D.W., the Picky Eater (episode)

"D.W., the Picky Eater" is the first half of the 3rd episode of Season 2. Together with "Buster and the Daredevils," it first aired on October 6th, 1997.

Premise
D.W.'s reluctance to eat unfamiliar food will keep the whole family from celebrating Grandma Thora's birthday at a special restaurant, unless Arthur can persuade her to be more open-minded.

Plot
Jane and Arthur come back from the grocery store and start to put away the groceries. D.W. come in and asks if Jane bought her red freezy pops because she only likes the red kind. Arthur tells her that the orange and purple flavors are good too, but D.W. insists that red tastes better. Jane tells D.W. she can have a freezy pop if she helps put away the groceries and hands her a fish. D.W. drops the fish and exclaims that it's looking at her. Jane reminds her that she's eaten fish before, but D.W. says never the kind with the head still intact. Arthur taunts her for being scared of the fish. D.W. says she isn't scared, but hates food, like fish, that smell funny. Jane hands D.W. a jar of olives and D.W. asks if they're green eyeballs. Arthur explains that they're olives and they're not looking at her. D.W. goes to the shopping bag and unpacks it herself. She takes out cucumbers and tomatoes and calls them "yucky," but then happily unpacks bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly because she likes them. Arthur tells the viewers that D.W. is a very picky eater. D.W. takes out a package of spinach and exclaims that she hates it and that it's the most disgusting food in the universe. {Title Card} That night at dinner, D.W. lists off more foods to an annoyed Arthur that she doesn't like. David serves everyone Hawaiian shrimp. As the rest of the family, including Kate, enjoys the shrimp, D.W. immediately refuses to eat it because they're "a smelly fish family." Arthur tells D.W. that she doesn't like anything. D.W. says she likes to eat foods like peanut butter and jelly, strawberries, chocolate, birthday cake, and chocolate ice cream (so far, as she can't decide what else for a while, and whatever she decides next is skipped).

One night Jane, David, Arthur, and D.W. go out to eat at a restaurant and D.W. orders a salad. But when she finds out that there's spinach in it, she angrily punches the salad right on the waiter and everyone stares at them. The waiter angrily quits his job and storms away. Jane and David look angrily at D.W. and Jane says "Dora Winifred Read!" D.W. looks down in shame. At home Grandma Thora is babysitting Kate when the family returns and she asks if they had a good time. Arthur tells Grandma Thora about D.W. punching her salad and having it exploding all over the waiter and everyone was staring at them. Jane sends D.W. to her room, telling her she won't go to any more restaurants until she controls her behavior and tries new foods. Arthur asks about Grandma Thora's birthday party at the Once Upon a Restaurant next week and Jane says that D.W. will not be joining them. While Arthur is secretly happy about this, Grandma Thora asks to instead have her birthday at their house because her birthday wouldn't be happy if D.W. wasn't there. Arthur really wants to go to the restaurant and unhappily asks if he has to do everything with D.W. He then imagines himself as an astronaut who is denied a space trip to Jupiter because D.W. isn't there with him. Arthur decides to get D.W. to try something new to eat and maybe they can still go to the restaurant.

The next day Arthur and D.W. ride bikes together and Arthur takes her to Once Upon a Restaurant. Arthur then tells D.W. she can see the princess and the unicorn at the restaurant if she eats new foods. D.W. gets excited about the unicorn, but misses Arthur's point and asks if she can take the unicorn home with her. Then, Arthur hatches a plan thanks to Buster and calls up D.W. in the treehouse. Arthur and Buster offer D.W. a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and D.W. happily eats it. Suddenly, D.W. notices there is spinach in the sandwich and vomits it out. At school the next day, Muffy suggests that D.W. needs to see someone she that admires eat spinach and volunteers herself for the task. Arthur takes D.W. to Muffy's house as Bailey serves Muffy a plate of hot spinach. Muffy tells D.W. that spinach is her favorite food and starts to take a bite. Just then a fly lands on her fork and Muffy freaks out, tossing the spinach in the air. D.W. folds her arms and smirks at Arthur in a satisfied way, thinking Muffy has good taste for "not liking spinach". With only two days left until Grandma Thora's birthday, Francine gets an idea. Later on, Arthur and Francine feed Kate some spinach and praise her for eating it. D.W. frantically runs into the kitchen telling Kate it's a trick and not to eat the spinach. Arthur corrects her by saying that Kate is big girl because she, unlike D.W., doesn't throw her food and have tantrums like a baby. D.W. exclaims that she's not a baby and the two of them start to argue. Francine stops them and tells D.W. that if she's not a baby, then she has to prove it by eating the spinach. D.W. takes the spoon with spinach on it and is about it eat it, but then Kate spits up a mouthful of spinach. D.W. says she's glad she's not the only one with good taste and hastily puts down the spoon, which makes the spinach stain Arthur's shirt.

