Dave and Randall in any scene together, as both are voiced by Ryan O`Donohue. Sam ends up getting Dave's voice actor in Taking the Fifth Grade as well, due to his original voice actor, Klee Bragger, going through puberty. He does return to voice him at the end of the movie, lampshading his voice change.
Tubby with Mikey in "Kindergarten Derby", as both were voiced by Jason Davis. All of the other kindergarteners are voiced by E.G. Daily, Pamela Segal, Ashley Johnson (sometimes), Francesca Smith (sometimes), and Kath Soucie, which leads to this trope.
ABC loved this show, and it was advertised much more heavily than the rest of the shows on One Saturday Morning (as in, sometimes being advertised alongside non-OSM programming). Also, unlike the rest of the shows on the block, Recess was shown for a full hour (a new episode at 9:00 AM with a repeat of a previous episode at 9:30, excluding the first time the show aired where a Disney's Doug repeat played in the slot). They were also prone to airing spontaneous marathons of the series.
When the show first came on Toon Disney in 2003, the show would often air twenty-two times a week. And this was on a regular basis- when the show came to Toon Disney on September 1, 2003, they celebrated by having a marathon of the show! Disney Channel took it even further and played it roughly twenty-six times a week, more than any of their shows (animated or live-action) still running!
For a few years, Recess was the most played show on both Disney Channel and Toon Disney.
Children Voicing Children: All of the main kids were also voiced by like-gender children (apart from Spinelli, voiced by the adult Pamela Adlon). Apart from TJ, who went through four actors during the show's course, the voices stayed the same throughout the show.
Contest Winner Cameo: Morgan, the kid who only appears in "The Rules", was actually a winner from a contest Disney and McDonald's sponsored in 1998 when the Recess toys were out, where the winner got to appear in animated form in an episode and also win a trip to Disneyland.
Many print articles for the show identify Miss Finster as the gang's teacher instead of Miss Grotke (Finster eventually does become their fifth grade teacher in Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade).
A lesser example involves BSkyB's electronic programming guide, which listed the episode summary for "Bonky Fever" as "Gus has to part with his favorite childhood toy". This is incorrect, as the episode is about Mikey, not Gus.
Almost completely averted. Nearly every young male character (and all of the leads) were voiced by real boys, all of whom (with the exception of the actor playing T.J.) were kept on after their voices changed.
The only boys on the show voiced by women were almost all of the kindergarteners (except Tubby, who was voiced by Mikey's voice actor, Jason Davis, and Captain Sticky's first voice, Ryan O'Donohue, who played Randall and Digger Dave), Butch (Kath Soucie), Yope, Steve and Lance the Pants (Pamela Haydennote Hayden is probably best known as the voice of Bart Simpson's Unlucky Childhood Friend, Milhouse van Houten and local thug-cum-school bully, Jimbo Jones on The Simpsons), and most of the background kids.
Megan Moore provided Gus's singing voice in "Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave".
Ashley Johnson as Ashley T. is a bit of a subversion, as she replaced Rachel Crane as her voice actress.
In the Swedish dub, T.J.'s first name is changed to Tobias (nicknamee "Tobbe"), and his voice actor is Tobias Sward.
Dawson Casting: Unlike the rest of the members of the Recess Gang, Spinelli was the only member not to be played by a kid, as Pamela Adlon was thirty when she started voicing Spinelli (Recording began in 1996). Ricky D'Shon Collins and Ashley Johnson were borderline voicing Vince and Gretchen - as they were both thirteen during the first season's recording sessions, voicing nine-year-old characters.
Development Hell: A fourth movie (fifth if Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street counts; which it does to Disney but not to the fandom), Recess: The First Day of School was announced to be released on video and DVD in August 2004. However, the project was shelved and the film never got released.
Direct to Video: Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, Recess: All Growed Down, and most of Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street were all released directly to video and DVD in 2003 (except for the latter, released in 2001).
