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6[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_teacherspet.png]]
7[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TagLine True blue.]]'']]
8
9''Teacher's Pet'' was a Disney animated television series that ran from 2000 to 2002 and concluded in 2004 with [[TheMovie a theatrical movie]]. Best remembered for Creator/NathanLane's voice in the starring role and the distinct animation design by famed illustrator [[http://www.garybaseman.com/ Gary Baseman]] of ''TabletopGame/{{Cranium}}'' fame.
10
11The story follows a nine year old boy named Leonard Helperman and his pet dog Spot. Spot is so interested in Leonard's life as a human that one day he follows him to school, puts on human clothes, and joins his class under the name Scott Leadready II. His disguise amazingly fools everybody, but Leonard eventually discovers the truth. While initially shocked by this, he reluctantly allows Scott to continue the charade. Scott comes up with amazing plans that sometimes inadvertently get Leonard in trouble for it. Other characters include Mrs. Helperman (who is not only Leonard's mother, but his teacher as well), Mr. Jolly (the Helpermans' sensitive cat), Pretty Boy (the Helpermans' abrasive bird), and Leonard's various classmates such as Leslie (his best friend and crush), Ian (the class weirdo) and Younghee (Leonard’s nemesis).
12
13In {{the movie}}, when Spot finds out that a mad scientist can turn animals into human beings, he sees this as a chance to become a real boy. Joined by Leonard, Mr. Jolly, and Pretty Boy, they are off to see him. Spot becomes a man (his age in dog years), but it's not what he thought after all.
14----
15!!This show and film provides examples of:
16* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: "The Flipper" has Leonard became champion of a game that involves flipping baseball cards and letting his fame go to his head.
17* AdorablyPrecociousChild: Spot gives vibes of being an unusually smart and mature child at times in this Scott persona, given that he brings up subjects that are atypical for a fourth grader to be well-informed about.
18* AffectionateParody: The movie is from Disney (albeit not part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon due to being produced by Creator/DisneyTelevisionAnimation), and wastes no time in parodying the studio's most beloved early works.
19* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: For example, Leonard is literally white, Ian is yellow, and the Principal is green
20* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Spot is a blue dog, Tallulah is a pink cat, etc.
21* AnimalGoesToSchool: The premise of the series.
22* AnimationBump: In the Creator/ToonCity episodes. TheMovie, also animated by Toon City, has even better animation than the show.
23* AnthropomorphicZigZag: Spot's entire schtick. He would act like a dog at home, but would dress like a kid and go to school like a human.
24* {{Antidisestablishmentarianism}}: "To Bee or Not to Bee" begins with Ian being asked to spell this word and failing spectacularly.
25* ArtEvolution: The artwork became sharper and the colors became more vibrant mid-season one.
26* ArtisticLicenseAnimalCare: In episode one, Leonard feeds Scott a grape as an example of 'some things only humans can do' (with the gag being that Scott can't chew it properly because it's small and round). In real life, grapes and raisins contain a substance that can cause acute kidney failure in dogs, though the exact cause is not well understood.
27** In "Never Take Candy From A Kindergartener." Spot while in his Scott disguise gorges himself on a ton of candy. While the worst thing it does is give him a massive swollen belly, in real life he would most likely be dead from eating that much candy.
28* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Pretty Boy is a bird with a belly button. Birds don't have belly buttons, they're not mammals and hatch from eggs.
29* AwardBaitSong: "A Boy Needs a Dog" from TheMovie is a grand-scale, emotionally-driven song about how important the bond between boy and dog is.
30* BalloonBelly:
31** "Movin' On Pup' shows Leslie with a huge stomach from her parents forcing her to prepare for the test by consuming a nutrition shake and a granola bar.
32** Both Leonard and Spot get big bellies from eating the candy Emma gives them in "Never Take Candy From a Kindergartener"
33** "Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Green" has Spot/Scott get a big belly from drinking at the water fountain.
34** At the end of "To Bee or Not to Bee", Spot gets a big belly after an off-screen pizza-eating contest.
35* BaseballEpisode: "Take Me Out of the Ball Game" has Scott trying to get Leonard to be a good baseball player after Scott has been barred from participating after letting it slip that he's only been a student for eight months.
