Toby Terrier and his Video Pals is a 1990s direct-to-video series produced by the Krofft Bros. The show is about Toby Terrier and his friends Afghanna, Bob, Bernice, Charlie, and Don, a group of dogs who work in showbiz and run their own television station, W.O.O.F.. Together, they have many misadventures on-set and off, especially Toby, who is new to the business.
The episodes' main gimmick was their relation to the Toby Terrier toy from Tiger Electronics, who, when placed in front of the TV, could speak, wag his tail, and respond to the events happening within the video. 10 episodes were produced in all.
This series contains examples of:
- An Aesop: Each episode would end on a stock kid's show moral related to the A-plot, like "You shouldn't be afraid of the doctor", or "It's what's inside that counts".
- Artistic License – Biology: In "Safety First", Toby helps Don by pointing out he's about to pick up the cleanser that someone left out, not the chocolate powder that he wanted in their milk. If they were real dogs, they'd have to worry about both of them being harmful - chocolate is poisonous to dogs.
- Character in the Logo: The series logo is a star with Toby Terrier's head in the center, a collar reading "Toby Terrier" going around the star below him. In the actual series, the Toby Terrier puppet is used in place of the 2D rendition on the VHS covers.
- Clip Show: The two sing-along tapes, which were just the musical numbers from the previous 7 tapes interspersed with newly filmed introductions by Toby.
- Fake Interactivity:
- Some sections of the show paused in anticipation of the Toby toy responding, but it continued on if he didn't.
- In the only tape released for the Wonder Bone accessory, the show stopped dead to let you press the buttons on the toy to answer questions. However, since the Toby toy couldn't send signals back to the tape, it didn't matter if you got the right answer or even did nothing, the show would just keep going regardless.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The "Classics Theatre" segment would take standard fairy tales and give them an odd twist, usually to fit the theme of the episode.
- In the first episode, The Three Little Pigs goes off-the-rails when the third little pig builds his house out of aluminum siding. Then, when he builds it out of bricks like he's supposed to, he doesn't use mortar and the wolf blows the house away. Luckily, the three pigs then blow the wolf away.
- Their take on Little Red Riding Hood has Red coming across a crossing guard in the middle of the forest who teaches her what the lights on a stoplight mean and the proper way to safely cross the street. Red then refuses to talk to the Big Bad Wolf because he's a stranger and the Wolf gets his just desserts by walking into traffic while trying to puzzle out where the story went wrong.
- Fur Is Clothing: In Time For A Party, Bob dresses up as "Bark Kent" by wearing nothing but a pair of glasses. Then he attempts to turn into "WonderChow" by removing his fur to reveal... that he forgot to put his costume on.
- Game Show Appearance: "Meet Toby Terrier" has a fictional game show called "You Bet Your Bone" that works like a hybrid between Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, having contestants guess the answers to questions from an array of categories and each correct response bringing up a letter on a Wheel of Fortune style puzzle. The contestant can then choose to either solve the puzzle or answer more questions.
- Interactive Narrator: The characters in the "Classics Theater" segments will often react and talk back to Bob when he chimes in at the end of the segments.
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: In "Meet Toby Terrier", Bob, playing one of the Three Little Pigs, is asked if he can build a house made of bricks. He sings a song boasting that he can, only to ask at the end of the song, "By the way, what's a brick?"
- Ladies and Germs: In the theme song, before the song starts, Don Dane addresses the viewers as "Ladies and Dobermanns!"
- Liar Revealed: In the first episode Toby pretends to know everything about working at a TV station because he doesn't want to let anyone down, but he finally admits that he doesn't know what he's doing after his lack of experience wrecks the control room when he's left to run it alone.
- The Musical: Every episode had several songs in it.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Their version of Elvis Presley is named Elkhound Pupsley.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: Since the budgets for these tapes weren't the biggest, the live audiences for the shows W.O.O.F. puts on are a bunch of dog plush toys propped up and rigged to wiggle their heads.
- Parental Bonus: Some jokes and sketches were aimed more at parents, like an entire plot reference to an I Love Lucy episode, or the parody of Geraldo.
- Title Theme Tune: The theme song says the name "Toby Terrier" several times in the chorus, using the lyrics "Toby Terrier, and his video pals!" at one point.
- Too Smart for Strangers: One of the lessons taught in "Safety First", and shown in action with their version of Little Red Riding Hood having Little Red Riding Hound refusing to talk to the wolf since he's a stranger.
- Variety Show: Every episode had a variety of sketches and programs supplemented by an A-plot.
- Whole-Plot Reference: I Love Lassie is one to the chocolate episode of I Love Lucy only with dog biscuits instead of chocolate.
- WPUN: The station is named WOOF, the sound dogs make.
