Occasional episodes have Miss Brooks play this trope, either to impress a snooty dowager ("Madison Country Club"), protect Mrs. Davis' feelings ("The Return of Red Smith"), or even to derail Mrs. Davis' engagement to a confidence man ("Marriage Madness").
• Modest Royalty: The titular king in "King and Brooks". He wears an ordinary suit. Subverted in Miss Brooks' dream, where Ermine Cape Effect applies.
• Modeling Poses: In "Acting Director", Miss Brooks makes several quick poses for the camera as a Warner Bros. photographer takes snapshots.
• 'Mondegreen Gag: Often the baliwick of Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass. In "Spare That Rod!" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Letter from the Education Board"), Stretch tells Miss Brooks that the Harriet had given him a "mee-mo" to go to the supply room to take "in-vent-ory".
  Stretch Snodgrass: I'm in a real jam, Miss Brooks. I can't find no in-vent-ory no place!"
• Monkey Morality Pose: Two examples:
  • In "The Loaded Custodian", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton mime the three wise monkeys when caught looking for hidden treasure in Mr. Barlow's office.
  • In "Wild Goose", again Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton mime the three wise monkeys when asked by Mr. Conklin who had tricked him into thinking he had won a free television set.
• Morally Bankrupt Banker: The titular Mr. Travers in "Mr. Travers' Three Acre Lot".
• Moral Myopia: In "Clay City English Teacher", Mr. Conklin views it as perfectly acceptable to use incentives to lure teachers away from other schools to Madison High. However, he is disgusted by any effort to lure his teachers away to other schools; in this case, a plan by his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Jason Brille of Clay City High School to steal Miss Brooks.
• Motor Mouth: Walter Denton sometimes talks rapidly when nervous, or when trying to polish the apple. In the episode "Cafeteria Strike", he motors through a student's petition:
  Walter Denton: Whereas and to wit...
  Miss Brooks: That's pretty strong language, isn't it? A little on the pink side.
  Harriet Conklin: Listen, Miss Brooks.
  Walter Denton: When in the course of student's events, it becomes necessary to turn one's back on one's stomach, we the undersigned, exercising our constitutional right to peaceably assemble, and to form a committee to seek the redress of grievances, do hereby announce our firm intention of the Madison High School Cafeteria only to use the tables, chairs, water, napkins and toothpicks provided therein. Until such a time that the duly appointed party or parties, namely Mr. Osgood Conklin, principal, or the Board of Education, responsible for the operational bog-down that has befallen this installation, do take such action that will improve the food, lower the prices and better the service in said cafeteria. It is also recommended the person, or persons, in whom this authority is vested, immediately see that the present chef in charge of preparing the food, and without any further frippery or fanfare, chuck him the heck off the premises. Well Miss Brooks, what do you think of it?
  Miss Brooks: How much do you want for the picture rights?
• Mountain of Food: Walter Denton gets a large breakfast at Mrs. Davis, whenever he arrives to take Miss Brooks to school. This is usually after he has eaten breakfast at home.
• Mouthy Kid: Teenager Walter Denton. This is one of the reasons the Madison High principal, Mr. Conklin, dislikes him. For example, in the radio episode "Non-Fraternization Policy", Walter Denton calls Conklin's new rule demanding the separation of the sexes at school "medieval tyranny". In one television episode, "The Novelist", Mr. Conklin describes former student Terence Layton as "the Walter Denton of his day".
• The Movie: In 1956. Miss Brooks marries Mr. Boynton and lives Happily Ever After.
• The Münchausen: Safari O'Toole, Mrs. Davis's friend in the episode of the same name, pretends to be a gentleman explorer. In spite of his tall tales, he's a likeable character who only mades up his stories so he could impress Mrs. Davis.
• Must Have Lots of Free Time: Sixteen-year-old Walter Denton is almost always driving Miss Brooks to school, and often sees her during the day. This in spite of the fact that he is usually portrayed as relatively popular, and likewise has a steady girlfriend.
• My Beloved Smother: Mr. Boynton hangs on his mother's every word:
  • A few episodes suggest Mr. Boynton is still receiving money from home.
  • In "Mr. Conklin Plays Detective", Mr. Boynton gets into trouble for using Mr. Conklin's telephone to make the long distance call his mother told him to make.
  • The radio episodes "Mr. Boynton's Parents" and "Former Student Visits", suggest Mrs. Boynton has very definite ideas as to the type of woman M. Boynton should marry...
  • In the series' the cinematic Grand Finale, Mr. Boynton ends up buying a house to take care of his ailing mother. However, the elder Mrs. Boynton is ultimately a kind woman, and eventually conspires with Mrs. Davis to ensure Miss Brooks is able to marry her son and live Happily Ever After.
  Mrs. Boynton: Believe me, my dear, I wouldn't stand in the way of your happiness for all the world!
• My Car Hates Me: Miss Brooks' car, when she has one. It's almost always in the shop. In fact, the number of episodes (on either radio and television) where she gets to drive her car can be counted on one hand; namely "Game At Clay City", "Who's Going Where", "Four Leaf Clover", "Brooks' New Car" and "Head of the State Board of Education".
• My Card: The shyster lawyer in "Hospital Capers" gives his card to Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton.
• My Nayme Is: In "Suzie Prentiss", Suzie spells her surnmame "Prentisss". A Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Stretch Is In Love".
• Mysterious Stranger:
  • A mysterious shoe salesman follows Miss Brooks in "Oh, Dem Gold Slippers".
  • Miss Brooks is followed around by a mysterious man in "Here is Your Past". This individual steals Walter's article for the school paper, Mr. Boynton's diary, and Mr. Conklin's faculty card for Miss Brooks.
• Mystery Episode: At least three:
  • "Mr. Conklin Plays Detective": Someone sneaks into Mr. Conklin's office one Friday afternoon, steals his typewriter and makes a long-distance call to Rockaway, Minnesota. It's Mr. Boynton. But he left the money for the call, along with an explanation. He oiled the typewriter and put it away in Mr. Conklin's closet
  • "Postage Due": Miss Brooks wants to return the ten cents postage due the friendly old neighborhood postman. When a postman delivers a letter with postage due, he's deducted the money from his salary. Unfortunately, the postman has retired and apparently disappeared. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin are worried about his well-being and try to find him. the postman is a crook about to board a ship to South America. Miss Brooks' honesty and concern actually prompted the US post office to investigate his whereabouts to help their former employee. To everybody's surprise, he's been embezzling cheques and cash placed in his trust
  • "The Jewel Robbery": Miss Brooks mistakenly believes Mr. Boynton robbed a jewelry store It's actually a dishwasher in the school cafeteria. The dishwasher was also stealing cafeteria funds
• Mystical India:
  • In "The Hurricane" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Radio Bombay"), Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin listen to a report on Walter's home-made radio warning of the imminent arrival of a fierce hurricane. Unbeknownst to them, the station was broadcasting from Bombay, India. Before signing off in anticipation of the hurricane, the reporter advises them to board up the windows with bamboo shoots, disperse all natives to the hills, and tether their elephants.
  • In "King and Brooks", Miss Brooks dreams she marries a maharajah. In Miss Brooks' dream her elderly landlady Mrs. Davis is the head dancing girl while principal Mr. Conklin appears as a snake charmer.
• The Napoleon: Invoked in the first season radio episode "Easter Outfit". In a prime example of Early-Installment Weirdness, Walter Denton mentions that Principal Conklin's nickname amongst the students is "Napoleon", due to his pompousness, irascibility and bad temper. A few months later, that nickname was RetGoned, the radio version of "Mr. Conklin's Carelessness Code" (later remade for television) forever established Conklin's nickname amongst the students and faculty as being "Old Marblehead".
• Narrating the Obvious: Lampshaded by Miss Brooks in "School Mascot":
  Miss Brooks: Well, as they used to say before television, let's go in.
• Narrator: On the radio, a narrator introduces the show and gives a brief introduction. Often enough, the introduction passes to Miss Brooks who gives comments of her own on her role and reaction to the upcoming events. Sometimes, the narrator or Miss Brooks give another short narration after the message from the the sponsor.
• Nearly Normal Animal : Type three, Almost Normal Animals.
  • Mrs. Davis' cat Minera and Mr. Boynton's frog Mcdougall are, on occasion, much smarter than your average cat or frog.
  • In the radio episode "The Frog" Miss Brooks receives a call from a tom cat meowing for Minerva.
  • When Minerva has kittens ("Minerva's Kittens"), her "husband" Tim is with Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis in the vet's waiting room. Tim faints when he's told he's the father of six.
• Needlework Is for Old People: Mrs. Davis' hobby is knitting ("Hobby Show"). However, she is also adept at sewing and dressmaking ("Madison Country Club"). A few episodes reference the fact Mrs. Davis is a member of a sewing circle ("The Stolen Wardrobe" and "Mr. Casey's Will").
• Nepotism:
  • In the episode "Cafeteria Strike", Mr. Conklin hires Mr. Turnbull, his unemployed brother-in-law, as the school chef. His cooking is so bad the students at Madison High School boycott the cafeteria.
  • In the final television season, the vice principal of Mrs. Nestor's private elementary school is Oliver Munsee, brother to Winona and Ruth Nestor.
  • In "New Gym Instructor", Miss Brooks is given the opportunity to choose the new gym instructor. Mr. Conklin tries to get Miss Brooks to choose his brother, Sam Conklin.
  • In "Twins at School", Mr. Conklin tries to get Miss Brooks fired so he can hire his sister in her place.
• Neutral Female: Invoked in The Movie Grand Finale, although Miss Brooks' first reaction was to try and subvert the trope. Connie Brooks is a guest on the Nolan motor yacht on Crystal Bay (Crystal Lake on television and radio). Prompted by Connie' landlady Mrs. Davis, a jealous and worried Philip Boynton rows out to check up on Miss Brooks. Trying to climb up the ladder onto the boat, Boynton ignores Lawrence Nolan's warning about the loose rungs. Boynton falls into the water. Connie immediately moves to the life preserver, but Nolan insists he does the rescuing. As it is, Connie is more worried about Boynton rather than who does the rescuing.

  Lawrence Nolan: Never mind. I'll save him. I'm a man.

• Never-Forgotten Skill:
  • "Mr. Whipple" sees Mrs. Davis fill in as a nurse for the titular miserly millionaire... in spite of having left the nursing profession many years before.
  • Subverted in the episode "The First Aid Course", where Miss Brooks pretends to have forgotten first aid in order to avoid teaching a night course. This backfires when romantic rival and fellow teacher Miss Enright ends up continuing the course - and Mr. Boynton signs up.
• Never Mess with Granny: In "Angela's Wedding", Mrs. Davis beats up a hulking gym teacher when he criticizes the deviled eggs she prepared.
• Never Recycle a Building: In the cinematic series finale the house across the street from Mrs. Davis' remains vacant and "For Sale" from the time Miss Brooks moves in. Explained in story by Mr. Webster, the realtor, as being due to the fact the owner is asking too much money. From the start, Miss Brooks sees this as her future dream house where she will live in wedded bliss. At the end of the film, Mr. Boynton buys the house, and marries Miss Brooks.
• Never Say "Die": In the episode "Mr. Casey's Will", virtually every euphemism for dying is used, i.e. "shuffle off this mortal coil". Mr. Casey was Angela Devon's beloved pet cat. Oddly averted in other episodes of the series (i.e. Postage Due), which even includes an occasional suicide joke.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Played for Laughs in "A Dry Scalp is Better Than None". Mrs. Davis' sister Angela is psychologically ill, and feels a need for sympathy. Angela is told by her doctor that she'll live to be a hundred. Angela is annoyed at being told-off for her hypochrondia, and ends up telling Miss Brooks that she's dying. Miss Brooks resolves to throw Angela a Christmas in July (well, early spring actually). Mr. Conklin is at first adverse, calling Angela a "scatter-brained busybody". When Conklin learns of Angela's "condition", he sobs over the dear sweet soul and agrees to come dressed as Santa Claus. In truth, Angela is characterized as both as scatter-brained busy body and a Kind Hearted Cat Lover.
• Never Trust a Title: Many episode titles in Our Miss Brooks are Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Others are deliberately misleading. For example, "The Hurricane" does not have Miss Brooks and the gang survive a hurricane. Miss Brooks and Harriet mistakenly think there's a hurricane coming when they hear the storm warning on Walter Denton's homemade radio. They fail to listen to the rest of the broadcast, missing the reveal that they were listening to a station broadcasting from Bombay, India.
  British Radio Announcer: Tether your elephants! I repeat, tether your elephants!
• Never Win the Lottery: Miss Brooks falls victim to this trope in "The $350,000 Question".
• New Job Episode: "Vitamin E-12" and "Le Chien Chaud Et Le Mouton Noir" see Miss Brooks get positions outside school.
• New Transfer Student: The titular "New Girl in Town". Harriet Conklin is jealous because the new girl is after Walter Denton. Things don't become serious, until Miss Brooks finds out that the girl's mother has eyes for Love Interest Mr. Boynton.
• New Year, Same Class: Walter Denton, Harriet Conklin and Stretch Snodgrass are always in Miss Brooks' English class and Mr. Boynton's Biology class. Subverted once in "Faculty Cheerleader", where Mr. Conklin places Walter, Harriet and Stretch in separate English classes to punish Walter Denton; however the status quo is restored by the end.
• Nice Guy:
  • Miss Brooks is a nice girl example, who is always trying to help others (and marry Mr. Boynton). Mr. Boynton is also a nice guy, unfortunately for Miss Brooks, he's Oblivious to Love.
  • Harriet Conklin also counts as a nice girl example. Her father, scheming and domineering Mr. Conklin, is definitely not a nice guy. Walter Denton is likely too much of a prank player and troublemaker to qualify.
  • Stretch Snodgrass (and his brother Bones) also qualify.
• Nice Kitty...: Happens with "Peanuts, the Great Dane" in the episode of the same name.
• Nightmare Sequence: Miss Brooks suffers through nightmare sequences on at least three different occasions:
  • In "Connie's New Job Offer," Miss Brooks dreams she leaves Madison and becomes the mayor of a city in New Jersey. However, the dreams ends with Councilman Conklin impeaching her for her tyrannical rule over the city.
  • In "Connie Tries To Forget Mr. Boynton," Miss Brooks' efforts to forget about Mr. Boynton leads her to see his face on everyone: the American ambassador to India, a society matron, a fourteen-year-old boy, even a baby. Fortunately, it was just a dream.
  • In "Friendship," Miss Brooks suffers a recurring dream where a man chases her with a knife.
• Nobody Here but Us Statues: In "Hobbies", Mr. Conklin and Mr. Boynton masquerade as wax figures to hide from Board Superintendent Mr. Stone.
• No Indoor Voice: Mr. Conklin doesn't try to temper his voice. A notable exception occurs in the radio episode "Friday The Thirteenth", where Mr. Conklin states that to lose control in the presence of others displays ill breeding. He then proceeds to go into a closet and yell.
• Noir Episode: "Postage Due" sees Miss Brooks search for a vanished postman wearing a trench coat and narrating the action with a Private Eye Monologue.
• Non-Idle Rich: Several examples over the course of the series:
  • In "Mr. Whipple", the titlular character is a wealthy entrepreneur who has often worked as a "dollar-a-year" man advising various government agencies.
  • In the radio episode "Mr. Lathrop Returns to School", Mr. Lathrop is another wealthy entrepreneur. He's left the business world to finish his high school diploma. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Mr. Stone, the head of the Board of Education. In The Movie Grand Finale, Mr. Conklin notes that Mr. Stone not only owns a prosperous insurance company, but has left the running of it to his son.
  • In the fourth television season, there's siblings Mrs. Winona Nester, Mrs. Ruth Nestor, and Mr. Munsee. They own and operate a private elementary school.
  • Also in The Movie Grand Finale, there's Mr. Lawrence Nolan, the wealthy newpaper editor and owner of a local television station.
• Non-Fatal Explosions: In "Home Cooked Meal", Mr. Conklin lights a match in a kitchen that has filled with natural gas. Mr. Conklin only ends up slightly blackened, although the roast turkey that had been sitting in the oven ends up mushed all over Mr. Conklin.
• No Prison Segregation:
  • The radio episode "Student Government Day" sees Miss Brooks thrown into jail with teenagers Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin and all the other high-schoolers elected to city-positions-for-a-day. Miss Brooks is rather happy when Mr. Boynton is thrown in as well.
  • In "Bobbsey Twins In Stir", Miss Brooks is jailed alongside Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin and Mr. Stone. Miss Brooks explains that the women's tank was full. Again, Miss Brooks was happy to be alone with Mr. Boynton . . . but Mr. Conklin being thrown into the jail cell ended her reverie.
• No Snack for You: In "The Weighing Machine", the eponymous machine takes a penny from Miss Brooks but doesn't give her weight. Egged on by her friends, Miss Brooks spends the rest of the episode trying to get the penny returned on principle.
• No Such Thing as H.R.: For all intents and purposes, Miss Brooks only has two superiors.
  • Mr. Conklin, the principal of Madison High School, is Connie Brooks' immediate superior. He can order Connie around at school; and even assign her to type his speeches or paperwork at night. The one power Mr. Conklin doesn't seem to have is the power to fire Miss Brooks.
  • Mr. Conklin's superior, Mr. Stone, the Head of the Board of Education, does. Stone also has a veto over all staffing decisions at the various schools; including the appointment of department heads. Stone is usually able to dismiss or retire principals and teachers at will, something he does with several over-the-hill principals in "Noodnick, Daughter of Medic". However, in "Foreign Teachers" and The Movie Grand Finale, Stone needs to get permission from the rest of the school board to actually dismiss a principal. at the end of The Movie, Miss Brooks' marries Mr. Boynton
• Nosy Neighbor: A variation on the trope appears in the episode "The Party Line". Here, Miss Brooks (and landlady Mrs. Davis) are plagued by "Grace". Grace is a woman on their party line who ties up the line constantly talking to her best friend Bertha. However, she doesn't stop there. Grace and her husband consistently listen in on Miss Brooks' conversation. At the end of episode, Miss Brooks succeeds in having the party line changed, only to end up sharing a phone with Bertha who is always talking to Grace. The episode ends with Bertha interrupting Miss Brooks' conversation with Mr. Boynton, and trying to get his phone number!
• Notably Quick Deliberation: In "Trial by Jury" (and its radio equivalent, "Reckless Driving"), Miss Brooks notes the jury made a quick decision, punishing her with "a rather stiff fine". Mr. Conklin, who was on the jury, wanted to hurry out of court and go fishing.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore:
  • In "Spare That Rod!", a temporarily humbled Mr. Conklin tries to curry favor with his students and faculty - after being tricked into thinking his job was hanging by a thread for being "flagrantly dictatorial". Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass take advantage of this to present him with a petition. Mr. Conklin, again assured that his job is safe, shouts them out of his office.
  • In "Marinated Hearing", Miss Brooks decides to tell off a temporarily deaf Mr. Conklin. Unfortunately for Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin had just recovered his hearing...
• Not a Morning Person: Miss Brooks sometimes finds it hard to get up in the morning.
• The Noun Who Verbed: Our Miss Brooks had a few episodes named in this format. For example, on television there was "Mr. Conklin Plays Detective". On the radio, the episode "Connie Tries To Forget Mr. Boynton" followed this trope.
• Nuclear Family: The Conklins, Osgood, Martha and teenage Harriet, are a nuclear family, and the only one shown on screen ("The Embezzled Dress"). Teacher's Pet Walter Denton also lives with his sometimes-referenced Mother and Father ("Hawkins Travel Agency"). Harriet Conklin and Walter Denton each suffer from Only-Child Syndrome. Recurring characters Stretch (Fabian) and Bones (Winston) Snodgrass are in a larger nuclear family. In "Stretch Has A Problem", Stretch refers to having one brother (Bones), and two sisters . . . one of whom is named Rapunzel Snodgrass.
• Oblivious to Love: Mr. Boynton often suffers this trope, much to Miss Brooks dismay. He finally catches on in The Movie Grand Finale. The folowing exchange is from "Student Government Day":

  Mr. Boynton: Fate seems to be throwing us together.

