Teacher's Pet (TV series)
Encyclopedia : T : TE : TEA : Teacher's Pet (TV series)
Teacher's Pet is a Disney animated television series about a dog who lives like a little boy. Created by Gary Baseman and directed by Timothy Björklund. Broadcast on ABC and later Toon Disney, a feature film version was released in 2004. The show ran from 2000 to 2002, with a final episode that really doesn't seem like one. The movie seems to wrap up the series with its ending, though. The show was influenced by Gary Baseman's dog, Hubcaps. He would wonder what the dog would do while he was gone. He made this show in honor of him, with Spot portraying Hubcaps. Hubcaps died in 2002.
A similar animated short was shown on Nickelodeon's KaBlam!, called "Stewy the Dogboy." It has a similar premise, and it predates Teacher's Pet by at least 3 years. It was originally a pilot for a proposed new Nickelodeon animated series, but was turned down and was shown on KaBlam as a "special short."
Scheduling history
The first episode aired on ABC's "One Saturday Morning" on Saturday September 9, 2000, and remained on ABC until about late 2001, then the show began airing in Toon Disney, and they used that channel to air new episodes every Friday. While still airing ABC, it was eventually cancelled off of ABC on September 24, 2002 due to a new Saturday morning block called "ABC Kids." As of 2006, it vanished off of Toon Disney as well and is nowhere to be found.Characters
- Spot Helperman/Scott Leadready II: The main character. He is a very smart dog who had an ambition to go to school, and one morning he finally did. His guise is a beanie, glasses, a shirt and pants. He is the star of the classroom, and a bit of a show-off (in a good-natured sense).He is voiced by Nathan Lane
- Leonard Helperman: Spot's master. He's picked on at school and isn't very popular, but a good kid nonetheless. He wishes Spot would stop this whole masquerade and return home to be his dog. Shaun Fleming lends Lenny's voice
- Mary Lou Helperman: Leonard's mother, and the teacher of his fourth grade class. She is a nice, lovable person who likes to inject humor into the fourth grade class. Leonard is somewhat embarrassed about his mom being the teacher and Mrs. Helperman sometimes likes to embarrass him although by the end of the year, she's trying to quit (as evidenced in an early scene of the movie). Her voice is provied by Debra Jo Rupp
- Mr. Jolly: The Family cat. He is an overweight fraidy cat. He fears the outside world and takes comfort in simply watching his soaps and eating his crunchies. Mr. Jolly has a major crush on Tallulah Strickler (see below), but his fear of the outside world (and her prissy demeanor) prevents that romance from going anywhere. He is voiced by David Ogden Stiers
- Pretty Boy: The mean hearted, cold bird of the family. He mercilessly teases Mr. Jolly about, among other things, his fear of the outside world. Pretty Boy also likes the soaps and that forms the basis of his relationship with Mr. Jolly. He is voiced by the incomparable Jerry Stiller
- Principal Strickler: The archetypal mean-spirited and yet incompetent principal. He despises dogs due to an incident he had with one in fourth grade, and his cat, Tallulah, is more than suspicious that Scott is a dog, always hissing and scratching whenever he's near.He is voiced by Wallace Shawn
- Leslie Dunkling: Leonard's crush. She tolerates Leonard, but is more interested in Spot/Scott most of the time.
- Ian Wazelewski: The class weirdo. Likes to do gross things, usually involving his pet snake or bodily fluids. His earwax sculptures (that's what I said) are legendary. Usually called "Eeewan". Keeps a fake corpse in his closet. Voiced by Rob Paulsen
Other characters
Tyler Taylor and Trevor: The of the coolest kids in school. Leonard wishes he was as cool them. They usually participate in typical slacker activities like skateboarding. Sometimes pick on Leonard, but usually he flies under their radar.Younghee: Another girl of the class; from Korea. She usually picks on Leonard or is mean to him, but in some instances, she cares, and even loves him secretly.
Chelsey and Kelsey: Twins of the class. They're usually stuck up and think they're more important than the rest but they always argue with each other.
Moltar: Ian's invsibile friend. Usually Ian likes to do the weird stuff he does with him.
Main plot
It's Leonard's fourth grade year. His mother is the teacher of his fourth grade class, and he's already embarrassed. Spot, his dog, is sick and tired of staying home all the time, so he decides to dress up and go to school. When he arrives, he acquires his new name (from a pencil and a change of his name Spot) and makes friend immediately. He shows great intelligence and sports skill. Leonard is suspicious. In the bathroom of school, Leonard confronts "Scott" and finally learns that it is his dog, and that he can talk, along with the other pets. Leonard is shocked and doesn't want Scott to stay at school. Scott doesn't listen to him, claiming that education is his destiny. Leonard allows Scott to stay at school, but can only wish that he would just go back home. The series usually focuses on adventures at school, but with subplots of the other two household pets (Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly) having their own adventures.External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.