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In a way. Despite not being as merchandise driven as the Disney version of Doug, the show was rerun constantly after it ended production, the only show on One Saturday Morning to get direct-to-DVD specials after the show ended (not the only one for a theatrical film, however, as both Doug and Teacher's Pet had a movie), the only show on One Saturday Morning to air for the entire majority of the block (as well as going into the first two years of ABC Kids) and was one of the few shows being reran on Toon Disney to air for the first two years of Disney XD, and it's back on the network.
At one point, Disney Channel only had one show on during it's entire early morning block. What show? Recess.
Channel Hop: Subverted. The show premiered on ABC, but in 1999, some episodes would debut on UPN and in syndication while others would debut on ABC. All the episodes of the sixth season premiered on UPN and in syndication, though ABC continued to rerun the rest of the episodes.
Cross-Dressing Voices: Almost completely averted. Nearly every young male character (and all of the leads) were voiced by real boys, all of whom (with the sole exception of the actor playing T.J.) were kept on after their voices changed.
The only boys on the show voiced by women were almost all of the kindergarteners (except Tubby, who was voiced by Mikey's voice actor, Jason Davis, and Captain Sticky's first voice, Ryan O'Donohue, who played Randall and Dave), Butch (Kath Soucie), Yope (Christine Cavanaugh), Steve and Lance the Pants (Pamela Hayden), and most of the background kids.
Dueling Shows: With Hey Arnold! and Detention . Oh so much with Hey Arnold!, but it's 6 (Recess) against 3 (Hey; Arnold!). Hey, Arnold, though, has an easily expandable main gang — you can easily go up to over 6 (Arnold, Helga, Gerald, Stinky, Sid, Eugene, Phoebe, Rhonda all rotate in and out of the gang here and there). Recess also shares a number of voice actors with Hey Arnold!
When you've been exposed to Futurama and then you come back to watching this show, particularly the episodes with Spinelli's parents, it's impossible to hear her mom speaking and not find yourself thinking of Leela.
Or Married With Children, considering that Spinelli's mom looks like a cartoon version of Peg Bundy (both have big red hair, wear 1960s housewife style clothes [the capri pants, kitten heels, and floral halter top], and both are married to whiny husbands). The only differences between Spinelli's mom and Peg are: (a) Spinelli's mom wears glasses, and (b) Spinelli's mom actually does housework and cooks.
And in the movie, Benedict is voiced by James "Hades" Woods.
Also in the movie, The Bald Guy is voiced by Clancy Brown, aka. Mr. Krabs, and the DCAU Lex Luthor.
Superintendent Skinner was voiced by John Astin, the original Gomez Addams.
Lawson could have been a worse bully... since he's voiced by Erik Von Detten, he could have been like Sid.
Pamela Segall Adlon, (Bobby Hill, Otto Osworth, Milo Oblong, among others), voices Spinelli, in one of the rare times that Segall-Adlon voices a girl (albeit one that acts and fights like a boy).
Randall is Finn or Johnny Test, depending on the episode. (Some other Adventure Time cast members include Gretchen as Princess Bubblegum and Spinelli as Marceline.)
T.J., who was twice replaced when his previous voice actor went through puberty, despite the fact that every other actor voicing a young boy character was kept on after their voices changed. Ross Malinger played him in the 1996 pilot-turned-first episode and season one, Andrew Lawrence (younger brother of Joey Lawrence) played him for the rest of the series and the movie, and Myles Jeffrey (who's considered to be T.J.'s worst voice actor) played him in the direct-to-DVD movies, the Lilo and Stitch crossover, and any further projects (station ids for Disney Channel, etc.)
Same with Becky, T.J.'s older sister. Melissa Joan Hart played her in The Movie, and Tara Strong played her in the DTV movie Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade.
Gus was played by Ryan O'Donohue (who was already playing Digger Dave and Randall) in "The New Kid", which was his first appearence. Courtland Mead played him for the rest of the series.
