Arthur (season 4)

Arthur (season 4)
Country of origin United States
Canada
No. of episodes 10 (20 segments)
Broadcast
Original channel PBS
Original run September 6, 1999 – November 8, 1999

The fourth season of the television series Arthur was originally broadcast on PBS in the United States. Oliver Grainger has replaced Michael Caloz as D.W. due to Caloz's voice maturing after the previous season.

Episodes

Topics discussed in this season include: friendships, sibling rivalry, asthma, teacher problems, and role models.

 No. in
series		 No. in
season		 Title Written by Storyboard by Original air date
661"D.W.'s Library Card / Arthur's Big Hit"September 6, 1999
D.W.'s Library Card: D.W. learns about the responsibilities of having a library card and a library book. She also writes her name.
Arthur's Big Hit: Arthur gets mad and punches D.W. on her arm for tossing his model airplane (that he worked so hard on) out the window and then D.W. starts crying, but everybody just shows sympathy for her, since she's just a little girl. Arthur's parents forbid him from television for a week. Worse, when The Tough Customers hear about this, they decide to have Binky find Arthur and punch him. Binky refuses to do so and tries to avoid Arthur to prevent himself to hitting Arthur. Note: This episode was rated TV-Y7 for Arthur punching D.W. The last episodes having the TV-Y7 rating are "Arthur's Underwear" and "Attack of the Turbo Tibble Twins".
672"Hide and Snake / Muffy's New Best Friend"September 13, 1999
Hide and Snake: Arthur and his friends find a snake in the woods and decide to keep it in a box in Arthur's room without unveiling to his parents. The snake gets loose and the kids are worried when they can not remember if it was a venomous coral snake (Micrurus) or the similarly-colored, but harmless kingsnake (Lampropeltis triangulum).
Muffy's New Best Friend: Muffy and Francine are best friends, but Muffy doesn't like soccer and Francine doesn't like shopping. After Francine and Jenna discover that both of them like soccer, Muffy searches for a new best friend who likes what she likes.
683"Buster's Breathless / The Fright Stuff"September 20, 1999
Buster's Breathless: When D.W. has a brush with poison ivy, Buster tells a story about how he once got asthma. When Buster learns he has asthma, his friends start treating him differently, thinking that Buster needed special attention. Buster educates his friends by doing a science project about asthma.
The Fright Stuff: Muffy and Francine play several pranks on Arthur, Buster, Binky, and the Brain and invite them to a costume party at a haunted house. The boys decide to get vengeance on the girls at the party while Muffy and Francine are ready with another prank. They call off all pranks when they discover a real ghost.
694"The Contest / Prove It!"September 27, 1999
The Contest: Buster is entering the TV Schedule Magazine's contest for writing an episode for the Andy and Company Show. His friends decide to participate in the contest too with their stories styled like South Park (Buster), Beavis and Butt-head (Muffy), Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (Arthur), the WWF (Francine and Binky), and Dexter's Laboratory (Brain) amongst other things. Five years later (they are now 13), the results are finally in and the gang is shocked when they find out a girl from Canadian, Oklahoma named Holly Holland has won.*
Prove It!: D.W. becomes a scientist after she watches an episode of Nova (Nova and Arthur are both on PBS and produced by WGBH Boston). When Arthur won't take her along to the Exploratorium, a hands-on science museum, she makes her own Exploratorium with false elucidations of real-life occurrences, such as why the sky is blue, or what the formula for water stands for. She challenges Arthur and the Brain to prove it when they say she is wrong, only to have to take her to the Exploratorium.

* Note: The idea for this episode was made up by Holly Holland. Also the 5 stories you see are stories made up by kids who entered a real life contest to give ideas for the characters' ideas on the show.
705"The Blizzard / The Rat Who Came to Dinner"October 4, 1999
The Blizzard: A blizzard hits Elwood City, causing the townspeople to stay in the Read household, the only house that has power.
The Rat Who Came to Dinner: After his roof is damaged by snow, Mr. Ratburn stays at Arthur's house. Arthur is petrified that it will be non-stop homework and teaching, only to find out Mr. Ratburn is more fun than he thought. However, at school, his friends start calling him a teacher's pet.
716"D.W. Tale Spins / Prunella Gets It Twice"October 11, 1999
D.W. Tale Spins: Arthur and Buster are into the Vegemorphs series which they think is better than the Scare-Your-Pants-Off-Books. D.W. says she can tell a better story than the Vegemorphs to which Arthur disagrees. She retells the Odyssey to prove him wrong. Note: "Vegemorphs" is a parody of the Animorphs book series. Also, there is such thing as the Vegemorphs spoof series in the real world; it is published by the Troll book company.
Prunella Gets It Twice: Prunella gets two Polly Locket dolls and dismisses the second one, which was from Francine. Later, Prunella thinks that Francine spoiled the party by not joining in on the festivities. That night, The Ghost of Presents Past takes her through time to clear things up in a way similar to A Christmas Carol.
727"Binky Barnes, Wingman! / To Beat or Not to Beat"October 18, 1999
Binky Barnes, Wingman!: Binky is doing a project on butterflies and becomes obsessed with catching "Big Blue", a rare blue butterfly. He eventually manages to catch "Big Blue" but lets every butterfly go when he is horrified by how butterflies are kept in museum collections.
To Beat or Not to Beat: When Francine enters the talent show, her friends try to tell her she is horrible when she sings and drums at the same time, even though she is a good drummer. After she hears a recording of herself, she realizes her friends had been right, but at the talent show, she surprises them without her drum set as she sings very well.
738"1001 Dads / Prunella's Prediction"October 25, 1999
1001 Dads: The Father's Day picnic at Elwood City is approaching and Arthur and his friends come up with an idea to find a substitute dad for Buster's dad who is a pilot and often away, but they don't please Buster.
Prunella's Prediction: Prunella wants flashpants and her sister, Rubella, predicts that she is getting them for her birthday, only to be disappointed by a watch instead. Meanwhile, Arthur is afraid of being teased when wearing his dad's old Mr. Puffy jacket because he has outgrown his old winter coat. Together, Prunella and Arthur realize that they do not have to hide because of what they wear.
749"What is That Thing? / Buster's Best Behavior"November 1, 1999
What is That Thing?: Arthur and his friends separately find the same metal bobbin but do not know its use. It happens to fit exactly what they need at the moment it appears. They argue over it and find out that it's Mr. Ratburn's bobbin and learn what it is at his puppet show.
Buster's Best Behavior: Buster is funny but wants to be good at something else, and Arthur wants to be funny like Buster, resulting in them acting like each other. This annoys their friends and they realize that they are fine the way they are.
7510"My Music Rules / That's a Baby Show!"November 8, 1999
My Music Rules: The Elwood City Library is looking for a musician to perform for the children's show later in the week. D.W. first suggests that they find the writer of "Crazy Bus", her favorite song. Arthur and his friends are immediately annoyed, so they choose to find a musician. Francine's father suggests that they hire Joshua Redman, who is Francine's uncle and a musician who can play anything. But then Grandma Thora takes D.W to a concert, and she decided the person she wants is Yo-Yo Ma. Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Redman guest star as themselves.
That's a Baby Show!: Arthur keeps reiterating to D.W. about Mary Moo-Cow because he thinks it's a baby show, but she tells him that the real baby show is The Love Ducks. While just on the midst of changing the channel, Arthur watches an episode and becomes hooked on it! He tries to hide it from his friends, which is not easy, because it clashes with Dark Bunny, the show which they are all hooked on, and always talking about. When they find out initially, they tease Arthur for it. In the end, however, they all admit they like The Love Ducks.

References

    General references