Mrs. Munger's Class

"Mrs. Munger's Class" is two seasons of brief, 90-second skits on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC that featured the talking heads of a middle school yearbook page. The kids in the photos would often exchange goofy dialogue and insults, while Mrs. Munger would tell them to "Simmer down! Simmer! Simmer!" The camera would focus on whoever was speaking on one part of the yearbook page and quickly pan to follow the dialogue. Students would move between the pictures to interact with one another. The skit was shot in black and white, but color was used on occasion (on field trips or to show cosmetics).
==Technical details==
Directed by animator Tim Maloney, and produced by Disney for the One Saturday Morning children's programming block on ABC, the skits used Adobe After Effects and Photoshop computer software to manipulate photographs from a school yearbook. With the help of computer animation that superimposed facial expressions, the photographs would appear to move their lips as the characters spoke dialogue. The skits ran for 18 months during the 1997-98 season, and during the fall of 1998, until a class action lawsuit was brought against Disney over the use of actual school portraits used to create the characters.
==Controversy==
Although the school portraits used in the show were manipulated, collaged, and otherwise altered, the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit felt that there was still too much resemblance. As such, the plaintiffs claimed the photographs were used for entertainment without personality rights clearance. Mrs. Munger turned out to be Mrs. Kathleen Foresman, who had been a teacher at Woodbridge Middle School in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Woodbridge, Virginia, in 1975 when her picture and those of her 6th grade students were taken for a page in a yearbook. She, and four of her former students, filed suit against Disney on December 23, 1998."Disney sued for using photos without permission," Syracuse Post-Standard, December 26, 1998, p A-5 Edward Jackson, a computer engineer in San Diego, had learned that his likeness was being used after his 10-year-old niece brought the similarity to his attention. Jackson, a black man, was outraged only at the use of his photo."Defamation suit filed," The Stars and Stripes, December 27, 1998, p13 The lawsuit was settled for undisclosed damages.
==Characters==
===Adults===
*Mrs. Munger (voiced by Peter Hastings): The teacher. She mainly forces the class to "simmer" when things get out of hand. Although often expressing frustration toward the class, she usually manages to take things in stride.
*Susan Weiner: The field hockey coach. Appears as a substitute teacher in one episode and attempts to teach fire safety in another.
*Fern Berkowitz: A woman who teaches creative movement to the students. Mrs. Munger and Fern were classmates at Chunkin College.
*Mrs. Yamaguchi: An Japanese-American teacher from the next room, whom Rock mischievously communicates the class of in the episode "Class Computer".
*Sven: A somewhat effeminate man with a European accent. He gives Mrs. Munger a makeover in one episode.
===Students===
*Lance (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Speaks only in Pig Latin. Apart from Cissy tattling, no one acknowledges this.
*Gordon (voiced by Cree Summer): Gordon usually makes sarcastic remarks. He ends his quotes with "ole!"
*Karyn (voiced by C.J. Arabia): She is obsessed with death.
*Artie (voiced by Brett Baer): A boy from New Jersey. Most of his statements are very simple, or even unrelated to the topic at hand. When asked to interpret an art piece, for example, he responds with "I'm hungry and my feet hurt".
*Dawn (voiced by Melissa Samuels): The class kiss-up, who reveals that she is overcompensating for her parents that travel a lot. She often refers to her fellow students as "the children". She is also implied to be Jewish during the holiday-themed episode.
*Cissy (voiced by C.J. Arabia): The tattletale. In field trip episodes, she often wears her girls' scout uniform, numbered "666".
*Yvonne (voiced by Cree Summer): The feminist whose lines are all about suffrage, oppression, or other social issues.
*Grace (voiced by Melissa Samuels): She is the figurative punching bag of the class. She mainly says "Cut it out!"
*Theodore (voiced by Peter Hastings): The indecisive one. Stutters every sentence, but always answers randomly and described by Gordon as the "nitwit".
*Rock (voiced by Rob Paulsen): The class nerd. He does never talk until late season 1, but only in object–subject–verb-style (Yoda speak). Rock is friends with Lance.
*Amanda (voiced by C.J. Arabia): She likes to sing or recite poetry. Most of her lines are sung.
*Phoebe (voiced by Melissa Samuels): Prone to random outbursts, stares the rest of the time. She gave her mother's cosmetics to school in several Season 2 episodes.
*George and George (voiced by Brett Baer): The troublemakers who are both named George and a lookalike. When people call them twins, they always say, "We're not twins!"
*Mahoot (voiced by Brett Baer): He always says "What" or stares blankly. In 'Good Will Mahoot', he explained an actual sentence, followed by "What" when a stunned Mrs. Munger asks him to repeat himself. In "Simmer Minute", the thoughts inside his head are radio interference noises.
===Class Pets===
*Gerald the Gerbil is the deceased class pet.
*Rupert is a turtle. on his first day of school, some of the students annoy him, and he retaliates by biting them.
===One-time students===
*Darryl: Mahoot's cousin, who appeared only once in one episode. He also says only "What?" (albeit in a low, croaky voice similar to that of Mr. Bean) and is apparently dumber and weirder than Mahoot. He has a crush on Phoebe.
