Teela as a name goes back a good thirty years before 1983. It was the name of Gunga the Elephant Boy's, well, ELEPHANT on "The Buster Brown Show", which ran Saturday mornings under that name from about 1951-54.
EVERY kid watched this show, mainly for the antics of Froggy the Gremlin, a mischievous rubber frog that appeared in a puff of smoke with a "Hiya, Kids, Hiya, Hiya!" when the host, Smilin
Ed McConnell, said "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" Too cool.