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"Hmm... An excellent drawing, and I do applaud self-expression, but people... this just isn't good karma. This sort of satire is best used against oh, say, a repressive totalitarian government. You know, I was a child myself once; I remember what it's like. The world can be a cruel place; people treating each other terribly for no reason. But it doesn't have to be that way—not if we look out for each other. A little empathy on the playground, a little consideration in the lunchroom will go a long way toward making our world a better place. I mean, being a kid is hard enough without kids being hard on each other, right? ...Doesn't anyone understand basically where I'm coming from?"
Miss Grotke

"Mama's Girl" is the third episode of the second season of Recess, which was first broadcast on September 19th, 1998.

Plot[]



Summary[]

Spinelli is humiliated when she accidentally calls Miss Grotke "mama", and almost everyone at Third Street School mock her.

Main Story[]

The episode starts with T.J. getting a C- book report due to the "roller coaster" book being a cover blurb. When the school alarm rings, several students walk out to recess and as Spinelli tries to go outside, Miss Grotke wants Spinelli to see her for a moment. The Recess Gang complains about the prediction, but Spinelli lets them go as she can handle the situation. Afterwards, she gets another A+ on a book report since Miss Grotke was impressed about it. They all have a brief conversation before she leaves. As Spinelli leaves, she says a beautiful "thanks" to her.

While the students play maul ball, Gus catches the football and is touched by other students. When Gus wonders why he always catches it, T.J. tells him that it is a mystery that "someone always does". Spinelli comes through the playground, and the gang wonders what really happened to her. As they ask questions about it, Spinelli does not want to talk about it, so she ignores it and plays maul ball. While they are playing maul ball, Miss Finster informs the kids to "quiet down" on the jungle gym, and when Miss Grotke is near the mud puddle, Spinelli shockingly sees it. She exclaims to look out for the mud puddle to Miss Grotke, which leads to an accident in which she accidentally calls the teacher "mama". All the kids suddenly stare at her afterwards, and everyone (excluding Miss Grotke) mock and laugh at her. Even Miss Finster starts to laugh uncontrollably despite her attempts to order the playground to stop. Spinelli shockingly sees everything about that and stands in utter embarrassment as the scene zooms into her eye (before the next scene starts).

In the cafeteria, Spinelli gets her lunch and sits with the gang while the rest are talking about the embarrassing accident. After T.J. tells Spinelli about the "nice weather they are having", Spinelli wonders if she is a mama's girl. The gang complains about it, with each member socializing about its facts and memories. Vince starts the mock again when he informs her that it is "so funny that happened to her" when she accidentally called the teacher "mama". Spinelli could not handle it, so she decides to go home for lunch. When she is outside, trying to go home for lunch, the birds and a German-Sheppard dog mock at her at around the same time. She immediately tries to ignore them by running away. She walks near a restaurant called Manny Matt's Grill; when the letters blow out to refer it as "Ma Ma's Gr ll", she frustrates herself and exclaims a Big "NO!", as she covers her ears, turns around, and the camera zooms into her again, this time, to her mouth.

Later, at Miss Grotke's classroom, she gives back some of her objects to members of the gang and makes her decision to leave and never come back to Third Street School. The gang is shocked to hear it, and as she is complaining about this situation, T.J. wants to know about the place she is going since she is that young. She answers that she does not know it, and she thinks that she may go to "some place far, far away". One night, she has a strange nightmare about being alone in Alaska. Her mother, Flo, interrupts her dream and wants her to go to school. Spinelli tries to insist on staying home only to be shown miserably staying in Miss Grotke's classroom with her head down. As members of the gang examine her and have a conversation, T.J. figures out some solutions during the talk. One of them is to make mud and let a kid accidentally call the teacher "mama". Vince thinks that it is crazy, but they all do it anyway. While they are outside, they make a solution by adding milk to the mud puddle. They leave when Randall and Miss Finster come near them. The result is unfortunate due to Randall's reaction and Miss Finster being in the mud puddle afterwards. T.J. decides to go with Plan B instead. In the hallway, Gus writes a note that says "Call me daddy" in cursive, and T.J. tapes the paper on Principal Prickly's back. The result is also unfortunate due to the kids calling him strange names instead of "daddy" (due to Gus' scraggly handwriting). Because of that, Gretchen tries out her plan instead.

