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Join a group of six fourth-grade best friends at Third Street Elementary School on their fun-filled adventures in their school playground. Through the ups-and-downs of adolescence, they must wrestle with authority, avoid the school snitch, and try their best to win at kick-ball.
1998
The gang breaks up when they are forced to choose a best friend to write about.
A hypnotist performing for the kids inadvertantly hypnotizes Principal Prickly into thinking he's six years old.
Spinelli gets labelled a mama's girl when she inadvertantly calls Ms. Grotke ""Mama.""
Ashley A. hooks up with Gretchen when she sins against the clique so gravely as to get thrown out.
Gus finds a tile from the game Ajimbo and soon the entire student body gets caught in its evil grasp.
Gus has to go to the Yard of No Return when he kicks a good kickball over the fence.
Gus winds up the new target of the school bully's wrath.
All the kids go on a big field trip to MISOOE (The Museum of Industry, Science, Oceanography, Oddities and Energy). But Ol' Smokey, the beloved school bus, breaks down in the middle of nowhere.
A visit from Principal Prickly's brother Paul leads to a challenge between 3rd Street and 98th Street kickball teams.
In the "Pee Wee Pals" program, the main kids each have to take care of a kindergartner during recess.
Substitute teacher Mr. E. captivates all the kids with his command of authority, except T.J.
Gretchen turns to former yo-yo champ Tommy Tate to learn how to master the yo-yo.
Gretchen's search for her stolen laptop leads her on a journey among the school's delinquents that ultimately brings about her downfall.
Mikey wants to be exactly like Vince when Vince saves his life.
The kids take in a really ratty stray cat that they find near the dumpster, naming it Stuart.
King Bob orders the kids to build him a pyramid so that all future classes will remember him.
Principal Prickly and Miss Finster deem T.J.'s word "whomps" as a cuss and punish him for it, starting a scandal that leads all the way to the board of education.
Miss Finster agrees to babysit Spinelli for the weekend while her parents are away.
When the playground goes on the monsticker standard T.J. goes down the path from poverty to wealth.
The main kids wish they could have the overcrowded school to themselves, then surprisingly get their wish.
Mikey is the only fourth grader who still believes in Santa Claus. He tries to convince the others Santa exists.
T.J. and Vince manage to convince everyone that the bad haircut they gave Mikey is actually cool.
Spinelli's parents put her in Mlle. Povlova's dance school, where she teams up with Mikey.
Principal Prickly and Miss Finster plot to turn T.J. over to their own side by making him principal for a day.
The Ashleys get back at Spinelli by entering her into the Kiddie Cosmetics Little Miss Blush Beauty Pageant. But her friends talk Spinelli into trying to beat the Ashleys in the pageant.
1999
On class picture day, the kids vow to keep Gus clean as he's never had a class picture of him taken.
Someone else besides Gretchen is a math genius, and through math, Gretchen starts a close relationship with this person.
The main kids discover that Gus was once a notorious dodgeball player who went by the name of El Diablo.
A career day assembly gets all the kids to decide their future careers. That is all except Spinelli.
Every year the older kids pick kindergarteners to race in the Kindergarten Derby. This year an eager Tubby gets an unwilling Mikey to sponsor him in the race.
Fed up with Vince's ego, the kids bet Vince that he can't go one whole day without beating someone in a sport.
T.J. takes charge when Gretchen seems to achieve a dream that T.J.'s always had, to be an astronaut on the space shuttle.
Randall becomes popular when he uses a joke book to make himself a standup comedian.
T.J. shows up in school with a black eye. Everyone makes up wild stories about the heroic acts T.J. must have done to get the shiner.
T.J. breaks his clavicle and now has to spend recess with the ""pale kids"" in Room 51.
Spinelli gets a crush on a fifth grader and has to get over it to save her reputation.
In his hatred of Valentine's Day, T.J. sends a ""funny"" valentine to every single girl on the playground to show them how stupid Valentine's Day is, but his plan soon backfires when the girls mistake them for ""real"" valentine cards.
T.J. and Vince are so into the "Barnaby Boys" books that they dress up like the Barnaby Boys and try to solve the mystery of the suspicious substitute janitor, Earl Raymond.
TJ receives an old history textbook with a treasure map that leads the gang, Randall, and the Ashleys out to get the treasure. But as they get closer, greed arises and the 4th graders fight for the treasure.
When the gang catches the mysterious ""Libray Kid"", they take her out to recess where she becomes obssessed with the playground.
