Bad Hair Day is the twentieth episode of the second season of Recess, which was originally broadcast on January 16th, 1999.
Summary
Mikey is given a bad haircut after getting gum stuck in it, and Vince and T.J. lie and say it's a trendy new cut, leading every kid on the playground to want their hair styled the same way.
Plot
After Gretchen has to go out of town for an academic event and invites Spinelli to come along with her, Mikey attempts to blow the world's biggest bubblegum bubble. He's thwarted by Captain Sticky, and the bubblegum's promptly splattered all over his hair, worrying him that he'll get punished by his parents. T.J. offers to give Mikey a haircut, which Mikey agrees to. But when Mikey sees the results, he screams in horror at the worst haircut he's ever been given.
T.J., Vince and Gus then convince him that it's the official hairstyle of a famous rock band called Dog's Pajamas. Many other students hear of this through the Diggers, and more and more students line up to get "the Mikey" from T.J. and Vince---Gus acted as a rather obnoxious scheduling manager---including King Bob, who gives them a royal procession. Unfortunately, Spinelli and Gretchen come back and start making fun of the haircuts as soon as they see them.
The girls soon reveal the truth: the members of Dog's Pajamas don't have botched haircuts like Mikey does - on the contrary: they've got hair that trails all the way down to their butts. Gus manages to quickly escape, but the other two are chased away by an angry mob of their clientele. The girls ask Mikey if they should help T.J. and Vince upon which he says, "Sure... As soon as my hair grows back." The episode ends as the two of them run into the sunset chased by the other kids.
Trivia
- Gretchen got 1st place at the academic event that she and Spinelli went to.
- Elements of this episode reflect the classic, "The Emperor's New Clothes", most notably at the royal procession at the end.
- In this episode, King Bob's shown to have a third adviser, albeit unnamed. He doesn't appear after this episode as an adviser; only as a background character.
- Ashley A.'s messed up hair is similar to Angelica's doll, Cynthia, and her botched up hair from Rugrats, which was co-created by Recess co-creator Paul Germain, and had episodes written by co-creator Joe Ansolabehere.
- In this episode, T.J, Vince and Gus and Mikey loosely portray The Three Stooges, even though there are four of them, With T.J. as Moe, Vince as Larry, and Gus and Mikey as Curly, and the episode's plotline is simliar to the The Three Stooges' animated episode "Hair-Brained Barbers".
- This episode shares the same name as an episode of the DiC dub of Sailor Moon.
Goofs
- When Mikey says "Get out of what?", T.J.'s eyebrows dissapear for a second.
- When Dave is explaining about how their new haircuts resembles Dogs' Pajamas, half of Gretchen's bow turns light blue.
Cast
- T.J. Detweiler - Andrew Lawrence
- Vince LaSalle - Ricky D'Shon Colins
- Ashley Spinelli - Pamela Segal-Aldon
- Gretchen Grundler - Ashley Johnson
- Mikey Blumberg - Jason Davis
- Gus Griswald - Courtland Mead
- Randall Weemes/Dave/Morris P. Hingle - Ryan O'Donohue
- Sam/Gordy - Klee Bragger
- King Bob/Buster - Toran Caudel
- Captain Sticky/Bradley - E.G. Daily
- Ashley Armbruster - Anndi McAffee
- Ashley Boulet - Francesca Smith
- Ashley Quinland/Kid #1 - Rachel Crane
- Jerome/Jordan - Patrick Renna
- School Paper Reporter - Erik von Detton
- King Bob's Advisor - Justin Shenkarow