Miss Tickle first appeared in Teacher's Pet (1973). Supposedly she was an old friend of the Brady's talking pet myna bird Marlon. According to the book "Creating the Filmation Generation", the character had originally been created for the Brady Kids series.
Although Rick Springfield received star billing and released a tie-in album, Filmation's model sheets included a curious note: "The name 'Rick Springfield' cannot be used. The name 'Rik' can be used in connection with the character."
"Miss Tickle" was a play on the word "mystical".
Lola Fisher (Miss Tickle) was married to actor Jackson Bostwick and served as his manager at the time. He would go on to star as Captain Marvel in the first season of Filmation's Shazam! (1974).
According to the book "Creating the Filmation Generation", writer Marc Richards had already finished a bunch of the scripts for this series when ABC executive Michael Eisner added singer Rick Springfield to the cast. It was then decided to make Rick's character function as a gateway between the classroom and the magical worlds in the show.