  Miss Brooks: Compared to me, fate is a sandlot pitcher.

• Obstacle Ski Course: In "Skis In The Classroom", Miss Brooks ends up skiing downhill without knowing how to ski. Miss Brooks ends her ski with a very ill advised maneuver; she skis toward a tree, grabs onto the branches and tumbles into the snow!
• Obstructive Bureaucrat:
  • Miss Brooks runs into an obstructive clerk (played by Frank Nelson) in "Custodian of Students Funds". Mrs. Davis accidently uses school money to buy Miss Brooks a present from Sherry's Department Store. Miss Brooks tries to return the dress to Sherry's, a store that promises if the customer isn't satisfied their money will be "cheerfully refunded". After being given the third degree on the reason for the return, Miss Brooks is turned down because the dress was sold on sale. The scene is ommitted in the Sound-to-Screen Adaptation "The Embezzled Dress"
  • Another obstructive clerk from Sherry's appears on the television episode "Christmas Show". This time it Sherry's promises to "cheerfully exchange" goods. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin each face the ill-tempered Mrs. Carney as they try to exchange their presents before Christmas.
• Oddball in the Series: The last season of the television series, the product of Executive Meddling. Madison High School turns out to have been in Los Angeles. Not the City of Madison - as had been the case before. What's more, it's immediately being torn down for a new freeway. Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin start working at Mrs. Nestor's private school.
  • These changes were completely ignored by the radio series. Our Miss Brooks ended with a theatrical series finale that followed the radio continuity and ignored the final TV season entirely.
• Ode to Intoxication: In "Old Clothes for Party" Miss Brooks is annoyed by a drunk who interrupts her call on the telephone party line. After finally managing to get rid of him, she sings a parody of "Comin' Through the Rye":
  Miss Brooks: When a buddy meets a buddy, he's had too much rye!
• Office Sports: In "Trial By Jury", Mr. Conklin practices his casting in his office.
• Official Couple: Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton don't formally get together until The Movie, but everyone sees it coming (even, eventually, Mr. Boynton). Teenagers Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin are boyfriend and girlfriend as well.
• Official Kiss: Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton finally get one in the cinematic series finale.
• Oh, Crap!: Miss Brooks' expression in "Home Cooked Meal" when she realizes that Mr. Conklin (whose nose is stuffed up) is about to light a match in a kitchen that had been silently filling with gas . . . .
• Oktoberfest: Discussed by Miss Brooks in "Hawkins Travel Agency", when trying to sell Mr. Stone on a trip to Switzerland:
  Miss Brooks (speaking in a German accent): And then we go to the Bavarian Alps. Immediately you notice there is a big difference.
  Mr. Boynton: A big difference?
  Miss Brooks: Ja. There with the women and the song, you get beer. Achtung what beer! Two bottles and you ski down the whole mountain without your skis.
• Offscreen Crash: In "Brooks' New Car", Mr. Conklin buys a car and goes roaring into his driveway. Unfortunately, Miss Brooks had left a small wagon in the driveway. Miss Brooks and Mrs. Conklin wince as they hear a terrible crashing sound. Following the car crash, Mr. Conklin is himself crashed through the wall of his house, riding the hand wagon gripping the cars' steering wheel. According to Mr. Conklin, the rest of the car had flown over the garage.
• Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: Miss Brooks prepares for her role as proxy in "June Bride" as if she were really getting married.
• Old-Fashioned Rowboat Date: Miss Brooks goes on a couple with Mr. Boynton:
  • In the radio episode "An American Tragedy", the date is marred when Miss Brooks jumps to the conclusion that Mr. Boynton is going to try to kill her so he can date a rich society girl. Matters get worse when Mr. Conklin jumps to the same conclusion, and hides aboard. Things get even worse when the rowboat starts to sink . . . .
  • The television episode "Blind Date" ends far more romantically. Their spat ended, Mr. Boynton invites Miss Brooks to spend the evening out on the lake as he serenades her with his ukulele. As Mr. Boynton gets his ukulele, Miss Brooks goes to the wishing well to make a wish. Instead of tossing in one coin, she decides to throw in every coin in her purse!
• Old-Timey Bathing Suit: In "Heat Wave", Miss Brooks notices Mr. Boynton, Harriet Conklin, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass are wearing bathing suits beneath their regular clothes. They're quite evidently in the old timey style, given the fact Miss Brooks sees the suits sticking out of their collars.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Mr. Boynton is supposed to be a biology teacher. However, he's also an expert in chemistry ("Living Statues") and paleontology ("Life Can Be Bones"). Besides that, he was once chosen to grade the final English exams ("Head of the English Department").
• One Phone Call: In "Bobbsey Twins In Stir", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin are all locked up in gaol for selling forged tickets to the policeman's ball. They pool their change, so they can use their one phone call to contact the head of the board of education, Mr. Stone (Mr. Stone lives in the country, thus it's a toll call). Lo and behold, before they're finished counting their change Mr. Stone is brought to gaol, having also been caught selling fraudulent tickets!
• Onion Tears: In the episode "Tears for Mr. Boynton", Mrs. Davis advises Miss Brooks that she has to appear more vulnerable to attract Mr. Boynton. Mrs. Davis hides onions in Miss Brooks' purse.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Stretch (Fabian) Snodgrass, and his brother Bones (Winston).
• Only Sane Employee: Miss Brooks is oftentimes the only reliable person at Madison High School. Surprisingly often she is called upon to get Principal Osgood Conklin out of trouble or alternatively to stand up to his dictatorial edicts, i.e. "Blue Goldfish", "Public Property on Parade", "School on Saturday", "Wakeup Plan". Other times, she's just around to save the day for a student, i.e. "Stuffed Gopher" and "Two Way Stretch Snodgrass".
• Only Sane Man: Miss Brooks often serves this role, as she is constantly dealing with the eccentricities of the people around her.
• On the Money: Miss Brooks often finds herself short of cash, as in "Easter Outfit", "Fischer's Pawn Shop", "The Festival", and "School T.V. Set".
• Opening Narration: On the radio, each episode began with a short narration by a male narrator. He would introduce Miss Brooks as an English teacher at Madison High School. Often, he would go on to provide more information relevant to the current episode. This, in turn, would prompt a wry remark or two by Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks' narration led into the episode proper.
• Operation: Jealousy: Used by Connie a few times on Phillip Boynton, to varying effect, i.e. "Hello Mr. Chips". Proves highly potent in the movie, enough for Connie to finally get her man.
• Opposite Day: "Turnabout Day" at Madison High School, the brainchild of Walter Denton. Teachers were students and students were teachers, and Walter Denton was principal, regaled in a Osgood-Conklin style three-piece-suit. Miss Brooks wore a pair of tight jeans to school. Stretch Snodgrass taught English while wearing a dress (and carrying a football). Mr. Conklin wore a three-propeller beanie and a Mickey Mouse shirt. Mr. Conklin had wanted nothing to do with the notion; but the head of the board of education, Mr. Stone, had "ordered" it. That is to say that Walter Denton forged Mr. Stone's signature on a letter to Mr. Conklin . . . .
• Opposites Attract:
  • Snarky Connie Brooks and shy Phillip Boynton. Connie is more perceptive than Mr. Boynton, but several scenes show that they are both kind, generous and intelligent individuals. Connie and Phillip marry at the end of The Movie Grand Finale
  • High-School Hustler and Book Dumb Walter Denton and principal's daughter Book Smart Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Harriet Conklin.
  • Osgood Conklin, the blustery, pompous school principal. Martha Conklin, his kindly wife . . . who is known to put her foot down on occasion (i.e. "Trying to Pick a Fight").
• Order Versus Chaos: At Madison High School, there was order represented by Osgood Conklin, the Dean Bitterman who ran the school in a orderly manner (in "Mr. Boynton's Parents", Miss Brooks has a nightmare of Mr. Conklin telling her to "stay on the ball", "hold the line" and "run the school in an orderly manner"). He goes so far as to hang signs such as "Respect through Power" ("Spare That Rod!) and "No Goldbricking" (The Movie Grand Finale) through the school. Opposed to Mr. Conklin was chaos in the form of High-School Hustler Walter Denton, who played pranks like making Conklin look like a drunk ("Cure That Habit"), blasting an ancient cannon ("Marinated Hearing"), and writing a fraudulent letter forcing Mr. Conklin to let the students act as teachers for the day ("Turnabout Day"). In between these two extremes was Miss Brooks, who disapproved of Mr. Conklin's strict and overbearing manner in running the school - once even calling Conklin the most "unprincipled principal in the country" ("The Novelist"). However, she indeed wanted to teach while shielding Teacher's Pet Walter Denton from the consequences of his more outrageous pranks. The conservative and shy Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks' Love Interest, was between Mr. Conklin and Miss Brooks' in outlook, although a Nice Guy without Conklin's faults.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin meet the bill, although Harriet's somewhat atypical in the fact her father is the high school principal. Neither are the program's protagonist, that honor goes to English teacher Miss Brooks.
• Origin Story:
  • The first radio episode, appropriately titled "First Day", relates Mr. Conklin's arrival as newly appointed principal.
  • In "Borrowing Money To Fly", it's Miss Brooks' arrival in Madison that's explained. Mr. Conklin has already long been comfortably ensconced as principal of Madison High School.
  • The first ten minutes of the cinematic series finale again relates Miss Brooks' initial arrival in Madison.
• Our Founder: Mr. Conklin keeps a bust of Yodar Kritch, the estemeed founder of Madison High School, upon a pedestal in his office. It stands prominently beside the door through the first season. Yodar Kritch, whenever he's mentioned at Madison High School, is refererred to in an almost reverential air.
• Out-of-Genre Experience: "Postage Due" is a mystery, turning into a Noir Episode by the end.
• Overalls and Gingham: In "Red River Valley", Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton and Walter try to get jobs with Deacon Jones' hillbilly dance troupe. Miss Brooks dresses in Gingham, while Mr. Boynton dresses in overalls. Mr. Conklin and Walter don't follow the trope; Conklin wears a dirty shirt and suspenders while Walter wears a ragged hat and vest.
• Overlord Jr.: In "Babysitting New Years Eve", Miss Brooks babysits Mr. Conklin's bratty nephew, who's constantly yelling "I want a drink of water!". Averted with Mr. Conklin's daughter, Harriet, a series regular who is very much a friend of Miss Brooks'.
• Overly Long Name: One episode featured an attempt by Mr. Conklin to borrow Mrs. Davis's house trailer from Miss Brooks. He wanted to go fishing on an isolated lake, deep in the wilderness. The name of the lake, and the title of the episode? "Oo Oo Me Me Tocoludi Gucci Moo Moo." It's the local Indians' word for "blue."
• Overthe Shoulder Carry: When Mr. Boynton joins the "Volunteer Fire Laddies", Miss Brooks offers to help him practice his over-the-shoulder carry. They do this at the two-storey Conklin house with Walter Denton's help in setting-up the ladder. Unfortunately, when he comes home Mr. Conklin jumps to the conclusion that Walter is eloping with his daughter Harriet.
• Parallel Parking: In "Taking the Rap for Mr. Boynton", Miss Brooks "helps" Mr. Boynton parallel park his car. She advises him to back up just a little more . . . resulting in him destroying Mr. Conklin's bumper.r
• Paranormal Episode: "Music Box Revue" sees Miss Brooks purchase a magic music box that can only be heard by people in the proper Christmas spirit.
• Parasol of Pain: In "Plaque for Mr. Conklin", Mrs. Davis belts Mr. Conklin with a mahogany handled umbrella. She thinks Mr. Conklin has amnesia. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Parking Problems: While Miss Brooks has had trouble parking off and on through the series, "Trial by Jury" features a truly Epic Fail. She leaves her car parked on a hill, another driver bumps her car forward. The parking brake is released, and her car rushes downhill and crashes into a fruit stand. Miss Brooks returns just in time to get the blame.
• Parlor Games: In "Parlor Game", Miss Brooks invents a complicated parlor version of Calvinball, in order to push Mr. Conklin into taking his family out for the evening as a more palatable alternative.
• Parody Episode: The second-half of "Postage Due" is a parody of Dragnet.
• Passing Notes in Class: In "Bones, Son of Cyrano", Mr. Boynton confiscates a love poem Walter was writing for Harriet.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat: This descibes Miss Brooks' relationship to her Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Miss Enright. Whenever the two meet, prepare for a cavalcade of catty remarks. Miss Enright takes the matter further, often dropping a Stealth Insult or two about Miss Brooks in front of her students.
  Walter Denton: Miss Enright's always saying nice things about you, Miss Brooks."
  Miss Brooks: She is? Miss Enright?
  Walter Denton: Yes, just the other day Miss Enright said you have the most natural blonde hair she's ever seen on a brunette.
• The Patriarch: Mr. Conklin. In addition to being the dictatorial principal at Madison High School, he views himself as head of his family in the traditional sense. He is very pompous, having a large photo of himself above the fireplace. He is unmovable when he makes a decision, as his daughter Harriet well knows. He shouts out orders. In "Bartering With Chief Thundercloud" (he orders the visiting Miss Brooks to answer the door). In the "Yodar Kritch Award", Walter Denton relates how Mr. Conklin couldn't find a sock and shouted orders at everyone in the house. However, Mr. Conklin's authority isn't absolute. Episodes like "The Embezzled Dress" and "Connie and Frankie" show that Mrs. Conklin can also put her foot down.
• Peace Pipe: In the episode "Bartering with Chief Thundercloud", Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin smoke a peace pipe with the eponymous chief.
• Performance Anxiety: "Public Speaker's Nightmare".
• Perplexing Plurals: How do you refer to two men with the same surname? In "Mr. Boynton's Parents", nervousness sees Miss Brooks momentarily confused as to the correct manner in referencing Mr. Boynton and his father:
  Miss Brooks: Where's Mr. Boynton? Or should I say where are Mr. Boyntons . . . or Misters Boynton . . . where's everybody?
• Pet Baby Wild Animal': Miss Brooks and the Madison High crowd adopt an injured swallow in "Capistrano's Revenge".
• Pet Heir: Discussed by Miss Brooks and her landlady Mrs. Davis at the beginning of "Mr. Casey's Will". Then inverted: Mrs. Davis' sister Angela is heartbroken over the demise of her cat Mr. Casey. To honour her late cat, Angela has her lawyer write a will with Mr. Casey at the testator. Angela wishes to use this to honour Mr. Casey's (human) friends. Miss Brooks finds herself acting as the executrix of the will. Hilarity Ensues.
• Pets as a Present: It happens twice to Our Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks gets a puppy as a prize on "Here is Your Past". In an earlier radio episode, Miss Brooks gets saddled with the titular "Peanuts, The Great Dane".
• Pet the Dog: Osgood Conklin, principal of Madison High School, is a pompous blowhard and inveterate schemer. Miss Brooks and Conklin dislike one another, yet they're at worst only Friendly Enemies. Mr. Conklin is far from all bad, and his many pet the dog moments establish him more as a nuisance than a genuine villain.
  • In "Hobby Show", Mr. Conklin is seen fixing toys to donate to underprivileged children.
  • In "Capistrano's Revenge", Conklin relents on his no-animals-in-school policy, and lets Miss Brooks nurse an injured sparrow back to good health.
  • Having reported Miss Brooks to the school board for tardiness in "Wake-up Plan", Mr. Conklin relents after Miss Brooks gets him out of trouble. He agrees to cancel the titular Wake-up Plan, and also says Bless you.
  • In "Postage Due", Mr. Conklin joins Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton in looking for the missing elderly postman.
  • In "Bobbsey Twins in Stir", Mr. Conklin is eager to raise money for the Red Cross during a charity drive.
  • An earlier radio episode, "Babysitting for Three", sees Mr. Conklin take over babysitting duties from Miss Brooks.
• Phoney Call: Used in "Connie and Frankie". Mr. Conklin pretends to call his wife Martha over his disconnected office phone, to order her to let the (female) Frankie stay as their house guest. The scheme fails as Martha shows up to visit Mr. Conklin at school.
• Picky Eater: In "Mr. Boynton's Barbeque" this is part of the plot. Osgood Conklin hates Cdfish Balls. Yet, once a week Martha Conklin makes them for dinner. Mr. Conklin goes so far as to "accidentally" vaccuum the fishy dinner up, and get himself invited to the eponymous barbeque to avoid them.
• Picnic Episode: "Our Miss Brooks" has three picnic episodes, each of them ending with picnic basket mishaps:
  • The fourth season television episode "Burnt Picnic Basket" sees the picnic baskets thrown into the incinerator by mistake. And it rains!
  • The radio episode "Head of the Board", has Miss Brooks and company take Mr. Boynton's car to their before-school-year picnic. Unfortunately, the picnic basket had been left in Miss Brooks' car!
  • Finally, in "Winter Outing", Madison High School is set to enjoy the annual mid-winter picnic started by Madison High's esteemed founder, Yodar Kritch. Unfortunately, this time the food for the picnic is send to the laundry. Meanwhile, the faculty and students of Madison have a unappetizing lunch of dirty football uniforms.
• Picture Day: In the episode "Friday the 13th", a tasteless prank by Walter Denton, combined with Stretch Snodgrass's bungling, result in yearbook proofs being printed with Miss Brooks' head atop Mr. Conklin's body.
• Pie in the Face: Mr. Conklin finds himself the victim of this trope a couple times.
• Pimped-Out Car: Walter Denton's jalopy. Although usually a wreck, sometimes he amps up the engine, other times he simply adds seat covers.
• Pink Elephants: Referenced in "Cure That Habit", when Mr. Stone wrongly suspects Mr. Conklin of being drunk and having hallucinations.
• Pink Is Feminine: In the penultimate episode of the television series, "Principal for a Day", Miss Brooks is principal for a day of Mrs. Nestor's Private Elementary School. Miss Brooks' decides to make the school more attractive to mothers visiting the school and thinking of enrolling their children; she decorates the school with a lot of chintz. Including the animal cages of the science room. She goes so far as to paint Vice Principal Mr. Munsee's desk and office a "shocking pink".
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: We almost never see (or in the radio version, hear) Miss Brooks actually teaching English, although she's said to be quite good at it. The rare glimpses seen of Miss Brooks actually teaching are usually played for laughs, such as her tutoring of Stretch Snodgrass in "The Yodar Kritch Award". The same goes for Mr. Boynton, whose canonical biology lectures consist of one about the skeletal structure of frogs in "Mr. Conklin's Wake Up Plan".
• Pit Trap: * In the episode "Sneaky Peepers", Madison High School receives a copy of Rodin's statue "The Kiss" instead of "The Thinker". Principal Conklin orders it covered up with a tarpaulin. At lunch, Conklin punishes Walter Denton for peeking at it. Denton protests his innocence, and sets up a trap sending anyone peeking at the statue falling into a locked supply room in the basement. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Walter Denton himself and finally school board head Mr. Stone fall into the basement supply room.
• Plank Gag: In "Going Skiing", Miss Brooks knocks off a pair of Mr. Conklin's glasses with one of her skis.
• Platonic Valentine At play in Valentine's Day episodes such as "The Frog" and "Valentine's Day Date". Miss Brooks gets platonic valentines from students like Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass. She also receives valentines from various tradespeople, including an advertisement from a scissors-sharpener. In "Valentine's Day Date" she does receive the one valentine she wants . . . from Mr. Boynton, albeit not as romantic as she hoped.
• Playing Cyrano: Cyrano de Bergerac is behind much of the mayhem in the radio episode "Poetry Mixup" and its television remake "Bones, Son of Cyrano". Mr. Boynton provides Walter Denton with a poem from Cyrano to gives to Harriet Conklin. Harriet thinks that Mr. Boynton intended the letter for her. Harriet puts the letter in an old enevelope and hands it back to Mr. Boynton. Mr. Boynton hands it to Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks gives Stretch Snodgrass (Bones in the remake) the poem as something with which to woo Harriet. Through yet another mixup, Stretch delivers the love poem to Principal Osgood Conklin instead of Miss Brooks' requisition for flowerpots.
  Mr. Conklin: (reading) "Your name hangs in my heart like a bell's tongue." Now really!
• Playing Sick:
  • In "Babysitting for Three", an early radio episode, Miss Brooks phones Mr. Conklin to say she won't be in today as she's sick. In reality, she was roped into babysitting for three children while their mother is in the hospital.
  • In "Blue Goldfish", Walter Denton and Miss Brooks play sick in order to convince Mr. Conklin to raise the temperature in the school. They are convinced that if Mr. Conklin thinks he's causing an epidemic, he'll spend more money on coal for the furnace. A Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Not Enough Coal At Madison High".
  • In "Trial by Jury", Miss Brooks has to appear in traffic court and does not want Mr. Conklin to hear about it. She decides to play sick. Unfortunately, Walter Denton, Bones Snodgrass and Mr. Boynton each try to help. They each play sick and ask for Mr. Conklin to have Miss Brooks escort them home. Mr. Conklin is less than convinced; the four of had come to his office feigning illness at almost the exact same time. A Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of the radio episode "Traffic Court".
• Plot Coupon:
  • In the episode "Phonebook Follies", Miss Brooks must find Mrs. Davis' copy of last year's phonebook. Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis are ineligible to receive a new phonebook otherwise.
  • In "Bartering With Chief Thundercloud", Miss Brooks needs to get Mrs. Davis' old lamp in order to barter for a new coat.
• Plot Immunity: Plot immunity guarantees Miss Brooks' position at Madison High School. Even cinematic series finale, where Miss Brooks resolves to leave in a moment of despair, With This Ring intervenes.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Mr. Conklin, the Principal of Madison High School, is a competent administrator, albeit in the Repressive, but Efficient mold. He is also very pompous, for example being known to answer his phone "Principal's Office, Osgood Conklin himself speaking!". He also likes to take credit for his teacher's good ideas ("Public Property on Parade"), force them to type his reports ("Aunt Mattie Boynton"), and of course blame his teachers when something goes wrong ("The Dancer"). He also abuses his position for petty gains; in "Carelessness Code" he fines students and uses the money to place a bust of himself in the library in place of the bust of Julius Caesar. In "Home Cooked Meal" he simply breaks school rules to secretly store his family's meat in the cafeteria freezer. Still, on occasion he shows himself to have a Hidden Heart of Gold. In "Hobby Show", for example, his hobby is shown to be fixing broken toys to donate to underpriviledged children. Therefore, other than a outright villian, he's more of a Frenemy to Miss Brooks.
• Police Lineup: In "Reunion," Miss Brooks imagines Mr. Conklin, Mr. Munsee and Mr. Talbot in a police lineup.
• Post-Kiss Catatonia: When Miss Brooks kisses Mr. Boynton in "Madame Brooks Dubarry", Mr. Boynton mind goes so blank, that when the kiss ends he doesn't know where he is or what had happened.
• Powder Keg Crowd: In "School on Saturday", Madison High's students are in an angry protesting mob outside the school. They're angry because, you guessed it, they're being forced to go to school on Saturday. They even have plans to burn Mr. Conklin in effigy. Mr. Conklin sends Miss Brooks outside to make a speech to calm them down.
• Practical Effects: Seen in several episodes, including:
  • "Life Can Be Bones": A prop-cat subs for Minerva when she jumps over the fence after tasting Mrs. Davis's spicy soup.
  • "Public Property on Parade" Similar to the preceding example, prop-birds flee Mrs. Davis' Limburger omelette.
  • "Here is Your Past": The effects from Mr. Conklin's big sneezes.
  • "Brooks' New Car": Mr. Conklin going through the wall when he drives his car atop a wagon left in the driveway.
  • "Do It Yourself": The garage Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton built falls apart.
  • "Pet Shop": The rainstorm.
• Prank Call: The events of "Wild Goose" are set off when Walter Denton makes a prank call, disguising his voice in so doing. Denton tells Mr. Conklin he's won a television set from Sherry's Department Store. Hilarity Ensues.
• Prank Gone Too Far: Walter Denton's pranks frequently go too far, and get him in serious trouble (or force Miss Brooks to try and shield Denton from the fallout):
  • In "Cure That Habit", Walter Denton forges Mr. Conklin's name to a postcard and sends it to the titular alcohol treatment organization. This leads to the school board head Mr. Stone thinking Mr. Conklin is a drunk. Mr. Conklin discovers that Denton perpetrated the prank at the end of the episode, terrifying Denton.
  • "Wild Goose" sees Walter trick Mr. Conklin into believing he won a free television from Sherry's Department Store. By the end of the episode, this leads to Mr. Conklin, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton, and Walter's pal Stretch Snodgrass "picking up" three "free" television sets and taking them to Mr. Conklin's house.
  • Walter Denton flees at the end of "Space, Who Needs It?" when Mr. Conklin discovers Denton had tampered with his telescope and tricked Conklin into thinking he discovered a new planet and that the Earth was being invaded by flying saucers.
  • Walter Denton forges a letter from Mr. Stone, the head of the Board of Education, in "Turnabout Day". The students act as teachers, the teachers act as students . . . and Walter Denton is in danger of being expelled should Mr. Stone or Mr. Conklin find out who was behind the preposterous scheme.
• The Pratfall: Mr. Conklin is the occasion victim of pratfalls. He's an easy target given his pompous nature:
  • In "Connie and Bonnie", Mr. Conklin has multiple tumbles in the hallway trying to rush from his office to the Vice Principal's office next door.
  • In the episode "School on Saturday", Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass loosen the doorknob to Mr. Conklin's office so when he next pulled the knob he's fall to the floor.
• The Precious, Precious Car: Mr. Conklin is very protective of his vehicle in "Brooks' New Car" and "Taking the Rap for Mr. Boynton".
• Precious Puppy: Miss Brooks finds an abandoned puppy in "Here is Your Past".
• Prehistoric Monster: In "Madison Mascot", a torn note has Walter Denton, Stretch Snodgrass, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton mistakenly believe that the new name for the Madison High football team will be the "Madison Mammoths".
  Walter Denton: What do you think of the new setup Mrs. Davis? The Madison Mammoths! That's what the team will be called of course.
  Miss Brooks: The Madison Mammoths?
  Walter Denton: Sure. Because of the elephant mascot. You remember those prehistoric hairy old elephants, don't you Miss Brooks?
  Miss Brooks: Not personally.
• Pre-Meeting:
  • In the first episode, titled "First Day", Miss Brooks and Walter Denton have an altercation with Mr. Conklin on the road not knowing that he's the new high school principal hired to replace Mr. Darwell. Later, this incident was retconned as Miss Brooks was shown to have started working at Madison High School long after Mr. Conklin was hired as principal (i.e. the television episode "The Novelist")
  • In the radio episode "Poison Ivy", Miss Brooks offends two important state board officials in the same morning - not knowing that she would be meeting them that afternoon.
  • In the fourth season television episode "Transition Show", Miss Brooks twice bumps into Winona Nestor, causing her to spill the change in her purse. Later in the episode, Miss Brooks would find herself seeking employment with Miss Nestor.
• Prepositions Are Not to End Sentences With: Miss Brooks more than once corrects herself after ending a sentence with a preposition. Or others. One example is found in the episode "Heat Wave", when Stretch Snodgrass pretended to faint on a hot day. Miss Brooks unbuttons his collar, which had concealed the Old-Timey Bathing Suit. The students were trying to trick Miss Brooks into releasing class so they can go to the swimming hole at Phillip's Farm.

