Teacher's Pet (TV series)

Teacher's Pet
Genre	Children's television series, Adventure, Comedy
Format	Animation series
Created by	Gary Baseman Bill Steinkellner Cheri Steinkellner
Written by	Gary Baseman Bill Steinkellner Cheri Steinkellner Ford Riley Laura McCreary Michael Price
Directed by	Timothy Bjorklund
Voices of	Nathan Lane Shaun Fleming Debra Jo Rupp Wallace Shawn Jerry Stiller David Ogden Stiers
Composer(s)	Stephen James Taylor
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	39 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Gary Baseman Bill Steinkellner Cheri Steinkellner Jess Winfield
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Production company(s)	Walt Disney Television Disney Television Animation
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC (2000-2002) Toon Disney (2002)
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV) 1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
First shown in	United States
Original run	September 9, 2000 (2000-09-09) – May 10, 2002 (2002-05-10)

Teacher's Pet (also known as Disney's Teacher's Pet) is an American Disney animated television series about a dog who lives like a little boy.^[1] Created by Gary Baseman, Bill Steinkellner and Cheri Steinkellner and directed by Timothy Björklund, it was broadcast on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC and later Toon Disney. A feature film version was released in 2004 (with most of the cast from the show reprising their roles). The show ran from 2000 to 2002. 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.

Main plot

It is Leonard Helperman's fourth grade year. His mother Mary Lou is the teacher of his fourth grade class, and he is 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 friends 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 does not want Scott to stay at school. Scott does not 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.

Characters

• Spot Helperman/Scott Leadready II: (Nathan Lane, Kevin Schon) The title character. He is a very intelligent dog who had an ambition to go to school, and one morning he finally did. His disguise 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).
• Leonard Helperman: (Shaun Fleming) Spot's owner. He is picked on at school because his mother is the teacher, and is not very popular, but a good kid nonetheless. He wishes Spot would stop this whole masquerade and return home to be his dog before anyone else finds out about Spot's charade.
• Mary Lou Helperman: (Debra Jo Rupp) 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 is trying to quit (as evidenced in an early scene of the movie).
• Mr. Jolly: (David Ogden Stiers) The family cat. He is overweight and cowardly. He fears the outside world and takes comfort in simply watching his soap operas and eating. 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.
• Pretty Boy: (Jerry Stiller) The mean-spirited 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.
• Principal Crosby Strickler: (Wallace Shawn) The archetypal mean-spirited and yet incompetent school 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 is near.
• Leslie Dunkling: (Mae Whitman) Leonard's crush. She tolerates Leonard but is more interested in Spot/Scott most of the time.
• Ian Wazselewski: (Rob Paulsen) The class weirdo. Likes to do gross things, usually involving his pet snake or bodily fluids. His earwax sculptures are legendary. Usually called "Eeewan". Keeps a fake corpse in his closet.

Supporting characters

• Tyler, Taylor, and Trevor: (Pamela Adlon) Three of the coolest kids in school. Leonard wishes he was as cool as them. They usually participate in typical slacker activities like skateboarding. Sometimes pick on Leonard, but usually he flies under their radar.
• Younghee: (Lauren Tom) Another girl of the class that is 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 are usually stuck-up and think they are more important than everyone else, but they always bicker with each other. Leonard tries to get their attention, but usually fails.
• Moltar: Ian's invisible friend. Usually Ian likes to do the weird stuff he does with him.

Scheduling history

The first episode aired on ABC's "One Saturday Morning" on Saturday, September 9, 2000, and remained on ABC until 2002. In January 2002, the show also began airing in Toon Disney, and they used that channel to air new episodes every Friday. While still airing on ABC, it was eventually removed from ABC on September 7, 2002 due to a new Saturday morning block called "ABC Kids." As of 2006, it vanished from Toon Disney as well and is nowhere to be found. In Australia, it aired on Disney Channel from 2002 to 2005 where it was pushed back to the mornings and late night spots on Disney Channel. The show's spot was then replaced in 2006 by 101 Dalmatians and finally Recess which currently is the only One Saturday Morning cartoon now airing on Disney Australia. Recess airs on Family Channel in Canada.

Worldwide release

Country	Network
United States	Toon Disney
	ABC
	Disney Channel
Australia	Disney Channel Australia
United Kingdom & Ireland	Toon Disney (UK & Ireland) Disney Cinemagic
Netherlands	Jetix
Mexico	Disney Channel (Latin America)
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Hong Kong	Disney Channel
New Zealand	TV2

Episodes

Main article: List of Teacher's Pet episodes

Season	Network	Episodes	First airdate	Last airdate
1	ABC	13	September 9, 2000	January 13, 2001
2	ABC, Toon Disney	26	September 22, 2001	May 10, 2002

Awards

• Won Emmy: Best Daytime Animated Series 2000 and 2001
• Won Emmy: Daytime Emmy Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program:Nathan Lane 2001
• British Emmy (BAFTA): Best International Children's Programming.
• Baseman also won Outstanding Individual Achievement Emmy for Production Design on this animated series.

Feature Film

In 2004, Walt Disney Pictures produced a full-length animated feature film of the show in theaters. It was simply titled "Teacher's Pet". It featured Spot, Leonard, Mr. Jolly, and Pretty Boy going to Florida to visit a mad scientist named Dr. Ivan Krank who they hope may be able to use his scientific abilities to turn Spot into a real boy.

References

1. ^ "A New Neighborhood for Animated Series". LA Times. September 9, 2000. http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/09/entertainment/ca-18334. Retrieved 2010-09-03. 

External links

• Teacher's Pet at the Internet Movie Database
• Teacher's Pet at TV.com