Dueling Shows: With Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! (which co-creator Joe Ansolabehere even worked on during the first season) and WB's Detention:
With Hey Arnold!, both shows ran a similar run (Arnold began one year prior to Recess, and would've both ended in the same year if it hadn't had been for Schedule Slip of the rest of the Arnold episodes) and were very successful with critics and ratings (Recess did have the higher ratings, though part of this contributes to being on ABC while Arnold was on cable network Nickelodeon, causing the former to get more views for families without cable). General consensus among both the Hey Arnold! and Recess fandoms (which had a brief rivalry in the '90s but are good friends now) are that while fans will have different preferences as to which show is the better show, most fans will agree that Recess: School's Out was a much better film than Hey Arnold! The Movie.
With Detention, it was a bit obvious that Warner Bros. were trying to Follow the Leader due to Recess (and One Saturday Morning in general) beating Kids' WB! in the ratings. It lasted one season of thirteen episodes and didn't go into reruns.
Despite being a very popular show, Recess has only received four video and DVD releases: Recess: School's Out, Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street, Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade, and Recess: All Growed Down (and most stores stopped carrying them once the show was taken off Disney Channel). Two of those releases were full movies, while the other two consisted of episodes with linking material (while All Growed Down also had a prequel story). Only seven episodesnote out of 128 episodes when the Two Shorts episodes of the 65 are broken up were released (twelve if you count the DVDs with bonus episodes). Aside from that, the show was played in reruns almost every day until 2010. Averted in Germany, where the entire series is on iTunes.
For a while, every episode and the direct-to-video movies (Also Recess: School's Out, at least until it was released on iTunes) were available on YouTube. However in 2013, Disney went on a YouTube pulling spree and took down almost every episode (And then did the same to Teacher's Pet, Disney's Doug, and Pepper Ann at the same time). Needless to say, the fanbase was NOT happy.
It was a launch day title for Disney+ in North America.
The shorts of the show which aired during commercial breaks on Disney's One Too haven't been seen since 2000, and are nowhere to be found on the internet.
Kids' Meal Toy: In late 1998, McDonald's released a set of toys of the main six (and Miss Finster), each paired with a ball in their Happy Meals. Along with the toys, McDonald's and Disney were promoting a sweepstakes called "Be on Recess". The winner of the contest would appear on the show as a Contest Winner Cameo. The winner was selected via a random drawing and also won a trip with their family to Disneyland. The winner of the contest, Morgan, appeared in Season 4's "The Rules".
T-shirts, coffee mugs, toys, backpacks, and various other pieces of merchandise. Most of it was only sold at The Disney Store.
The main six all got stuffed dolls of them released towards the end of the '90s going into the early 2000s, at The Disney Store and Toys "R" Us. T.J., Gretchen, and Gus were released first, with Vince, Spinelli, and Mikey released later.
The final three episodes out of Disney Channel's rerun rotation after their initial airing on UPN (And in syndication) in 2001. They weren't included in ABC's rerun rotation, either. The episodes didn't air on Toon Disney until 2006.
The original version of "The Break In", which was the series pilot with different character designs, has never been fully shown to the public, not counting clips shown in ABC commercials and station idents.
During the time the show aired on linear cable, "Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave" was aired in the US on its own. Anytime Disney planned on airing Christmas programs with the show still in repeats, they would air it as part of the movie Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street. In the Disney+ era, the episode stands on its own as part of the show's lineup, while Miracle on Third Street went out of print at some point and is absent from the streamer.
Out of Order: On Disney+, several late-series segments have been re-arranged into different episodes from the original domestic airing order. While the show's continuity is generally sparse enough to get away with this, "Lawson and His Crew", on D+ as the 25th episode of season 3, references the titular fort of "Fort Tender", listed on D+ as the first segment of episode 38 of that season.
