Mrs. Munger's Class
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Mrs. Munger's Class was a set of brief, 90-second skits that became infamous when it turned out to have been the unauthorized use of other people's photographs for entertainment. Directed by animator Tim Maloney, and produced by Disney for ABC's "One Saturday Morning" children's television programming, 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, and the camera would zoom and pan the yearbook page as part of the scripted conversation. The kids in the photos would often exchange silly dialogue and insults, while Mrs. Munger would tell them to "Simmer down! Simmer! simmer!" The skits ran for 15 months during the 1997-98 season, and during the fall of 1998, until it was realized that the "actors" had been students whose photos were used with neither their knowledge or permission.
Mrs. Munger turned out to be Mrs. Kathleen Foresman, who had been a teacher 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 and Corel on December 23, 1998. [1]. 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 [2]. The lawsuit was settled for undisclosed damages.