While the gang still needs a solution, Gretchen shows them her solution by using a subliminal message in ultra-high speed to never realize it. After a couple members accept the solution, as well as T.J. having his confidence to "do this thing", the gang sneaks out to the principal's office to test out the solution with the microphone. When the speaker turns on, Miss Finster and Principal Prickly make reactions about the sound. At one point, the gang hears the kindergartners saying "Mama! Daddy! Mama! Daddy!". They all think that it worked, but as they stare at the window, the plan did not work out due to the kindergartners being picked up by their parents. Then, they all look for Spinelli, so they can have a talk with her, outside of the school. T.J. wonders if Spinelli is okay, but as she is sitting, she feels that her life is like a "Stephen King novel". Some members comment after she says it. Nevertheless, they still hang out together, as always.

After a while, the gang visits Miss Grotke's classroom and sees a drawing on the chalkboard the kids were laughing at. Spinelli dislikes the drawing and frustrates herself with revenge to the students that have mocked her before. She walks through the desks and exclaims "I've had it ya punks! I'm gonna cream every last one of ya!". Shortly after, Miss Grotke walks in and softly demands her to sit down. She sees the drawing and erases it as she also dislikes it as well. Even though she refuses to tolerate bullies, she decides to inform students about neglect and cruelty in a peaceful way to express how it is like to be in this situation. T.J. raises his hand and has a final solution to expose; all he does is to call the teacher "mama". Spinelli thinks this is crazy, but T.J. says that it is the only way. The solution leads to the rest of the students calling the teacher "mama" in expressive ways, making both Miss Grotke and Spinelli happy about it.

By the end of school, the gang hangs out together and walks on the sidewalk, having a conversation about being a mama's girl. At one point, Gretchen informs them that kids everywhere may never again be forced to stand and say, "I am not a mama's girl!". Spinelli wants to know who cares about them since she is the "toughest kid the school has ever seen". As they all have a conversation, Principal Prickly and Miss Finster all prepare to leave while they are unlocking their car doors. The episode ends with Principal Prickly saying "Good night, mama!" and Miss Finster saying, "Good night, daddy!", looking at each other as they are shocked.

Timeline[]

  • Before "Weekend at Muriel's" (October 1997; Miss Grotke mentions that she and Spinelli are Libras, and T.J. mentions that Spinelli is nine years old; it is safe to assume that Spinelli's birth date is in late-September of 1988, meaning this episode takes place after her 9th birthday)

Goofs[]

Warning! This episode contains a lot of challenging goofs with elaborating details that could be complicated, stressful, and/or hard to find. Feel free to read it if necessary.

Episode[]

Various[]

