Wonder Pets! is an American animated children's television series created by Josh Selig for Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block. It centers on a trio of classroom pets—Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle, and Ming-Ming the duckling—who use teamwork to help animals in need. Much of the characters' dialogue is sung in the style of operetta. Each episode is set to original music by a 10-member live orchestra. 　　Selig developed the idea for Wonder Pets! in between production cycles of his previous Nickelodeon show, Oobi. The series began with two animated shorts called "Linny the Guinea Pig," which acted as a pilot episode. They featured Linny going on adventures set to classical music. Selig first screened the shorts at the wrap party for Oobi's first season. The crew of Oobi was impressed with them and urged Selig to pitch them to a broadcast network. He eventually decided to send the shorts to Nickelodeon executives. Selig called Nickelodeon "a great partner," saying "They're really the company that first believed in us when we pitched Oobi, and then they believed in us again on Wonder Pets!." 　　The two original shorts were completed and aired in 2004. The characters of Tuck and Ming-Ming were added to form a team of hero pets for the full-length series. The first long-form episode debuted on March 3, 2006, as part of the Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon. On December 27, 2006, the series started airing on Nickelodeon's sister channel Noggin. It ran for three seasons and 62 episodes. The first two seasons aired on Nickelodeon, while the majority of season three aired exclusively on the Nick Jr. channel.