36* BerserkButton: Leonard really hates being called "tubby" and goes psycho when he's called that and attacks the person who called him that.
37** Do NOT call Ivan Krank "Daddy." Don't call him a "Wacko" either.
38* BewareTheNiceOnes: Mary Lou may act all sweet most of the time, but even she has limits to how nice she can be. Sometimes she'll shift into a StepfordSmiler before she finally has enough, though she doesn't necessarily go berserk.
39* BigDamnMovie: The movie is way more dramatic than the series, with the plot involving Spot turning to a mad scientist named Dr. Ivan Krank to fulfill his dreams of being made human and the strain his obsession puts on his relationship with his owner Leonard.
40* BigNo:
41** Leonard reacts this way when he finds out Scott is actually his dog in the first episode.
42** Mrs. Helperman screams "No" in the episode "The Blight Before Christmas" in response to seeing that the delivery truck that was her last chance to get her son Leonard the Mach III Game Command system he wanted has been completely emptied of its contents by the other people who rushed over to get their own systems.
43* BirthdayEpisode:
44** "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie" has Spot and Leonard invited to Ian's birthday sleepover.
45** "Party Animals" has Spot wanting to throw a surprise party for Leonard's 10th birthday.
46** "All About Eavesdropping" has Scott and Leonard put on a magic act for Leslie's birthday and deals with the two attempting to eavesdrop on her and the other girls to learn what would get them to like the boys more.
47* BodyWipe: The technique of part of a character's body obscuring the camera as a scene transition happens twice in the movie with Jolly and Pretty Boy's petsitter, Mrs. Boogin.
48* BookEnds: The movie opens with Spot watching ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' when the Blue Fairy suddenly starts hitting his head after wishing she could make him a real boy. She then states, "I ain't no fairy!" and it's revealed Spot just had a dream and Pretty Boy was trying to wake him up. In the ending, Spot wakes up to who he thinks is the Blue Fairy, only for Pretty Boy to say he told him he ain't no fairy.
49* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: In "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie", Leonard worries on whether Ian's parents will serve cookies with onions, raisins or onions and raisins.
50* TheBurlesqueOfVenus:
51** The title sequence shows a brief scene of Spot in his Scott disguise posing in a clam shell like Creator/SandroBotticelli's ''Art/{{The Birth of Venus|Botticelli}}''.
52** At the end of "A Dog for All Seasons", the musical number "Season of Love" shows Spot posing like Venus in an opening clam shell. Unlike the pose that appears in the title sequence, Spot is undisguised and does so as a dog.
53* ButtMonkey: Leonard is often, but not always, subjected to misfortune.
54* ButterFace: During the song "A Whole Bunch of World" in the movie, a hula girl is seen dancing with her arm in front of her face (except her eyes). Then she takes her arm away from her face to reveal her face is crooked and ugly.
55* CampStraight: Mr. Jolly is a flamboyant and effeminate cat, but has shown attraction to female cats, such as Principal Strickler's cat Tallulah and Ms. Regina Blubberina Fancypaws in the episode "Bad Fur Day".
56* CaptivityHarmonica: "Escaping Dog Trick" at one point has Spot playing a harmonica while depressed that the electric fence installed is preventing him from leaving the house.
57* CatsAreMean: Mr. Jolly completely averts this by being the most selfless and amiable of the cast besides Spot and Leonard, but Strickler’s cat Tallulah plays this as straight as possible, especially being shown to be malicious in the two episodes that give her a speaking role.
58* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The nickel that Scott receives in exchange for Krank's use of him as a test subject in the movie.]]
59* ChristmasEpisode:
60** "A Dog for All Seasons" has Mrs. Helperman try to write a new school play that is more inclusive towards the holidays of other cultures while Spot searches for holiday traditions that are exclusive to dogs.
61** "The Blight Before Christmas" has Spot annoyed that he doesn't get any boy toys for Christmas, so he schemes to find a lost dog in order to get the promised $500 cash reward.
62* CloseOnTitle: TheMovie ends with showing the title ''Teacher's Pet'' at the end credits.
63* CompanyCrossReferences: TheMovie is chock-full of references to other Disney films, right off the bat with using "When You Wish Upon a Star" and opening with a recreation of a scene from ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}''.