  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the classroom scenes of this episode, various students either move from spot to spot, replace a student, or do both of these options. Here are the following errors about this.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Phil is shown sitting on Lily's seat. However, when the students are laughing at the drawing, she replaced him, and he is shown sitting near the Unnamed Girl. When Spinelli is yelling at the students, he is sitting on T.J.'s seat. When Miss Grotke tells her to sit down, Ashley Q. replaces him. He is later shown sitting on another seat when the scene shows all of the students sitting in the classroom.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Vince is shown sitting between T.J. and Spinelli. However, when Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, he is shown sitting on Gretchen's seat. When the scene shows all of the students sitting in the classroom after Miss Grotke says, "I mean, being a kid is hard enough without kids being hard on each other, right?", he is sitting near Spinelli and Mikey.
    • During the beginning of the episode, a Hispanic/Latino girl is shown sitting on Judy's seat. However, when the students are running to recess, Judy replaces her.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Ashley Q. is shown sitting near Vince and the Unnamed Girl. However, when the students are laughing at the drawing, she is shown sitting near Ashley T. and Megan. When Spinelli is yelling at the students, Ashley Q. is sitting on T.J.'s seat. When Ashley Q. is shown during Miss Grotke's speech, she is shown sitting on the same seat as it happened during the scene where the students are laughing at the drawing.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Timmy Milton is shown sitting near Willy. However, when the students are running to recess, an unnamed fat boy replaces him. When the students are laughing at the drawing, Timmy replaces him. When the students are shown during Miss Grotke's speech, an unnamed fat boy replaces him again, and Timmy is sitting on another seat.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Spinelli is shown sitting near Vince. However, during the scene where she is having a conversation with the gang while she is giving some of her things to her friends, she is shown sitting on Mikey's seat. When the paper airplane flows to her hair during Miss Grotke's long speech, she is sitting on Gus' seat. When the scene shows all of the students sitting in the classroom, she is sitting near T.J. and Vince.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Megan is shown sitting near T.J. However, when Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, she is shown sitting on Lily's seat. She later sits on the same seat as usual.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Willy is shown sitting near Megan. However, when Spinelli is yelling at the students, he is sitting near Ashley Q. He later sits on the same seat as usual.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Gretchen is shown sitting near Gus. However, when Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, she is sitting on the unnamed Asian boy's seat. She later sits on the same seat as usual.
    • During the beginning of the episode, the Unnamed Girl is not shown. However, when the students are laughing at the drawing, she is shown sitting near Phil. When Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, she is shown sitting on Megan's seat. She later sits on the same seat as usual.
    • During the beginning of the episode, T.J. is sitting near Gretchen. However, when Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, Megan replaces him. He later reappears when Miss Grotke is examining the drawing.
    • During the beginning of the episode, an unnamed Asian boy is not shown. However, when the students are laughing at the drawing, he is shown sitting near Lily. When Miss Grotke tells Spinelli to sit down, Gretchen replaces him. He later reappears when Miss Grotke is examining the drawing.
    • During the beginning of the episode, Gus is shown sitting near Gretchen. However, during Miss Grotke's speech, Spinelli replaces him. He later reappears when the scene shows all of the students sitting in the classroom.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the outside scenes, the leaf on each tree is green. However, the trees look like it is summer (especially the trees during the time when Spinelli is going home for lunch), and the episode takes place after Spinelli's 9th birthday.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the maul ball scene, Spinelli is shown playing maul ball with a football. However, when Spinelli starts to see Miss Grotke walking near the mud puddle, she is shown holding and dropping an inaccurate basketball. The football replaces it afterwards.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: While Spinelli is shouting "Look out, mama!", her eyebrows are thicker than usual; the same error happens before the birds starts to chirp at Spinelli during the time when Spinelli is going home for lunch.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the episode, Spinelli does not have lines above her eyelids when her eyes are wide open. However, it does happen during a couple parts of the episode (mainly, when Spinelli feels shocked and walks away from the students).

First Classroom Scene[]

  • Animation/continuity error: During this scene, Ashley T. is not shown in the classroom. She later appears in the third and final classroom scene.
  • Coloring/continuity error: When the students are running to recess, Gordy's shirt is green.

Maul Ball Scene[]

  • Here are a couple errors when Spinelli came to recess.
    • Animation/consistency/continuity error: When Spinelli comes to recess, many students, such as Gordy and Lola Ann, are there. However, after a few perspective changes, various students replace them.
    • Spinelli and the students in TS
      Animation/continuity/consistency error: When Spinelli comes to recess, she is slightly shorter than usual, meaning that Spinelli and Gus have the same height during the scene. Her height is later back to normal.
  • Animation/continuity error: When the kids get Spinelli while they are playing maul ball (this is off-screen), which literally made the gang scared briefly, T.J.'s eyebrows disappear for a frame.

Spinelli's Embarrassment[]

