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 silly 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 show was in black and white, but color
was used on occasion (on field trips or to show cosmetics).Directed by
animator Tim Maloney, and produced by Disney for the One Saturday
Morning children's programming block on ABC, the skits used Corel
computer software to manipulate photographs from a school yearbook.
With the aid of computer animation that superimposed facial
expressions, the photographs would appear to move their lips as the
characters spoke dialogue, creating an effect similar to the
Syncro-Vox cartoons of the 1960s. 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.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 taught 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. 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, an African-American, was
outraged not only at the use of his photo, but at the "Buckwheat"-like
speech pattern of the character. The lawsuit was settled for
undisclosed damages.In order from top left to bottom right:
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 silly 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 show was in black and white, but color
was used on occasion (on field trips or to show cosmetics).Directed by
animator Tim Maloney, and produced by Disney for the One Saturday
Morning children's programming block on ABC, the skits used Corel
computer software to manipulate photographs from a school yearbook.
With the aid of computer animation that superimposed facial
expressions, the photographs would appear to move their lips as the
characters spoke dialogue, creating an effect similar to the
Syncro-Vox cartoons of the 1960s. 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.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 taught 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. 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, an African-American, was
outraged not only at the use of his photo, but at the "Buckwheat"-like
speech pattern of the character. The lawsuit was settled for
undisclosed damages.In order from top left to bottom right:
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