64* CoveredInKisses: In "The Turkey That Came To Dinner", Grandma Rose smothers Leonard with lipstick kisses, much to Leonard's discomfort.
65* CrackDefeat: In the first episode, both Leonard and Scott lose the class election to Ian, the gross kid.
66* DarkerAndEdgier: The movie crosses into this territory at times. It's not as dark and edgy as other examples, but it can be at times grimmer in tone compared to the TV series, mainly due to the film actually having an antagonist in a deranged scientist obsessed with turning animals into humans named Dr. Ivan Krank and Spot's obsession with becoming human straining his relationship with Leonard.
67* DarkHorseVictory: During the election for class president, Ian, the weird kid that everyone is openly disgusted by, wins, surprising the other two candidates, Leonard and Scott.
68* DeadpanSnarker: Spot/Scott, and Pretty Boy (who is not as much as the former)
69* DemotedToExtra: With the exception of Ian Wazselewski, all of Spot/Scott and Leonard's classmates have significantly reduced roles in the movie, to the point that they each only have one or two lines of dialogue and disappear from the plot after the school year ends.
70* DerangedAnimation: The animation can get pretty trippy and weird at times.
71* DisappearedDad: Leonard's dad. His disappearance is never brought up in the series, leaving fans to question if he died or got divorced from Leonard's mom before the events of the series.
72* DiscoSucks: Near the end of "Costume Pity Party", Dutch Calenza reveals that the reason he picks on kids who dress up on Halloween was because he was once picked on for dressing as his favorite disco star. In response to learning this, Spot remarks that Dutch must've been held back for a long time in reference to disco falling out of fashion.
73* DisneyAcidSequence: Several, but one particular one in the movie stands out thanks to the LampshadeHanging that immediately follows it.
74--> ''(song ends, Leonard and Mrs. Helperman are stripped down to their undergarments and left standing in the middle of a parking lot)''
75-->'''Mrs. Helperman:''' Well, that was strange.
76* DisneyDeath: Spot goes through a fakeout death in the movie when his attempt to use Dr. Krank's invention to turn back into a dog instead reduces him to a pile of blue ashes. In a fit of grief, Leonard hits the machine, which causes it to zap Spot's remains and instantly resurrect him.
77* DubNameChange: In the Swedish dub, Spot's name is changed to "Pax" (While his aliases, "Scott", becomes "Max"), and Jolly's name is changed to "Figaro".
78* EatTheCamera: At the end of the opening song of TheMovie, "I Gotta Be a Boy," Spot/Scott runs towards the camera and does this.
79* EmbarrassingOldPhoto: In "Being Mrs. Leadready", Leonard mentions once that his mom showed his naked baby pictures to the class.
80* EmbarrassingRelativeTeacher: Leonard has his mother as one of his teachers, which of course causes him no end of embarrassment.
81* EndingFatigue: Parodied/Lampshaded InUniverse in one of the closing songs in the movie.
82--> ''A friend needs a friend...'' (With the characters walking in the rain under an umbrella)\
83''A road needs a bend...'' (With a car driving down a bendy road)\
84''A film needs an end!'' (With the characters sitting over animation tables, ready to pass out.)
85* EndOfAnEra: This was the last One Saturday Morning show to end and the last to get a feature film.
86* ExtremeOmnivore: Ian will eat just about anything, the first episode alone having him eat chalk.
87* EyePop: Frequently, characters react to something by having their eyes bug out.
88* FailedAttemptAtScaring: In "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie", when the "sleepover" segment of the birthday party/sleepover starts, Ian starts trying to get a scare out of Leonard and Spot. However, his attempts (dressing up like a jungle native and dancing around, and describing things in a spooky voice) don't yield the desired results.
89* FinaleMovie: The movie serves as a conclusion to the series and has Spot consult a MadScientist to fulfill his desire to become a boy, although the series was originally going to end on a less final note with [[spoiler:Spot giving up trying to literally transform into a human, but still maintaining his "Scott" identity. The finished movie gives no indication that he'll do anything other than be a regular dog]].
90* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself: In "Costume Pity Party", Spot's intended costume of Ferdinand Magellan [[AllClothUnravels unravels after getting stuck on a thorn bush]], resulting in him resorting to pretending that he's wearing a dog costume.