  Miss Brooks: Nice to hear from you Stretch. Let me open your shirt collar.

  Stretch Snodgrass: No, don't open it.

  Miss Brooks: I don't know why you button it on a day like today anyhow.

  Stretch Snodgrass: Oh, please Miss Brooks, don't open my shirt.

  Miss Brooks: You just be quiet. There. No wonder you didn't want your shirt opened. Embroidered undies. And what a lovely sentiment on your undershirt. "Crystal Beach Bath House. If not returned by 6 pm, another day will be charged for. Charged for? Oh Stretch, this is awful.

  Stretch Snodgrass: What is, Miss Brooks?

  Miss Brooks: Ending a bathing suit with a preposition.

• Preppy Name: Osgood Conklin isn't rich, but he is as pompous as his first name would suggest.
• Present Peeking: In "Mr. Boynton's Parents", Mr. Conklin leaves his Mother's Day present with Miss Brooks, as his wife and daughter are inveterate snoopers. When Mr. Boynton's parents stay with Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Boynton finds the present in her room. Mrs. Boynton's a present peeker as well, she can't wait for Mother's Day, so she opens it.
  Mrs. Boynton: A black sheer negligee!
  Mr. Boynton: Well Happy Mother's Day!
• Prison Episode:
  • In "Bobbsey Twins in Stir", first Mrs. Davis, then Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin and school board head Mr. Stone get sent to jail for unknowingly selling forged tickets to the policeman's ball.
  • In the radio episode "Student Government Day", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, and the student-government spend the day locked in jail.
• Private Eye Monologue: "Postage Due" sees Miss Brooks search for a vanished postman wearing a trench coat while narrating the action in film noir style.
• Private Tutor:
  • Miss Brooks tutors Stretch Snodgrass to keep him eligible for athletics . . . not to mention, to keep him from flunking outright.
  • The cinematic series finale sees Miss Brooks tutor Gary Nolan, who's struggling in English.
• Production-Related Period Piece: The first season of the radio program features references to Colgate-Palmolive "Lucky Goldmine Contest". One episode, "Connie's New Job Offer", dated July 31, 1949, has Miss Brooks consider going back to her old job - secretary to the mayor of a small city in New Jersey. In story (and in real life), the mayor's secretary had just won the $49,000 jackpot.
• The Professor: Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks' Love Interest and Madison's Biology teacher. His knowledge of his subject is prodigious, but his favorite topic of study has to be frogs.
• Projectile Toast: Mrs. Davis' toaster was a repeat offender.
• Proper Lady: Mrs. Conklin. She's the kindly, intelligent and dignified wife of bombastic Mr. Conklin.
• Protagonist Title: Named for Constance Brooks, naturally. It is also the subject of an occasional "title drop" where the "our" usually indicates to Madison High School's Miss Brooks.
• Proud Beauty: Women like this appear once in awhile, and are always at least a nuisance to Miss Brooks or Harriet Conklin:
  • In "The Model Teacher", an obnoxious but attractive reporter competes with Miss Brooks for Mr. Boynton's affections.
  • "New Girl" sees the titular new girl go after Harriet's boyfriend Walter Denton. The girl's mother has eyes for Mr. Boynton.
  • "The Dancer" sees a burlesque dancer audition for a job at a bachelor party being arranged by Mr. Conklin. The usually shy Mr. Boynton is very interested in seeing her do her work.
  • In the cinematic series finale, the Madison Express's new lonely hearts columnist walks this way whenever she goes through the newsroom. But fortunately, this proud beauty stays out of the way of Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks marries Love Interest Mr. Boynton at the end of the film
• Psychologist Teacher: Miss Brooks is television's Ur-Example, having actually started out on radio. In addition to having adventures of her own, she is regularly helping out her students - to the point where she is oft considered or even voted by the students to be the most popular teacher in the school. Most of her time seems to be helping series regular Teacher's Pet Walter Denton out with his problems. Less regular help goes to Walter's intelligent girlfriend Harriet Conklin (who rarely gets herself into trouble) or recurrent charactersStretch Snodgrass stay eligible for school athletics. The Movie Grand Finale sees Miss Brooks help Lonely Rich Kid Gary Nolan reconcile with his father. Miss Brooks also wins her Series Goal, marriage to Love Interest Mr. Boynton
• Pulled from Your Day Off:
  • In "School on Saturday", Mr. Conklin pulls everybody from their day off.
  • "Head of the Board": Mr. Conklin again plots to do the same.
  • In "Who's Going Where", it's just Miss Brooks whom Mr. Conklin intends to send to work on her vacation.
  • In "Trouble Paying Taxi Fare", Mr. Conklin gets a taste of his own medicine at the hands of school board superintendent Mr. Stone.
• Pungeon Master: Mr. Jensen, the custodian on several radio episodes. He insists on taking things literally and out-of-context. When Miss Brooks asks about his new son, she asks "How is the little dear?" Mr. Jensen replies they didn't have a "deer." One exchange with Miss Brooks ends with Miss Brooks thinking she finally has him in his own trap.
  Mr. Jensen: While I'll be running off.
  Miss Brooks: Now I've got you Mr. Jensen. You won't really be running off!"
  Mr. Jensen: Oh, yes I will. (is heard running away)
  Miss Brooks: Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed.
• Purely Aesthetic Glasses : In "Living Statues", it's revealed that Mr. Conklin claims he wears glasses merely to "lend dignity to his appearance". In fact, he's Blind Without Them.
• Purple Prose: As befits his Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness, Walter Denton often packs his newspaper editorials and other compositions with purple prose.
• Put on a Bus: Mr. Boynton, Walter, Harriet, and Stretch in the fourth season when the high school was torn down and the setting moved to a private elementary school.
  • Mr. Allbright, who was intended to be the new love interest, left after only a few episodes and was replaced by Suspiciously Similar Substitute Gene Talbot as the athletic director.
  • Finally, Talbot himself, who was on long enough to actually date Miss Brooks, was written off when The Bus Came Back with Mr. Boynton returning and looking for work at the elementary school.
• Puzzling Platypus: In The Movie Grand Finale, at Mr. Conklin's campaign rally, Mr. Boynton invites Miss Brooks on a date to the zoo to see the new duck-billed platypus.
• Questioning Title?: The episode "Space, Who Needs It?"
• Quintessential British Gentleman: A quintessential British public school principal visits in the episode "Hello Mr. Chips." Miss Brooks uses him to make Mr. Boynton jealous.
• Quirky Ukulele: In "Blind Date" one of the items Miss Brooks returns to Mr. Boynton is his ukulele, that he serenades her with on her back porch. Ukulele playing is featured by Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin in a few episodes of the series, notably "Special Party", "Hawkins Travel Agency" and "School Band". In The Movie Grand Finale, Walter Denton enjoys a brief ukuele solo accompanied by his "singing". Walter sings "It's Magic" to his girlfriend Harriet Conklin on the family's front porch; his breaking voice and off-key notes gets Mr. Conklin to stick his head through the window and threaten to throw Walter down the porch steps!
• Quoting Myself: Walter Denton uses fake quotes from time to time.
  Walter Denton: It's as the saying goes, "When love enters the heart, appetite flees the stomach."
  Miss Brooks: Who said that?
  Walter Denton: I don't know. I guess it's anonymous.
  Miss Brooks: It deserves to be.
• Radio Contest: In "Wild Goose", Walter Denton, pretending to be a radio quiz host, tricks Mr. Conklin into believing he's won a television set from Sherry's Department Store.
• Radio Drama: Our Miss Brooks ran on CBS Radio starting in 1948. It was joined by a television adaptation in 1952. The series concluded with a feature film in 1956.
• Rage Breaking Point: Mr. Conklin lives this trope, flying off into fits of rage that makes him purple in the face.
• Rambunctious Italian: Mr. Morelli, a One-Scene Wonder appearing at the end of "Four Leaf Clover". Miss Brooks ends up going to his house to pay for the barber pole she accidentally broke; Mr. Conklin goes after Miss Brooks to get the airplane ticket she accidentally pocketed. The very animated Mr. Morelli literally tries to shoo them both away.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: A time-pressed Miss Brooks is at it in "Public Property on Parade".
• Reaction Shot: Many throughout the television series. Perhaps the most notable ones, however, occur in thetheatrical series finale. We see Miss Brooks reaction to the wackiness of the characters around her, especially in the first fifteen minutes as we see her arrival in Madison retold in cinematic form.
• "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: As an English teacher, Miss Brooks is normally all in favour of reading. However, the trope is subverted in "Bones, Son of Cyrano", where Mr. Boynton breaks a date with Miss Brooks to read the rest of Cyrano de Bergerac. Miss Brooks had advised Mr. Boynton to read it in the first place in the hope it would make him less Oblivious to Love!
• Reading Tea Leaves: Mrs. Davis considers tea leaves to be an effective method of telling the future. In "Mrs. Davis Reads Tea Leaves", Mrs. Davis predicts that Mr. Boynton propose to Miss Brooks. The pair would settle down at honeymoon cottage, and the two would be surrounded by children. Unfortunately, Mrs. Davis misinterprets the tea leaves. Mr. Boynton isn't proposing marriage, but proposing starting a summer camp with Miss Brooks and boarding anywhere from five to fifty kids!
• Read the Fine Print: In the episode "Hospital Capers". A lawyer (a literal ambulance chaser) gets Mr. Boynton to sign a contract hiring him a counsel; the contract features a hefty penalty if Mr. Boynton chooses to terminate his representation. When Miss Brooks visits the lawyer, he hands her ever larger magnifying glasses to read the contract's fine print.
• Really Royalty Reveal: One of Miss Brooks' students in "King and Brooks".
• Real Men Take It Black: Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks both take their coffee black in "Space, Who Needs It?"
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • In "Board of Education Day" , a radio episode remade for television as "Marinated Hearing", Miss Brooks tells-off a temporarily-deaf Mr. Conklin.
  • In "Spare That Rod!", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Stretch Snograss produce a paper documenting Mr. Conklin's "various infamies".
  • In The Movie Grand Finale, with a Continuity Nod to "Spare That Rod!", Mr. Stone tells Mr. Conklin he would fire him if he could. Mr. Stone considers Mr. Conklin's severe manner of running Madision High School to be "tantamout to malfeasance".
  Mr. Stone: It's zero hour, Osgood!
• Reckless Gun Usage: In "Swap Week", one of the swapped items at Madison High School is a shotgun . . . fortunately unloaded.
  • First, Mr. Conklin practices aiming and shooting it at the unlocked door to his inner office. He is badly startled when his daughter Harriet walks through that door:
  Harriet (pretending to be shot): Oh, you shot me!
  Mr. Conklin: Harriet, don't you know better than to aim yourself at a man holding a gun!
  • Later on, Mr. Conklin trades the shotgun (amongst other things) to Walter Denton for an interest in his jalopy. Walter casually carries it around the school along with some other bartered goods.
• Recurring Dreams: In "Friendship", Miss Brooks suffers from a recurring dream where she's being chased by a man with a knife. It turns out a broken bedspring poking through her mattress is the cause of her nightmares.
• Red Scare: A few times it was Played for Laughs by Deadpan Snarker Miss Brooks.
  • In "Walter's Radio", after Mr. Boynton makes a non-committal statement about the weather, Miss Brooks snarks:
  Miss Brooks: There's a statement you won't be investigated for."
  • In "The Cafeteria Strike", Walter Denton starts a student petition against the terrible food in the school cafeteria:
  Walter Denton (reading the petition): Whereas and to wit . . . .
  Miss Brooks: That's pretty strong language, isn't it? A little on the pink side . . . .
• Refuge in Audacity: In the episode "Bobbsey Twins In Stir", a con-artist tricks Mrs. Davis into selling phony tickets to the policeman's ball. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin and Mr. Stone are all unwitting drawn into the scheme, and all end up in gaol as a result.
• Regal Ruff: Walter Denton and Mr. Boynton have each worn ruffs when dressed in costume:
  • Walter wears a ruff when dressed as Romeo in "The Festival".
  • Mr. Boynton's Prince Charming costume in "Oh Dem Gold Shoes" features a regal ruff.
• Rejected Marriage Proposal:
  • In "Mr. Conklin's Love Nest", a mixup makes Mr. Leblanc think Miss Brooks is in love with him. He proposes to Miss Brooks in French. Miss Brooks accidentally accepts, and has the embarassing task of gently breaking the unwanted engagement with her friend. Miss Brooks' Love Interest is Mr. Boynton.
  • In The Movie Grand Finale, Miss Brooks politely rejects Lawrence Nolan's proposal. Miss Brooks hopes to marry Mr. Boynton. Miss Brooks marries Mr. Boynton at the end of the movie.
• Relatively Flimsy Excuse: In "Connie and Bonnie", Miss Brooks impersonates her non-existent twin sister so as to earn extra money moonlighting as a waitress.
• The Reliable One: Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Harriet Conklin is quietly reliable. She's a friend of Miss Brooks, is seen helping her father Mr. Conklin in the pricipal's office, she's a straight-A student, and is a few times mentioned as being president of the student council. Next to Miss Brooks herself, Harriet's the most competent and least eccentric of the main characters. TO compare, Harriet's boyfriend Walter Denton is a Book Dumb High-School Hustler. Mr. Boynton is an Oblivious to Love biology teacher. Harriet's father is a Dean Bitterman. Miss Brooks' landlady is both a Granny Classic but also a wacky Cool Old Lady. Then there's recurring characters like Mrs. Conklin, who is like Harriet. Daisy Enright, Miss Brooks' Sitcom Arch-Nemesis. Finally, Stretch and Bones Snodgrass, dumb but good-natured high school atheletes.
• Remembered Too Late: In "Wishing Well Dance", Miss Brooks get in trouble with Mr. Conklin after Stretch Snodgrass gives her a message to see him immediately. The problem? Stretch Snodgrass forgot about the message, only remembering to give her the message hours later.
• Remember the New Guy?: Bones Snodgrass is introduced in the episode "The Yodar Kritch Award". He was never before seen or mentioned, in spite of being the brother of recurring character Stretch Snodgrass.
• Removable Steering Wheel: In "The Oakhurst Music Festival", while giving driving lessons to Stretch Snodgrass, Miss Brooks asks him to give her the wheel. Snodgrass literally gives Miss Brooks the steering wheel.
• Removing the Rival: On several occasions, Miss Enright schemes to put Miss Brooks out of the running for Mr. Boynton's affections:
  • In "First Aid Course", Miss Enright threatens to move away to nurse her sick sister . . . in order to convince Mr. Conklin to tie up Miss Brooks during the evenings teaching the eponymous course.
  • In "Four Fiances" Miss Enright corresponds with four men, and proposes marriage to each of them . . . in Miss Brooks' name.
  • In "Mr. Boynton's Barbeque", Miss Enright transfers a sick student to Miss Brooks' class so Miss Brooks would catch a cold. That left Miss Enright a clear field with Mr. Boynton.
  • In "Teacher's Convention", Miss Enight relays a message to Walter Denton that Mr. Boynton was "laid up" and wouldn't be attending the convention with Miss Brooks. Walter tells Miss Brooks, leading her to cancel. Mr. Boynton wasn't the least bit sick.
• Renaissance Man:
  • Mr. Boynton. He teaches Biology, but also was a Chemistry teacher in the past. In one episode, he almost receives a job as a College Professor ("The Wrong Mrs. Boynton"). In another episode, Mr. Conklin has Mr. Boynton mark the school's English tests ("Head of the English Department"). He also acts as Mr. Conklin's typist on occasion ("Who's Going Where?). On top of all that, Mr. Boynton has, in various episodes, coached the school basketball, football, and baseball teams.
  • Miss Brooks is also an example, in addition to teaching English, teaching French and Spanish as well on one occasion ("Saving the School Newspaper"). Miss Brooks is also a great typist, and once worked as a secretary ("Connie's New Job Offer"). "First Aid Course" suggests Miss Brooks is also a trained nurse. Miss Brooks has also taught civics ("Student Government Day") and physical education, even receiving an offer to play on a women's baseball team ("Baseball Slide").
• Repetitive Audio Glitch: This happens to the tape recording Stretch patches in "Public Speaker's Nightmare".
• Repressive, but Efficient: Miss Brooks is justified in calling Mr. Conklin "dictator" of Madison High School. However, the school seems to operate well nonetheless.
• Resistance Is Futile: Mr. Conklin once uses a variation, when Miss Brooks tries to avoid having him assign some unpaid overtime work.
• Retool: In the fourth season of the TV series, Madison High was razed to make room for a freeway, Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin went to work for a private school, Walter and Harriet disappeared from the show along with Mr. Boynton (although the latter would eventually return), and Miss Brooks was given a new love interest in phys ed instructor Gene Talbot (Gene Barry).
  • Canon Discontinuity was the result. The radio program continued at Madison High as per usual. The Movie also ignored the fourth season of the TV series.
• Reverse Whodunnit: The episode "Jewel Robbery" see a criminal break into a jewelry store and flee when the alarm sounds. Miss Brooks, standing around the corner, sees Mr. Boynton look into the broken window. The episode then follows Miss Brooks as she suspects Mr. Boynton, and then catches the actual villain.
• Revolving Door Casting: The radio series and the first three seasons of the television series largely shared the same cast and characters(the major exception being Jeff Chandler's replacement by Robert Rockwell in the role of Mr. Boynton). The same applies to The Movie Grand Finale. The final television season, however, saw several casting changes through its run:
  • "Transition Show" sees high school students Walter Denton, Harriet Conklin and Mr. Boynton Put on a Bus. This also marks the end of appearances by recurring characters Miss Enright and Stretch Snodgrass. Enter Mrs. (Winona) Nestor, Mr. Munsee, Mr. Albright.
  • ''Who's Who" sees Miss Brooks take leave of longtime landlady Mrs. Davis to be a tenant of her sister Angela. Elementary school student Benny Romero becomes a Recurring Character.
  • "Big Ears": Mrs. Ruth Nestor replaces her sister, last appearance by Mr. Albright.
  • "Have Bed, Will Travel" Mrs. Davis moves in with her sister (and Miss Brooks) and begins to share landlady duties with Angela.
  • In "Gym Instructor", Mr. Talbot is appointed to the faculty as the new phys-ed teacher.
  • "Land Purchase" Exit Angela, who sells her sister her house. Angela has built a motel and leaves to run her new business (never mentioned before).
  • "Library Quiz" sees Mr. Talbot's last appearance.
  • Finally, in "Connie and Frankie", The Bus Came Back and Love Interest Mr. Boynton returns to teach at Mrs. Nestor's Elementary School for the final seven episodes.
• Rewrite: There are two versions of Miss Brooks' arrival in Madison. The first episode ("First Day") and the later episode "Spare That Rod!" have Miss Brooks already teaching at Madison when Mr. Conklin is appointed principal. However, "Borrow Money To Fly", features a major rewrite. Miss Brooks arrives to teach at Madison High School, and is greeted by longtime principal Mr. Conklin. The cinematic series finale follows the new continuity, albeit having Miss Brooks meet Mr. Conklin and Mr. Boynton in a slightly different manner.
• Rhyming with Itself: The radio episodes "Clay City English Teacher" and "Mr. Laythrop returns to School" feature the Madison anthem, "O Madison". The offical version rhymes "Madison" with "Madison". Miss Brooks makes the song longer in "Clay City English Teacher by adding the paranthetical lyrics in parody:
  O Madison!
  Thou Madison!
  (As old as Thomas Addison!)
  O hallowed halls!
  (O basketballs!)
  How short the day!
  (how short the pay!)
  When we gray hair at Madison!
  We'll still be there at Madison!
  (Hello, Clay City!)
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: In the cinematic Grand Finale to the series, wealthy Lawrence Nolan proposes to Miss Brooks. Although Miss Brooks likes Nolan as a friend, and he's overall a good person, she can't see herself in love with him. Miss Brooks prefers longtime Love Interest, shy biology teacher Phillip Boynton. At the end of the film, they finally marry and live Happily Ever After.
• Right Behind Me: In the "Yodar Kritch Award", Walter Denton comes into Mrs. Davis' house complaining about Mr. Conklin, oblivious to the fact Mr. Conklin is seated at the dining room table.
• The Rival: Miss Brooks has Miss Enright, her rival for Mr. Boynton's affections and the position of head of the English Department.
• Romantic Rain: In "The Pet Shop", a misunderstanding leads Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton to decide to stand one another up for their date. Unwillingly to let Boynton wait in the rain alone, Miss Brooks waits for Mr. Boynton under the awning at the pet shop. Boynton is unwilling to let Miss Brooks wait alone, and shows up too. The clouds clear as Miss Brooks leaves with Mr. Boynton.
• Rousing Speech: Several, played for laughs, in "School on Saturday". Miss Brooks persuades the angry students to go to school, or to go home, as Mr. Conklin repeatedly changes his mind.
• Royal Blood: In "King and Brooks," Miss Brooks discovers one of her students in an Indian prince. The boy's father, the maharajah, proposes marriage to Miss Brooks.
• Royal Harem: In the episode "King and Brooks", the king mentions having a harem.
• Royal "We": Mr. Conklin occasionally, and pompously, uses "we" to address others. Really, he means "you". Miss Brooks is unamused when he uses it with her.
• Running Gag: Many, including Mr. Conklin's huge sneezes and the 'glug' greeting of Boynton's pet frog McDougal. Miss Brooks' car was always in the shop (see Women Drivers for the reason of the week).
• Russian Roulette: At the crisis point of The Movie Grand Finale, a depressed Miss Brooks jokingly suggests to Mrs. Davis that they play Russian Roulette when she returns home from school. Fortunately, Mrs. Davis and Mr. Boynton's mother repair the misunderstanding that caused Mr. Boynton to invite his mother to live with him, and Miss Brooks marries Mr. Boynton and lives Happily Ever After.
• Sabotage to Discredit: In "Madison Country Club", Miss Brooks sabotages what she believes is Mr. Conklins attempt to mock the teachers' relative poverty in front of a snobbish rich women. It really was an attempt to play poor and convince a Grand Dame to fund a renovation of his office.
