Arthur's Dummy Disaster

Summary
Shy George suddenly becomes popular when he brings a ventriloquist's dummy to school. But can George learn to talk to the kids without his wooden friend?

Plot
In art class, Arthur's class is showing off their individual art projects to each other and Ms. Brian. Most of them prove unimpressive and copycats of each other's work, until George hesitantly reveals his puppet he's been working on, a wooden giraffe named Wally whom his dad had built for him. He proceeds to voice it, causing the others to compliment it and instantly take an interest in George. George proceeds to make some jokes before smiling to his dummy.

Arthur's Dummy Disaster

At the end of the school day, George is still making jokes with everybody before he mentions having to leave. As he does, he hears them discussing himself and Buster asks why they never hung out with him. Muffy recalls George from Kindergarten when he shared his juice with her, and Francine thinks she recalls hugging him before when he won a soccer game for the team. But otherwise they don't really know him too well. Arthur calls it weird and they all begin to question the story with George, with Buster once again citing possible alien involvement.

The next day, George continues to make his jokes during Lunch. In swim class Muffy and Arthur see George and his dummy swim underwater together. Then eventually George is playing with it in while playing baseball when Wally manages to catch the ball in his mouth. Everybody congratulates him for winning the game and they carry them off.

Later on, everybody asks how they can be ventriloquists also. And so later on, everybody is trying to control their puppets/dummies also. Muffy reveals hers is actually a special recording doll while Buster's is a stinky old sock. Arthur's is his bear Arty, and Binky's is a car, using the hood as a mouth.

At home, Arthur is trying to practice and ends up annoying everybody in home until they decide to put away Arty. In bed, Pal steals Arty away from Arthur and he assumes D.W. stole it from him overnight that following morning. D.W. denies this and then Arthur suddenly sees Pal walk in caked with mud...

At school, Buster shows Arthur his now clean, shrunken sock. Muffy then tosses her doll into the trash and they all comment on how they're growing tired of dolls, puppets, and dummy's.

They also notice how beat up Wally is, but George refuses to acknowledge it and they walk off. During art class, George uses Wally to paint the picture and Francine and Buster discuss how much of a hassle Wally is becoming until Arthur approaches him to tell him there isn't a rhyme for orange.

In Mr. Ratburn's class, George raises his hand in order to answer the math question and gets it wrong. So Mr. Ratburn asks him to stay for class before proceeding to lecture him. Arthur then asks George how he did, when George tells them he can no longer bring Wally to class, but he's still allowed to bring him everywhere else in school.

Later in the Library, Fern announces that it is now George's turn to go over his poem when suddenly Wally falls apart. Instead of staying he leaves the library and Arthur follows him while asking what happened to Wally.

Arthur tries to tell George that nobody really gets to talk to George, but George tells him that nobody's noticed him until he brought Wally to school. So without Wally, he's just a nobody again...

With a bit of conversation, Arthur manages to convince George to try to give his poem anyway and hesitantly the moose boy agrees and then proceeds to cheer when he realizes he spoke his poem well. The following day at lunch, Arthur, Francine, and Buster notice that George gives Wally to D.W... much to Arthur's immediate shock and fear...

Major

 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * The Brain
 * George Lundgren
 * Arthur Read
 * Wally

Minor

 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * Fern Walters
 * Prunella Deegan
 * D.W. Read
 * David Read

Cameo

 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Jessica
 * Maria Pappas
 * Alex
 * Lisa
 * 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)
 * 3rd Grade Male Cat
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Ms. Bryan
 * Kenny
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
 * 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat (Number 2)
 * 3rd Grade Male Aardvark
 * 3rd Grade Male Rat
 * 4th Grade Female Aardvark
 * Beulah McInnerny
 * Maryann
 * Sarah
 * James MacDonald
 * Otis

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 marks the first main appearance of George Lundgren, who, prior to this episode, existed only as a background/minor character, and was never referred to by name. There are many references to George "never being noticed before."
 * When Wally says "You know, that Mr. Ratburn's one to talk. He's got about a hundred marionettes...", this refers to Mr. Ratburn's hobby of being a puppeteer.
 * This episodes marks first appearance of Wally, George's dummy.
 * Buster says he wonders why he never hangs out with George, but in previous episodes like "Buster Makes the Grade," he appears to be great friends with him.
 * Timeline:
 * Despite being given to D.W., Wally again appears in George's possession in all of his subsequent appearances. How this occurred is unknown, but Wally references his experience with D.W. as being a bad one in "The Silent Treatment."
 * Arthur says he is afraid of ventriloquist dummies in "Night Fright," but he seems to have gotten over his fear by this episode.
 * Moral: Always be true to who you are.

Episode Connections

 * D.W. once again mentions her snowball from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery."

Errors

 * Muffy's flashback shows her receiving a juice box from George; this shouldn't have happened since Muffy arrived in Elwood City when they were in the second grade.
 * The juice box changes color a tiny bit when George gives it to her.
 * Strangely Lisa appeared at Lakewood again along with the 3rd graders. Lisa is supposed to be at Preschool.
 * After Wally talks for the first time, Arthur says "I didn't see George's mouth move once!" However, George's mouth is clearly shown moving when he is speaking in Wally's voice.
 * Plot Hole: In this episode, Wally is constructed by George, but in "Fifteen," he is received as a Christmas present.

Cultural references

 * Prunella makes a reference to Oreo cookies in her poem.
 * Wally's feet joke ("they're long fellows") references American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Home Video
DVD
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 4

Gallery
 Arthur's Dummy Disaster.JPG 3rd Grade Friends 14.JPG