91* FunWithAcronyms:
92** The episode "Movin' On Pup" features a test known as the '''N'''ational '''A'''ptitude '''S'''cholastic '''T'''est '''Y'''early.
93** The Movie has ''two'' different things with the same acronym N.E.A.T.O. The first is when Principal Strickler announces that Ms. Helperman has won the NEATO (National Excellent American Teacher's Organization) award, that sets off the plot of the movie. Dr. Ivan Krank's animal transformation machine has the ''very same acronym'', but it stands for ''something else entirely''.
94-->'''Dr. Ivan Krank''': Let the Neuro Exchange Animal Transformation Operation, or NEATO for short--[[LampshadeHanging not to be confused with that stupid teacher award]]--begin!
95* FullNameUltimatum: Mary-Lou calls her son Leonard by full name, usually when the latter disobeys her. (Leonard's EmbarrassingMiddleName is Amadeus).
96* GenderBlenderName:
97** Fred Bitters, the new girl and [[TheBully bully]] introduced in "Attack of the 50 Inch Girl". [[LampshadedTrope Scott lampshades this]] after she clarifies that her name is just Fred and not short for Frederica, saying that it's "a ''very'' unusual name for a girl".
98** The school's cafeteria lady is named Clancy.
99* GilliganCut: In "Being Mrs. Leadready", Leonard profusely refuses to attend his school while disguised as Scott Leadready II's mother, then is shown in the next shot doing exactly that. Shortly afterwards, he runs into his dog Spot wearing the same disguise, who apparently assumed that Leonard was sincere about his refusal to pretend to be Scott's mom.
100* GlamorousSingleMother: Subverted with Mary Lou--the single mom aspect isn't really touched upon.
101* GoodAngelBadAngel:
102** "Never Take Candy from a Kindergartner" shows Leonard and Spot to have shoulder angels and devils. Leonard's argue over whether he should stick by with Spot or betray him by accepting Emma's offer of candy while Spot's angel and devil argue on whether he should share the jawcracker candy like he promised or crunch it. Pretty Boy is later shown to have two shoulder devils. When asked why he doesn't have an angel, one of the devils tells Pretty Boy that his angel quit because of Pretty Boy being too big a pain.
103** "Don't Make My Brown Eyes Green" features a variant where instead of an angel and a devil, the two sides are a strong version of the character and a weak version of the character. Leonardo's strength and weakness argue over whether he should take the credit for coming up with the game Fetch-It Ball, while Spot's strength and weakness argue over whether Spot should take offense for Leonard stealing credit for creating the game or live and let live. Subsequently, Leonard is faced over whether he should continue lying about making up the game himself or to reveal that the game was actually Spot's idea, with Spot's strength encouraging Spot to let Leonard have the popularity he obtained from his peers by claiming Fetch-It Ball was his idea entirely.
104* GreenEyedMonster: Leonard becomes this in the first episode where Scott is the most popular and coolest kid in school.
105** Also in "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Green", Scott becomes jealous when Leonard deserves a credit from his classmates, including Leslie, for his so-called game "Fetch-It Ball".
106* GroinAttack: In the first episode, "Muttamorphosis", Scott collides groin-first into a fire hydrant on his way to school for the first time.
107* GrossOutShow: Most of the gross-out comes from Ian Wazselewski, given his fondness for earwax, boogers and the like.
108* GuessWhoImMarrying: In the movie, Spot's plan to stay with Leonard as a human man is to marry Mary Lou. Leonard is not happy with this idea.
109* HalloweenEpisode:
110** "Costume Pity Party" takes place on Halloween and has a costume party at school where Spot ends up passing himself off as [[ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself Scott Leadready II in a dog costume]].
111** "The Tale of the Tell-Tale Taffy" has Leonard tempted by Spot into disobeying his mom's orders on where to trick-or-treat while Mr. Jolly worries about a black cat named Spooky staying at the house possibly being a vampire.
112* HandOrObjectUnderwear: Happens twice in the movie. The song "I'm Movin' On" ends with Leonard and [[LingerieScene his mom]] standing out in the open and covering themselves while in their underwear because of their clothes somehow leaving with the rest of the ensemble participating in the song, while "Proud to be a Dog" has Spot cover his groin and blush to the lyric "With his pants not on".
113* HarmfulToPetsReminder: In the movie, Spot the dog becomes human and celebrates the fact that he can finally eat chocolate.
