"My Fair Gretchen" is the first segment of the sixth episode of Recess.
Synopsis[]
After she scored exceptionally well on a test, Principal Prickly planned to move Gretchen to a school for the gifted, but she's worried that she might not see her friends again.
Plot[]
Miss Finster and Miss Grotke have everyone fill out an exam for the semester. While everyone struggles through it, Gretchen manages to get through the entire thing in under five minutes, shocking everyone. Gretchen is convinced that the test was easy, at least by her standards, but worries that she got all the answers wrong. She is further frightened when she is reminded of the story of Stinky Peterson, a boy who also got through his exam quickly and was called away to the principal's office because of it. True to her fears, Gretchen is called to see Principal Prickly, but is informed that she past the test with flying colors just like Peterson and will be offered the chance to go to Oppenheimer Academy.
Gretchen is at first happy with the news, until she realizes that this means that she will be away from her friends. Her parents are also supportive of the idea of her going to another school, saddening her further. Mikey comes up with the idea for Gretchen to simply become dumber. To achieve this, they try to convince her to get answers wrong on purpose and to take part in other mind numbing experiments. This eventually takes hold as Gretchen suddenly gains the ability to answer questions wrongly and arrives at school the next day dressed in slacker clothes and acting aloof.
Gretchen meets with the Oppenheimer representatives and when asked the questions proceeds to give them the most ludicrous questions, angering Prickly. However, Gretchen cannot restrain herself and gives in to showing off her intellect. She tells the representatives that she does not want to go to Oppenheimer Academy and they speak with Gretchen privately. The representatives agree that Gretchen should stay at Third Street School. Prickly gives into the idea after realizing that Gretchen could boost his morale with the superintendent. However, the representatives offer up the idea of Gretchen giving a class to all the teachers, much to their chagrin.
Cast[]
- Ross Malinger as T.J. Detweiler
- Rickey D'Shon Collins as Vince LaSalle
- Jason Davis as Mikey Blumberg
- Ashley Johnson as Gretchen Grundler
- Pamela Adlon as Ashley Spinelli
- Courtland Mead as Gus Griswald
- April Winchell as Muriel Finster
- Allyce Beasley as Miss Grotke
- Tress MacNeille as Miss Lemon, Teacher #2
- Dabney Coleman as Peter Prickly
- Francesca Marie Smith as Ashley Boulet
- Rachel Crane as Ashley Quinlan
- Camille Winbush as Ashley Tomassian
- Anndi McAfee as Tracey
- Tony Jay as Teacher #1, Teacher #3
Trivia[]
- The title is a reference to the musical, My Fair Lady, which is about a man trying to gentrify a crass and uncouth woman into a high society socialite. The premise of the episode is a reverse parody of that.
- Miss Finnster's line about "do you feel lucky, well do you punk?" refers to the line from the film, Dirty Harry (which TJ infers by stating "she's watched too many Clint Eastwood movie")
- The panel for Oppenheimer Academy are lookalikes of Albert Einstein, Rajeshwari Chatterjee, and Sigmund Freud.
- One of the students that Ms. Grotke name calls is Ralph Eggleston, a reference to the animator of the same name.
External links[]
- My Fair Grethen at the Recess Wiki