  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When Miss Finster tells the kids to "quiet down" on the jungle gym, one of the dodgeball displays does not appear near the stairs where Miss Finster was standing. However, when the scene changes, a dodgeball display does appear near the stairs.
  • Here the following goofs during the time when Spinelli accidentally called Miss Grotke "mama".
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When Spinelli is about to feel shocked about Miss Grotke, only Mikey and two little kids appear on the background. However, when she says, "Oh no", no students are near her. When she covers her mouth after she accidentally called the teacher "mama", T.J., Gretchen, and an unnamed Asian boy appeared on the right side, and all the students on the left side are replaced. And when an unnamed boy says, "Spinelli just called Miss Grotke 'mama'", all members of the gang appeared, an unnamed Asian boy does not appear near them anymore, and Spinelli is farther away from the students.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When Spinelli starts to see Miss Grotke walking near the mud puddle, the background has a few houses. However, after a couple perspective changes, only one house is shown on the background; the house is also different than one of the houses during the other scene.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When the second scene of Miss Grotke walking near the mud puddle happens, the animation of the walk of Miss Grotke is almost the same as the first scene (though, in a different perspective this time), and the mud puddle is smaller than usual.
    • Animation/continuity error: Before Spinelli calls Miss Grotke "mama", she is about to step into a puddle with her right foot. When the camera angle changes after Spinelli yells out, she is about to step in with her left foot.
    • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli says, "Oh no! Look out, mama!", her pupils are smaller than usual.
    • Animation/consistency error: When Spinelli exclaims "-mama!", her head and neck is not drawn correctly for three frames. On her head, the left side is drawn vertically smaller, while the right side is drawn vertically larger. Her neck is also smaller than usual, causing her wide mouth to end where the left side of the neck is drawn.
    • Animation/continuity error: While Spinelli exclaims "-mama!", a black dot is drawn on the left side of her bottom lip.
    • Animation/continuity error: When she is about to end the exclaiming word "mama", the lines are drawn below each side of her nose (as seen on the top of the screen).
  • Here are the following goofs before and while the kids are laughing at Spinelli.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When an unnamed boy says, "Spinelli just called Miss Grotke 'mama'", many students are near the gang. However, after a few perspective changes, they are not there anymore.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the scene where an unnamed boy says, "Spinelli just called Miss Grotke 'mama'", Ashley T. is shown wearing a short-sleeved shirt with a skirt. When perspective changes, her clothes are back to normal.
    • Animation/consistency error: When the students start to laugh at Spinelli, Mikey's face switches many times, and Ashley T.'s lips are missing.
    • Animation/continuity error: After Spinelli calls Miss Grotke "mama", several kids are shown laughing from above. Ashley Q., Ashley T., and Ashley B. are visible, but far apart from each other. When perspective changes, all the four Ashleys are shown laughing together.
      Mama's Girl error
    • Animation/consistency error: When T.J. says "I didn't hear Spinelli say anything, funny!" and starts to laugh, along with the gang (excluding Spinelli), his legs are missing. This error is hard to see in some airings of the episode due to the screen being cropped a bit in these airings.
      Spinelli shocked HQ
  • Here are the following goofs during Spinelli's shock and eye zoom/wipe sequence. Most of these are possibly due to a rush on the animators and/or one of their first times animating either an episode of a new cartoon at the time or an eye zoom/wipe sequence.
    • Animation/consistency error: When Butch is shown laughing while Spinelli is being shocked and embarrassed, the streak on his hair is missing.
    • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli is shown feeling shocked about the accident, various students in the background are not the students that appeared on the previous scene where an unnamed boy says, "Spinelli just called Miss Grotke 'mama'".
    • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli moves to the right before she walks away, a detail on her right ear disappears.
    • Animation/consistency error: In one of the frames during Spinelli's eye zoom/wipe sequence, the top of her left eyebrow is drawn longer than her right eyebrow. This error is hard to see in some airings of the episode.
    • Animation/continuity error: During Spinelli's eye zoom/wipe sequence, her lash lines on her eyes are thick for a few frames.
      Spinelli's eye closeup HQ

      Spinelli's eyelash on one of her eyes is shown briefly during her eye zoom/wipe sequence.

    • Animation/continuity error: During the episode, Spinelli does not have any eyelashes. However, during Spinelli's eye zoom/wipe sequence, an eyelash on one of her eyes is shown briefly. It is also possible if the lash line is eyeliner since it appears to be thicker than usual (similar to the error above), and it looks similar to the famous cat-eye eyeliner look.
      • Note: This is the only time where Spinelli has a thick lash line on one of her eyes; the rest of the episodes and movies that had the "thick lines" error only have Spinelli having thick lash lines on both of her eyes.
    • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli's eye gets closer to the camera, her eye shape varies a bit in a few frames, and one of her eyebrows is thicker than usual.