114* HehHehYouSaidX: In "Inspector Leadready II", Ian laughs at Spot saying "touche" because it sounds like "tushy" and later laughs again when he actually says "tushy".
115* HeldBackInSchool: Dutch Calenza in "Costume Pity Party" is implied to be an adult who's been held back for years, given his immense size and how he reveals at the end of the episode that he was picked on in the past for dressing as a disco dancer.
116* HeterosexualLifePartners: Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly are both male and close friends.
117* IJustWantToBeNormal: Leonard frequently bemoans his inability to be a normal kid due to the standards he has to meet being his teacher's son and having a dog who disguises himself as a human in order to attend his class.
118* InsaneTrollLogic: In "Attack of the 50-Inch Girl", Leonard, Scott and the other boys want to enter the girls' room to figure out what Fred Bitters and the other girls were laughing about. After Scott asks a girl exiting the girl's bathroom if there are any other girls in there and if there are any baths there, the girl replies no to both questions. Scott then comes to the conclusion that this makes the girls' bathroom just a plain old room and therefore okay for the boys to enter.
119* IntellectualAnimal: Scott/Spot obviously, the talking dog who is able to disguise himself as a human and quickly rise to the top of the class both socially and academically.
120* IWantMyMommy: In "Being Mrs. Leadready", Spot wails that he wants his mommy after he gets overwhelmed from having to alternate between his Scott Leadready II persona and pretending to be Scott's mother.
121* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Pretty Boy is grumpy and sarcastic, but does care about Spot, Leonard and Mr. Jolly and does what he can to help them.
122* KickMePrank: In "Inspector Leadready II", Principal Strickler comments that he's not easily made a fool of, [[ImmediateSelfContradiction then turns around to reveal someone put a Kick Me sign on his back]].
123* LamarckWasRight: The episode, "Don't Count Your Chickies Before They Hatch" has Leonard and Scott looking after some chicken eggs. When they have to leave, Mr. Jolly decides to warm the eggs like a hen. At the end of the episode, the eggs hatch, and while most of the chicks chirp like normal chicks, one of them meows.
124* LargeHam: Spot/Scott and Mr. Jolly both have a tendency to chew the scenery and talk in a grandiose manner.
125* LastDayOfSchoolPlot: The film's plot starts with the final day of school at Fala D. Roosevelt Elementary before summer vacation begins.
126* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: "Pet Project" (the second episode) opens with Leonard saying he had a horrible dream about Scott disguising himself as a boy to go to school and being better than him at everything. Scott tells him ThatWasNotADream and that it was instead last week.
127* LineOfSightAlias: Scott sees a Leadready Number Two Pencil to create his last name.
128* LiteralMetaphor: In "Costume Pity Party", Leonard states that Dutch Calenza is in a class of his own, which he later clarifies means that there are no other students in Dutch's class.
129* LovableAlphaBitch: Leslie's best friend, Younghee Mandlebom. She's usually mean to Leonard but, but even at her meanest, she never does any bodily harm to Leonard and is shown to actually care for him on numerous occasions.
130* LovableCoward: Mr. Jolly is timid as all get out, but also quite friendly and likeable.
131* MailmanVsDog: "Always Knock the Postman Twice" is devoted to the concept of dogs hating postal workers and Spot having to get over his prejudice and understand that members of the postal service are not bad.
132* MaliciousMisnaming: The other kids tend to refer to Ian as "Ew-an" because of their disgust with how gross he can get.
133* MassiveMultiplayerEnsembleNumber: "I'm Moving On" from the movie has Leonard, Mrs. Helperman and Spot/Scott sing about Spot/Scott being forced to leave after his falling out with Leonard as well as Leonard regretting how he's driven his dog away, with some parts being about Dr. Ivan Krank and his creations Dennis and Adelle trying to find Spot/Scott as well as Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly doing the same.
134* MirrorRoutine: Leonard and Spot, both dressed up as Mrs. Leadready, mimic each others' movements in "Being Mrs. Leadready".
135* MoneySong: "Take the Money and Run" from the movie describes the benefits of having money and plays during a scene where Leonard and Spot/Scott are using the 500 dollars they were rewarded with after reuniting a lost dog and her puppies with the family that owned her to get new clothes and a car.