• Safety in Indifference: In the episode "Trying to Forget Mr. Boynton", Miss Brooks tries be indifferent and forget about love interest Mr. Boynton.
• Sampling: At least four examples:
  • "April Fools": "As Time Goes By", from Casablanca, plays as Miss Brooks stalls for time.
  • "Wild Goose": "I Must Go Where The Wild Goose Goes" plays as Miss Brooks is sent on the wild goose chase Walter Denton had intended for Mr. Conklin.
  • "Weekend at Crystal Lake": A stanza of the "Anniversary Song" plays after Miss Brook parodies it.
  • "Friendship": The song "Friendship" is played as an ironic chorus whenever Miss Brooks loses a friend.
• Santa Clausmas:
  • The several Christmas episodes, on both radio and television, revolve around gift exchanging and spending Christmas eve with loved ones. On other occasions ("Citizen's League", The Movie Grand Finale) church is mentioned in passing, but isn't noted in the Christmas episode. The specials were; "Magic Christmas Tree" (radio and television) "Christmas Show 1952" (television), "Department Store Contest" (radio), "Christmas Gift Returns" (radio), and the "Music Box Revue" (television).
  • The two radio-exclusive Easter specials, deal with Easter Eggs (in "Dying Easter Eggs") and Miss Brooks buying a new dress for the Easter Parade (in "Easter Outfit").
• Sarcasm-Blind: Miss Brooks' snark occasionally backfires when she aims it as Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton or Stretch and Bones Snodgrass. Mr. Boynton's so Oblivious to Love that sarcasm has a habit of sliding right off him. Walter Denton occasionally mistakes the sarcastic for the serious. As for the Snodgrasses, it's unlikely they even know what sarcasm is.
• Satiating Sandwich: In "The Cafeteria Strike" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Cafeteria Boycott"), Mr. Conklin hides a chicken sandwich in his office safe. He can't stand to go to lunch and eat the "putrid" food cooked by the incompetent school chef Edgar Turnbull (who just happens to be Mr. Conklin's brother-in-law)
• Savage South: In "Safari O'Toole", the eponymous adventurer spends much of his time here. He's a fake, but a nice one, who's only trying to impress Mrs. Davis.
• Saying Too Much:
  • In "The Model Teacher", Miss Brooks is desperate to avoid having glamorous but Immoral Journalist Stephanie Forester learn about Mr. Boynton. When Mrs. Davis mentions Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks goes so far as to claim that Boynton is the school mascot, a schnauser. Unfortunately, Walter Denton arrives to drive Miss Brooks to school and ends up describing Boynton for Miss Forester. Miss Forester almost immediately decides to romantically pursue Boynton.
  • In "Stretch Is In Love Again", Judy Brille, the daughter of Clay City High School principal Jason Brille, was assigned by her father to keep Stretch Snodgrass busy on dates long into the evening. As a result, he's so tired he's useless playing football; once he even ran the wrong way. Madison High looks to have an embarassing defeat to its principal rival. And nobody at Madison knows what's going on. Stretch is sworn to secrecy by his double-agent girlfriend. So, Miss Brooks, assigned to discover what's going on, interrogates Stretch.
  Miss Brooks: Who is this new girlfriend, Stretch?
  Stretch: Oh, no you don't!
  Miss Brooks: No I don't what?
  Stretch: You don't get Judy's name out of me! (audience laughs) I promised to keep it a secret.
  Miss Brooks: Well, that's your privilege. If you don't want me to know Judy's name, I'm not going to know Judy's name. That's all there is to that. Judy what?
  Stretch: Gosh, I didn't even want that part of her name to get out. It just slipped. Look, Miss Brooks. You wouldn't want me to break a promise, would you?
  Miss Brooks: Fervently. Listen, Stretch. Even if you enjoy all this "rumbering", don't your girl's parents object to these late hours every night?
  Stretch: Oh, I'm sure they don't.
  Miss Brooks: How can you be so sure?
  Stretch: Her old man gives me the money to take her out.
  Miss Brooks: What!
  Stretch: Sure! He's not like our principal. Mr. Brille's a good sport.
  Miss Brooks: Stretch, you're telling me you're taking out Judy Brille?
  Stretch: How did you know?
  Miss Brooks: A little birdbrain told me.
• The Scapegoat: Mr. Conklin is constantly scapegoating Miss Brooks for one thing or another. Fortunately, Miss Brooks is always able to escape the consequences by episode's end.
• Scene of Wonder: In "Le chien chaud et le mouton noir" Miss Brooks is dismayed when she enters the "Salon de Chien Chaud". She had taken an evening position as a receptionist to augment her income, only to find out it was really a job as working as a waitress at a rundown roadside diner. Miss Brooks looks about the "Salon de Chien Chaud" with dismay.
• School Festival: "The Festival". It's a costume festival held in the park across from the school.
• School Newspaper Newshound:
  • Walter Denton is editor of the school paper, the "Madison Monitor". From time to time he gets himself into trouble by writing editorials critical of Mr. Conklin or Madison High School in general, i.e. "Cafeteria Strike" and "Threat to Abolish the School Paper". "Marinated Hearing" revolves around Miss Brooks' attempt to keep Walter Denton from publishing an editorial insulting the Board of Education in revenge for only giving students 2 1/2 instead of 3 weeks of Christmas Vacation.
  • Walter also plays the gossip columnist in a couple episodes, with a column entitled "Campus Dirt: Shoveled by Walter Denton". This is to Miss Brooks' dismay, as he uses the column to blab about her being disappointed that Mr. Boynton is away at a Biologist's Convention.
  • Like any good high school reporter, he also on the prowl for news. We see him at it in the episode "Kritch Cave".
• School of Hard Knocks: In "The Grudge Match", Walter Denton challenges star athlete Stretch Snodgrass to a fight when he discovers that Harriet Conklin had sat next to Stretch at the movie theatre. Much to Miss Brooks' consternation, Mr. Boynton decides that it would be best to have the fight in the gymnasium in front of the whole school. Principal Conklin not only goes along with it, but referees the fight, as he wants to see Walter Denton "clobbered."
• School Play: A few episodes (i.e. "Madison Country Club" and "Hawkins Travel Agency") have Miss Brooks and company wear school costume. In "The School Board Psychologist", an upcoming school play (where the students would dress as animals) is a major plot point.
• School Sport Uniform: Girl's school athletic uniforms, complete with bloomers, make a few appearances.
  • In "Baseball Slide", Miss Brooks borrows Mrs. Davis' bloomers when she's the substitute coach of the girl's softball team. The girls have to shield Miss Brooks; Connie slides into home plate and wrecks the seat of the bloomers in the process.
  • "Turnabout Day" sees Mr. Boynton forced to coach the girl's volleyball team. He appears in Mr. Conklin's office (reluctantly) wearing a blouse and bloomers. This is much to the amusement of Miss Brooks.
  • "Dress Code Protest", a radio episode, has Miss Brooks tear her skirt on her badly splintered desk. She is forced to borrow Harriet Conklin's gym bloomers from the cloakroom. Stretch Snodgrass bursts into laughter upon seeing her.
• Science Hero: Mr. Boynton ends up saving the day in "Living Statues". Walter Denton had invented a new type of paint to remove scratches. Unfortunately, at the last minute he mistakenly adds liquid cement to the concoction. After using the paint in Mr. Conklin's office, Miss Brooks, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton, and Walter Denton get stuck to the wall or the furniture. Mr. Boynton managed to free himself and go off to his laboratory to mix up a dissolvent to free everyone else. As for Walter Denton; he goes to help, limping off still stuck to the pedestral that usually held the bust of the school founder, Yodar Kritch.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: In "Space, Who Needs It?", Walter Denton fakes an invasion by miniature space aliens to prank Mr. Conklin.
• Scooby Stack: In "The Hurricane", Harriet Conklin goes into her father's study to tell Mr. Conklin that Miss Brooks had closed the high school due to radio reports of an approaching hurricane. Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton stack up eavesdropping at the closed door. Mr. Conklin opens the door abruptly, leaving Walter Denton to fall sitting on the ground. This was a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Radio Bombay", with the sight-gag obviously added for the television episode.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Mr. Conklin lives this trope. One example, out of many, is his using the high school cafeteria freezer to store his meat in "Home Cooked Meal".
• Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful!: Connie Brooks is free to pursue Oblivious to Love Mr. Boynton in way that would be questionable if she weren't an attractive English teacher. Lampshaded by Mr. Conklin, when he wryly comments on how he was sure to always find in in Mr. Boynton's biology lab. Party justified in that Mr. Boynton likes Miss Brooks, and Miss Brooks' extraordinary pursuit doesn't violate any laws. This bit of dialogue from "Student Government Day" describes Miss Brooks' pursuit of Mr. Boynton in a nutshell:
  Mr. Boynton: Fate seems always to be pitching us together
  Miss Brooks: Compared to me, fate's only a sandlot pitcher.
• Script Swap: In "Poetry Mix-up", a love poem intended for Harriet Conklin is given to Mr. Conklin by mistake.
• Secret Diary: In "Here Is Your Past", Mr. Boynton is revealed to keep a secret diary atop his desk in the biology laboratory. When Miss Brooks expresses interest in reading it, Mr. Boynton insists it's secret. When it's stolen by the investigator for the "Here Is Your Past" television show, Boynton wrongly thinks Miss Brooks is to blame.
• Secret Weapon: In "Project X", the eponymous project is Mr. Conklin's secret weapon to get a promotion. It's a device that allows Mr. Conklin to listen in on and communicate with every room in the school.
• Self-Deprecation: Miss Brooks sometimes aims her deadly sarcasm at herself, usually when she finds herself dragged into a preposterous situation or scheme.
• Sentimental Drunk: "Old Clothes for Party" sees a sentimental (and exceptionally annoying) drunk invades Miss Brooks' conversation when she tries to use the party line telephone. The drunk falsely thinks Miss Brooks is married to his best friend, and starts wailing as she's making a date with Mr. Boynton. Later, the drunk starts crying about how he doesn't know where his father is.
• Separated by a Common Language: An English schoolmaster visits in "Hello Mr. Chips". Hilarity Ensues.
• Sequel Episode "Trial by Jury" aired in early in the second season of Our Miss Brooks. In that episode, Miss Brooks' car is damaged when her brakes give out and it rolls downhill and hits a fruit stand (it was a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Traffic Court"). "Brooks' New Car" references the incident. In this episode, Mr. Conklin's brakes give out and his vehicle hits the same fruit stand. Later in the episode, Mrs. Davis accidentally runs into the fruit stand driving downhill. The fruit stand vendor finally decides to leave town.
• Serial Spouse: In "Marriage Madness", Mrs. Davis falls prey to a gold-digging butcher. The butcher had first married when he ran away with his French teacher in Junior High.
  Miss Brooks: If he had said English teacher, I would have screamed!
• Series Goal: From day one, Miss Brooks wants to marry oblivious Mr. Boynton. They finally marry in The Movie Grand Finale
• Serious Business: Hilarity Ensues at Madison High School, whether the problem of the day happens to be Mr. Conklin's latest edict, Walter Denton's latest prank, or keeping the Madison High School (football, basketball or baseball) team contenders in the big game:
  • "Blue Goldfish" revolves around Mr. Conklin not heating the school to a sufficient temperature, and making everyone cold.
  • "Madison Country Club" sees Mr. Conklin try to raise money to renovate his office.
  • "Carelessness Code" is another episode where Mr. Conklin runs his staff and students ragged. This time he nickle-and-dimes teachers and students for violations of the carelessness code, violations that he makes up on the fly. This is all to pay for a bust of his head to grace the school library in place of that of Julius Caesar.
  • "Letter From the Education Board" (and its television remake, "Spare That Rod!") sees Walter Denton alter an old letter to make Mr. Conklin think he's in danger of losing his job for being "dictatorial in his method".
  • "Board of Education Day" (and its remake "Marinated Hearing"), "Free TV From Sherry's (and its remake, "Wild Goose"), "Cure That Habit", "Turnabout Day", "Sneaky Peekers" and "Friday The Thirteenth" all deal with the aftermath of Walter Denton's pranks.
  • "Mr. Whipple" sees Madison High School trying to get a new, larger gymnasium. Similarly, "Mr. Travis' Three Acre Lot" sees Madison High School try to acquire property next door to get a proper regulation size football field.
  • The crisis in "Baseball Uniforms" (and its television remake, "Fischer's Pawnshop") is that the opening baseball game of the season may be cancelled because of lack of funds to buy uniforms.
  • Several episodes deal with the necessity of keeping Stretch or Bones Snodgrass eligible to play for the Madison High School football, baseball, or basketball teams. "Stretch Has A Problem", "Stretch to Transfer (and its remake, "Two Way Stretch Snodgrass", "Stretch is in Love" (and its remake "Suzy Prentiss"), "Stretch is in Love Again", and "Stretch is Accused of Professionalism" all fall under this heading.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Walter, which makes him sound much more intelligent than he really is.
• Sexophone: A Running Gag in The Movie is a sexophone riff that plays everytime Miss Lonelyhearts gets up from her desk and walks through the newspaper office.
• Sexy Secretary: In "The Dancer", Miss Brooks mistakes an exotic dancer applying for a job at Mr. Conklin's brother-in-law's bachelor party as the new secretary. Miss Brooks tells her to start work in Mr. Conklin's office. Hilarity Ensues.
• Sexy Sweater Girl: The ''Madison Express" lonely hearts columnist, in the series' cinematic Grand Finale. She wears a tight sweater as she walks around the office, to the accompaniment of saxophone music. She is a minor a character, the movie ends with Disposable Love Interest Mr. Nolan asking her for a date on his yacht. Meanwhile, in the main plot, Miss Brooks marries Mr. Boynton and lives Happily Ever After.
• "Shaggy Frog" Story: In "Friday the Thirteenth", Mrs. Davis assures Miss Brooks her troubles with Mr. Conklin are merely psychological. Mrs. Davis relates how her brother Victor was afraid to enter a yard because of a dog that was always barking. Victor went to a psychiatrist who told him that the only reason the dog was barking was because the dog was afraid Victor would kick him . . . .
  Mrs. Davis: After a couple months with the psychiatrist, my brother went right into that dog's yard and they stayed there together for over an hour.
  Miss Brooks: Really, what did they do?
  Mrs. Davis: They just stood around, biting and kicking each other. Luckily, a policeman came by and stopped it.
  Miss Brooks: Yes, that was fortunate. Your brother couldn't have taken much more of that kicking.
• Shamed by a Mob: Mr. Conklin rigs an election so the Madison High School students will election him the episode's titular "Faculty Cheerleader". Faced with a assembly of grumbling students, he relies on Miss Brooks to get his "election" through.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: Mr. Conklin, to some extent. He even has a huge photograph of himself hanging above his living room mantelpiece.
• Shared Family Quirks:
  • Brothers Stretch Snodgrass and Bones Snodgrass are only known by their nicknames (their real names are Fabian and Winston respectively). dumb but friendly high school athletes. They speak with an eccentric grammar (or lack therof). They are also extremely Literal-Minded.
  • Osgood, Martha and Harriet Conklins are all snoops and eavesdroppers ("Mr. Boynton's Parents", "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton")
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Mr. Conklin almost always wears a Waistcoat of Style. If he's going outside, he's sure to don a fedora hat.
• Shave And A Haircut: Walter Denton usually rings the bell at Mrs. Davis', but a few times he knocks to the tune of Shave and a Haircut. Once or twice, he even honked the horn on his jalopy to the same tune.
• Sherlock Scan:
  • In "Puppy Love and Mr. Barlow", Mr. Boynton is very critical of the idea that the school custodian is in love with Miss Brooks. Here, though, Boynton's scan is mostly medical:
  Mr. Boynton: Why, he's seventy at least! And not what you'd call in prime condition! Why, his hyperthyroidism is apparent and his incipient arterioschlerosis masking cardiac decomposition was evident to me after one glance!
  Miss Brooks: Good thing you didn't take a second glance; he'd be a goner!
  • Subverted in "The School Board's Pyschologist". Mr. Gibney, the psychologist, brags to Mr. Conklin about being able to be able to do a Sherlock Scan. He is, however, very wrong. Gibney, in the episode, was simply overworked (as he claimed), or incompetent to begin with.
  Mr. Conklin: Good morning, Good morning. This is Mr. Gibney. But I'm not going to tell him who you are. He wants to try a little experiment.
  Miss Brooks: Experiment?
  Mr. Conklin: Mr. Gibney contends that he can tell who you are and what you do just by looking at you.
  Miss Brooks: Well, now. Isn't that nice. Go right ahead, sir.
  Mr. Gibney: Hmm. Let's see. I would say that this woman is a happily married housewife.
  Miss Brooks: Why you dear man!
  Mr. Gibney: She is also the mother of a couple of young children.
  Mr. Conklin: An amazing revelation.
  Mr. Gibney: Well, how am I doing so far?
  Miss Brooks: So far, you owe me a husband and two children.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: In "The Tape Recorder", Walter Denton purchases an expensive reel-to-reel tape recorder, and bills it to Madison High. Truth in Television, as tape recorders cost hundreds of dollars at the time.
• Shoe Shine, Mister?: In "The Birthday Bag", Harriet Conklin solicits money from Miss Brooks by pretending it's for an impoverished shoeshine boy.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: In The Movie Grand Finale, Miss Brooks relationship with Mr. Boynton finally takes centre-stage.
  • The established teenage characters are pushed out of the limelight. High-School Hustler Walter Denton is around for several jokes, but doesn't have much affect on the main plot and isn't in the second half of the film. Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Harriet Conklin is unfortunately all but Demoted to Extra. Recurring character Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass is around early in the film, but isn't around once the plot picks up steam.
  • Canon Foreigner Gary Nolan and his father Lawrence give Miss Brooks a chance to place her considerable teaching ability and intelligence in general to work; versus the usual Pirates Who Don't Do Anything approach the show usually takes to Connie's English classes.
  • Principal Osgood Conklin remains his blustery, dictatorial self. He's given a subplot where he's in a struggle to keep his job while Head of the Board of Education Mr. Stone wants to have him dismissed. This leads to Mr. Conklin trying to be elected for the new position of "Coordinator of Education" against Mr. Stone.
  • Mr. Boynton finally wants to propose to Miss Brooks . . . once he gets enough money to support her.
  • Miss Brook's landlady, friend and confidante, Granny Classic and Cloud Cuckoolander Mrs. Davis is up to some of her usual hijinx. However, she puts those aside when she determines the time is ripe to finally get Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton married. she succeeds, and Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton marry and live Happily Ever After
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Miss Brooks' two successive gym teacher love interests in the controversial final television season. Clint Albright and Gene Talbot, respectively. They both end up quitting their jobs and leaving with little explanation. They're replaced by Miss Brooks' longtime beau, Mr. Boynton.
• Short Cuts Make Long Delays: The Road Trip Plot episode, "Game At Clay City". Mr. Conklin, appointing himself navigator of Miss Brooks' car, determines they should take a shortcut. After the car breaking down going up a steep hill, getting lost, giving a ride to a hitchhiker who misdirects them to a neighboring town, the gang finally arrive at Clay City . . . only to find that the football game is over and that the Madison High team had been clobbered.
• Show Within a Show: In "Here Is Your Past", Miss Brooks is unwittingly made a contestant of the titular show.
• The Shrink: In the episode "The School Board Psychologist". A dangerously incompetent psychologist tries to have Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin dismissed.
• Sickening Sweethearts: Mr. and Mrs. Conklin can be like that:
  • In "Trying to Pick a Fight", it's revealed that one of Mrs. Conklin's pet names for her husband is "Sugar Cookie".
  • In "Mr. Boynton's Parents", Mr. Conklin buys Mrs. Conklin a black sheer negligee. "To Baby, From Goodie" reads the card.
• Signature Team Transport: Walter Denton usually drives Miss Brooks to school in his jalopy.
• Silly Simian:
  • In "The Little Visitor", the Conklins are expecting to play guest to Mrs. Conklin's sister's pet monkey. Harriet and Mrs. Conklin are excstatic, Mr. Conklin is miserable. Miss Brooks jumps to the conlusion the Conklins are expecting a new baby. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Miss Brooks often mentions Mr. Boynton taking her to the monkeyhouse at the zoo, both on radio and on televison. It's said to be one of his favourite places. In "The Frog", Miss Brooks mentions her intent to change this because "as a schoolteacher, I can't afford to buy Taboo by the quart".
  • At the end of The Movie Grand Finale, Miss Brooks having just finally recieved Mr. Boynton's proposal of marriage, finds Mr. Boynton feeding the monkeys at the zoo. Mr. Boynton finds an engagement ring in a box of cracker jacks. With This Ring is interrupted by Chiquita, a female money who chooses this moment to steal the ring. No matter, Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks walk away arm-in-arm to their future home.
  Miss Brooks: (winking to Chickita) I hope it doesn't take as long for you as it did for me.
  Chiquita: (winks back)
• Silly Will: In "Mr. Casey's Will", Angela Devon has a will written on behalf of her late beloved cat Mr. Casey. Mr. Casey bequeaths his most valuable possessions; a ball of yarn, a chewed up tennis ball and an empty milk cartons, to Walter Denton, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin respectively.
  Mr. Conklin: What kind of bovine jest is this?