Cafeteria Scene[]

  • Here are the following goofs that happened during the first shot, as well as the next shots.
    • Animation/continuity error: During the first shot of the scene, it has one horizontal row of the cafeteria table sets. It is later extended to three when Spinelli is looking for a place to sit. When perspective changes, one of the tables on the first vertical row is not seen.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During the first shot of the scene, the first horizontal row has the boys sitting on the second cafeteria table set, and only one unnamed girl is shown sitting on the third cafeteria table set. But when Spinelli is looking for a place to sit, one of the boys that is previously shown does not appear anymore, and another boy is shown sitting with an African American boy on the second cafeteria table set of the first row. On the third cafeteria table set of the first row, an unnamed girl that is previously shown is moves to the right, and another boy gets added near her.
      • When perspective changes, there is a girl who is sitting on the first cafeteria table set of the first horizontal row; she looks very similar to the other girl that is sitting on the third cafeteria table set of the first horizontal row, but the only difference is that her skin is darker. It is possible if she is the same girl with a coloring error or not.
    • Animation/coloring/continuity error: During the first shot of the scene, an unnamed girl who is sitting on the third cafeteria table set has a shirt lighter than the other scene, and her hair looks like it is down for some reason, which is later changed to a bun.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When Spinelli is holding her lunch while she is walking, Ashley A., Ashley B., and Judy are shown sitting together at the table. During the scene, Judy has sleeves on her top, and the gang are sitting at the table behind them. However, after two perspective changes, Ashley A. and Ashley B. switch seats, and Ashley Q. sits with them instead. An unnamed boy and an unnamed girl are also shown sitting at the table and examining each other behind them; it means that they are sitting on another table.
  • Animation/continuity error: When Vince talks to Spinelli, she is shown standing, but when perspective changes, which is shortly after the students start to laugh at Spinelli again, she is instead shown sitting; she stands up again afterwards.

Spinelli Going Home for Lunch[]

  • Here are the following goofs about the barn house.
    • Another animation error in Mama's Girl

      There are two errors in this scene.

      Animation/continuity/consistency error: When the white barn house appears for the first time, the door has its regular size. However, when Spinelli runs away from the German Sheppard dog while he is barking at her, the door is larger than usual. Afterwards, the door is back to normal.
    • Spinelli screaming HQ
      Animation/continuity/consistency error: When the white barn house appears for the first time, the lines appear on a wooden wall. However, when Spinelli exclaims a Big "NO!", the lines disappear.
  • Animation/continuity error: When the German-Sheppard dog frightens Spinelli, she is a little bit farther from the dog. However, when perspective changes, she is closer than usual. Her first movement happens again afterwards.
  • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli runs away from the German Sheppard dog while he is barking at her, a line is drawn around her waist, making her look like she is wearing a shirt and a skirt instead. This only happens in some frames of the scene.
  • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli starts to examine the sign, she is standing near the door. However, when she is shown looking at the sign briefly before she exclaims a Big "NO!", she is farther than the previous scene; this error causes her to move and turn around while she is exclaiming.
  • Here are the following goofs during Spinelli's Big "NO!" and "Eat the Camera" (a.k.a. mouth zoom/wipe) sequence. Most of these are possibly due to a rush on the animators and/or one of their first times animating either an episode of a new cartoon at the time or an "Eat the Camera" sequence.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: In one of the frames before Spinelli's "Eat the Camera" or mouth zoom/wipe sequence, the lines are drawn on her bottom teeth and did not fully reach to the top until a frame before the sequence starts to happen. However, as it zooms during the sequence, the lines start to become shorter than usual, and afterwards, the lines do not look the same together until the frame changed, where they look the same together. When the frame changes again, the lines did not look the same together again, and one of the lines is almost fully drawn to the bottom of her tooth. They later look the same together for the third time, and probably a frame later, the lines start to become shorter again.
    • Animation/continuity error: When the camera starts to zoom into Spinelli's throat, a line is drawn on the left and below of her nose.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: In the first frame of Spinelli's "Eat the Camera" or mouth zoom/wipe sequence (where her throat is about to be visible), her mouth is vertically wider than usual, and the right side of her mouth is horizontally a bit smaller than the next frames, where it starts to expand.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During Spinelli's "Eat the Camera" or mouth zoom/wipe sequence, both her throat and uvula vary its size various times, and her lips on the left and right side of her mouth did not fully appear until many frames later.
    • Animation/continuity/consistency error: During Spinelli's "Eat the Camera" or mouth zoom/wipe sequence, a detail on the right of her bottom teeth is missing for a couple frames. As the camera zooms, more details on each side of her bottom teeth starts to become visible.