Everyone is segregrated once the Ashley's start giving ratings to everyone on the playground.
1997
The main kids try to get all the other kids to help rescue T.J. when Miss Finster punishes him by making him miss recess.
New kid Gus arrives at Third Street Elementary, but has to endure the indignities that a new kid must undergo.
The kids carry out a crucial experiment to see if it's really true that kissing each other is an inevitable part of their future.
The kids stage a protest when Principal Prickly plans to tear down Ol' Rusty to replace it with a new jungle gym.
The Ashleys jinx Gus according to the playground rules so that he can't talk until his friends say his name.
The others try to help out when Mikey wants to be a safety ranger.
The Ashleys try to force Spinelli to be just like them when Spinelli's first name is revealed.
The kids help bring Miss Finster together with Hank the janitor when they find out she has a crush on him.
Bob installs Gus as a substitute king while he has a tonsilectomy, figuring Gus will be easy to control - but Gus turns into a despot instead.
The kids, and Vince himself, come to the awful realization that Vince's once popular older brother Chad has grown up into a geek.
The kids come up with a plan to keep Gretchen from being transferred to Oppenheimer Elementary for the Incredibly Extremely Gifted.
The kids stage an elaborate funeral for the 4th grade class's beloved hamster, wherein they learn about how many lives the hamster has touched.
Vince completely loses his confidence at playing kickball when Ashley Q. beats him in a game.
A weird little boy keeps tagging along behind the kids, apparently causing a streak of bad luck.
Jeffrey, an annoying jerk of a boy, insists that Gretchen will be his girlfriend.
What do the kindergarteners have planned for T.J. when they capture him?
Miss Finster comes up with a new punishment that reduces T.J. to a vegetable.
Randall accuses Spinelli of hitting him with a rock during a dirt clod war so the kids put her on trial.
The kids dream about what the teachers' lounge must be like.
Loneliness compels Randall to want to make friends with the other kids.
The kids grow increasingly frustrated when rain keeps then indoors for recess days on end.
At first only Mikey wants to participate in the Thanksgiving can drive competition against the unbeatable Ashleys. But then the other kids join in to beat the Ashleys.
Principal Prickly needs Mikey to sing the National Anthem at the PTA Spring Fling, but Mikey only sings well in the bathroom. So he brings in a music teacher to bring the Robert Goulet out of Mikey.
The kids deal with a pompous expert on child research who wants to study them as they play.
Spinelli will do anything to keep her parents from attending parents' night and meeting the others.
Spinelli is inspired to form a cult based on the Swinger Girl when she thinks she's seen her swing over the top into another dimension.
2000
During a burning hot day, the gang attempts to make it across the playground to the otherside where there is a water pump.
The gang is suspicious when the Ashleys give Spinelli six wrestling tickets.
Mikey and Gus want to join the Woodchuck Scouts.
T.J. finds a $100 bill and along with the gang try to find out who lost it.
Gus and Theresa (Cornchip Girl) have a hard time becoming friends due to their rivaling fathers.
After Mikey helps Cornchip Girl off the climbing frame after she gets stuck, the gang wonder how big he will be. Gretchen and Galileo conduct a test to find out how big everyone will be when they are older, and Mikey's test says he will be 50 feet tall! The others find this cool and wonder what 50 foot Mikey could do, but Mikey isn't so sure that being 50 feet tall will be that great.
Gus must stay behind from the fair because he forgot his permission slip, while the rest of the gang try to figure out a way to get Gus to the fair.
Vince and T.J. compete for the job as A.V. Kid, but their competition leads to a broken-up friendship between them.
The kids think Vince is getting special treatment when he becomes Prickly's golf partner.
The gang tries to find out who removed all the balls from the playground.
Tired of TJ and his friends getting all the glory from King Bob, Lawson decides to get a gang of his own together. He recruits Randall, Menlow, Swinger Girl, Skeenes and Kurst the Worst and together the six start solving the playground's problems and getting the glory. Of course TJ and his friends now have nothing to do, so they are left just talking and eventually realise that just being friends is much better than getting all the glory they used to have. Friends being something that Lawson and his crew are definitely not ...
2001
In this Hallowe'en episode, Butch tells us three terrifying tales of Recess. Children of the Cornchip: Cornchip Girl eats some untested cornchips and turns into a werekid! The gang have to save her. When Bikes Attack!: The bikes that the kids ride to school everyday become alive and turn against their riders. Night of the Living Finsters: Lawson challenges Vince to spend the night in the graveyard, only for the gang to discover that the school is built on the Finster family graveyard.