136* MoodWhiplash: The movie can go from funny to heartwarming and then to tear jerking at the drop of a hat.
137* TheMovie: Surprising for a show that lasted only 39 episodes.
138** It was also the third and final one based on a Creator/OneSaturdayMorning show (the other two being ''WesternAnimation/Dougs1stMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'').
139* MysteryMeat: In the comic story "Food for Thought", which was originally published in the October 2000 issue of ''Magazine/DisneyAdventures'' and later adapted into the season two episode "The Nose Knows", Leonard accidentally feeds Spot a can of corned beef hash instead of his regular dog food due to being in a hurry. Later, dressed as "Scott" in the School cafeteria, Spot finds out the mystery meat tastes just like his dogfood and concludes that the school is putting dogfood in their recipes, which starts a school riot. During a talk-in with Principal Strickler, the principal demands to know whether Spot has actually eaten dog food before. Fearing this could blow his cover, Spot agrees with Strickler to eat a large plate of their mystery meat and confirm to the students it's dogfood free. Much to the Principal and lunchlady's surprise, Spot ends up enjoying the experience (he's a dog after all). Overall, most of the cafeteria's recipes are made of turkey.
140* NonMammalMammaries: "Taint Valentine's Day" features Pretty Boy falling for a female bird who has noticeable breasts.
141* NoodleIncident: In the premiere episode "Muttamorphosis", after Principal Strickler recounts how a dog brought to school when he was in the fourth grade bit off half of his thumb, he's reminded that he must check on the fifth grade class next and remarks "Oh, I remember the fifth grade. Don't get me started", which hints at an unpleasant incident happening to him when he was in the fifth grade as well.
142* NotWearingPantsDream: It is mentioned in "Pet Project" that Leonard once dreamed he had no pants on and was being chased by a man in a gorilla suit.
143* NumberOfTheBeast: In the movie, Spot and Leonard search for Dr. Ivan Krank and his address is ''666 Acko Way''.
144* OnlyInFlorida: From the movie, Dr. Ivan Krank lives in Florida ("Where the coo-coo nuts grow", as [[TalkShow Barry Anger]] puts it).
145* ThePigpen: Ian Wazselewski; the other kids don't call him "Eew-an" for nothing.
146* PrecociousCrush: In one episode, a kindergartener gets one of these first for Leonard and later (due to her rather short attention span) for Scott.
147* PreemptiveShutUp: In "Inspector Leadready II", Spot says to Ian "Not one word" when the latter is about to laugh at him for mentioning Lake Titicaca.
148* PretendingToBeOnesOwnRelative: In one episode, Spot has to dress up as Scott's mother for a meeting with Scott's teacher. He then has to switch between being the two characters when they are both invited to the teacher's house for dinner.
149* PuddleCoveringChivalry: In "Fifi", Spot uses himself to cover up a mud puddle in the path of Fifi and her trainer.
150* PrimeTimeCartoon: After moving from ABC to Toon Disney, new episodes aired in the evening.
151* RogerRabbitEffect: Spot/Scott appeared in the 2000 opening for Creator/OneSaturdayMorning, interacting with live action kids in a live action park ([[{{Crossover}} Along with the cast]] of ''WesternAnimation/TheWeekenders'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', and in 2001, ''WesternAnimation/LloydInSpace'').
152* SanitySlippage: Mary Lou starts to lose it after she proposes creating a new holiday play that will incorporate all the winter holidays alongside Christmas. She gradually becomes cranky and snappish as every idea she comes up with or gets suggested has already been done, and eventually has a NightmareSequence where her Christmas ornaments come to life and start mocking her for thinking she could replace "A Christmasy Christmas in Christmastown."
153* SapientPet: Spot is able to talk and tries to pass himself off as a human.
154* SaturdayMorningCartoon: The series initially aired on Saturday mornings during its time on ABC.
155* SecondEpisodeMorning: In the second episode of the show, Leonard awakes from a CatapultNightmare and tells Spot all about it.
