Teacher's Pet, also known as Disney's Teacher's Pet, is an American animated television series produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.

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 ABC from 2000–2002, and finishing its run on Toon Disney in 2002. A stand-alone feature-length film adaptation was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on January 16, 2004, which serves as a finale to the television series.

Premise

The series follows Leonard Helperman, a 9-year-old boy in the 4th grade, who lives in fear because his mother, Mary Helperman, 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, misses Leonard while he is 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

Main cast

  • Spot Helperman/Scott Leadready II: (Nathan Lane; Kevin Schon in eight episodes) Leonard's dog. He dresses up as a boy 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.
  • Leonard Helperman: (Shaun Fleming) 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 enrolment of Spot has helped him become more confident to a decent degree, due to the former's immediate popularity.
  • Mary Lou Helperman: (Debra Jo Rupp) 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 be suspicious of Spot or tell that he and Scott are the same person.
  • Mr. Jolly: (David Ogden Stiers) 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 principal's cat but his fear of the outside world (and her evil nature) prevents any chance of romance.
  • Pretty Boy: (Jerry Stiller) Leonard's wisecracking green canary. 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

  • Principal Strickler: (Wallace Shawn) The strait-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: (Rob Paulsen) 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: (Mae Whitman) Leonard's best friend and crush. 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 they. 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) A Korean girl of the class who is Leslie's best friend. She is often mean to Leonard, but she still cares for him and as a matter of fact, she is secretly in love with him.
  • Chelsey and Kelsey: (Cree Summer) 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

Series overview

Season 1 (2000–01)

Note: The first season aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning. All episodes in this season were directed by Timothy Björklund.

Season 2 (2001–02)

Broadcast and streaming

The show aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning block beginning on September 9, 2000. The block would continue airing new episodes of the show until February 9, 2002 and reruns would last there until September 7, 2002, when the block was rebranded to ABC Kids the following week.

The show began airing on Toon Disney on January 7, 2002 with new episodes premiering on the channel starting January 11, 2002. Toon Disney would continue airing new episodes of it each Friday until reaching its finale on May 10, 2002. By August 2006, it was removed from Toon Disney altogether and has not aired on US television since then.

The entire series was made available on Disney+ on launch day, November 12, 2019, in its original format.

Awards

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

! Year

! Award

! Category

! Nominee

! Result

|-

| rowspan="5" |2001

| Daytime Emmy Award

| Outstanding Performer In An Animated Program

| Nathan Lane

|

|-

| British Academy Children's Awards

| International

| rowspan="2" | Teacher's Pet

|

|-

| rowspan="3" |Annie Award

| Outstanding Achievement in a Daytime Animated Television Production

|

|-

| Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Television Production

References

Notes

  • Teacher's Pet at Disney+