Mikey's new friendship with Kurst the Worst doesn't sit well with their friends.
Randal recruits the Tylers, the Ashleys' little brothers, to help him snitch.
Bad-guy Mundy becomes very poular after he prevents a ball from hitting a little kid.
When one of T.J.s plans goes wrong and Gus breaks his leg he won't make another plan. It's up to the others to get T.J. back to his old self
Andrew Lawrence
TJ Detweiler (voice)
Rickey D'Shon Collins
Vince LaSalle (voice)
Pamela Adlon
Ashley Spinelli (voice)
Ashley Johnson
Gretchen Grundler (voice)
Jason Davis
Mikey Blumberg (voice)
Courtland Mead
Gus Griswald (voice)
1999
Señor Fusion: the Movie finally opens and T.J. vows to be there at its first screening.
The kids rope T.J. into a challenge to play a prank on King Bob before the end of the school day.
Gus winds up working for the Hustler Kid to pay off a debt, and soon he himself becomes the biggest hustler in the playground.
The main kids make a friend of new kid James Stone and show him all their little schemes, but soon regret that.
The kids find a paper fortune teller on the ground that predicts doom for Gus.
The kids want to find out who started a rumor that a boy knocked over Mikey's popcorn at the movies and Mikey then threw the boy into the girl's bathroom.
Secretary of Schools Garrison chooses 3rd Street School as the place to test his program to bring test scores up by cancelling recess.
The kids warn Gus not to break the code by telling Miss Finster who started a food fight.
King Bob abandons his throne in his obsessive pursuit of pulling a prank on T.J. in this sequel to The Big Prank
Gus takes a new identity when he discovers that people think he's a different cool kid when he doesn't wear them. Too bad "Guy" can't see a thing.
Prickly finally gets his appointment to Spiro T. Agnew Middle School. But the kids try to make him stay after they meet the new Principal Slicer.
Randall gets the main kids to pretend that they're his friends when his father, Leonard, visits the school on Randall's birthday.
The gang gets busted when they accidentally break a statue of a famous hero.
The original 1935 edition of The Rules of the Playground is discovered in the library.
The bad kids from The Girl was Trouble trick Gus into shoplifting candy from Kelso's.
Second grade prodigy Becky Benson befriends Gretchen to get help for her science fair project. But she has an ulterior motive.
The gang tries to cover up Mikey's ripped pants so Finster won't catch him.
Jared, the new student, appears to be perfect, making the rest of the school very jealous.
Spinelli gets too attached to the lucky marble that Vince loans her.
Digger Dave quits digging and then bosses everyone around.
The school gets a new technology system installed called the SAL 3000 which controls everything.
Thinking his family is moving away again, Gus moves under the jungle gym to avoid leaving his friends and school
T.J. and the gang meet Mr. Dudicoff, a student teacher who was a legend at 3rd Street School back in the day.
Menlo and Randall team up to manipulate the entire playground.
Gretchen and Vince both run for president.
People start paying Gretchen for doing their homework so she can buy herself a new bike
Spinelli channels her anger into a playground chalk drawing.
T.J. can't figure out why Gordy doesn't like him.
When a new kid from Norway comes to 3rd Street School, Gus befriends the kid by making him think that Gus is the hottest kid in the school.
Scared of turning 10 on his soon-to-be bithday, Mikey develops an obssession of becoming a little kid again so he won't have to grow up.
Spinelli becomes popular as an advice giver when she sits in for Guru Kid.
Ms. Grotke's strange behavior makes the kids think that she's a spy.
Miss Finster hurts her leg and can't keep up with the kids during recess.
Mikey makes the other kids regret not letting them play on their team for the playground's soccer tourney.
The bored main kids build their own fort. But then Lawson takes it over.
Gus starts an obsessive crusade to kill all the germs in the world, while Mikey will do anything to save them.
Spinelli gets peeved with her parents heap so much praise for Gretchen at her expense.
Randall uses an embarrassing photo to blackmail King Bob into making him Playground Prince.
Vince feels like an outsider after he misses the must-see movie of the weekend.
Gretchen is worried when she's partnered with T.J. on a class project.
Disgusted by the horrible cafeteria food, Vince becomes the new school cook when the other kids try his cooking.
Needing to prepare himself for a poet laureate ceremony, Mikey decides to listen to Menlo to learn how to organize himself.
Mikey badgers the gang into a trip to senior citizens home.
T.J. has a mysterious new friend.
