Recess/Radar

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Recess was famous for having a huge Periphery Demographic, not just for the Parental Bonus scenes, but for it's rather..."scandalous" humor at times.


  • How deliciously moist
  • Allow me to present this easily-missed tidbit from the Thanksgiving episode, where the kids discover new sources of cans for the can drive:

Spinelli: I called my cousin Nick over at Fifth Street School.
Digger Dave: And we talked to our pals at the Diggers' Society!
Swinger Girl: And there's a whole convention of swingers in town!

    • From the same episode: "Let's kick some Ashley butt!"
  • In "Principal for a Day" the politically incorrect term "midget" is used.
    • And it was used in the first episode.
  • In "The Challenge", Prickly's brother Pauly remarks that his flagpole is bigger. And when Prickly gets a look at the 50-foot pole installed at Pauly's school, he remarks that it is unseemly.
  • T.J actually invented a substitute swear word for this purpose (which led to the school board thinking it was an actual swear).
  • Open on Miss Grotke at the end of a lecture: "And that is what is meant by 'The Birds and the Bees'."
  • "Parents' Night": The faux Spinellis (a biker couple that Spinelli hired to pose as her parents) ask Ms. Grotke for "brews".
    • Also in the same episode, the real Mrs. Spinelli calls everyone by the names she thinks they have, all similar to their real names, but interestingly mistaking T.J.'s name: "And YOU must be B.J."
      • And right after that, she mentions that he's the one that Spinelli has "the crush" on.
      • Let's not forget about the suggestive way she says that combined with T.J.'s nervous look.
  • "To Finster With Love" has Finster and the janitor, Hank, hook up. One of the shots involves Finster laughing happily while riding around on a vibrating floor buffer.
  • "Henchmen, be sure to get the master builder [Gretchen] really wet."
  • From "The Great Jungle Gym Standoff":

Spinelli: Last one on Ole' Rusty has to give Ms. Finster a sponge bath!
Randall: Hey, that's my job!

    • Here's another one from the same episode

T.J.: Ol' Rusty was here when my big brother was in school!
Spinelli: Ol' Rusty was here when my mom was in school!
Mikey: Heck, Ol' Rusty was here when my great-uncle Mary was in school!
Vince: Your uncle Mary?
Gretchen: Don't ask.

    • And (still) in the same episode:

Ms. Finster: T.J. Detweiler! I knew you would be the one behind this! What disgusting, perverted thing are you up to now!?

      • That could be subverted, considering the use of the word "pervert" has been taken out of context since Miss Finster's time.
  • Near the end of "Mama's Girl", Spinelli says her life feels like a Stephen King novel. Granted, the man has written for children before, but from the plot of the episode, it seems more likely she was referring to Carrie.
  • From "I Will Kick No More Forever": After being beaten in kickball by one of the Ashley girls (and losing his touch in every sport), Vince ends up going in a depression, which involved him binging out on root beer and donuts.
  • "Why did they take your pants?"
  • "...and then Prickly says, "That's no kindergartener, that's my wife!""
  • In the Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade movie, T.J. threatens to say something in the loudspeaker that "the kindergarteners shouldn't hear".
    • One more instant in the movie has Lawson calling T.J. "Detwiener".
  • In "That Stinking Feeling", Spinelli develops a crush on Johnny "Baby tooth" V. The other students are surprised to find out that Spinelli's a "boy liker". Not "having a crush", but being a "boy liker". What.
  • Spinelli wishing that she really wants to be a "six-foot-tall bodybuilder named Moe" could count.
  • In "The Secret Life of Grotke", the gang begin to think Miss Grotke's up to some weird stuff when they see her pull from her desk...handcuffs. (Granted, she's not doing anything that would ruin the show's TV-G image, but...)
  • In "Chez Vince", if you look closely, the teachers can be shown drinking wine in the teacher's lounge.
  • One part of the DVD special features to Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street contains Spinelli doing a presentation on the tradition of mistletoe. After mentioning about one guy making everyone kiss him, she says to herself, "Perv."
  • One of the books of the titular series in "The Barnaby Boys" is called "The Case of the Grown-Up Boy and the Dampened Rug"
  • The way Butch always has his toothpick in his mouth is supposed to give the allusion of a cigarette. So they get crap past the radar in every episode he's in
  • In "Rainy Days", when T.J. is walking around the cafeteria seeing how the other kids are handling the never-ending rain, he can clearly be seen looking up Upside-Down Girl's skirt.
  • "Some Friend" has Menlo greeting TJ at his door with, "Howdy TJ, you're just in time for punch. But don't overdo it; my uncle added fluoride." He even winks and ribs TJ while saying it, so he clearly knows what it does...
  • When TJ's depressed, he asks Mr. Kelso for a shake with extra syrup, which startles Mr. Kelso and has him ask "Extra syrup? Somethin' eatin' you, boy?".
  • Mikey mentions that he has an uncle named Mary, with Gretchen commenting, "Don't ask." Mikey is most likely referring to "Uncle Mary" by his dead name because he still thinks of him as his aunt who is probably transgender, given the uncle attached to the name. When Gretchen says don’t ask the writers probably weren’t fond of being that honest on a children’s show.
  • In both "The Candidates" and "No Strings Attached", T.J.'s been shown using a lollipop to mimic a cigarette.
  • This little gem from "The Fuss Over Finster"

Miss Finster: DETWEILER! Get those thoughts out of your mind!

  • The premise of "The Box". Miss Finster invents this new form of punishment, "the box", which is just a square painted on the blacktop. Once T.J.'s in there, it begins to psychologically break him, and Miss Finster and Randall find this entertaining. Yes, finding a nine-year-old boy being psychologically tortured for laughs...you know, for kids!
  • In "My Fair Gretchen", the gang are trying to make Gretchen "dumb" in order for her to fail a test that would lead her to go to another school. When they ask her what the capital of Montana is, she's about to say "Hellena", but she cuts off. Where? At "Hell"...