The Trouble With Miss Switch is a two-part animated special by Ruby-Spears that aired in 1980 during the ABC Weekend Special block. The special is based on a 1971 children's story by Barbara Brooks Wallace.
Rupert Brown and Amelia Daley are students at Pepperdine Elementary School who discover their new substitute teacher, Miss Switch (Janet Waldo), is a witch with a talking Familiar cat named Bathsheba. Miss Switch was condemned by an spiteful Witch named Saturna (June Foray) and her Compute-O-witch, who has taken control of the Witches' Council and is facing banishment if she cannot prove her innocence. Determined to help Miss Switch, Rupert and Amelia come up with a plan to show the other Witches that Miss Switch really is a good witch after all.
After the initial airing, the special proved to be quite popular and was frequently re-run. So much to the point where a second special based on the sequel story, Miss Switch To the Rescue was produced in 1982.
This cartoon contains examples of:
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Miss Switch is quite a pretty lady and very nice, compared to the evil Witch Saturna, who is quite ugly.
- Cool Teacher: Her fairness and her ability to make learning fun, on top of her cool magic, make Miss Switch a big hit with the Pepperdine students.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Miss Switch is a witch with dark hair and cat-like eyes, but is a generally sweet lady.
- Friend to All Children: Miss Switch adores children, and quickly becomes popular among the Pepperdine students for being a fair-minded and nice teacher who treats all of her students with respect and fairness, including the more obnoxious bullies. Rupert and Amelia contest to the Compute-O-Witch that Miss Switch's ability to spread love and joy to others makes her an excellent and original witch.
- Good Witch Versus Bad Witch: The main object of the story. Miss Switch, the Good Witch, against Saturna, the bad Witch.
- Hot Teacher: Before meeting Miss Switch for the first time, the boys all assume she'll be another crotchety old meanie, but everyone's stunned when they see how beautiful she is.
- Punny Name: Miss Switch, is a Miss Witch.
- Wicked Witch: Saturna is the very spiteful and corrupt head of the Witches' Council, who condemns Miss Switch and tries to banish her from Witch Mountain.
