Mentors (TV series)

This page should not be confused with the subtypes of the Mentor Archetype, which can be found here.

This is an edutainment children's show about Teen Genius, Oliver Cates, who creates his own invention called the Visicron. With it, he can bring any historical person into the present for 36 hours, after which, they get sent back to their proper time with no memory of their time in the present. With the Visicron, Oliver, along with his Secret Keeper and girlfriend Dee, use it to bring various famous people throughout history to help them on the various problems the face and to usually deliver the Aesop of the episode.

This show also has one of the rare cases of introducing Suspiciously Similar Substitutes before the original characters left. About halfway into Season 2, Oliver's younger cousins, Simon and Crystal, are introduced and slowly integrated into the main cast throughout the season, eventually joining Oliver and Dee on some adventures. At the end of the season, Oliver goes to college and passes the Visicron on to Simon and Crystal. The shows lasts for another season with Simon and Crystal as the stars.

Every single subtype of the Mentor Archetype was probably used in this series at some point or another. Yes, even the evil ones!


 * Agent Scully (Oliver)
 * Cousin Oliver (Simon and Crystal, not Oliver!)
 * Evil Mentor (Vlad Tepes)
 * Expy (Simon and Crystal)
 * Hollywood Atheist (Played straight with Dee's mother and possibly averted with Oliver, who's implied to be either an atheist or an agnostic)
 * Hot Shoujo Dad (Oliver's dad.)
 * Loveable Rogue (Blackbeard)
 * My Girl Is Not a Slut (One episode has Oliver unintentionally spreading rumors around school that he and Dee had sex! (And remember that this is a kid's show!) Of course, they just never call it by it's name. Naturally, Dee's popularity is threatened whereas Oliver's skyrockets.)
 * Relationship Upgrade (Oliver and Dee, at the end of the first season.)
 * San Dimas Time
 * "Shut Up" Kiss
 * Stealth Mentor (In the Season 2 finale, ''
 * Treacherous Advisor (W.R. Hearst)