Gordy usually had his voice actor switched in every episode he was in.
Megan was voiced by Pamela Aldon in her first appearence. Danielle Judovits played her afterwards.
Ashley T. was voiced by Rachel Crane in season one. Because the creators didn't want any of the Ashleys to be played by the same person, she was replaced, and her new voice actress was actually named Ashley, Ashley Johnson, who was already playing Gretchen.
King Bob's mom was played by April Winchell at first, and after that, she was played by Kath Soucie.
Screwed by the Network: The show had very high ratings and critics loved it, but still had to end with sixty-five episodes thanks to Disney's episode policy, leaving the entire sixth season to run short.
T.J. didn't even have a T-shirt, he just wore a sweater the same color of his jacket.
Vince was missing his wristbands.
Spinelli's pigtails were tied in the back of her head instead of on the sides.
Gretchen's entire dress was blue instead of blue and white.
Talking to Himself: Any instance where Randall is talking to the diggers, as both him and digger Dave are voiced by Ryan O'Donohue.
Voices in One Room: The main six cast members (Ross Malinger/Andrew Lawrence/Myles Jeffrey, Ricky D`Shon Colins, Pamela Segal, Ashley Johnson, Jason Davis, and Courtland Mead) would all record their dialog together, as with the Ashleys (Andi McAffee, Francesca Smith, Racheal Crane, and Ashley Johnson). For the rest of the cast, they recorded theirs seperately.
The original trailer (skip to around 5:39) had very different animation and character designs. With Spinelli looking like she never grew out of kindergarten!
T.J. went through the most drastic change, however. He was skinnier, taller, had darker, messier hair, had a completely different outfit (he didn't even have the baseball hat!), and had green eyes. In the original 1996 unaired pilot (but a few clips were in a ABC promo on the 1997 tape of the 1996 One Hundred and One Dalmatians), this is what T.J. looked like.
He also had a drasticly different appearance in the original sketches before the pilot was made. In those, while he wore something similar to his regular outfit, was even more heavyset (though as usual, not as much as Mikey), and had a different character design (along with the rest, who looked more realistic and not as "cutesy"). They got him a new outfit and slimmed him down for the pilot, only for him to return to his original outfit and put on a few pounds for the series proper.
T.J.'s original name was going to be P.J., as in "Paul and Joe"!
And the oldest character designs (before the pilot) gave the main six characters a more "realistic" look to them. For the pilot and series proper, they were given a more "cutesy" look. T.J. was even heavier in the original sketches as well.
From what we've seen from clips of the pilot, Gus wasn't even going to be in the show!
Cornchip Girl's original name was Frito Girl, but was changed for legal reasons.
Vince went through ten different hairstyles (and a different outfit) before finally deciding on one.
In "The Break In", one of Spinelli's plans to free T.J. from detention was to break in using soda and pop rocks near the door. The line was cut because Pop Rocks was copyrighted.
There was going to be a scene in "Yope From Norway" where Miss Grotke attempts to speak Norwegian to Yope, but was cut due to time restraints.
In "The Box", the song T.J. was going to sing in his Madness Mantra was "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?", but was changed to "This Old Man" because the song was copyrighted.
After the two DTV movies were released, one more was being planned, known as Recess: The First Day of School, which as the title implies, would have been a prequel to the series of how the main five (as Gus would be absent) adjust to fourth grade. For unknown reasons, it was shelved.
Apparently, the show was at least partially based off of one of the creators' childhood at a Sacramento elementary school in the 1960s with several of the characters based off of peers from said school.
Gretchen's appearance was based on Paul Germain's wife in elementary school.
Paul Germain's son, Thomas Germain (who Tommy was named after, and was mentioned in "The Lost Ball"), also went to Third Street Elementary School. In fact, the episode "Principal for a Day" was based on his experience as principal for a day at his school.
Mikey is based on one of the creators' friends in elementary school.
Spinelli is based on a girl the creators knew from college.
Vince is based on Paul Germain's friend from college, also named Vince.
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