Miss Brooks, on the other hand, is bequeathed the contents of Mr. Casey's treasure chest. This turns out to be his widow Mrs. Casey and their five kittens.

Miss Brooks: Contrary to public opinion, Mighty Casey did not strike out!

• Simple, yet Opulent: Miss Brooks, in the few episodes where she wears an evening gown - most notably, the strapless evening gown she wears in "Suzy Prentiss".
• Singing in the Shower: In "Stretch Has A Problem", Miss Brooks' "feet were ready to come off" after participating in a snake dance. The rally was held in honor of the Madison High School basketball team's departure to the state tournament. The sore and tired Miss Brooks spends the rest of the episode trying to take a bath. And singing! Alas, she's continually interrupted by somebody coming to the door before she can get into the tub:
  Miss Brooks: [singing, while filling the bathtub with water] Singing in the bathtub, nothing can go wrong. Singing in the bathtub....
  [doorbell rings]
  Miss Brooks: [singing] Oh, I should live so long!
• Single-Episode Handicap: In "Marinated Hearing", Walter Denton sets off an old cannon from the Spanish-American War. Mr. Conklin's standing too close, and suffers from temporary deafness as a result.
• Single Sex Offspring: In "Babysitting for Three", Miss Brooks visits a teenage student to see why he has missed the last few days of school. It turns out he's been at home taking care of his three small brothers while their mother is in the hospital and their traveling-salesman father is away. Miss Brooks agrees to look after the three younger siblings while the older boy catches a ride to see his mother. At episode's end, the boys' mother comes home with a brand-new baby brother. One family, five boys.
• Single-Task Robot: In "Transition Show", Vice Principal Oliver Munsey shows Miss Brooks the robot he built. Its purpose is to be an automatic pencil sharpener.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Miss Brooks' goal throughout the radio, television series and film adaptation. Her heart is clearly set on the very decent and attractively biology teacher Mr. Boynton. Unfortunately, Mr. Boynton is very shy and almost altogether Oblivious to Love.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Miss Brooks has Miss Enright, a fellow English teacher and rival for Mr. Boynton's affections.
• Sitting on the Roof: Two episodes end with Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton sitting on a roof.
  • In "Elopement with Walter, Miss Brooks lures Mr. Boynton atop Mrs. Davis' house to practice volunteer fire fighting maneuvers. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • "Threat to Abolish Football" ends with Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton drafted into fixing the roof of Mr. Conklin's house. Again, It Makes Sense in Context.
• Sketchy Successor: In the first radio episode, "First Day", Madison High School's Principal Darwell is replaced by Principal Osgood Conklin. Partially averted in that Mr. Conklin is generally competent with a Hidden Heart of Gold. However, he is also pompous, arrogant, bad-tempered and dictatorial.
  • The later radio episode "Borrowing Money to Fly", and the cinematic series finale changed the continuity so as to reflect the fact Mr. Conklin was Madison's longtime principal who had been long ensconced in his position upon Miss Brooks' arrival at Madison.
• The Slacker: Walter Denton is an early example, although intelligent about some things, he's Book Dumb, constantly taking shortcuts in his studies, once mentions he keeps his room a mess, and tries to minimize the time he spends in school or actually doing school work.
• Slave to PR: Mr. Conklin is desperate to maintain a good public image on a number of occasions. For example, in "Madison Country Club", he's desperate to one up his rival Jason Brill. In "The Cafeteria Strike", Mr. Conklin's desperate to prevent the school's board food being exposed in the newspaper. Yes, Mr. Conklin is desperate to maintain a good front for the public. However, he never seems to care about the reputation he has amongst Madison's students and faculty.
• Sleazy Politician: The mayor in the radio episode "Student Government Day" is in league with the mobsters running the Jackpot Amusement Company. Averted with the new mayor, who eventually appears in the television episode "Public Property On Parade".
• Sliding Scaleof Robot Intelligence: In "Transition Show", Vice Principal Oliver Munsey shows Miss Brooks the robot he built. Definately a type 1, its main purpose is as an automatic pencil sharpener.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks. Mr. Conklin is the principal of Madison High School, but had a pomposity out of all proportion to his position. He often answers his office telephone "Principal's office. Osgood Conklin himself speaking". In the episode "Public Speaker's Nightmare", he has Miss Brooks recite his entire resume before beginning a school meeting.
• Smart People Play Chess: One of biology teacher Mr. Boynton's hobbies is chess. In the "Hobby Show", he tries to teach the game to Miss Brooks.
• Smitten Teenage Girl: Although Harriet Conklin is usually Walter Denton's squeeze, and ordinarily quite levelheaded, she's been known to act this way on occasion.
  • In "Hello, Mr. Chips," Harriet has a crush on a visiting English headmaster.
  • In "Bones, Son of Cyrano" Harriet is enthused when she thinks Mr. Boynton has written her a love letter.
  • Similarly, in the radio episodes "Stretch has a Problem" and "The Grudge Match" Harriet is overjoyed to find out that Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass is in love with her.
• Snake Charmer: In "King and Brooks", Miss Brooks dreams that she's married to a maharajah. In the dream, Mr. Conklin is a snake charmer practicing his craft outsider her windows. Conklin fails to charm the snake with his music, but makes his necktie curl up.
• Snake Oil Salesman: In the episode "Vitamin E-4", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Conklin are tricked by a phony professor into helping him manufacture the eponymous "vitamin". In reality, it's a bunch of gloop whose main ingredient is chicken fat. The "professor" uses teachers to make his presentations more realitic. The head of the school board, Mr. Stone, is incredulous that normally clever people can fall for such a scam. The snake oil saleman is never actually seen, but was voiced by Frank Nelson on the record he left in his "laboratory" to instruct his employees on how to manufacture the "vitamin".
• Snarking Thanks: Miss Brooks is a Deadpan Snarker, so this trope is played from time-to-time. One example occurs in the early radio episode "Game At Clay City", where Miss Brooks "thanks" a mechanic who was supposed to change a headlight but ended up making over a hundred dollars in repairs.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Whenever Miss Brooks and Miss Enright meet, snarking is sure to follow. Usually, Miss Enright gives the first blow, with Miss Brooks giving as good as she gets.
• Sneeze of Doom: Mr. Conklin has some whoppers. The TV version of the sneezes had powerful fans blow objects all over the set, i.e. "Here is Your Past" and "The Magic Tree".
• Social Semicircle: Sometimes readily apparent. Our Miss Brooks was filmed in front of a live studio audience at Desilu Studios, using the same camera equipment as I Love Lucy.
  • One example is found in the episode "Spare That Rod!". Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass are crowded along three sides of a cafeteria table.
  • Another example is in the episode "Madison Mascot", where Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Harriet Conklin Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass are meeting in Mr. Conklin's to discuss the a mascot for the Madison football team. Mr. Conklin sat at the head of the table, with everybody else either placed at the foot or along one side.
  • Averted in "Hobby Show" and "Thanksgiving Show" in scenes taking place at Mrs. Davis' dining room table. Mrs. Davis, one supposes, had little tolerance for Social Semi Circle Seating!
• So Proud of You: Lawrence Nolan, praising his son Gary's reporting work, in the cinematic series finale.
• Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: An interesting example, in that the radio series actually outlasted the TV version.
• Southern Belle: In "Blind Date", Mr. Conklin is afraid of meeting his old college girlfriend, Lulubelle Calhoun of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He had told his wife Martha that she was the only woman he ever loved. Mr. Conklin, being a vain and pompous individual, convinces himself that Lulubelle was visiting to try and breakup the Conklin's marriage and win him back. In truth, Lulubelle was visiting for unrelated reasons and left the night before. In truth, Lulubelle had told Mrs. Davis that she didn't even know what she had seen in Osgood!
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: It happens multiple times in the first (television) season finale, "June Bride". Miss Brooks is acting as proxy for French teacher Monsieur Leblanc's French bride. Unfortunately, some Exact Eavesdropping by Walter Denton leads to him thinking that Miss Brooks is actually going to be the bride. Denton tells Miss Brooks' landlady Mrs. Davis, his girlfriend Harriet Conklin, her father the principal of the school, and Miss Brooks' actual Love Interest Mr. Boynton. Miss Brooks manages to straighten out Mrs. Davis before the ceremony. But the wedding is then stopped by Mr. Conklin and his daughter Harriet. Mr. Conklin does not want to replace Miss Brooks next term, and Harriet is a Shipper on Deck for Miss Brooks. They're corrected, the wedding goes on ahead. Then Walter Denton interrupts the wedding. He's made to sit down. Mr. Boynton finally arrives, confused (he had a date with Miss Brooks' to go square dancing), to interrupt the wedding. Finally, the proxy wedding is forestalled for good when the telegraph delivery boy arrives with the message that the actual bride has just married another man.
• Spelling Song: In "Mr. Boynton's Parents", Miss Brooks is pleased to hear that Love Interest Mr. Boynton's parents find her so youthful. That is, until teachers' pets Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin arrive. To Miss Brooks' chagrin, the teenagers name her the Madison High School student's choice for "Mother away from Mother". After presenting her with a shawl the students bought for her, Walter Denton sings the song they wrote for her:
  Walter Denton:
  B is for the books she helps us study.
  R is she is righteous and so pure.
  O is for the fact that she's our buddy.
  The other O is likewise I am sure.
  K is for okay she rates about.
  S is for her sadly wrinkled brow.
  She's motherly just like Elsie the Cow.
  Miss Brooks we love you dearly!
  Miss Brooks:
  Miss Brooks
  That's me.
  (sob) I'll always be,
  Miss Brooks!
• Spit Take:
  • The very first television episode, "Trying to Pick a Fight", sees Miss Brooks do a spit take with coffee. Still, Miss Brooks demonstrates good manners by immediately using a linen napkin to wipe her face!
  • Mr. Boynton does one with chili in "Weekend at Crystal Lake".
• Split-Screen Phone Call: "Blind Date".
• Springtime for Hitler: In "School on Saturday", Mr. Conklin sends Miss Brooks to quell a mass student protest that arises when he opens Madison High School on Saturday, and demands everybody attend . . . .

