Teacher's Lounge

"Teacher's Lounge" is the first segment of the tenth episode of Recess.
==Synopsis==
Intrigued by its secrecy, the kids try to find out what the teacher's lounge looks like, only to be astonished at what they find inside.
==Plot==
When noting that Spinelli's greeting to Gretchen was entirely out-of-context and her remarking with "[it's] the big day," Gus questioned what they meant but not before the boys could enter. T.J., Vince, and Mikey had all made special efforts with their grooming. Gus continued to ask Spinelli on what the boys had apparently remembered, until T.J. told Gus that today was the day that the teachers hand-in their annual budget requests and that one of the students had to deliver the requests to room 101 - the teachers' lounge - in person. After Gus stated that no kid in any school he is been in has ever seen the inside of the teachers' lounge, Spinelli says that it was the same story at Third Street - and that the opportunity would not be blown, again. Vince then tells his story of how he had the chance to see inside the teachers' lounge in the second grade, leading to a flashback of him and the rest of the gang at a young age. He recalls how he knocked on the door, only for a reluctant Mr. Yamashiro; he yanked the papers from Vince's hands from an opening he made in the doorway, not letting Vince take a peek inside the teachers' lounge.
During class, the whole of Miss Grotke's fourth grade class is trying to flatter Miss Grotke into being chosen to look inside the teachers' lounge. After which, she realizes that she needs to chose a student to deliver the budget request; Miss Lemon interrupts, when Miss Grotke answers her call she asks for "them budget requests." Miss Grotke states that normally she would send them down with a student, to which Lemon replies that she doesn't do that anymore because Principal Prickly wanted her to deliver them, "personal like." Trying to digest the news that they will never see inside the teachers' lounge, the gang takes turns to paint a mental picture on what the interior of teachers' lounge would look like - before coming to the conclusion that they needed to break-into there. After wanting to get pass Miss Finster, they attempt to employ The Cryer Kid's services. He offers the full service priced at two dollars, to which they reach a compromise of ninety-eight cents (the gang's total financial assets) and two of Mikey's winger dingers.
After the Cryer Kid begins sobbing, Miss Finster rushes to his aid - leaving the entrance to the school unattended. After they proceed down the hallway, Spinelli uses one of her hairpins on the door's lock mechanism. Unwittingly, they alert Mr. Yamashiro, who is in the lounge (and, according to Gretchen, must about just live in the teachers' lounge). T.J. tells enquires on Miss Grotke's location, stating that her lime-green convertible's on fire in the parking lot. To which, Yamashiro replies that she does not drive one of those cars... he does.
After Yamashiro left the lounge and down the hallway, the gang take that well-awaited look into the teachers' lounge. They were upset: it was barren; it looked unkempt; and the view from where they were standing was very uninspiring to say the least. They were very distraught and left soon after. Immediately, Yamashiro returns and curses the "pranksters" who said his car was on fire. He goes over to the coffee machine to activate a hidden room, revealing it to be one of luxury where the teachers are present.
==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
*Dabney Coleman as Peter Prickly
*Tress MacNeille as Miss Lemon, Miss Grotke's boxing grunts
*Rob Paulsen as Mr. Yamashiro
*Michael Shulman as Cryer Kid
==Trivia==
*One of the gags during Gretchen's vision of the teacher's lounge is "the Donner Party did run out of condiments", in reference to the infamous settlers who resorted to cannibalism to survive a harsh winter.
*The joke that Prickly tells the rest of the faculty in the ending of the episode is reused to an extent in the immediate next segment "Randall's Reform" where T.J. tells it at the beginning of the segment, with the only difference being that Prickly and his wife are the subject of the punchline.
==External links==
*Teacher's Lounge at the Recess Wiki
Category:Recess episodes