T.J., who was twice replaced when his previous voice actor went through puberty, despite the fact that every other actor voicing a young boy character was kept on after their voices changed. Ross Malinger played him in the 1996 pilot-turned-first episode and season one, Andrew Lawrence (younger brother of Joey Lawrence) played him for the rest of the series and the movie, and Myles Jeffrey (who's considered to be T.J.'s worst voice actor) played him in the direct-to-video movies and a number of other projects (station IDs and promos for Disney Channel, et cetera). Axel Alba voiced T.J. in the Lilo & Stitch crossover.
Same with Becky, T.J.'s older sister. Melissa Joan Hart played her in The Movie, and Tara Strong played her in the DTV movie Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade.
Gus was played by Ryan O'Donohue (who was already playing Digger Dave and Randall) in "The New Kid", which was his first appearance. Courtland Mead played him for the rest of the series.
Gordy usually had his voice actor switched in every episode he was in.
Every background student is going to have a different voice actor in almost every episode, even the named ones.
Ashley T. was voiced by Rachel Crane in season one. Because the creators didn't want any of the Ashleys to be played by the same person, she was replaced, and her new voice actress was actually named Ashley, Ashley Johnson, who was already playing Gretchen. However some sources such as IMdB state that Camille Redbush voiced her.
King Bob's mom was played by April Winchell at first, and after that, she was played by Kath Soucie.
A few cases with the Kindergardeners:
Captain Sticky was voiced by Ryan O`Donahue in "To Finster with Love" (his first speaking appearance), and then E.G. Daily for the rest of the series.
Emma was voiced by E.G. Daily in "Wild Child" and then by Franchesca Smith in Recess: All Growed Down.
Hector was voiced by Kath Soucie in "Wild Child", then he was played by E.G. Daily after that, until Recess: All Growed Down, when he was played by Kath Soucie again.
Christine Cavanaugh played Sue Bob Murphy in her debut episode, "The Girl Was Trouble". For the rest of the series, Kath Soucie voiced her. Coincidentally, both stared on Rugrats; Cavanaugh voiced Chuckie and Soucie voiced Phil, Lil, and Betty.
Gretchen's PDA assistant, Galileo, was voiced by Eric Idle in its first two appearances, then by Jeff Bennett.
The Latin American Spanish dub switched all the voice cast starting with both All Growed Down and Taking the Fifth Grade, as the dub moved from Monterrey to Mexico City, very likely due to the notorious quality problems the dub of the TV series had.
The Other Marty: Ryan O'Donahue (who already was Digger Dave and Randall) played Gus in his first episode in the initial airing. Courtland Mead (whom some 1990s cartoon watchers may recognize as Nightmare Ned) dubbed over his lines for the reruns and played Gus since then.
Out of Holiday Episode: The episode "Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave" aired the day after Christmas. It was supposed to air the previous week, but ABC's entire Saturday morning lineup was preempted for Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.
Post-Release Retitle: "Soccer Boy" is listed on Disney+ as "Football Boy", apparently in deference to the non-U.S. naming convention. The on-screen title is unchanged.
The Pete Best: There aren't many fans who remember that Ross Malinger was the voice of T.J. in season one, and only remember him being voiced by Andrew Lawrence from the second season until the end of the series.
Promoted Fanboy: Zach Shada, who voiced Gus in the Lilo & Stitch crossover, was (and still is) a big fan of Recess.
Recycled Script: The plot of "The Shiner" was later reused for the "Blackened Sponge" episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, where he gets a black eye as TJ did in the former.
Some episodes have plots similar to episodes of Arthur. "More Like Gretchen" has a similar plot to the episode "The Perfect Brother" (the genius kid comes to visit and impresses the average kid's parents, causing them to wish their kid was more like the genius kid) and "The Challenge" has a similar plot to "Return Of The King" (the kids are put in a competition against their dopplegangers from a different school)
Lilo & Stitch: The Series: The main six appear in "Lax", where they go on vacation to Hawaii. Experiment 285 is on the loose, causing Vince, Mikey, and Stitch to abandon any and all forms of work.