  • Mr. Conklin hears from head of the board, Mr. Stone, that Conklin would be in trouble if he dared open the school Saturday. Stone was going to investigate, personally . . . .
  • Too bad for Mr. Conklin, Miss Brooks' speech to the angry teenagers convinced them to come in and attend class.
  • Mr. Conklin has Miss Brooks make another speech, to send the students home . . . .
  • Mr. Stone calls up, saying he's not going to inspect the school after all . . . .
  • Miss Brooks is sent to make yet another speech, and the students attend classes for the day. And stay in detention until 4:00 p.m.
  • Mr. Stone comes by late in the afternoon . . . more Hilarity Ensues.

• Squee: Harriet Conklin, occasionally. One example is in "Hello, Mr. Chips", where she makes a sound of delight upon seeing the visiting English school master.
• Squirrels in My Pants: In "Cure That Habit", Stretch Snodgrass carries two kittens, a frog and a snake in his jacket. The animals get loose in Mr. Conklin's office and Hilarity Ensues.
• Staircase Tumble: Walter Denton's dates with Harriet Conklin often end with him being kicked down the porch steps by her father.
• Stalker Shot:
  • In "Oh, Dem Golden Slippers": Miss Brooks is being followed around by a mysterious shoe salesman, who leaves her flowers (and takes one for his lapel).
  • "Here is Your Past" sees a mysterious man spy on Miss Brooks in a delicatessen, steal her employment card from Mr. Conklin's desk, steal Mr. Boynton's diary from his desk, steal a magazine article from Walter Denton's pocket, and finally meet her face-to-face when she's alone in her classroom.
• Stalker without a Crush: The episode "Here is Your Past" sees Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis being stalked by a mysterious man with a black moustache. The stranger forces Connie to a TV studio where she's guest of honor on the Here is Your Past TV program.
• Standalone Episode: Every radio and television episode of Our Miss Brooks reintroduces the characters, and (except in the fourth TV season) there's no continuity that needs to be followed from one episode to the next.
• Standardized Sitcom Housing: Mostly averted.
  • Miss Brooks rents a room from Mrs. Davis, whose home is stereotypically decorated in "old lady style" i.e. old fashioned wallpaper and lots of doilies. The house is a one-story home, although the front windows seen in establishing shots don't appear in the house. The front door opens directly into the living room, but is actually stage right. The house actually has a dining room stage left to the living room. Stage left to the dining room is the kitchen, with a back door leading stage left to the back porch and back yard (which was rarely shown). Depending on the requirement of the plot, the house is described as having either two or three bedrooms. (In The Movie, Mrs. Davis describes the third bedroom as a "spare room", perhaps reconciling the difference.) There's an easily accessible attic used for storage, mentioned by never shown. On the rare occasions when Miss Brooks' bedroom is shown, it's unclear where it is inside the house.
  • In the cinematic series finale, the layout is much the same. However, while the living room was square on television, here it's elongated along the front of the house. The windows outside actually line up. The location of Miss Brooks' room is also shown. It's off a small hallway leading from the living room (and thus not appearing on stage on television.
• The Stateroom Sketch: In the episode "Oo-Oo-Me-Me-Tocoludi-Gucci-Moo-Moo". Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis had spent their summer vacation in a tiny house-trailer Miss Brooks nicknamed "mousie". While waiting for a perspective buyer to show up, Miss Brooks and Mrs. Davis clean the trailer. Unfortunately, Walter Denon, Harriet Conklin and Mr. Conklin all come to visit. Hilarity Ensues.
• Stealing the Credit: Mr. Conklin likes to steal the credit from Miss Brooks, on occasion. For example, there was his attempt to claim authorship of a speech written by Miss Brooks in "Public Property on Parade".
• Stealth Insult: In the series' theatrical series finale, Miss Brooks is Mr. Conklin's campaign manager for his crack at the new post of Coordinator of Education (essentially, School Board Superintendent). Collecting donations from students and teachers, Miss Brooks tells Mr. Conklin that many of them were behind him. They were willing to give him a push out of Madison if necessary. Mr. Conklin's change of expression from glowing pride to a perplexed frown suggests he quickly realized the import of Miss Brooks' comment.
• Steam Never Dies: In the film, when Miss Brooks arrives in Madison, she's seen disembarking from a passenger train drawn by a steam locomotive. Very much truth in film, as the fifties were the twilight of the steam age in North America.
• Stereo Fibbing: Happens a few times in the radio version:
  • In the episode "The Wrong Mrs. Boynton", Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton fib in stereo to the Dean Faraday of State College.
  • In "Trial By Jury", Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton and Bones Snodgrass play possum with multiple fake illnesses.
• Stern Teacher: At Madison High School, Miss Enright, Miss Brooks' personal and professional rival, is always described by Miss Brooks and others as a very competent teacher. However, she appears to be much stricter than Miss Brooks. In "Stretch the Basketball Star", the episode introducing Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass, Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin plot to have the student athlete moved to Miss Brooks' class. They view "old lady Enright" as being unsympathetic.
• Stick Figure Animation: Used in a few episodes at the start of the fourth television season. For example, in "Who's Who", Miss Brooks narrates her efforts to beg a favor from Mrs. Nestor. The backdrop to Miss Brooks' narration is a stick figure picture of Miss Brooks pleading with Mrs. Nestor.
• Sticky Fingers: Somebody is stealing phonebooks in the episode "Phonebook Follies".
• Sticky Situation: In the episode "Living Statues", Mr. Conklin orders Miss Brooks to fix the cracks and scratches on his office walls. Joined by Walter and Mr. Boynton, Miss Brooks' redoes his office using a clear paint invented by Walter in the school lab. Unfortunately, Walter unknowingly added liquid cement to his concoction . . . .
• Stock Animal Diet: Minerva, Mrs. Davis' pet cat, shows an affinity to several stock cat foods.
  • Minerva likes milk, but prefers cream. One episode has Miss Brooks telling Minerva there's no cream left, so she'll have to take milk. Minerva meows angrily in protest.
  • In "Taxidermists", Minerva gobbles up a large fish Mr. Conklin intends to enter in a fishing contest.
  • Minerva shows excitement anytime someone mentions mice in her presence.
• Stock "Yuck!": The episode "Public Property on Parade", sees Cordon Bleugh Chef Mrs. Davis cook a limburger omelet for Miss Brooks. Brooks wisely declines, so Davis leaves it in the front yard for the birds. Cue a flock of birds flying a frantic retreat.
• Stolen Credit Backfire: In "Public Property On Parade", Mr. Conklin takes credit for a speech Miss Brooks wrote about respecting public property and condemning theft and vandalism. Conklin initially dislikes the speech, but when the Mayor praises the document he takes full credit. Later, Conklin tells Miss Brooks that the Mayor would never find out that she wrote the speech; he's immediately embarassed to find the mayor is standing just outside the room and has heard everything.
• Stop, or I Will Shoot!: In "The Stolen Wardrobe", two fur thieves trick Miss Brooks into "modelling" clothing stolen from Sherry's Department Store. When Mr. Conklin, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton innocently try to return the stolen furs to the store, a policeman fires a shot. This scares off the Madison High gang into fleeing the scene. A later radio report states this was a warning shot into the air. Although Played for Laughs, this does show the problems with immediately threatening deadly force.
• Stopped Reading Too Soon: It happens to Miss Brooks in "Clay City Chaperone". Mr. Conklin, excited about the big game, becomes "memo-happy" (in the words of Walter Denton. Miss Brooks is given identical "Schedule A" and "Schedule B" directing her to chaperone the cheerleaders and school band on the first of two buses going to the big game in Clay City. When Mr. Conklin sends Miss Brooks a "Schedule C" that begins the same way as the previous messages, a preoccupied Miss Brooks does not read the whole thing. It turns out that "Schedule C" had directed Miss Brooks to hold the bus to board not only the cheerleaders and school band, but the actual football team and Mr. Conklin as well. The episode ends with a Black Comedy Burst as Miss Brooks mimes strangling herself with the telephone extension cord, when Mr. Conklin informs her that he and the entire football team had been left behind in Madison. This was a remake of the radio episode "Chaperone to the Cereal Bowl".
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In "Trial By Jury" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Traffic Court") Miss Brooks leaves her car parked on a hill after it runs out of gas. While Miss Brooks is going to get gasoline, another car nudges her car from behind, causing it to roll down hill and crash into a fruit stand. Miss Brooks runs to reclaim her car, but is accused by a policeman of "speeding, going through a red light, reckless driving, driving on the sidewalk and hitting a fruit stand". Miss Brooks explains she was not in the car at the time. But, in what quickly becomes a Running Gag:
  Mrs. Davis: Connie, why didn't you apply the brakes before you hit the fruit stand?
  . . .
  Walter Denton: Before your car hit the fruit stand, why didn't you put on the brakes?
  . . .
  Mr. Boynton: There's just one thing I can't figure out about that accident though. It's why you didn't slam on the brakes before you hit the fruit stand.

• Strange-Syntax Speaker: Stretch Snodgrass's grammar is atrocious. It's a toxic combination of current slang, malapropisms and double negatives.
  Miss Brooks: Stretch, it is incorrect to use a double negative in a sentence. You've just used four of them.
  Stretch Snodgrass: Oh! So what I said was alright then?
  • Stretch's brother Bones is the same way.
• Strictly Professional Relationship: Sometimes invoked by Mr. Boynton. In fact, according to The Movie, when Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks first met, it is Mr. Boynton's insistence that has the two on a strictly Last-Name Basis.
  • It is noteworthy that Miss Brooks never sees her relationship with Mr. Boynton as strictly professional.
• Strike Episode:
  • The episode "The Cafeteria Strike" (a remake of the radio episode "The Madison High Cafeteria Boycott). The students, dismayed by the awful food in the cafeteria, plan a strike with placards and all the other paraphernalia.
  • In "School on Saturday", the Madison High students initially refuse to go to class when Principal Conklin orders them in on Saturday. They even have plans to burn Mr. Conklin in effigy.
• Strong Family Resemblance: In "The Dream", Miss Brooks dreams that the Conklins have a son, Osgood Conklin Junior, who looks exactly like his father. Miss Brooks also dreams that she marries Mr. Boynton. Miss Brooks dreams that their daughter, Cleo, looks exactly like herself.
• Strongly Worded Letter: In "Stuffed Gopher", Mr. Conklin thinks he's going to be fired as principal from Madison High School. He writes a strongly-worded letter of resignation to Mr. Stone, the head of the school board.
• Student Council President: Harriet Conklin is Student Council President at Madison High School. As such, and especially as she is the daughter of Principal Conklin, she has . . . absolutely no power whatsoever.
• Students Playing Matchmaker: High School Students Walter Denton and Harriet Conklin often try to further Miss Brooks' romance with Oblivious to Love Mr. Boynton. One such example is the episode "Blind Date", where Walter and Harriet work together to reunite Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton after a quarrel.
• Stunned Silence: A horrorstruck Miss Brooks is stunned into silence in the episode "Home Cooked Meal". Miss Brooks realizes that Mr. Conklin has gone into a dark kitchen that has filled with natural gas. When Mr. Conklin announces he's going to light a match, horror stricken, she can only mouth a warning. Fortunately, Mr. Conklin's alright, although a little worse for wear.
• Sudden Humility:
  • In "Spare That Rod!", when Mr. Conklin believes Mr. Stone has threatened to fire him for being "flagrantly dictatorial." Mr. Conklin humbly helps out his teachers and is even obsequious toward his students.
  • In "Turnabout Day", by the authority of a forged letter Walter Denton becomes the principal on the titular "Turnabout Day". Cue Mr. Conklin pretending to be a student. He arrives on bicycle, wearing a propeller beanie and a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.
  • Again, in the penultimate television episode "Principal For A Day". Miss Brooks is briefly promoted to principal, and Mr. Conklin takes a position as history teacher.
  • Finally, in The Movie Grand Finale, Mr. Conklin is actually threatened with dismissal by Mr. Stone; in a Continuity Nod, Mr. Stone considering Conklin's strict rule of Madison High School "to be tantamount to malfeasance." Mr. Conklin tries acting humble. When that doesn't work, Conklin decides to run against Mr. Stone for the newly created post of "Coordinator of Education" (aka school board president/superintendent) to save his position.
• Sudden Intelligence: The episode "Dress Code Protest" has student athlete Stretch Snodgrass volunteer some good advice to Miss Brooks.
  Stretch Snodgrass: I've got an idea, Miss Brooks.
  Miss Brooks: Not so loud, it'll get away.
• Sudden Musical Ending: The season finale of the first television season, "June Bride", ends with an impromptu square dance. Miss Brooks had been filling in as proxy for Mr. Leblanc's French bride. At the last minute the wedding is called off. Mr. Boynton uses the opportunity . . . not to propose marriage to Miss Brooks, but to call for a square dance. Mrs. Davis plays the square dance music on the organ, while Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Harriet Conklin, Walter Denton, Mr. Leblanc, the judge, and the telegraph delivery boy all join in.
  Mr. Boynton: Oh come on in and form a line, come on in the dancing's fine!
  Miss Brooks: Oh look at me, instead of being wed, I'm dancing with a fella with corners on his head!
• Sudden Name Change:
  • Marty's Malt Shop, the restaurant across the street from Madison High School, goes by a different name in its first radio appearance ("The Model School Teacher"). Subsequent appearances have the local hangout go by the name "Marty's Malt Shop". This includes the television remake of "The Model School Teacher", simply entitled "The Model Teacher."
  • Sherry's Department store has a similar backstory. In the store's first appearance, "Surprise Party", Madison's department store goes by a different name. In subsequent episodes, "Sherry's" prevails, including the television remake of "Surprise Party", "The Birthday Bag."
  • In the third season, Madison High School's principal rival, "Clay City High School", is suddenly redubbed "Henry Clay High."
• Sudden School Uniform:
  • In the television episodes "Lulu, The Pinup Boat" and "Hello Mr. Chips", Mr. Conklin demands that the students and faculty wear sombre clothing. In "Lulu", it's to observe national education week. In "Mr. Chips", it's in honour of a visiting British headmaster.
  • To a far greater degree in the radio episode "Dress Code Protest". An angry Mr. Conklin orders it on the spur of the moment, as Miss Brooks related in the Opening Narration:
  Miss Brooks: It all started when the undergraduate body decided last week to be Let's dress up week . Contained within this malevolent Mardi Gras were such jolly daily fiestas such as; Clashing Colours Day , in which anyone caught wearing an outfit that matched was severely punished by his or her fellow students; and ''Dye-One-Leg-Of-Your-Trousers-Blue Day'', which is self-explanatory. By Thursday, which was Girls Wear Slacks, Boys Wear One-Shoe-Only Day, Mr. Conklin, our beloved principal, was fit to be tied. At a general assembly that afternoon, he sternly demanded that all these shenanigans cease.
• Super-Stoic Shopkeeper: Mr. Fisher in "Mr. Fisher's Pawn Shop," played by the indomitable Frank Nelson. He doesn't get upset in spite of the wacky hijinks going on all around him.
• Surprise Party: "The Birthday Bag" and "The Surprise Party". Miss Brooks' friends plan a surprise party at the Conklin's house. Unfortunately, Miss Brooks turns up an hour too early. Hilarity Ensues.
• Suspicion Aesop: In "The Honest Burglar" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of the radio episode "The Burglar"), Miss Brooks and her landlady Mrs. Davis meets a burglar raiding their refrigerator. The burglar, Joe Phillips, is stealing food, but as he is out of work, Miss Brooks gets him a job substituting for the ill school custodian. Soon items all over the school go missing; Mr. Conklin's pen and watch, Mr. Boynton's desk, a sewing machine from the home economics room, and even all the silverware in the school cafeteria. It turns out that Phillips was either repairing or polishing the items, or, in the case of Mr. Conklin's watch, Conklin's daughter Harriet had merely placed it inside his desk. Miss Brooks apologizes for being suspicious, but she's readily forgiven due to her earlier kindness and best intentions.
• Sweet Baker: Mrs. Davis loves to bake and cook in general. Although she's technically only the landlady, she acts like a mother to Miss Brooks.
• Swivel-Chair Antics: In "Cure That Habit", Stretch Snodgrass swivels Principal Conklin around quickly, in an attempt to cure his hiccups. Hilarity Ensues.
• Tableau: When Head of the Board of Education, Mr. Stone, visits Mr. Conklin, he finds Conklin, Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, and Walter Denton motionless. They're stuck to the furniture. Walter Denton had unknowingly mixed his touch-up paint with liquid cement:
  Mr. Stone: I must be having hallucinations! What is the meaning of this grotesque tableau!
• Take a Third Option: Happens in "The Big Game". After Assistant Coach "Snakehips" Geary fails his makeup test to get his high school diploma, Miss Brooks must either flunk the old high school football hero from the "Big Game of 1912" or give him a fake pass. However, she uses Loophole Abuse and Takes a Third Option. Earlier Mr. Conklin told Miss Brooks, when marking the test, to give him full credit for his contribution to Madison, his winnning the big game forty years before. Miss Brooks adds the points Snakehips scored to his test results as extra credit. Snakehips gets his High School Diploma and remains the Assistant Coach.
• Taking the Fight Outside: Attempted by Mr. Boynton and new gym teacher Mr. Greeley in "Angela's Wedding". They had been invited to a small party to welcome Angela's fiance. Greeley, who had been mocking Boynton in the episode, is on the verge of provoking a fight - much to Miss Brooks' disdain. Boynton and Greeley are about to step outside, when, to Greeley's amusement, Mr. Boynton is drafted by Mrs. Davis to help her toss a salad.
• Talking Heads: The radio programs adapted to television are often "talky" episodes. However, visual gags are often thrown into the script (indeed, many are carried over from the radio where they are described, but not shown). The show, humorous on the radio, definitely does not suffer in the adaptation to television.
• Talking in Your Sleep: In a couple episodes, Mr. Conklin and Miss Brooks are heard talking in their sleep. "Mr. Conklin's Wakeup Plan" is one such example.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Mr. Boynton Miss Brooks marries Mr. Boynton in The Movie Grand Finale
• Tagalong Kid: Benny Romero in the last season. In "Geraldine", he stowsaway aboard the trailer Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Mr. Munsee are taking to Arizona.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: "Mr. Boynton's Barbecue". In this episode, Miss Brooks decides to get revenge on Miss Enright and some time alone with Mr. Boynton. Miss Enright had transferred a sick student to her class with (correct) assumption that Miss Brooks would catch a cold and be in bed for a few days. Mr. Boynton holds a barbecue, using "mild sauce", ultimately inviting Miss Brooks, Miss Enright, Mr. Conklin and Walter Denton. Miss Brooks, with Walter Denton's help, decides to substitute a Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce concoction on Miss Enright's plate. Unfortunately, Walter Denton mixes up the plates and gives the concoction to Miss Brooks. Miss Brooks appears unaffected; meanwhile Miss Enright and Mr. Conklin run for water after a taste of Mr. Boynton's supposedly "mild" barbecue sauce.
• Tap on the Head:
  • In "Mr. Conklin is Honored", Mr. Conklin receives several hits on the head with Mrs. Davis' mahogany handled umbrella. It Makes Sense in Context. Mr. Conklin falls to the ground each time, but suffers no effect more severe than the loss of a couple teeth.
  • The trope is used in the episode "The Skeleton in the Closet". Miss Brooks' desperately tries to prevent a blackmailer, "Charlie", from revealing an embarassing incident in her life to Mr. Conklin. Gym teacher Gene Talbot knocks out Charlie using a gym bag holding a barbell. Later, Mr. Waddley, the school publicist, and Mr. Conklin himself get knocked out with a tap on the head.
• Taxman Takes the Winnings: Happens to Miss Brooks in "Easter Outfit". Miss Brooks finds the $50.00 she earned working at the board of education during spring break to be considerably eroded by taxes.
• Taxidermy Is Creepy:
  • In "Stuffed Gopher", Stretch Snodgrass catches the gopher that had been digging holes in the school's grounds. Stretch has the gopher stuffed and mounted, bringing it back to school in a suitcase. Miss Brooks and Walter Denton are disturbed. When Mr. Conklin sees it, he orders Stretch to take it out of sight.
  • "Stuffed Gopher" is in itself a Continuity Nod to an earlier radio episode, "Taxidermist". In addition to owning a pet shop and being a onetime veterinarian, the Snodgrass brothers' father is a taxidermist. "Taxidermist" sees Miss Brooks join Walter Denton, Harriet Conklin and Stretch Snodgrass in a summer taxidermy business. Miss Brooks is squeamish about the entire business, and insists on not hearing the details of stuffing dead animals - or even staying around for the procedure.
• Taxidermy Terror: The Snodgrass brothers' not only live behind a pet shop, but their father's a both former veterinarian and taxidermist, Depending on the Writer. Miss Brooks briefly (and squeamishly) forays into the business of taxidermy herself on the radio, in the episode "Taxidermists" - accompanied by Harriet Conklin, Walter Denotn and Stretch Snodgrass. However, where Taxidermy Terror really comes into play is in the episode "Stuffed Gopher". Stretch Snodgrass wrecks Mr. Conklin's office, Mr. Boynton's lab, and the school Cafeteria in his attempt to catch the rodent. Snodgrass then has the rodent stuffed and brings it to school in a large suitcase to show Miss Brooks, Walter and Mr. Conklin. All three are suitably, and comically repulsed.
• Teacher/Parent Romance:
  • An atypical example in "A Mother for Benny". Benny Romero tries to set up Miss Brooks with his father, even sending flowers to her in his name.
  • In "New Girl At School", Miss Brooks is worried when Mr. Boynton starts giving driving lessons to the mother of the titular new girl.
• Teacher's Pet:
  • Walter Denton, who likes Miss Brooks so much he's usually driving her to school.
  • Also applies to Harriet Conklin, who is Miss Brooks' best student. She's also the daughter of the principal to boot.
• Team Chef: Mrs. Davis is the only main character typically seen cooking. In one episode, Miss Brooks goes so far as to describe her own specialty as Campbell's Soup. Subverted in episodes where Miss Brooks assists Mrs. Davis with her cooking, and in episodes where Mrs. Conklin appears. Most notably subverted in "The Cafeteria Strike" when Mr. Boynton uses his mother's meatball recipe to get Miss Brooks out of trouble.
• Teasing the Substitute Teacher: In the penultimate television episode, "Principal For A Day", Mr. Conklin is demoted to being a history teacher. He gets a kick-me sign placed on his back.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: This happens whenever Mr. Conklin forces Miss Brooks to go along with a scheme of which she does not approve.
• Teeth Flying: Mr. Conklin loses several teeth in "Plaque for Mr. Conklin" as he's hit several times in an attempt to cure his faked case of amnesia. It Makes Sense in Context.
• The Teetotaler:
  • In "Cure That Habit", a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of an earlier radio episode, Miss Brooks observes that it's Mr. Conklin's "proudest boast that he's a teetotaler."
  • Miss Brooks, more generally, is never seen or heard taking intoxicating beverages. It's most notable in "French Sadie Hawkins Day" where she and (teenager) Walter Denton are the only ones not to have any alcholic breverages at a fancy French restaurant.
• Temporary Substitute:
  • Stretch Snodgrass was substituted with his brother Bones in several first and second season episodes of the TV Series. The actor who played Stretch, Leonard Smith, wasn't available.
  • Mrs. Winona Nestor was replaced by her sister, Mrs. Ruth Nestor, in the fourth season of the TV series. Sadly, the actress playing Winona, Nana Bryant, was forced to leave the show due to illness after making only a couple of appearances.
  • The temporary replacement of Mrs. Davis, with her sister Angela, for a few episodes in the third season of the TV series and contemporaneous radio program. Jane Morgan, the actress who played Mrs. Davis, had suffered a stroke (fortunately, she made a quick and full recovery). This counts as a subversion as the character of Angela had often been mentioned on the radio program, and was eventually portrayed by Jesselyn Fax on both radio and television. The two sisters appeared side-by-side in several episodes.
  • In the fourth season of the TV series, Mr. Boynton was replaced as Miss Brooks' love interest by phys-ed instructor Clint Allbright (William Ching). Then Allbright himself was replaced with Gene Talbot (Gene Barry) before Boynton finally returned to the series
• Terrible Artist: In "Van Gogh, Man Gogh", Walter Denton loses Miss Brooks' self-portrait. He tries to replace it with a quick painting of his own that portrays Miss Brooks with a rectangular face. Walter paints entirely in a series of straight lines. The painting horrifies Miss Brooks, and disgusts Mr. Conklin. Oddly enough, a local art gallery owner considers it to be the best example of modern art from the school.
• Thanksgiving Episode: Our Miss Brooks had two:
  • "Thanksgiving Show", a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, had landlady Mrs. Davis buy a tiny squab for Thanksgiving Day, after she was deterred by the price of a turkey. Miss Brooks tries to get herself invited to a traditional dinner, but only succeeds in inviting Walter Denton, Stretch Snodgrass, Phillip Boynton and the Conklins to dine at Mrs. Davis'.
  • In "Thanksgiving Turkey", which was heard exlcusively on the radio, Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton buy a cheap live turkey. Unfortunately, she was the farmer's pet, answers to the name Bernice, and Miss Brooks is less than thrilled as Walter and Mr. Boynton arranges for her execution.
• Thanksgiving Turkey: Our Miss Brooks had two Thanksgiving episodes; both times Miss Brooks finds it difficult to procure a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
  • In the television episode "Thanksgiving Show" (a remake of the radio episode "Thanksgiving Weekend"), Mrs. Davis only buys a tiny squab for thanksgiving dinner. Miss Brooks attempts to get herself invited to a more substantial dinner results in Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton, Stretch Snodgrass and the entire Conklin family invited over to dine on Thanksgiving squab at Mrs. Davis' house.
  • In the radio episode "Thanksgiving Turkey", facing buying a turkey with only $5 to spend, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton, with the assistance of Walter Denton, buy a live turkey from a farmer. Only thing is the turkey was a pet, and answers to the name Bernice (and falls in love with Mr. Boynton's pet frog McDougall to boot). Hilarity Ensues.
• That's All, Folks!: At the end of the episode "Buddy", Ricky Velasco states that although it would be "corny", it would be great if "The End" should appear above the cape he's holding. And "The End" appears.
• That's an Order!: Mr. Conklin uses this phrase from time to time.
• Theodore Roosevelt: In "Madame Brooks Dubarry", Mrs. Davis dons a Theodore Roosevelt costume for a party.
• Theme Music Abandonment: The movie dispenses with the usual series theme, opening with a fanfare and a cheery new tune.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Happens often on Miss Brooks. Many episodes begin with Miss Brooks having breakfast with Mrs. Davis. Often enough Walter Denton joins them, proclaiming himself willing to eat another breakfast. However, you rarely see anybody eat more than a few bites or Miss Brooks take a few sips of coffee. The trope is carried over to scenes in the Madison High School cafeteria, where teachers and students talk far more than they ever eat.
• Thief Bag: The thief in "The Jewel Robbery" carries away the loot from the burgled store in a bag. However, the crook later stores it in a suitcase.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Walter Denton's expression at the end of "Cure That Habit". Walter had mailed an application for an alcoholism cure in Mr. Conklin's name. For the second time in the episode, he brags to Miss Brooks about his prank. Unfortunately for Walter, this time Mr. Conklin's standing right behind him.
  Mr. Conklin: I bet he'll be positively purple.
  Walter Denton: Purple? I'll bet he turns all the colors of the rain-bow-oh-oh-oh-oh!
  • Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Walter Denton, and Stretch Snodgrass cower at the end of "Spare That Rod!" Miss Brooks, in fact, flees the principal's office! Mr. Conklin had, all day, been meek and courteous in response to a letter threatening his dismissal for running the school in a "dictatorial manner". Only at the end of show does he discover the letter was addressed to his predecessor Mr. Darwell, and was postmarked 1944. His name was only that day typed on the envelope by Walter Denton.
  Miss Brooks: Run for the hills, the dam has broke!
  • At the end of "Transition Show", Miss Brooks realizes she's working for, and at the mercy of, Mrs. Nestor and Mr. Conklin. Her near-sobbing expression says it all.
• Thought-Aversion Failure: The episode "Connie Tries To Forget Mr. Boynton" is based on this trope. The concept is explained by Mrs. Davis near the start of the episode:

