Fern's Slumber Party

Summary
At her mother's urging, normally shy Fern tries hosting a slumber party.

Plot
Fern is playing with her toys when she notices the viewers and becomes shy. Fern's mom then greets the viewers and tries to teach Fern to introduce the show, but Fern stops her when she mentioned the ending and suggests they move to the title card.

Fern's mom is thinking about signing Fern up for a computer program. Fern's mom explains that Fern is a great speaker; she believes so, but Fern doesn't. At an open house at Lakewood Elementary, Francine volunteers to pass out cookies, and everyone notices her bracelet. Muffy reads that it's made in Japan. At home, Fern's mom suggests throwing a slumber party. Everyone doesn't like it and choose to do their own activity when the time comes. On the night of the party, the girls came and everyone was bored, and Fern didn't like it either. Suddenly, Francine's bracelet goes missing. Fern explains that Francine put it on the cabinet, and Muffy took it and put it on the table, then Jenna buried it. Then she finds her bracelet in the trash. She explains that Prunella accidentally threw it away. Meanwhile, Fern's mom comes and overhears Fern and the girls. She then comments that the party was a good idea.

Trivia

 * Fern's Dancing Man code message is gibberish, with none of the symbols being ones from the book. She may have planned that for extra confusion.
 * When Fern says, "Maybe that swimming one", the title card is actually the Arthur Underwater title card.
 * This is one of the few episodes in which Jenna has a major speaking role.
 * This is the first episode written by Sandra Willard.
 * In "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", Jenna has problems wetting the bed, but she has no problems in this episode.

Episode Connections

 * Fern mentions to the viewer to just move over to the title card in the intro, similar to Arthur mentioning to move to the title card during the intro of The Last of Mary Moo Cow.

Errors

 * During the open house, Francine and Arthur are seen in their normal clothes at first, but are dressed up a few seconds later.
 * There are multiple goofs involving the cookies at the open house:
 * At the start, there are eight cookies on the plate, but when the plate is set on the table, the green bush-shaped cookie is not present. The missing cookie then reappears when Francine picks up the plate.
 * Francine gives Arthur a pink cookie, but that same cookie appears on the plate while the other third graders after Arthur are getting their cookies.
 * Francine gives Sue Ellen a green, circular cookie that has two spots on it. Immediately after, Francine gives the same exact cookie to Fern, saying that she is giving it to Fern because she doesn't know what it is. There was only one cookie of that design originally on the plate, and Francine originally had no problem giving the design to Sue Ellen.
 * A green triangle cookie originally appears on the plate, but disappears, even though it was not passed out. This may be the cookie that Sue Ellen was actually planned to get by the crew.
 * A yellow star cookie originally appears on the plate, but disappears, even though it was not passed out to anyone.
 * A white square cookie with an X on it originally appears on the plate, but later on it appears as a white triangle.
 * The Eiffel Tower cookie changes appearance throughout the short sequence, varying in length and its size.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 3