Recess

- Season 3

(1999)

It's Picture Day at 3rd Street and Gus has never had one due to moving around so much. When the 4th Graders are made to go last the gang have to try and stay clean all day. The episode opens and ends with Lt. Griswald reading a letter from TJ explaining what happened.

Gretchen finds herself stumped by a tough math problem and leaves it on the blackboard; when it is solved overnight, the Gang has a stakeout and discovers that Hank the Janitor is secretly a mathematical genius.

A second grader reveals Gus' past as a terror on the dodgeball court, a fact of his life he thought he could put behind him.

After Career Day at school, all the kids plan out what they're going to do when they grow up except for Spinelli, who can't decide what she wants to do and fears it means she won't have a career.

The Kindergartners compete in a race to win a wish from King Bob, which Mikey objects to because of how exploitative it is to the kindergartners.

T.J bets Vince that he can't go without winning every game he plays for one day.

Gretchen gets a letter from NASA, telling her that she will be involved in the next space shuttle mission, which makes T.J. jealous because he wants to go into space.

Randall finds a joke book and memorizes the jokes to become funny at school, but T.J. seeks revenge after Randall starts making jokes about Mikey being fat.

T.J. comes to school with a black eye and refuses to say how he got it; leading all the kids to believe he got it doing something heroic, and T.J. revels in the perks of being a hero, until the story grows too much.

When TJ breaks his collar bone he is forced to miss recess for five weeks. Finster banishes him to room 51; home of the infamous pale kids. The pale kids are a group of rejects who stay inside during recess to do absurdly nerdy things.

Spinelli discovers horrifically she's got a crush on a boy.

T.J. is vehemently opposed to Valentine's Day. So much so, that when he makes a collection of grotesque and vile anti-Valentine cards for all female pupils at 3rd Street School, they interpret them as unique love notes individually for them... until they realize he sent them to everybody, and vow to make him pay!

T.J. and Vince become fans of "The Barnaby Boys" and get in over their heads when they try to uncover the mystery of the temporary janitor.

T.J. discovers an old treasure map in an outdated history book, leading the Gang on a merry chase across the playground to find the mysterious valuables left behind by the map's writers.

It's book report time and TJ and the gang are in the library. They encounter the mythical library kid. She is the palest of the pale and the nerdiest of the nerds. They decide to educate her on the finer points of having recess fun.

The Ashleys make up a ratings system to crush the self-esteem of the kids on the playground, leading to chaos.