Mrs. Davis: Remember, the one thing most difficult to forget is what you're trying to forget. If you'll cooperate with me, Connie, I'll show you just what I mean with a simple little experiment. Just try to forget an object on this table. Anything at all. Well, the coffee pot for example.
Miss Brooks: This coffee pot?
Mrs. Davis: Any coffee pot. Now, close your eyes and clear your mind. Close them tightly. Mm. That's it. Now, Connie Brooks, I command you not to think of a coffee pot. There's no such thing as a coffee pot. No coffee pot at all. Just keep telling yourself you must not think of a coffee pot.
Miss Brooks: No coffee pot. I must not think of a coffee pot.
Mrs. Davis: That's right. No coffee pot. No coffee pot. Now, quickly Connie, what are you thinking of?
Miss Brooks: A coffee pot.
Mrs. Davis: I can't understand it. Something must have gone wrong. Try again now. Are you still thinking of a coffee pot?
Miss Brooks: Yes, but it looks like Mr. Boynton.
— Our Miss Brooks "Connie Tries to Forget Mr. Boynton"

• Three-Wall Set: On the television program, filmed in front of a studio audience. Averted in The Movie Grand Finale.
• Through His Stomach:
  • This was attempted by Miss Brooks in "Home Cooked Meal", in the hopes of getting Mr. Boynton to propose. Mrs. Davis cooks a turkey, brings it over to Mr. Boynton's, while Miss Brooks attempts to warm it up in Mr. Boynton's new oven. Unfortunately, the automatic burner-lighters hadn't yet been installed . . . Hilarity Ensues.
  • An earlier attempt to get Mr. Boynton to propose was in the radio episode "Weekend at Crystal Lake". Mrs. Conklin suggests that Miss Brooks barbeque ribs for dinner. Alas, Miss Brooks doesn't know a thing about barbequing and cooks (burns, that is) the ribs by placing them under the charcoal.
• Time-Passes Montage: in The Movie Grand Finale, time passes as Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks visit a mother and baby elephant at the zoo. The baby elephant grows to be nearly as big as his mother:
  Mr. Boynton: Remember when he was just a baby?
  Miss Brooks: As if he were my very own.
• Time-Shifted Actor: "The Dream" features older versions of Mr. Conklin, Walter Denton, Mrs. Davis, Mr. Boynton and Mrs. Boynton nee Brooks played by series regulars Gale Gordon, Richard Crenna, Jane Morgan, Robert Rockwell and Eve Arden respectively.
• Title by Year: The television episode "Christmas Show 1952"
• Title Drop: Every so often, Miss Brooks would be introduced as "Our Miss Brooks" just for the fun of dropping the title of the program. Mr. Conklin usually gets to do the honors, as the principal of Madison High School, the "our" refers to Miss Brooks belonging to or being associated with Madison High School.
  • In "First Day", outgoing principal Mr. Darwell has the pleasure of introducing "Our Miss Brooks" to incoming principal Mr. Conklin.
  • In "The Grudge Match", Mr. Conklin names "Our Miss Brooks" to the students as their ringside commentator. It's a little redundant as they already know who she is.
  • In "Hello Mr. Chips", Mr. Conklin introduces "Our Miss Brooks" to visiting British Schoolmaster Heatherington Philpott.
• Title Sequence Replacement: Our Miss Brooks adopted the short "blackboard" opening for syndication.
• Today, X. Tomorrow, the World!: In "Letter From the Board of Education", Miss Brooks' criticizes Mr. Conklin's choice of adages decorating the walls of his office by asking what happened to the one that read "Today Madison, tomorrow the world!". Mr. Conklin states that the janitor ripped it cleaning. In the television remake "Spare That Rod!" the joke is dropped. The janitor ripped the adage reading "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick".
• Tonight, Someone Kisses: As seen in the trailer for The Movie.
• Tonto Talk: Chief and Mrs. Thundercloud in the episode "Bartering With Chief Thundercloud".
• Took a Level in Cynic: Miss Brooks becomes extremely depressed at the crisis point of the series-concluding film.
• The Tooth Hurts: In "Mr. Conklin is Honored", Conklin loses several teeth when repeatedly hit on the head. The hits on the head weren't maliciously intended, but meant to cure a case of Easy Amnesia he had foolishly faked earlier in the episode.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Through the series, Miss Brooks' Series Goal had been marriage to they shy biology teacher, Mr. Boynton. The trailer for the cinematic series finale shows Mr. Boynton giving Miss Brooks a romantic kiss. The trailer ends showing part of a dream sequence where Miss Brooks fantasizes about marriage to Mr. Boynton. Audiences going into the movie knew that, after eight years of television and radio, Miss Brooks was finally going to get her man.
• Translation: "Yes": "The House Trailer" featured an attempt by Mr. Conklin to borrow Mrs. Davis's house trailer and go fishing on an isolated lake, deep in the wilderness. The name of the lake, and the alternate title of the episode? "Oo Oo Me Me Tocoludi Gucci Moo Moo." Mr. Conklin explains that Oo Oo Me Me Tocoludi Gucci Moo Moo is the local Indians' word for "blue."
  Miss Brooks: I hate to hear their word for purple.
• Trap Door: In "Sneeky Peepers", a copy of Rodin's "The Kiss" is ordered by mistake. Mr. Conklin orders the offending statue to be covered by a tarpaulin until it can be returned. Walter Denton even installs a trap door to catch anyone sneaking up to the statue to take a peep. It turns out, by the end of the day, Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton, Mr. Conklin, Mr. Stone and Walter Denton himself have fallen through the trap door and are trapped in a vacant (and locked) storage room in the basement.
• Traveling Salesman: In the episode "Spring Cleaning", Miss Brooks, Mrs. Davis and Mr. Conklin fall prey to the salespeople of the "Jiffy Vacuum Cleaner" company.
• The Trickster: Walter Denton loves to play pranks, and has limited respect for authority.
• Trigger-Happy: In "New School Bus", Mr. Boynton buys an old paddy wagon for use as a school bus. Mrs. Davis uses the opportunity to drive around in the wagon, pretending to be a trigger happy cop. Fortunately, she's using a toy gun and shooting blanks!
• The Triple: Several times. Here, Miss Brooks is having a rapid-fire breakfast "conversation" with Mrs. Davis:
  Miss Brooks: Toast?
  Mrs. Davis: Toast.
  Miss Brooks: Cereal?
  Mrs. Davis: Cereal.
  Miss Brooks: Hat-coat-and-bicarbonate?
  Mrs. Davis: ...
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Osgood Conklin, just to be all the more pompous.
• True Companions: Miss Brooks is not only is pushed (or pushes herself) close to Mr. Boynton, but is frequently involved in the ups and downs of Mr. and Mrs. Conklin's lives, as well as those of her landlady Mrs. Davis.
• Truncated Theme Tune: The syndicated opening sequence for Our Miss Brooks is only 13-seconds long. Notable in that the syndicated version dates back to the 1950's. The theme itself dates to the 1948 radio premier, when it was played briefly at the start and end of the radio episodes. A much longer version of the tune plays over the television closing credits.
• TV Teen:
  • Features High-School Hustler and Teacher's Pet Walter Denton, who carried a very squeaky voice over from the radio.
  • In the main cast is Harriet Conklin, the principal's Spoiled Sweet daughter.
  • Showing up from time-to-time, the dumb but good-natured Stretch Snodgrass.
  • Stretch's brother Bones.
• Two-Teacher School: Brooks and Boynton; there was also Brooks' rival Miss Enright and occasional visits from other teachers.
• The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Principal Osgood Conklin's daughter Harriet.
• Unable to Support a Wife: At the start of the film. Mr. Boynton's saving money and hoping for a promotion so he can propose to (and support) Miss Brooks.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: In the episode "The Dream", Miss Brooks has a daughter that looks just like her, while Mr. Conklin has a grandson that looks just like him. A Justified Trope, as it is All Just a Dream.
• Unconventional Learning Experience: In Our Miss Brooks this is unavoidable, given that the program is set in a High School and stars an English teacher. For example, in "The English Test", Miss Brooks tutors Harriet Conlin, Walter Denton and "Jerky" Mc Guirk for an upcoming examination. Connie Brooks covers such topics as "Concord and Governance", "Gerundial Phrases" and "Sentence Structure". Humour is provided by Walter and Mc Guirk trying to crib off Harriet. Similarly, the episode "Yodar Kritch Award" features Connie attempting to tutor Bones Snodgrass. Here, she covers the subjunctive mood, using the phrase "If I were John the Fisherman." This is a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of the radio episode, only substituting Bones for his brother Stretch. Our Miss Brooks similarly covers scientific topics, due to the fact biology teacher Mr. Boynton is Miss Brooks' Love Interest. The episode "Life Can Be Bones" relies heavily on a discussion of paleontology. A good deal of time is also spent relating the idea of a "Missing Link".
• Unconventional Smoothie: Some of the health drinks Mrs. Davis prepares for Miss Brooks at breakfast fall into this category.
• Undesirable Prize: In "Peanuts the Great Dane", Miss Brooks wins the titular dog after spending the episode trying to get rid of him.
• Unfortunate Names: The radio and television program has the recurring character of Dumb Jock Stretch Snodgrass, whose real name is Fabian Snodgrass. In "Stretch Has A Problem", Stretch tells Miss Brooks he was mocked for his name as a child. It runs in the family. He had a sister named Rapunzel Snodgrass. Later, on television his brother Winston Snograss (nicknamed "Bones") is introduced in "The Yodar Kritch Award".
• Unplanned Crossdressing: In "Dress Code Protest", a series of mix-ups results in Miss Brooks wearing Mr. Conklin's pants after tearing her skirt and being unwilling to go about in a borrowed pair of Harriet's gym bloomers. Mr. Conklin had pushed his pair of pants through the transom, telling Stretch Snodgrass to get them cleaned. However, Stretch had left leading Walter to find them and take them to Miss Brooks. This leaves Mr. Conklin is stranded in his office with no pants, and only Miss Brooks' torn skirt.
• Unreliable Narrator: Sometimes done for laughs in the introductory narration on the radio. This would always prompt a quick correction by deadpan snarker Miss Brooks.
• Unsafe Haven: A few radio and television episodes sees Miss Brooks hide in the boiler or supply room to attend a secret meeting. These meeting rarely stay secret for long:
  • In "Non-Fraternization Policy", a radio episode, Walter Denton opens a "talk-easy" after Mr. Conklin bans non-essential communication between male and female faculty and students. Mr. Conklin discovers it easily.
  • In "Mr. Lathrop Returns to School", also a radio episode, the meeting is held to rid the school of Mr. Lathrop (an elderly millionaire who causes havoc when he wants to run the school like a business corporation). Mr. Lathrop easily finds the secret society but doesn't realize it's been formed against him.
  • In "Red River Valley", a radio episode and Sound-to-Screen Adaptation, Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton and Walter Denton secretly rehearse in order to get summer jobs with Deacon Jones' hillbilly square dance troupe. Mr. Conklin eavesdrops outside the supply room door.
  • "Project X" (on the radio) and "Mad Man Munsey" (on television) see Miss Brooks hiding in the boiler room when Mr. Conklin bugs the school with his "Project X" listening device.
  • Averted in The Movie Grand Finale where Miss Brooks meets with a large contingent of the students to enlist them to support Mr. Conklin's campaign for "Coordinator of Education" (the new head of the school board). For once, the secret meeting goes off without a hitch.
• Unwanted Gift Plot: "Christmas Gift Returns" and "Exchanging Gifts".
• Unwanted Glasses Plot: In "The Dancer", Miss Brooks goes to an optometrist after Mr. Conklin accuses her of needing glasses. She borrows a pair of glasses to see their effect on Mr. Boynton. He compliments her on how mature she looks. So much for any chance of Miss Brooks wearing glasses!
• Uptown Girl: In "An American Tragedy", Miss Brooks relates that Love Interest Mr. Boynton had been dating a society girl. On Miss Brooks giving him an ultimatum to choose the society girl or Miss Brooks, Mr. Boynton chooses Miss Brooks.
• Valentine's Day Episodes: There are two Valentine's Day Episodes:
  • "The Frog" sees Miss Brooks adopt a pet frog, in an effort to set up a "double date" with Mr. Boynton somewhere outside the zoo. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • "Valentine's Day Date" see Miss Brooks again try to keep Mr. Boynton away from the zoo. This time, she uses a gift certificate provided by Stretch Snodgrass to lure Mr. Boynton to Turk's Turkey Heaven. Hilarity Ensues.
• Volleying Insults: Miss Brooks and Miss Enright will unavoidably start throwing catty remarks at one another, should they engage in anything but the briefest of conversations.
• Waistcoat of Style: Mr. Conklin's often seen wearing three piece suits (i.e. "Living Statues").
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: In the cinematic series finale, the marriage proposal manages to be heartfelt, in character and very much atypical. Miss Brooks finds out she's been de facto engaged to Mr. Boynton when Mrs. Davis introduces Mr. Boynton's mother as her new boarder in Miss Brooks' place (so Mrs. Boynton can be close to her son without having to live with Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks). Miss Brooks then goes to the zoo to meet up with Mr. Boynton. With This Ring comes into play as Miss Brooks finds a ring in a box of Cracker Jack, which is promptly stolen by a female monkey. Nonetheless, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton leave arm in arm and see how the wallpaper Miss Brooks' selected will look in their future home.
• Wakeup Makeup: Memorably averted in the episode "The Model Teacher". The catty female reporter is pleased to see Miss Brooks unmade up, so she could portray her as poorly as possible.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Three examples:
  • "Friday the Thirteenth": A key factor in the plot is a photograph of Miss Brooks by the lake in a French bathing suit.
  • "Heat Wave" has everybody but Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin scheming to get out of school and pay a trip to the swimming hole. Turns out Harriet Conklin, Walter Denton and Stretch Snodgrass, and even Mr. Boynton have swimming suits under their regular clothes. At the end of episode, it's revealed Miss Brooks is wearing one too.
  • In the episode "The Dancer", an exotic dancer wanting Mr. Conklin to hire her for his brother-in-law's bachelor party, strips down to a French bathing suit when left alone in his office.
• Wanted a Son Instead: Mr. Conklin loves his only daughter Harriet, but he mentions once or twice that he was hoping for a boy. Once, when annoyed by Harriet's High-School Hustler boyfriend Walter Denton, he reflects on this in exasperation:
  Mr. Conklin: To think I wanted a boy!
• Watch Out for That Tree!: "Skis in the Classroom" see Miss Brooks' runaway skiing stopped in this fashion:
  Mr. Boynton: Look out, you're heading right for that big tree! Look out for that tree!
  Miss Brooks: It's the only way I can stop! Oh, if I can just grab one of the branches! Here goes!
  Crash!
• Waving Signs Around: The radio episode "Cafeteria Boycott" and its television remake "The Cafeteria Strike". Walter Denton and the other students make signs protesting the food in the cafeteria, such as "Remember PTO-MAINE" and, in the radio version, "Remember the saying what goes up must come down? In our cafeteria, what goes down must come up!"
• Wealthy Philanthropist: Mrs. Grabar in the episode "Madison Country Club". She gives anonymously to worthwhile causes, especially favoring any causes where children are concerned.
• Wealthy Yacht Owner: Lawrence Nolan, in the film. He owns a luxurious motor yacht, the Paradise.
• We Are Not Going Through That Again: "Exchanging Gifts" involves the re-gifting and exchanging of a tie and a handkerchief with the loud design of "a big yellow tree on a cliff by the ocean with a purple owl on top of it playing a bugle. Both presents are for Mr. Boynton, who had just returned to Madison from a biologists' convention. The confusion is sorted out by the end (Miss Brooks never missing an opportunity to snark over the ridiculousness of the design) , only for Mrs. Davis to ask Miss Brooks an important favor at episode's end:
  Mrs. Davis: Just a minute, Connie. I have a little favor to ask of you. You know, everyone gave Mr. Boynton a welcome home gift today except me. Unfortunately, I'm a little short of funds so I can't buy him anything. But if you don't mind, I'd like to iron that muffler you gave me last Christmas, and give it to him in the morning.
  Miss Brooks: Please, Mrs. Davis. I've just had . . . .
  Mrs. Davis: You know the one I mean, Connie. The one with the yellow tree on the cliff by the ocean with the purple owl . . . .
  Miss Brooks: You're a little late, so Goodnight Mrs. Davis!
• Weather Report Opening: "Radio Bombay" begins with a conversation about the weather.
• Wedding Episode: In "June Bride", Miss Brooks agrees to Mr. Leblanc's request the be the proxy for his French bride, so she can move to the United States without a lot of red tape. Hilarity Ensues.
• Wedding Finale: The Movie Grand Finale ends with Connie Brooks and Phil Boynton leaving to get married.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Gary Nolan resents his father's inattention.
• We Need a Distraction: In "Heat Wave", Miss Brooks goes along with a Zany Scheme to sabotage Mr. Conklin's electric fan so Conklin will agree it's too hot and dismiss school for the day (and everybody can go to the "old swimming hole" at Fischer's Farm). Part of the scheme involves a distraction to remove Mr. Conklin from his office. Conklin's daughter, Harriet, attaches a bell to her bicycle and cycling up and down the street so Conklin will think it's the ice cream truck. It works . . . as least insofar as getting Conklin out of his office.
• We Really Do Care: The plot of "Friendship".
• Western Union Man: In "Telegram for Mrs. Davis", Mrs. Davis' Uncle Corky spends several hours at the railroad station with the telegraph operator, waiting for the immediate reply to his telegram.
• We Wait: Miss Brooks stakes out a burglar in "The Burglar"
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Our Miss Brooks was a family show popular with children, although Miss Brooks' Series Goal was the very grown-up goal of marriage to Love Interest Mr. Boynton They marry in The Movie Grand Finale. More seriously, the program's occasional Dark Humor, notably a few suicide jokes. One example is the Downer Ending of "Clay City Chaperone", where Miss Brooks pretends to strangle herself with a telephone cord after inadvertently causing Madison High School to forfeit the football championship. Another example is at the crisis point of The Movie Grand Finale, where Miss Brooks jokes to Mrs. Davis about playing Russian Roulette.
• What Is This Feeling?: In the episode "Marriage Madness", Miss Brooks and Walter Denton are shocked to see Mr. Conklin smiling and in such a good mood. Mr. Conklin himself reflects that he doesn't remember being so happy!
• What the Hell, Hero?: In "Trying to Pick a Fight", Miss Brooks colludes with Mrs. Conklin to trick Mr. Conklin in believing that she had went home to her mother. Mr. Boynton calls out Miss Brooks. Hilarity Ensues, as Miss Brooks gets the fight she desires with Love Interest Mr. Boynton.
  Miss Brooks: So, what are you gonna do about it, Frog Boy?
• When Elders Attack: Mrs. Davis beats up a gym teacher in "Angela's Wedding". He insulted the deviled eggs she prepared.
• When I Was Your Age...: In "Blue Goldfish", Miss Brooks is delegated to ask Mr. Conklin to raise the heat in the school. Mr. Conklin subjects Miss Brooks to a lecture about how soft people have gotten, unable to stand a little "fresh air." Mr. Conklin laments that Americans are no longer able to live up to the example set by George Washington at Valley Forge. An example of Hypocritical Humor, the only reason Mr. Conklin is able to stand the cold is that he's sitting on a heating pad.
• White-Collar Crime:
  • In "The Embezzled Dress", Miss Brooks fears going to prison for embezzlement after Mrs. Davis buys Miss Brooks a dress with the $25 Miss Brooks had been keeping in her room. Mrs. Davis thought the money was Miss Brook's rent money; in fact, it was the student banking funds.
  • Five of Walter's Denton's practical jokes see the actual fraud:
    • Using Mr. Conklin's name to request a cure for alcoholism in "Cure That Habit"
    • Putting Mr. Conklin's name on a draft notice in "Mr. Conklin's Induction Notice"
    • "Spare That Rod!": Altering the address on a war-time letter to previous Madison principal Mr. Darwell, to read as a current letter to Mr. Conklin. The letter is a threat from Mr. Stone to fire Mr. Conklin (actually Mr. Darwell) if he doesn't cease running the school in a "dictatorial manner".
    • "Turnabout Day" has Walter Denton (with Stretch Snodgrass's help) forge a letter from Mr. Stone ordering Mr. Conklin to put the wacky school holiday into effect.
    • "Wild Goose Chase" sees Walter trick Mr. Conklin over the telephone: he pretends to be a radio quiz host and claims Mr. Conklin has won a free T.V. from Sherry's Department Store.
• White Collar Worker: Miss Brooks is a white collar worker. The same applies for Mr. Boynton, Miss Enright, and Principal Osgood Conklin.
• Who Will Bell the Cat?: If a favor or a request for additional funds is to be made at Madison High School . . . it is Miss Brooks who is inevitably nominated to convey the demand to Principal Conklin. The episodes "Blue Goldfish" and "Stretch is in Love Again" are cases in point.
• Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: Walter Denton says this in the episode "Two-way Stretch Snodgrass". He walks into Mr. Conklin's office, after Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin discuss a plan to have someone imitate Stretch.
• Why Waste a Wedding?: In the episode "June Bride". Mr. LeBlanc's proxy wedding gets cancelled. Mr. Boynton suggest they don't waste the arrangements, nor the judge. Does he finally propose to, and marry, Miss Brooks? No. It's a great opportunity for a square dance!
• Wig, Dress, Accent: Miss Brooks impersonates her non-existent identical twin sister in "Connie and Bonnie" and "Twins At School". At the end of "Twins At School", Mr. Conklin tries to get even with Miss Brooks by inventing and impersonating a cowboy relative.
• Wild Wilderness: Lake Oo Oo Me Me Tocoludi Gucci Moo Moo, in the episode of the same name.
• Wishing Well:
  • In the radio episode, "The Wishing Well Dance", a wishing well is placed in front of Madison High School to raise money. Mr. Boynton wants a lock of Miss Brooks hair; unfortunately unbeknownst to everybody else it's to make a pillow for his pet frog Mcdougall. Still, swayed by the seemingly romantic wish, during the course of the episode, Mrs. Davis, Walter Denton, Harriet Conklin, Stretch Snodgrass and even Mr. Boynton himself covertly cuts off locks of Miss Brooks' hair to grant Mr. Boynton's "wish".
  • In "Blind Date", Miss Brooks meets Mr. Boynton by the wishing well in the park. They end up reconciling after breaking up the day before. Mr. Boynton goes to get his ukulele so as he can serenade Miss Brooks while rowing her on the lake. Miss Brooks is pleased, and goes to throw a coin in the wishing well - presumably to make a romantic wish. Miss Brooks reconsiders, and dumps out the entire contents of her change purse into the well and only then makes her wish!
• With Due Respect: Occasionally said by Walter Denton to Miss Brooks. Also occasionally used by Miss Brooks with Principal Osgood Conklin.
• With This Ring: The movie ends with Boynton finally proposing to Brooks.
• With Us or Against Us: Mr. Conklin's given Miss Brooks this ultimatum a couple times, in order to force her compliance with a dubious scheme of his. Usually, however, Mr. Conklin chooses to warn Miss Brooks that it's in his power to make her time at teaching at Madison High "either very pleasant or very miserable."
• Wolf Whistle: At the end of "Wake Up Plan", Mr. Boynton falls asleep on a chair in the hall. Miss Brooks doesn't wake him up, but sits beside him. Mr. Boynton wolf-whistles in his sleep!
• Women Drivers: Miss Brooks' car is always broken down or damaged in some way, forcing her to take lifts in Walter's jalopy. She is portrayed as someone who doesn't pay the best attention on the road, sometimes barely missing pedestrians by swerving and hitting something on the side of the road.
• Word Association Test: In "The School Board Psychologist", the psychologist gives Miss Brooks a word association test to determine her "appropriate" career. Hilarity Ensues.
• Workaholic: In "Hobby Show" (and "The Workhorse", its radio predecessor), Miss Brooks is working so hard her friends fear her workaholic behavior will make her old before her time. Hilarity Ensues when Miss Brooks' friends try to teach her to relax with a hobby. Miss Brooks knits (with Mrs. Davis), finger-paints (with Harriet Conklin), plays with model trains (with Walter Denton), plays chess (with Mr. Boynton) and fixes toys for charity (with Mr. and Mrs. Conklin) . . . all at the same time.
• Worst Aid: In the episode "First Aid Course", Miss Brooks purposely inflicts Worst Aid on Miss Enright and Mr. Conklin. Miss Brooks was trying to avoid being forced to teach the eponymous course.
• Worst Wedding Ever: In "June Bride", French Teacher Mr. Leblanc wants to marry his French fiance Georgette. Georgette is desperate to be married in June, and there's too much red tape involved in her coming to the United States before her marriage. Thus, Miss Brooks agrees to stand in for Georgette in a proxy marriage. Unfortunately, Teacher's Pet Walter Denton, through some Exact Eavesdropping, jumps to the conclusion Miss Brooks is to marry Leblanc instead of Miss Brooks' Love Interest Mr. Boynton. When the judge asks the fateful question "Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace", he is repeatedly interrupted. The first time by Mr. Conklin and his daugter Harriet, the second time by Walter Denton, the third by Mr. Boynton. Once it's clarified to everyone that Miss Brooks is only a proxy, the judge starts again . . . only to be interrupted by a telegram delivery boy. The telegram's from Georgette, requesting an immediate stop to the proxy wedding. She had married Mr. Leblanc's French friend Jacques that morning.
• Worthless Treasure Twist: It happens to Miss Brooks twice:
  • In "Indian Burial Ground", Miss Brooks and Walter Denton believe they've discovered a missing Arapaho Indian burial ground on Mr. Conklin's vacant lot. It turned out Harriet Conklin used the area to bury broken toys donated to Mrs. Davis' charity drive.
  • In "Rare Black Orchid" Walter Denton enlists Miss Brooks to borrow the school Geiger counter. Walter discovered his shoe was radioactive from uranium. Walter's uranium hunt ends when he discovers he had stepped in the school's uranium sample. He tries to make Miss Brooks split with him the $10 cost of replacing it.
• Writing Lines: Happens at the end of "Letter from the Education Board". Mr. Conklin has Walter, Stretch, Mr. Boynton and Miss Brooks stay after school writing "Our principal is the best principal that any school ever had."
• Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Two of the several mishaps that befall Miss Brooks and company in "Game at Clay City". Mr. Conklin gives Miss Brooks' the wrong directions to Clay City. Later, a pedestrian (voiced by Frank Nelson) intentionally gives Miss Brooks' wrong directions so he could get a free ride home.
• "X" Makes Anything Cool: "Project X" in the episode of the same name.
• Yellow Sash of Power: In "Home Cooked Meal", Harriet mentions she has hall monitor duty that morning. It sets up Mr. Conklin to stealthily go inside the Cafeteria freezer, and Miss Brooks to accidentally lock him inside.
• You Are Grounded!: Mr. Conklin is often strict with his sixteen-year-old daughter Harriet:
  • In "Madame Brooks Dubarry", Mr. Conklin is dismayed with how his daughter Harriet has been spending her dates with Walter Denton (talking romantic drivel on the front porch). He lectures Harriet near the start of the episode.
  • "Parlour Game" again sees Mr. Conklin dismayed by Harriet's dating Walter Denton. He order both Harriet and Walter, and Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton to spend an evening at the Conklin house on what turns into a extremely boring date.
  • "Cat Burglars" sees Mr. Conklin wary of a wave of robberies in Madison. He forces Harriet to stay at home, and makes Miss Brooks babysit.
• You Are in Command Now: In "Radio Bombay" (remade for television as "The Hurricane"), Mr. Conklin places Miss Brooks in charge of Madison High School when he's away for the morning. Hilarity Ensues.
• You Meddling Kids: Happens in a first season radio episode, titled "Student Government Day". Taking over their duly elected roles as mayor and police chief for a day, Harriet Conklin and Walter Denton raid "The Jackpot Amusement Company," a gambling ring placing crooked slot machines in the backrooms of candy stores.
  • This is actually a subversion. Harriet and Walter's insults toward an uncooperative real policeman get them, several other students, Miss Brooks, and eventually Mr. Boynton locked in jail. The only reason the gangsters are run out of town, is that the crooked mayor is terrified of bad publicity from the fiasco. His equally crooked campaign manager convinces him to forgo his cut, and let the kids bust the gambling ring.
  • Fortunately, for Madison, it seems this was that mayor's last hurrah. By the following season's "School Band", Miss Brooks notes a new (much better) mayor had been elected and would be visiting Madison High School. When it the time came for the Mayor of Madison to appear on television in "Public Property on Parade", he showed himself to be the very model of a dedicated public servant.
• You Must Be Cold: Happens in the episode "Madame Brooks Dubarry". While on their way back from the country club, Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton run out of gas. Mr. Boynton asks Miss Brooks if she's cold in her evening gown. Mr. Boynton places his topcoat around her.
• You No Take Candle: The episode "Bartering with Chief Thundercloud" has the eponymous chief and his wife speak in this matter. Miss Brooks is flattered by Mrs. Thudercloud's compliment, however.

  Mrs. Thundercloud: Miss Brooks, she very pretty!

• You Say Tomato: Notable in "Hello Mr. Chips", where an English headmaster, a Quintessential British Gentleman, visits Madison High School. His pronounciation varies greatly from that of the regular characters. So much so, that it's a Running Gag throughout the episode.
• Zany Scheme: There must be a course in zany schemes over at Madison High School. Everybody has had one in the works, one time or another. These are just a few examples. They all make sense in context.
  • In "Two Way Stretch Snodgrass," Miss Brooks hatches a scheme to waylay Strech's transfer by having Mr. Conklin and her masquerade as the dim athlete's equally dim parents.
  • One of Walter Denton's schemes is a monstrous April Fool's Day joke, in "Wild Goose." He imitates a radio quizmaster, tricking Mr. Conklin into thinking he's won a TV from Sherry's Department Store. Cue Miss Brooks chasing down the stream of notes Walter left, in vain pursuit of the elusive television set.
  • Mr. Conklin, pompous though he may be, isn't above the general zaniness either. In "The Big Jump," he plans to jump off the roof (onto a firemen's parachute) as part of a civil defense drill. He chickens out, and volunteers Miss Brooks to act as his stunt double.
  • Mrs. Conklin gets into the act in "Non-Fraternization Policy." She's working to derail Mr. Conklin's newly imposed Islamic-style separation of the sexes at Madison.
  • Even Mr. Boynton take part. "Clay City English Teacher" sees him try to imitate Sam Spade in an effort to lure Miss Brooks away from the eponymous teacher.
  • Goody-two-shoes Harriet Conklin has a zany scheme now and again. In "New Girl", she tricks the titular girl's mother into believing Mr. Boynton is a serial killer.
  • To Mrs. Davis, zany schemes are old hat. At least as far as zany schemes go, occurs in the cinematic series finale. Mrs. Davis brings about Miss Brooks' Happily Ever After through some clever manipulation of Mr. Boynton and his mother.

---