Second Classroom Scene (a.k.a. Spinelli's Decision)[]

  • Animation/continuity error: When Mikey sticks out a gum ball with his hand, a line is drawn over the bottom of his right cheek in the last frame of the scene.
  • Animation/continuity/consistency error: When T.J. asks Spinelli if she was overreacting just a bit, an earth globe does not appear on the top of the cabinet. However, when Vince tells Spinelli that it is "not that bad", an earth globe appeared, and the cabinet either move its position a little bit or removed a little bit on the right.
  • Animation/coloring/continuity error: When Vince tells Spinelli that it is "not that bad", two of her things that are in the wooden box are a ruler and a green notebook, but when Spinelli explains the gang about her desperations and actions, the ruler disappears, and the notebook is colored white instead of green. After a few scenes of both being back to normal, when Spinelli tries to walk away from the gang, the green notebook disappears.
  • Animation/continuity error: Before Spinelli says, "It's the only way", her eyebrows disappear for a frame.

Spinelli's Recess Detention and T.J.'s First Plan[]

  • Animation/continuity error: When the gang starts to have a conversation after Spinelli puts her head down, Gus is shown standing closer to T.J. However, when perspective changes, Gus is not shown standing closer to T.J.
  • Animation/consistency error: When Vince thinks that T.J.'s idea is crazy, Gretchen's glasses is not drawn completely. This may be due to a rush on one of the staff or accidents during the inking process of these cels for this clip. Another possibility is that someone accidentally messes up her glasses on the drawings or cels of her.

T.J.'s Second Plan[]

  • Animation/consistency error: When Gus is writing "Call me daddy" in cursive, he is doing it backwards.

Gretchen's Plan[]

  • Animation/continuity error: While Gretchen is explaining her plan, the tape recorder is rotating counterclockwise. Once perspective changes, it is suddenly rotating clockwise.
  • Coloring/continuity error: When T.J. says, "Let's do this thing", his cap briefly darkens the color.
    • Note: It is corrected and recolored in most reruns of the episode (except in other English-speaking countries outside the US), Toon Disney's "After Class Laugh Attack!" promo, and Disney+.


Third and Final Classroom Scene[]

  • Coloring/continuity error: When the students are laughing at the drawing, Willy's shirt is navy blue.
  • Animation/continuity error: When the students are laughing at the drawing, many students are not sitting at the classroom, meaning that they are not there yet. However, when Miss Grotke tells her to sit down, more students are shown sitting; it presumably means that all students are there.
  • Spinelli angry 4
    Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli sees the drawing on the blackboard, she is drawn with nostrils; this error also happens when Spinelli examines the other students calling Miss Grotke "mama".
  • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli yells "I've had it, Ya punks!", the drawing on the blackboard briefly disappears.
  • Animation/continuity error: At the end, there is a drawing on the blackboard, which Miss Grotke wipes off in the first shot, then rubs out most of it, but keeps rubbing out the same bit. A few shots later, the drawing is almost entirely back, and she rubs it off again.
  • Coloring/continuity error: When Ashley Q. is shown during Miss Grotke's speech, Gordy's shirt is gray.
  • Animation/consistency error: When the scene shows all of the students sitting in the classroom, Ashley T. is shown wearing a different outfit.
  • Coloring/continuity error: When the students are calling Miss Grotke "mama", Timmy Milton's hair is blond.
  • Animation/continuity error: When Spinelli is giving Miss Grotke a thumbs up, Ashley T. is shown standing near Megan; she is supposed to be where she is usually at.

End Credits[]

  • Crediting/grammar error: Justin Jon Ross was incorrectly credited as Justin John Ross.

International Versions[]

Latin Spanish[]

  • Audio/dialogue error: When Spinelli starts to walk away from the students who are laughing at her, the kids' laugh ends earlier than usual, making the audio track during the eye zoom/wipe sequence instrumental.