*Farquhar: A foreign exchange student from Sri Lanka. Ironically, he speaks in a blatantly stereotypical American dialect. Only seen in one episode. He is the only one in his class not to resemble anyone in Mrs. Munger's, while everyone else does, including his own teacher resembling Mrs. Munger.
==Episodes==
===Season 1 (1997-1998)===
* Word Problem (09/13/1997)
* Origami (09/20/1997)
* Math, Sarcasm, and Paper (09/27/1997)
* The Curve (10/04/1997)
* En Espagnol (10/11/1997)
* Field Trip (10/18/1997)
* Halloween (10/25/1997)
* Permission Slips (11/01/1997)
* The Zoo (11/08/1997)
* Substitute Teacher (11/15/1997)
* Thanksgiving (11/22/1997)
* Rock's Song (11/29/1997)
* Oral Reports (12/06/1997)
* Spelling Bee (12/13/1997)
* Christmas (12/20/1997)
* Seeing Things (01/03/1998)
* The Pits (01/17/1998)
* Calisthenics (01/31/1998)
* President's Day (02/14/1998)
* Seating Chart (02/21/1998)
* Film Strip (02/28/1998)
* Mahoot's Cousin (03/07/1998)
===Season 2 (1998)===
* Chemical Reaction (09/05/1998)
* Wild Blue Yonder (09/12/1998)
* Exchange Student (09/19/1998)
* Career Day (09/26/1998)
* Creative Movement (09/26/1998)
* Art Museum (10/03/1998)
* Fire Drill (10/10/1998)
* Aquarium (10/17/1998)
* Bake Sale (10/24/1998)
* Class Computer (10/24/1998)
* Class Pet (10/31/1998)
* Make-Over (11/07/1998)
* Tallest Building (11/14/1998)
* Simmer Minute (11/21/1998)
* Gerald the Girbil (11/21/1998)
* Onomatopoeia (11/28/1998)
* Good Will Mahoot (12/05/1998)
* Girls' Room (12/12/1998)
* First Snow (12/19/1998)
==Centerville==
After Mrs. Munger's Class ended its run, Centerville aired, based upon the same student-photo premise. Unlike its predecessor, the characters in Centerville were not bound to the page of a yearbook and appeared in different settings. This skit, however, was short-lived.
===Characters===
====Adults====
*Murph: The lunch lady. She gets annoyed by students not moving, so she mainly says: "Move it along!"
*Brad (Voiced by Rob Paulsen): A high school student who works at Taco Freeze. In music, he is also the guitar player for his garage rock band. He will often say, "Alright, alright." When he's in his garage band, he says, "This band is gonna rock!"
*Mitch (Voiced by Rob Paulsen): The bus driver. He's always in a bad mood and mainly says, "In your seats!"
====Students====
*Boyd (Voiced by Tara Strong) - Boyd usually makes sarcastic remarks. In music, he's also the drummer of Brad's garage rock band.
*Doight- He always giving stuff he thinks are interesting, much to Boyd's annoyance. He mainly says "Pretty cool, huh?" after he shows his stuff to everyone.
*Fran- She always talks about feeling sick. In music, she also plays the clarinet in Brad's garage rock band.
*Lily- A student with a lisp. She also thinks bus rides are boring.
*Seth- A student who's annoying and rude. He annoys Brad and is rude to Sigourney; Boyd mentions that he was held back, likely because of this behavior. Mainly, he speaks in rhyme (E.G.: "You were late. Suffer the fate.").
*Sigourney- The valley girl. In music, she's also the singer of Brad's garage rock band. Her iconic catchphrase is "cha", which she inserts in each one of her statements.
Other students include:
*One student who answers every question with a insensible "I......" Possibly inspired by Mahoot in Mrs. Munger's Class.
*One student who likes to talk only about video games.
*One girl who's the compulsive liar of the group; she always brags about her father, making up tall tales about his many accomplishments, not telling the same story twice.
*One girl with a stereotypical Slavic accent seen riding in some of the bus segments.
===Episodes===
* Cafeteria 1 (09/04/1999)
* Cafeteria 2 (09/11/1999)
* Taco Freeze 1 (09/18/1999)
* The Bus 1 (09/25/1999)
* Lockers (09/25/1999)
* Cafeteria 3 (10/02/1999)
* The Bus 2 (10/09/1999)
* Taco Freeze 2 (10/16/1999)
* Buth Thtop (10/23/1999)
* The Bus 3 (10/23/1999)
* Taco Freeze 3 (10/30/1999)
* Urp (11/06/1999)
* Sick of Science (11/13/1999)
* Garage Band 1 (11/20/1999)
* Garage Band 2 (11/20/1999)
* Garage Band 3 (11/27/1999)
* Lost Rock (Garage Band 4) (12/04/1999)
* Election Bus (12/11/1999)
* Holiday Grub (12/18/1999)
==References==
Category:Short Series
Category:One Saturday Morning shows
Category:Educational films
Category:Articles with Wikipedia content