Our Miss Brooks – Dress Code. ep38, 490424

"An apple sitting on a school teacher's desk"
Apple on Desk ca. 2001. "Used with permission from Microsoft."

After the Easter holiday, it can take some time to get use to the routine of going back to school. Connie talks about the special, crazy clothes days the student body enjoyed. She talks with Mrs Davis about Mr Conklin putting an end to the insane styles, and a problem she has with her desk.

Mrs Davis brings up the topic of her absent minded sister as she tries to relay a phone message. Since Walter can’t make it this morning, Stretch Snodgrass is to drive Connie to school. Before they make their drive, harriot stops in to talk about, and pick up the old black dress that Connie ended up wearing for Easter. Stretch arrives to butcher the English language as he talks about a hamburger eating contest.

In class, Stretch tries to tell what he knows about King Leer. Walter pops in right after class to tell about his latest stunt in protest over Conklins new dress code. While Harriot protests by wearing pants, Walter protests by wearing a dress. It’s Connie’s black and green outfit she gave to Harriot. Mr Conklins reactions are priceless as he reacts to the fashions, but Stretch makes a point that it doesn’t matter what is worn as long as they learn. Will it be enough to settle Conklin down?

Connie tries to clear her head in her classroom, and is visited by Boynton. She tells him about Conklins rampage on the dress code. Walter and Stretch stop in and along with Boynton, she is invited to lunch, but her monster of a desk rips her skirt. Stretch volunteers to take her dress to the Home Ec class for repairs and Connie puts on Harriots gym shorts as she waits. Conklin comes in to continue his complaining, and after announcing some important visitors, his day gets made worse when he notices Miss Brooks in gym shorts.

While in Miss Brooks room, Conklin got his pants dirty. He is forced to have Stretch take them to the Home Ec class for touch up. With everyone’s clothes in various stages of undress and disarray, it’s prime time for those important visitors to show up.

Mr Stone arrives, and the embarrassing situations explode as Connie talks their way out of it by claiming the whole thing is in preparations for a school theatrical production. As Conklin has Connie’s skirt on, and she is in his pants, He is forced to do a song and dance to prove the ficticious point.

PS: What a lot of cross dressing fun. Though it’s still a hillarious topic for tody, it was definitely pushing some radical boundaries back in 1949. Plus there’s that constant theme of Conklin trying to set, and enforce respectful standards, but falling under the wheels of his own machinery. I guess the lesson is that it pays to be a little more forgiving of others lest you are found guilty of the same thing.