Trivia[]

Regular[]

  • This episode was based on an idea by C. D. Payne, the author of the bestselling novel Youth in Revolt: The Journal of Nick Twist, which was made into a movie with Michael Cera in January 2010.
  • Clips of this episode, including a short clip, where T.J. says "Let's do this thing", were included in the following promos: Disney's One Too's "It's time for recess!" promo, Disney Channel's "This Fall, it's going to be so Disney Channel" promo from 2003, Disney Channel's "Follow Your Dreams" musical promo from 2004, the first version of Toon Disney's "What I Like About You" music promo from 2004, Toon Disney's "After Class Laugh Attack!" promo, and Toon Disney's "Get Ready for This" music promo.
  • An audio clip where Spinelli says, "Are we flappin' our jaws or are we playing maul ball?" was heard in versions one and three of Toon Disney's "We’re the kids of 3rd Street" promo from 2004.
    Spinelli giving Miss Grotke thumbs up from a Toon Disney promo
  • An animation cel of Spinelli giving Miss Grotke a thumbs up was seen in Toon Disney's "We see them every day" promo from 2004.
  • The scene where Spinelli yells "I've had it ya punks!" to the students in Miss Grotke's classroom appears in the Behind-the-scenes feature on the Recess: School's Out DVD. After that, a clip shows Pamela Adlon recording a line that is not featured in this episode.
  • Out of all the episodes in the series, this episode has the most number of errors.
  • One of Spinelli's quotes, "None of you beeswax!", was previously used by Miss Finster in "The Hypnotist".
  • During the "Sign of Despair" scene, where Spinelli is looking at the sign which turns off many letters before, she exclaims a Big "NO!", it reveals "Ma Ma's Gr ll" instead of "Ma Ma's Girl". It is possible if it is an animation/grammar error or not. This is probably due to the fact that it does not exactly have to be revealed.
  • Since there are a lot of goofs, this episode seems to be off model a lot. This proves to be one of the most off-model episodes besides any Toon City-animated episodes.
    • If possible, this is the most off-model episode of the Plus One Animation episodes.
    • Although the episode is off model a lot, this episode has vibrant colors compared to other episodes for unknown reasons.
    • One of the possibilities why this episode is off model a lot is because the episode is most likely one of the first episodes of the series to be animated by Plus One Animation; this is possibly why this affects the animators' abilities to remember the positions of the characters in some of the scenes of the episode. Also, at the time this was animated, Plus One Animation was the animation studio of whom animated most of the season two episodes because both Grimsaem and Sunwoo (both of which worked on season one episodes) were busy with the digital animation and production services for The Rugrats Movie at the time.
  • In Disney Channel's "Follow Your Dreams" musical promo, Spinelli was seen sleeping with the same pajamas she wore during this episode.
    • Ironically, a clip of an episode was later shown, which is when Spinelli woke up due to its interruption from her mother, Flo.
  • One of the laughing effects during Spinelli's eye zoom/wipe was later re-used as The Diggers' laugh in "Chief Mikey", a bonus episode in the direct-to-video movie Recess: All Growed Down.

Continuity[]

  • This is one of the only episodes where Spinelli is seen having at least one eyelash; the others being "The Break In", "Swing on Thru to the Other Side", "First Name Ashley", and "Prickly Is Leaving". However, this is the only episode where Spinelli is seen having only one eyelash on one of her eyes (though, this is an animation error). "First Name Ashley" and "Prickly Is Leaving" have Spinelli to have two eyelashes on each eye, and "The Break In" and "Swing on Thru to the Other Side" have Spinelli to have one eyelash on both of her eyes for brief times.
  • This is the first episode where "Eat the Camera" happens during one of the scenes; the next being "Gus' Fortune", and the last being "The Biggest Trouble Ever".
    • This is also one of the only episodes where a girl does "Eat the Camera"; the other being "The Biggest Trouble Ever".
  • This is the only episode where two different zoom/wipes are shown.
  • This is the first episode to be written by Mark Drop.
  • This is the only episode to include an eye zoom. However, there is also a bonus eye zoom at the end of Disney Channel's "Follow Your Dreams" musical promo from 2004.

International Information[]

  • Clips of this episode were included in the following promos: Toon Disney UK's "New Weekday Line-Up" promo and Disney Channel Middle East's "Power, Strength, Brains, Gum Ball" promo.
  • The French dub has Spinelli call her life "a Charles Dickens story" instead of a Stephen King novel.
  • Several international voice actresses of Spinelli did not exclaim a Big "NO!" very well, whereas Pamela Adlon exclaimed it perfectly in the original English version. However, some international voice actresses, such as Marwa El Sawy (Arabic) and Lucero Garza López (Latin Spanish), exclaimed a Big "NO!" quite well. Some versions also sounded similar to the original English version of it as well.

Cast[]

Gallery[]

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