Arthur's TV-Free Week

Summary
Arthur and his friends are going TV-free for a week. Arthur's family also goes without TV in support of the idea. Everyone tries to resist the temptation of TV while they go through their week.

Plot
Arthur wonders what people would want if they were stranded on a desert island. He shows that he would have his favorite books, Pal, and a soccer ball, which Pal consequently knocks out in the water. He then says that Buster would want snacks and somebody to tell him jokes. Buster is shown laughing at a comedian talking about being a safe driver. Arthur then says that Muffy would want the bare necessities: she is shown jumping off a diving board on her clubhouse, and Bailey then brings her a drink. Arthur then imagines Mr. Ratburn taking his whole class with him, with Ratburn teaching the class on the island while the students are sitting in desks just like in the classroom, but on water. Arthur then confesses that the one thing anybody would want on a desert island: he turns on a TV to watch Bionic Bunny. Arthur is instantly fixated on the TV, which happens to be connected to a satellite mounted on a palm tree.

Arthur's TV-Free Week

At school, Mr. Haney informs the students that it is the first day of TV-Free Week: Elwood City tries to not watch TV for one week. Haney encourages conversation between children and parents, although he drags on much to the students' boredom. Ms. Tingley then simply tells the students to sign up in their classrooms, and dismisses them. In Mr. Ratburn's classroom, Francine tells Arthur and Buster that Catherine did TV-Free Week once: it went by very quickly, and Catherine got a gold TV-shaped badge for completing it, which intrigued Buster. Binky asks the kids if they will Bionic Bunny that night, but Buster sadly realizes that he cannot because he signed up for TV-Free Week. Binky then calls the event as for geeks, as well as questioning whether a stupid little badge is more important than TV. Arthur then encourages Buster to not give up.

At dinner at the Read house, Mom and Dad are looking forward to family activities and being more creative during TV-Free Week. They do not know what they will do that night, but D.W. proudly tells the family that she can take care of everything. To start, D.W. poorly performs card tricks. Starting another trick consequently led to Arthur and D.W. arguing. Mom then suggests to just do something relaxing, and reaches for the remote control, but Dad stops her, much to the family's humor. At the Frenskys', Francine and her dad listen to a sports game on a small radio. They cannot hear clearly because of too much static. The Brain is looking at constellations from his room. He then spots a TV playing Eel of Fortune, but quickly goes back to watching the stars. At Mr. Ratburn's house, Ratburn finds a box of Masterpiece Theater videos. He is ready to watch them, but then decides to watch them another week. At the school cafeteria the next morning, Arthur tells his friends how annoyed he was at D.W. for singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm for an hour last night. Muffy says that she has the worst situation: having a lot of TV channels she is not allowed to watch for the week. As Buster sits down to eat, he comments on how fun math class was, as well as not missing TV last night. When he sees Binky, however, Buster tells Binky how he could not sleep for not watching Bionic Bunny, and begs to tell him what happened. Binky refuses to give any details, and Arthur and Francine realize Buster will need to have an eye kept on him.

At the mall, Arthur's mom is distracted by All My Chickens playing on the TVs on display, and D.W. quickly blocks her view. Arthur's dad wants to check if it will rain so his suit of armor will not rust. He turns on the TV to check the weather, but turns it off seconds after D.W. blurts out in hesitation. Dad then puts the TV away, much to Arthur's dismay. At the Sugar Bowl, Arthur says that there are four and a half days left in TV-Free Week, but Buster calculates in detail how much time that is. Arthur tells Buster to not have anymore milkshakes, and Buster hesitantly defends himself. He feels scared that he has the urge to watch TV, but Arthur tells Buster to call whenever he has the urge. Soon after Arthur leaves the Sugar Bowl, Buster calls the payphone right outside, and Arthur answers.