Robot Chicken: A sketch from "May Cause an Excess of Ham" has Miss Finster bring Mr. Davidson, a prisoner, to school to set the children straight. When Mr. Davidson explains to the children that he was only allowed outside for one hour a day, the children find out it is approximately 319 more hours of recess per year. This inspires the children to commit crimes so they can be sent to prison.
Recess was planned to have the first episode aired as a sneak peek in primetime on August 31, 1997 instead of premiering with other One Saturday Morning newcomer Pepper Ann in September with the rest of the block. Due to Princess Diana's death, the premiere date was moved back to September 7 (which got moved again as well) so ABC could air news coverage...at least on the West coast. On the East coast, the episode aired as scheduled with news coverage coming before and after.
The show's "official" premiere was going to be on September 6, 1997 with the rest of One Saturday Morning (aside from the shows in repeats, Doug (which was already running a season before that), and 101 Dalmatians: The Series (which already premiered a week earlier in syndication). Due to ABC covering Princess Diana's funeral, the premiere was moved to September 13.
"Yes, Mikey, Santa Does Shave" was originally set to premiere on December 19, 1998, but got pre-empted with the rest of One Saturday Morning so ABC could air news coverage on Bill Clinton's impeachment. The episode was held over until next Saturday, December 26...the day after Christmas!
Same Content, Different Rating: When the show premiered, it was rated TV-Y (back when the rating wasn't used solely for preschool shows). When the show began reruns on Disney Channel, the rating was changed to TV-G, though Toon Disney still used the original TV-Y for its reruns of the series, which carried over when the channel rebranded as Disney XD in 2009. The series was re-rated TV-Y7 when the series returned to Disney XD for a single week in October 2011 (despite airing the show as TV-Y when it was in regular reruns from 2009-2010), and that is now also the rating used for the series on Disney+.
Schedule Slip: For a little while around 1999-2000, there were very long gaps in between episode airings. This was due to the production staff being busy with Recess: School's Out
Screwed by the Network: The show had very high ratings and critics loved it, but still had to end with sixty-five episodes thanks to Disney's episode policy.
Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy: To an extent with T.J.. Merchandise often still have him drawn with eye highlights even after he stopped being drawn with them in the show. The merchandise also tended to make Gretchen's hair color much lighter than it is in the show.
Sleeper Hit: No one expected the show to be as successful as it became.
Along with Bobby Hill, Spinelli was this for Pamela Segall-Adlon (in terms of voice acting).
The role of Gretchen (and also Ashley T.) served as this for Ashley Johnson as a voice actress, as Johnson, known up to then mostly for playing an aged-up Chrissy Seaver during the final two seasons of Growing Pains, would increasingly work primarily in voice acting over her career.
Unspecified Role Credit: Only the cast for the main six and the three main teachers (most of the time — the writers can't make up their minds on whether Miss Grotke's a main or supporting character) are credited for which character they played. Everyone else is listed as "additional voices", with only the names of the voice actors/actresses and not their characters.
Voices in One Room: The creators said that they wanted to have all the voice actors record together whenever it was possible, to have a more "real" feel to the dialogue when they spoke.
Apparently, the show was at least partially based on one of the creators' childhood at a Sacramento elementary school in the 1960s with several of the characters based on peers from said school.
Gretchen's appearance was based on Paul Germain's wife in elementary school.
Paul Germain's son, Thomas Germain (whom Tommy Pickles was named after, and was mentioned in "The Lost Ball"), also went to Third Street Elementary School. In fact, the episode "Principal for a Day" was based on his experience as principal for a day at his school.
Mikey is based on one of the creators' friends in elementary school.
Spinelli is based on a girl Paul and Joe knew from college, whereas her designwas based onMara Kimi Ancheta, a collectibles painter who was (and still is) a close friend of Spinelli's character designer Jose Zelaya.
Vince is based on Paul Germain's friend from college, also named Vince.
Mara Kimi Ancheta