Background[]
Disney's Teacher's Pet had aired on ABC's One Saturday Morning Block from 2000 to 2002. Halfway through its second season though, the series was transferred to Toon Disney and had the remaining 5 episodes of the second season that was originally planned to be aired on ABC, along with the remaining 13 episodes that was originally planned to be used as a third season since ABC Kids was being developed around that time for the 2002-2003 season. When it originally aired, the series was praised for its animation, humor, and wit. It was also great with ratings.
Despite this, Disney pretty much threw the show under the bus later on and by September 14th, 2002, it was removed from ABC all together for the new ABC Kids block. There was also a series finale theatrical movie that premiered on January 16, 2004, and like the series, despite having positive reviews, the movie was a box office failure, only making a little half of its budget back on it. This was mainly due to the fact that Disney barely promoted it outside of promos on TV and on other DVDs that were being released around that time. As for the series, Toon Disney eventually stopped rerunning the series a few years later and since on June 1st, 2006, the show hasn't been on any of the Disney networks since then.
The movie itself and the first episode has been released on its own DVD (Teacher's Pet: The Movie), but the other 38 (46 separate episodes) episodes remain unavailable to the world and has never been on Demand on iTunes or whatever. It wasn't until around late 2008 that on YouTube that people started to post up old original recordings from when the show had first aired on ABC and Toon Disney. Other episodes were eventually posted in early 2013 and on forth until Disney claimed copyright on all of the episodes and had them taken off the internet.
Disney's Teacher's Pet - S01E01 - Muttamorphosis
Vespers Rising
The good news is that episodes are available online through a special made Facebook page 1 to host said episodes and also recently they have been uploaded onto Dailymotion too 2 . Also, someone has taken all the Season One Episodes and placed onto a homemade DVD set for sale 3 . But enough of that, onto the pasta...
Theory Pasta[]
Disney's Teacher's Pet was an ABC Saturday morning show that was about a blue dog named Spot that dressed up as a fourth grade boy and went to school under the name of "Scott Leadready II", along with his master and best friend Leonard. Now many people would call this a stupid premise (Let's face it, even if you liked the series, how could no one tell that "Scott" had a dogs face or notice that his dog ears can be slightly seen when his beanie is on), but actually, it was well written, witty, and very underrated. There were other characters like Pretty Boy and Mr. Jolly, Leonard's pet canary and cat who could also talk too. Leslie, Leonard love interest. And Mary Lou Helperman (Otherwise known as Mrs. Helperman), who was Leonard mother and teacher. There were also other characters in the school, and one notable character was Ian Wasaloski, a really gross and out there kind of student (I'm surprised that no one thinks of him as a "Special Needs" kind of kid).
Well anyway, let’s stop to think for a second and wonder how in the hell can these animals talk like human beings and yet never reveal it to anyone else. It seems kind of odd that this is a well-kept secret since it would make communication with pets and humans much easier. I mean, has animals been able to communicate like this the whole time or... maybe there is something else to this we don't know about... Well, I think I may have the answer. You see, in the movie, it was revealed that Ivan Krank (You know, the "Wacko") was developing a machine that could change pets DNA and make them human. It's also discovered that Ian is related to Ivan Krank and he is happy with Ian since he is the only one who believes his inventions and intentions. Well in a few scenes prior to Ian meeting up with his cousin, he lets Leonard and Scott (Who is now human at this point) free without realizing that Ivan had placed them there for his intentions of proving that he's not a wacko. It is shown that despite being gross and taboo, he is actually very intelligent when it comes to computers and hacking them (He afterwards hacks the computers to give the "21 flush salute to the queens toilets in the UK... gross). Well it's been established that he and Ivan have a connection for gross stuff and computers prior to the movie, to which makes me think about how animals are now able to walk and talk and all that jazz.
True Blue.
You see, two years prior to the series premiere (i.e right before the second grade), Ian had stayed with his uncle on the last week before school started in sunny Florida to help Ivan with some of his inventions and whatnot. Well on the last day before he left for his hometown, Ian was working on a new invention with Ivan that predated the machine that could turn animals into humans. Instead, he was working on a machine that could make it so he could make it easier to communicate with animals. With Ian on his side, the machine was completed, the codes were put together, and the first test subject was on a frog that came from Ivan Krank's swamp that surrounds his house. They tested the machine on the frog, but as the machine was about to zap the frog, making it be able to talk to them in English, the machine instead flopped up and shot into the sky. By the time the machine had stopped, it was too worn out to try again as the frog merely flopped away outside. Ian at that point had to leave for bus ride home to "East Westland" as Ivan moped that his inventions were worthless and that he was a failure. Little did he know that his machine did more than give the frog the ability to speak though?
The machine not only managed to make it so that every animal on the planet was able to talk in English now (or whatever language they were to speak), but also over time start to become more intelligent and become more aware of their surroundings. The animals never really questioned this, but they knew to keep their mouths shut because they didn't want to be exposed. Over the next two years as Spot noticed his master Leonard went to school and did homework at nighttime, Spot became a bit envious of him since Leonard was able to gain an education since he was human and Spot wasn't. It wasn't until 2000 when Leonard had his first day of being a Fourth Grader that Spot had finally decided that he should be allowed to go to school. Henceforth, he started dressing up as "Scott Leadyready II" and despite of Leonard knowing of his secret about him and other animals being able to walk and talk and whatnot, he and Spot still hangout as best buds at school and other activities.
And in those two years leading up to the events of the movie, Ivan Krank had gotten over his depression as he realized that he wasn't a wacko since his invention actually did work since Ian was one of the only people to notice the differences with the animals with them being able to talk now. Despite this, Ivan couldn't prove it to anyone else since the other animals were smart enough not to respond to him or any other human for that matter. Still, with the help of his cousin Ian over the Winter, Spring, and Summer breaks, he had been able to finish up making a machine that could transform animals into humans.
This caught wind in Florida on "The Barry Anger Show" though near the middle of June as Barry Anger and the rest of the audience members (and presumably people watching it on their TV's at home) merely declared him as a "Wacko". But Ivan was persistent at finishing up his machine to prove that he was a genius and not a wacko. Before Spot appeared though, he tried the experiment with an alligator and a fly, to which they're hybrids of both animal and human. Why when Spot appeared to him as his dog self that Ivan didn't merely ask him to reveal himself to the public as a walking talking dog is anyone's guess, but for him to be able to turn Spot into a human being is the next best thing. Once you think about it, it does make legitimate sense.
I mean when Spot (after transforming into a human in the movie) thanks Ian for letting him and Leonard go, Ian seems to be somewhat aware that it's really Spot/Scott as that human being. Also before the events of the movie, in the episode "One Dog's Junk", Spots "Squeeky Burger Toy" is sold at a yard sale and it's later revealed to be bought by Ian. Throughout the day, Scott tries to get said toy back without revealing that it's important to him because it's his dog toy. By the end though, since Ian had bought a brand new one online, he give the other one to Spot, which to some extent implies that he must know that Spot is really Scott in costume. Not only that, in the episode “Bad Fur Day”, when Scott imagines what would happen if he went to school with his new hair style (He looked like a poodle). As everyone obviously laughs at him for his silly look, it’s Ian that points out that he and Leonard’s Dog Spot look similar due to their hair styles. (To be fair, Younghee is the one to claim that Scott is actually Spot in disguise, but still…).
And considering that he helped make it so that animals can communicate to humans, that's less of a stretch. Well now you know the background of the universe of "Disney's Teacher's Pet". Don't try to wrap you mind too much about it...