‘Recess’ Turns 25: See the Actors Behind the Voices
For a few years at the end of the 20th century, kids in America had Recess on a weekend! The animated comedy premiered in 1997 as part of Disney’s One Saturday Morning programming block on ABC, with viewers following the schoolyard misadventures of a lovable group of fourth graders.
But Recess was anything but elementary, combining complex characterization, capitalism critiques, and counterculture and Cold War callbacks. TV critic Matt Zoller Seitz called it “one of the smartest, most prankishly playful adult cartoons ever passed off as children’s entertainment.”
Now that we’ve known these characters for 25 years — and now that the show is streaming on Disney+ — let’s put faces to voices in the gallery below. Warning: These red carpet pics come from the 2001 premiere of the theatrical film Recess: School’s Out, so brace yourselves for some dated fashion!
Andrew Lawrence (T.J. Detweiler)
Andrew and his famous older brothers, Blossom alum Joey Lawrence and Boy Meets World actor Matthew Lawrence, costarred together in the WB sitcom Brotherly Love in 1995. And in this millennium, Andrew recurred as Eric Russo in the CBS procedural Hawaii Five-0.
Ashley Johnson (Gretchen Grundler)
As a child star, Johnson played Chrissy Seaver on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains. In her adult years, she played FBI agent Patterson on the NBC drama Blindspot and continued her voice-acting with parts in Cartoon Network’s Ben 10 franchise and in the Last of Us video game series.
Jason Davis (Mikey Blumberg)
Aside from his Recess role, Davis also recurred as teenager Dwight Jefferson in the WB drama 7th Heaven. From 2010 to 2011, he participated in the fourth season of the VH1 reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. Davis died from the effects of fentanyl in 2020 at age 35.
Rickey D’Shon Collins (Vince LaSalle)
During his childhood, Collins had guest-starring roles in the TV shows Roc, Empty Nest, Star Trek: Next Generation, and Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, among others. And in the 2000s, he took on another voice-acting gig, playing Tucker Foley in the Nickelodeon show Danny Phantom.
Pamela Adlon (Spinelli)
Adlon is the Emmy-nominated star and co-creator of the FX comedy Better Things and the Emmy-winning voice of Bobby Hill in the animated Fox sitcom King of the Hill. Her other TV work includes starring roles on the shows The Facts of Life, Lucky Louie, and Californication.
Courtland Mead (Gus Griswald)
Mead was another child star in the Recess cast, perhaps most famous for his role as Uh-Huh in the 1994 film The Little Rascals. In other voice-acting jobs, Mead voiced the title characters in the ABC shows Nightmare Ned and Lloyd in Space.