156-->'''Leonard:''' Oh my gosh. Spot! I-I just had the weirdest dream. Y-You came to school dressed like a kid, a-and you were the smartest guy in class and a ''great'' athlete and everybody liked you, but you were ''my dog!'' And if anyone found out, I'd never live it down!\
157'''Spot:''' ...um...[[ThatWasNotADream that wasn't a dream, Leonard]]. That was last week.\
158'''Leonard:''' No way!\
159'''Spot:''' Way, Leonard.\
160'''Leonard:''' W-What about the part where [[NotWearingPantsDream I had no pants on and I was being chased by a man in a gorilla suit?]]\
161'''Spot:''' All right, ''that'' was a dream. Ooo, you're a very complex boy.
162* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Leonard (Sensitive Guy) and Spot/Scott (Manly Man). Also, there's Mr. Jolly (Sensitive Guy) and Pretty Boy (Manly Man).
163* SliceOfLife: Yet another one from the One Saturday Morning lineup.
164* SlumberParty: Ian invites Scott and Leonard to one in "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie". Also, Leonard and Scott infiltrated Leslie's slumber party in "All About Eavesdropping" to get knowledge of what girls like from boys.
165* SmartAnimalAverageHuman: Spot, the intelligent talking blue dog and his average owner Leonard.
166* SpaghettiKiss: Referenced, but not actually done in the episode "Fifi". The chef at an Italian restaurant declines to go through with emulating the famous scene from ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'' because the health department could shut him down. Leonard later tries to have Younghee's father arrange the spaghetti dinner accompanied by violin music, but Fifi has to leave before the spaghetti kiss can occur.
167* SpeechImpediment: Mr. Jolly speaks with a lisp.
168* SpoiledSweet: Leslie. Even though she is very rich and spoiled, she is really kind and friendly, she treats others nicely especially Leonard by who they are and not by their appearances or looks. She and her parents (who are very doting and wealthy) also live in a regular house, strangely.
169* TheScapegoat: Leonard sometimes gets in trouble for things that are really Spot/Scott's fault. Though to be fair, Spot/Scott never does it intentionally or out of maliciousness and Leonard only accepts the blame to prevent his dog from getting exposed.
170* ShoutOut:
171** The part of the title sequence where Leonard briefly changes into a monster ("Why can't I be a normal boy like any other?") was a reference to the ending of the WesternAnimation/BettyBoop short ''Betty Boop, M.D.''
172** The movie features lots of references to other Disney films, specifically ''{{WesternAnimation/Pinocchio}}''.
173** During the rendition of "I Wanna Be a Boy" in the movie, Spot is seen in various renditions of paintings, one of which is a [[https://dfilms.tumblr.com/post/637492469276246016/teachers-pet-2004 spoof]] of the famed "His Master's Voice" painting/logo with Spot in place of [[Advertising/NipperAndGramophonesChristmasTales Nipper the dog]].
174** A board game called "Cranium: Disney Edition", on the other hand is actually a Shout Out to this show, as the original version prominently featured characters drawn by Gary Baseman.
175* ShortRunner: Unfortunately, as it was a clever show and many critics loved it. It was only cancelled due to Disney [[{{Retool}} retooling]] Creator/OneSaturdayMorning into ABC Kids.
176* SueDonym: Sort of. Spot blurts out his real name, but Mrs. Helperman mishears it as "Scott" and he decides that, yes, that sounds like a perfectly normal name for a human boy (and basically says so in as many words).
177* SurpriseParty: The episode "Party Animals" has one being thrown for Leonard on his tenth birthday. However, since he accidentally finds out beforehand, he has to figure out how to convincingly feign being surprised.
178* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: In the movie, because Dr. Krank's invention measured Spot's age in dog years, he becomes a grown man, not a boy like he wanted to be.
179* TeachersOutOfSchool: As the title implies, the teacher is Scott's owner and Leonard's mother, which means they see their teacher out of school all the time.
180* ThanksgivingEpisode: "The Turkey That Came to Dinner" has Grandma Rose visit the Helperman family for Thanksgiving dinner and bringing a live turkey named Lurkey. The pets are forced to spend the holiday away from the table because of Grandma Rose's [[spoiler:assumed]] allergies and try to prevent Lurkey from becoming cooked.
181* ThatWasNotADream: The second episode begins with Leonard waking up and assuming that he only dreamed about Spot disguising himself as a human and attending school. Spot breaks it to Leonard that he didn't dream it and that it actually happened.
182* ThickLineAnimation: In some of the Creator/ToonCity episodes, there are clear thick, black outlines.
183* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: In the movie, [[LovableCoward Mr. Jolly]] doesn't do anything productive in the adventure until [[spoiler:Dr. Krank is turned into a mouse]].
184* ThoseTwoGuys: Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly are seen together and frequently remark about what's going on with Leonard and Spot.
185* ThreeShorts: Or, two shorts. Two episode segments in both seasons.
186** "Movin' On Pup/Escaping Dog Trick" (season 1)
187** "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie/Costume Pity Party" (season 1)
188** "Bad To The Bone/Always Knock The Postman Twice" (season 1)
189** "Saving Mr Jolly/Rule Of Paw" (season 1)
190** "Strickler's Pet/Fresh 'n' Frozey Chocolaccino" (season 2)
191** "Mr Jolly, Man... or Mouser?/Party Animal" (season 2)
192** "Team Scott/Take Me Out of the Ball Game" (season 2)
193** "The Nose Knows/Don't Bite the Hound That Feeds You" (season 2)
194* TinyHeadedBehemoth: At one point in the movie's song "Small but Mighty", Pretty Boy morphs into a beefy giant with a disproportionately small head.
195* TomboyAndGirlyGirl : Younghee is the hotheaded tomboy girl and Leslie is the spoiled sweet girly girl.
196* TransNature: A dog who wants to be a boy (Mainly in the movie). In the show, he merely just wants to go to school to learn, so he disguises himself as a boy.
197* TriumphantReprise: The last song before the movie's end credits is "Proud to be a Dog", a reprise of the theme song that is about Spot accepting that he's a dog after having accomplished his goal of becoming human and being returned to normal after his experience.
198* UncattyResemblance: "A Breed Apart" has Scott and Leonard witness a dog show where the participating dogs have owners who look like human versions of them.
199* ValentinesDayEpisode: "Taint Valentine's Day" has Spot write 15 valentines for Leonard in hopes that it will make him appear popular and get his crush Leslie to like him. Instead, this gets Leonard in trouble when the other kids assume he wrote all the valentines himself. At the end of the episode, after Spot confessed that he was the one who wrote all the valentines, it is revealed that Spot actually wrote 14 and that the 15th is from a secret admirer. Leonard assumes it is from Leslie, [[spoiler:but it's actually Younghee.]]
200* VampiresHateGarlic: Subverted in "The Tale of the Telltale Taffy", where Mr. Jolly believes the black cat Spooky to be a vampire and attempts to get rid of him by wearing garlic around his neck. Spooky actually likes the scent, which at first seems to be a sign that Mr. Jolly's being paranoid, but it later turns out Spooky actually is a vampire, just one without an aversion to garlic.
201* VillainSong: "I, Ivan Krank" from TheMovie has Dr. Ivan Krank sing about how he intends to disprove everyone's assertions that he is a madman by turning Spot into a human being.
202* VocalEvolution: Leonard's voice got a little lower as the show went on, as he was voiced by an actual kid. His voice actor, Shaun Fleming, was twelve when production began in 1999 and was sixteen when production on the movie was completed in 2003.
203* WhamEpisode: TheMovie could qualify as this for the series, as it has [[spoiler:Spot's fondness for masquerading as a human boy escalate to wanting to actually ''become'' human, getting into a falling out with Leonard after he becomes human and coming to terms with being a dog after returning to normal]].
204* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The town of East Westland, USA, which is 2,000 miles from Okeechobee, Florida according to the movie, putting it either in the western states or somewhere near the Canadian border. (Not helping matters is the film's travel montage which includes the song "A Whole Bunch of World", which lists every state.)
205* WondrousLadiesRoom: In the episode "Attack of the 50-Inch Girl", Leonard, Spot/Scott, Taylor, Tyler, Trevor and Ian enter the girls' bathroom to try and figure out what the girls are laughing about. After being awed by the sight of the girls' room's pink and luxurious interior, they discover that it's an unflattering drawing of Scott getting down on all fours in front of Mrs. Helperman while declaring himself to be the [[TitleDrop teacher's pet]].
206* WordSchmord: In "Let Sleeping-Over Dogs Lie", Ian retorts to Spot's statement of how mundane party activities are their culture's accepted way of saying "Happy Birthday" by saying "culture, schmulture".

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