Outside an electronics store, D.W. even tells Pal to not watch TV. A news reporter and a cameraman finds Arthur, D.W. and Pal, asking for their take on life without TV. Arthur does not know what to say, but D.W. joyfully says she gets to do magic tricks, sing songs, and play with Arthur all the time. Back at the Reads', the family decides to watch the news story they are featured in, although D.W. is questioning it. Buster then calls Arthur about the urge to watch the first Bionic Bunny episode currently airing. Arthur then reminds him that he knows the episode by heart, and to do the whole episode in his head. Buster is relieved, and asks what Arthur is doing, but Arthur hangs up. Arthur returns to the living room, only to find that the family has ultimately decided to not watch the news story. Back at school, Buster acts out Bionic Bunny to his friends' entertainment. Binky then tempts him and Arthur into coming over to his house to watch a Bionic Bunny movie airing on TV that Sunday. The Brain then tells them both that it's still Friday, and convinces them both to not give up. Arthur then says he is okay, but Buster is not liking the fact that he could miss the Bionic Bunny movie. This causes Buster to walk away, crying.

Over the next few days, Arthur and Buster keep resisting to watch TV. Buster still imagines his bathroom mirror and bunk bed transforming into TVs airing Bionic Bunny, Arthur prevents himself from taking out the TV from the chest his dad's recipe book is in. He sees the gelatin rabbits and turtles Dad made transform into Bionic Bunny and Techno Turtle, and decides to go for a bike ride. Buster sees his alarm clock transform into a TV, and decides to go for a walk. To each other's surprise, they arrive at Binky's house, both admitting they came to see the movie with Binky. Arthur realizes that they are both very close to finishing an entire week without TV, and that they should not stop now. Buster follows Arthur to the park; they play frisbee, and the day ends.

The next morning at school, Arthur, Buster, and their friends are rewarded with gold TV-shaped badges for completing TV-Free Week. Francine admits that she could not wait until it was over, and to get back to watching Monday night baseball. Arthur reassures Buster that he almost did not make it, but Buster boasts that he could do it again for another whole week. Ironically, when he gets home, he watches Bionic Bunny, wearing a Bionic Bunny costume, without hearing his mom call him for dinner.

Major

 * Francis Haney
 * Cecilia Tingley
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * D.W. Read
 * David Read
 * Jane Read
 * Binky Barnes
 * Francine Frensky
 * Oliver Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * The Brain
 * Nigel Ratburn

Minor

 * Bitzi Baxter (voice heard off-screen)

Cameo

 * George Lundgren
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Prunella Deegan
 * John
 * Maria Pappas
 * Otis
 * Brian
 * Luke
 * Fern Walters
 * Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 3)
 * Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * Mary
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * Steve
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat

Mentioned

 * Catherine Frensky

Trivia

 * At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur’s crashing sound changes to the Season 5 version.
 * This episode reveals that Arthur's mother is named Jane.
 * Timeline: David dresses up like a knight in this episode, he does it again in Crushed.
 * Running Gag: Buster being worried about the T.V. Free Week.

Cultural references

 * All My Chickens is a spoof of All My Children, while Eel of Fortune is a reference to Wheel of Fortune.
 * It is revealed that Nigel Ratburn likes , another show on PBS.
 * "Dewey Decimal" alludes to Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System for arranging library books. The system is mentioned a number of times on Arthur, most famously in the song "Library Card".
 * TV-Free Week is a reference to Screen Free Week, formerly called TV Turnoff Week and Digital Detox Week, which started in 1994.

Errors

 * PBS' closed captioning for this episode, along with its sister episode Night Fright, is poorly transcribed and very inaccurate.
 * In one shot of the lunchroom scene, Muffy's buck teeth can be seen, despite having been officially removed after the first season.
 * When Muffy tells Arthur and Francine that she has 170 channels that she couldn't watch, Sue Ellen and Alan are frozen.
 * In the shot of the assembly, Alex is miscolored and is brown with an orange shirt.
 * In the shot when Buster imagines that his bed is a giant TV, his clock reads 8:88 which is not a real time.
 * During the close-up of the TV reflected in Arthur's glasses in the intro before the title card, he is wearing his yellow sweater instead of his white t-shirt.
 * When Buster’s reflection turns into Bionic Bunny, it is wearing street clothes though Buster is wearing pajamas.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 2