Teacher's Pet

***Teacher's Pet*** (also known as ***Disney's Teacher's Pet***) is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and directed by Timothy Björklund.

The series follows a 9-year-old boy and his dog who dresses up as a boy. Created by Gary Baseman—the artistic designer for the Cranium board game—Bill Steinkellner, and Cheri Steinkellner, it was broadcast on Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC and later Toon Disney, from 2000 to 2002.

## Contents

* 1Premise
* 2Characters
	+ 2.1Main Cast
	+ 2.2Recurring
* 3Episodes
* 4Broadcast/Availability
* 5Awards
* 6Film
* 7References
* 8Notes
* 9External links

## Premise[edit]

The series follows Leonard Helperman (voiced by Shaun Fleming), a 9-year-old boy in the 4th grade, who lives in fear because his mother, Mary Helperman (Debra Jo Rupp), is his teacher. Because of this, he is often mocked and called a "teacher's pet", but he wants to be considered normal. Meanwhile, his dog Spot (voiced by Nathan Lane and later on for a few episodes by Nathan's voice understudy, Kevin Schon) misses Leonard while he's at school, and yearns to be a human boy. So on the first day of the school year, he decides to come to class disguised as a new student named Scott Leadready II, who quickly becomes the most popular, influential kid in school. However, Leonard eventually finds out his secret. Although he disapproves of this at first, he allows Spot to continue attending school.

## Characters[edit]

### Main Cast[edit]

* **Leonard Helperman** – Spot's master and best friend. He's somewhat unpopular because his mom's the teacher, since the kids think it gives him an unfair advantage. But the sudden enrollment of Spot has helped become more confident this to a decent degree, due to the former's immediate popularity.
* **Spot Helperman:** – Leonard's dog. He dresses up as a boy named Scott Leadready II and attends Leonard's school. He's the most popular and doesn't want anyone to know he's really a dog. Usually at the end of the show, he will compare the episode’s moral or lesson to a historical event.
* **Mary Lou Helperman:** Leonard's mother. She is the perky and eccentric teacher of Leonard's class and embarrasses him. Just like all the other humans, she is too ignorant to suspicious of Spot or tell that he and Scott are the same person.
* **Mr. Jolly:** Leonard's neurotic orange cat. He is afraid of the outside world and stays at home with the family's parrot. He's in love with the principals cat but his fear of the outside world (and her evil nature) prevents any chance of romance.
* **Pretty Boy:** Leonard's wisecracking green parrot. He calls Spot "Dog Breath". He's an honest guy and loyal friend but can be mean, rude and grumpy to everyone. He sometimes bullies Jolly because he’s scared of everything.

### Recurring[edit]

* **Principal Strickler** – The straight laced principal at Leonard and Spot's school. He owns a cat named Talullah. He hates dogs because one nipped off half his thumb.
* **Ian Wazselewski:** The class weirdo. His mom is the school nurse, so he thinks he has a special connection with Leonard. He's a guy with a chronic upper-respiratory infection...a guy who keeps his scab collection in his desk. Everyone calls him "Eww-an".
* **Leslie Dunkling:** Leonard's other best friend and love interest. She is very nice and lives next door to the Helpermans.
* **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. They sometimes pick on Leonard, but usually they are more socially tolerant of him thanks to Spot being his best friend.
* **Younghee Mandlebom:** (Lauren Tom) Another girl of the class that is from Korea who is Leslie's best friend. She is often mean to Leonard, but mostly, she cares for him, as a matter of fact, she secretly is in love him.
* **Chelsey and Kelsey** – Twins of the class who are friends with Leslie. 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.

## Episodes[edit]

Main article: List of Teacher's Pet episodes

 18

## Broadcast/Availability[edit]

The show aired on ABC's "One Saturday Morning" beginning on September 9, 2000, and remained on the block until September 7, 2002. In January 2002, the show began airing reruns on Toon Disney; the remaining Season Two episodes began airing on Toon Disney on January 11, 2002 (Although new episodes were aired on ABC until February 9). As of 2006, it vanished from Toon Disney altogether and hasn't been put into reruns in America since then. The show, alongside with the film, was made available on Disney+ on launch day.

## Film[edit]

Main article: Teacher's Pet (2004 film)

On January 16, 2004, Walt Disney Pictures produced a full-length animated feature film based on the show in theaters, simply titled *Teacher's Pet*. Originally planned to be released in September 2003, it serves as the series finale.

When Spot sees a mad scientist on TV who can turn animals into humans, he sees this as a chance to become an actual boy. However, when Spot becomes human, he soon realizes the experience isn't what he thought after all. Most of the actors from the series reprised their roles for the movie. Despite mostly positive reviews from critics, the movie was a box office failure, only making over half of its budget back.

## References[edit]

1. **^**