Arthur and Buster ride bikes the next day. Buster tells Arthur he might as well forget going to the restaurant because they've tried everything with no avail. Arthur suddenly stops and says they've tried everything but Plan X. He turns around and starts to bike home as Buster asks what Plan X is. Arthur is seen later on talking to Grandma Thora on the phone, saying he's glad she's changed her mind and wants to go to Once Upon a Restaurant after all. D.W. walks up and asks what they're talking about, but Arthur ignores her. He then tells Grandma Thora that they'll have a good time without D.W. at the restaurant. D.W. demands to talk to her, but Arthur holds the phone out of her reach. D.W. exclaims she can go wherever she wants. Arthur reminds her that she said she didn't want to go to restaurants, and there might be spinach on the menu. D.W. calls to Grandma Thora that she'll go to the restaurant for the party, and runs off to tell Jane and David. She even promises she'll try new food and eat all of it. Arthur says that the plan worked into the receiver; "Grandma Thora" was actually Buster on the other line. Buster replies in an old-lady voice "Glad I could help you, sonny!"



On the night of Grandma Thora's birthday, the family goes to Once Upon a Restaurant. They are taken to their table by a swan boat and D.W. gets to see the unicorn and the princess, like Arthur promised. They take their seats at a pirate-themed table and look at their menus. D.W. hopes they have PB&J sandwiches without spinach in them, but Jane reminds her of her promise to try new food. Their waiter (the same one who quit in the beginning of the episode) arrives with their food: Jane and David's Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum lobsters, Arthur's Wicked Witch weenies, and D.W.'s Little Bo Peep pot pie. All eyes are on D.W. as she takes a bite of the pie. To their delight, D.W. says it's delicious and digs in. The waiter looks especially relieved that he won't be covered in food again. Towards the end of the meal, D.W. says she loves the Little Bo Peep pot pie and would eat it every day if they made it for her at home. David asks the waiter for the recipe. The waiter tells him it's simple to make: take a pie pastry and fill it with lots and lots of spinach! D.W. gasps and everyone stares at her in horror. To their surprise, D.W. says she loves spinach now. Arthur rolls his eyes as she finishes the rest of her pie with a smile.

Trivia

 * The waiter who D.W.'s spinach lands on and the one at the Once Upon a Restaurant (who tells her the Little Bow Peep pot pie is full of Spinach) are the same character.
 * A fan has found a reference to another media character. The woman who gives the Reads their menus at Once Upon a Restaurant. The outfit she wears greatly resembles that of the Harvey cartoon character, Wendy the Good Little Witch. Since Once Upon a Restaurant is fairy-tale themed, it is more likely to be Little Red Riding Hood because of the brown clothing up front and red hood and because Little Red Riding Hood is well known among fairy tale characters. There is still some possible reference to Wendy because of the blonde hair and red outfit.
 * Goof: At the beginning before the title card, D.W. says she doesn't like bread crust. But when Buster serves a PB&J sandwich to her, she eats the crust and likes it.

Differences from the book

 * When the family is eating the Hawaiian shrimp, D.W. complains that they're a "smelly fish family" and pushes the plate away from her. In the book, D.W. secretly feeds Pal the shrimp while Arthur watches and whispers "I saw that!"
 * When D.W. receives a bowl of spinach, she quickly shouts that she hates it, and pounds on the bowl, and the bowl lands on the waiter's head. In the book, D.W. pounds on the bowl with her fist which causes the spinach to fly around, shouts "NO!" and spills her carton of milk.
 * When everyone gets annoyed by D.W.'s behavior, Jane says D.W.'s full name; although in the book, she simply says she's embarrassed about what D.W. did.
 * Jane told D.W. that there would be no more restaurants for her, because of the way she behaved; although in the book, David told D.W.
 * Arthur's friends: Buster, Francine, and Muffy are seen; although in the book, Arthur's friends were not seen, but D.W. went to her friend Emily's house, since the book focused mainly on D.W.
 * Arthur was getting advice from his friends on how D.W. should learn how to try the spinach and like it; although in the book, Arthur's family was going out without D.W., and a babysitter named Mrs. Cross was babysitting her.
 * For Grandma Thora's birthday, the family went out to Once Upon a Restaurant; although in the book, they went to The Derby.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Hooray for Health