Teacher's Pet was a Disney animated television series that ran from 2000 to 2002 and was concluded with
The Movie in 2004. Noteworthy for its unique and edgy style of animation, thanks to its creator, the famed illustrator
Gary Baseman
, not to mention the star talent of Nathan Lane in the lead role.
The story follows a dog named Spot, who can think and talk. Spot dreams of being a real boy like his owner, Leonard Helperman, whose mom is a teacher
(Get it?). In order to fulfill his dreams, Spot dresses up as a boy named Scott Leadready the Second and attends school with Leonard.
The movie details Leonard and Spot's summer adventures in Florida. After a strange dream parodying Pinochio and a
rousing rendition of the theme song, Spot ends up going out to finally turn himself into a real human being.
In the end, he decides he'd rather just be a dog with a family, than a human with no one.Not to be confused with
Hot for Student.
This show provides examples of:
- Amazing Technicolor Population
- Anthropomorphic Zig Zag: 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.
- Assumed Win: Ian, surprising Leonard and Scott.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mary Lou may act all Tastes Like Diabetes most of the time, but even she has limits to how nice she can be. Sometimes she'll shift into a Stepford Smiler before she finally has enough, though she doesn't necessarily go berserk.
- Big Damn Movie: the movie
- Big "NO!": Leonard reacts this way when he finds out Scott is actually his dog in the first episode.
- Butt Monkey: Leonard is often, but not always, this.
- Camp Straight: Mr. Jolly
- Cats are Mean: Mr. Jolly completely averts this, but Talulah plays this as straight as possible.
- Clark Kenting: Spot/Scott. This is lampshaded by the creator for a special feature on the movie's DVD.
- Close On Title: The Movie does this.
- Cross-Dressing Voices: Averted with Leonard.
- Cute Shotaro Boy: As much as the art style can allow, Leonard definetly qualifies for this trope.
- Deranged Animation: Oh hell yes.
- Disney Acid Sequence: Several, but one particular one in the movie stands out thanks to the Lampshade Hanging that immediately follows it.
*song ends, Leonard and Mrs. Helperman are stripped down to their undergarments and left standing in the middle of a parking lot*
Mrs. Helperman: Well, that was strange.
- Disney Death: Happens to Spot in The Movie.
- Dueling Shows: Subverted a bit in one case: A KaBlam!! short, Stewy the Dog Boy was planned to become a spin-off (had somewhat of the same storyline), but when Nickelodeon found out about the show, the spin-off was cancelled. Funny enough, Gary Baseman, the creator, did a short for KaBlam!!, The Louie and Louie Show during it's first season.
- Ending Fatigue: Parodied/Lampshaded in one of the closing songs in the movie. Invoked Trope
Every movie needs an end! (With an annoyed look)
- Extreme Omnivore: Ian
- Grand Finale: The movie, although it was originally going to end on a less final note with 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.
- Gross Out Show: At least given the character of Ian.
- Heterosexual Life Partners: Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Plenty. For starters, Kitty from That '70s Show, Nathan Lane, and Jerry Stiller.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Both Leonard and Scott
- Intellectual Animal
- Joker Jury: One episode Leonard Helperman imagine himself being put on trial in front of a judge and jury who all for some reason resemble Ian Waszlewzki, the class slob.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Scott sees a Leadready Number Two Pencil to create his last name.
- The Movie: Surprising for a show that lasted only 39 episodes.
- Nice Hat: Scott's Beanie.
- Only In Florida: From The Movie, Dr. Ivan Krank lives in Florida ("Where the coo-coo nuts grow", as Barry Anger puts it.)
- The Pigpen (Ian Wazselewski)
- The Other Darrin: Spot/Scott Leadready II was originally voiced by Nathan Lane in the show's first 11 episodes (according to IMDb), but then was replaced by Kevin Schon for the rest of the series until Nathan came back as Spot/Scott for The Movie.
- Trans Nature: A dog who wants to be a boy.
- Precocious Crush: In one episode, a kindergartener gets one of these first for Leonard and later (due to her rather short attention span) for Scott.
- Screwed by the Network: The show had great ratings and reviews, however Disney cancelled it in 2002 because of the One Saturday Morning block getting the boot for ABC Kids (only Recess survived the block switch, and it was in reruns).
- It did get a theatrical movie, though.
- Shout Out: The Movie features lots of references to other Disney films, specifically Pinocchio.
- 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.
- Slumber Party
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