The Box

Season	Episode Number
1	17 (9A)

Episode Information

Air Date

November 8^th, 1997 (ABC)

Written By

Jeff Wright

Directed By

Susie Dietter

Episode Guide
Previous Episode	Next Episode
"The Legend of Big Kid"	"The Trial"

"The Box" is the seventeenth episode of the first season of Recess, which was first broadcast on November 8^th, 1997.

Plot[]

Spoiler Warning: Plot twists, ending details, etc. are included in the plot. You have been warned.

Summary[]

T.J. is sent to Miss Finster's invention, the Box, and the results are unsettling.

Main Story[]

After the Recess Gang's latest scheme of getting ice cream ends with T.J. getting caught after losing his shoe, he is punished by facing the wall, though this does little to deter him as he laughs it off. Miss Finster confides in Randall that none of the students take her seriously, but she has concocted a plan to change all that. The next day, Miss Finster invents the box, a small chalk square drawn into the playground's blacktop. She informs all the students that if they do anything to provoke or break the rules of the playground, they will immediately get put in the box for ten minutes. Everyone laughs at it and continues playing.

Right away, T.J. is the first to test out the box. At first he tries to pass the time with menial tasks, but soon the solitude begins to settle on him and drives him insane. Miss Finster releases him and forces him to do various school chores to stay out of trouble, which he does so willingly. The event has caused him to become frightened of anything square or box shaped, much to Miss Finster's joy. Not knowing what to do, Gretchen suggests that they need to have T.J. face his fears by putting him back in the box again, based on what she has read about Sigmund Freud. They succeed in having him sent back to the box, though Gretchen admits that it might drive him further insane.

T.J. is put back in the box and nearly loses his mind once again. Suddenly, a ball hits him in the head and a young child asks if he can have it back. When T.J. fails to respond, the aggravated boy steps into the box to get it himself. T.J. is baffled by this until he puts his foot outside and comes to the conclusion that it is nothing more than just four lines in the ground. Miss Finster and Randall delightedly go to check on T.J., but are shocked to see that he is perfectly fine and goes to rejoin his friends. He tells them that he knows better now and returns to play. In the end, Miss Finster is left sobbing over her failed experiment while Randall backs away.

Goofs[]

Lip-syncing/animation error: When T.J. is going through madness and singing "This Old Man" while he is in the box, when he sings, "...on my shoe", his mouth is not moving the first time he sings it.
Animation/consistency error: When the gang is about to shoot spitballs at Finster, one of Spinelli's eyes appear to be moving at different directions.
Animation/continuity error: Miss Finster catches T.J. based on his missing shoe. However, for a split-second earlier in the episode, he is shown to still be wearing both.
Animation/continuity error: During one of T.J.'s imaginations, a close-up of T.J.'s eyes is shown. However, it shows that his eyebrows are thicker than usual. They are back to normal afterwards.

Trivia[]

Regular[]

Despite the box being used as punishment in this episode, the kids go back to being sent to the wall instead, probably due to not being a good punishment anymore. It does appear in 'League of Randalls", however.
The scene where T.J. is riding on the tether ball was taken from a piece of promotional artwork for the show.
Clips of this episode were used in a 2003 Toon Disney advertisement for Recess, included on the DVDs of Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down, and a 2001 Disney Channel UK advertisement, which was included on the UK copy of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Legend Begins.
This episode was adapted into chapter book form for the book One Saturday Morning: No Wimps Allowed! along with stories based on Pepper Ann, Disney's Doug, Tube Dwellers, Mrs. Munger's Class, and How Things Work in 1999.
In 2014, this episode was ranked #10 in The Mysterious Mr. Enter's Top 25 Most Disturbing Episodes of Kids' Cartoons.
In 2020, this episode was ranked #4 in MsMojo's Top 10 Darkest Disney Channel Episodes.

Production Information[]

In the original recording for the episode, T.J. was singing "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?", but it was changed because they could not get the rights to use the song. It was replaced with "This Old Man".^[1]
- "This Old Man" would later be sung by students in different variations during a school field trip in "Operation Field Trip".