Francine Frensky, Superstar

"Francine Frensky, Superstar" is an episode of Arthur from season one. It was written by Joe Fallon and the storyboards were done by Darren Brereton. It first aired on November 11, 1996 along with Arthur's Birthday.

Plot Outline
The episode starts off with Arthur speaking to the audience about all the bad parts Francine gets. Her bad parts include, the mighty cymbal in the orchestral orientation, Sir Isaac Newton, and the Cherry Tree in "George Washington and the Cherry Tree". The reason these were bad parts for her was because she got hurt while playing these parts. Then after Arthur's done speaking Francine walks out on stage wearing a football uniform and falls and gets hurt once again.

The title appears on screen and we fade out and into Mr. Ratburn's class where Mr. Ratburn is giving his class math problems to do and then he announces that it's time for the class to put on a school play and asks anyone if they have any ideas about what play they should do. Sue Ellen suggests that they should do a spooky story about a monster of mucus who gets his arms pulled off and Brain suggests that they should do a play about space and that he could make rocket fuel easily. Mr. Ratburn calls both their ideas good but too complicated for them to do and he suggests that they should do the play about the inventor Thomas Edison who invented the phonograph which played music before CDs were invented. Later that afternoon as Mr. Ratburn is sitting in the auditorium assigning the parts Arthur, Muffy, Brain, and Buster approach him asking him to give Francine a good part because she's never had one to which he says that he will. The next day Mr. Ratburn announces the parts and says that Buster will be the first light bulb, Arthur will be the first phonograph, Binky will be locomotive, and Francine will star as Thomas Edison to which everyone cheers for her and Francine promises she won't let the class down and give a 110% to her part.

Francine spends the next few days learning everything she can about Thomas Edison. When she goes to the library, she asks for the Thomas Edison section, only to learn that he's in the biographies and doesn't have his own section. Insulted, she declares the library to be "crummy". She rents out all the books they had and heads home, refusing Arthur and Buster's offer to go to the Sugar Bowl, because she has to "study her inventions". That night at home, she messes with the lights in her apartment to study light bulbs, messing with her older sister Catherine who's trying to read. Catherine suggests she learn about a phonograph or a video camera, but Francine messes with the lights some more, finally forcing Catherine to call her mom. Francine goes to the local stores where she studies the phonograph, cameras, and light bulbs, and in the hardware store Prunella and Muffy ask if Francine wants to go to the mall. Francine says no but offers to let the girls study incandescent filaments with her. When Muffy calls that boring, Francine is insulted once again and tells Muffy that without lights she'd have to shop in the dark, but according to her, she already does. Muffy is brought to tears and leaves, angering Prunella who watched the whole thing, but Francine points out it was Muffy who started it, and that she should be embarrassed for insulting incandescent filaments.

During rehearsals, Francine is examining everyone's costumes, which the Brain offers to fix if there is a problem. Francine notices Buster's light bulb costume has air holes, which outrages her because if a light had them, they wouldn't work, often mistaking the costume for a real light bulb. Buster needs them to breathe, but Francine forces the Brain to fix them anyway. In class the next day, Mr. Ratburn is asking the class when the first light bulb was invented, but Francine tells him he's wrong to call it a light bulb, much to the class' shock. According to her, Edison invented the incandescent lamp, and the name "light bulb" stuck later. Mr. Ratburn agrees and then Francine signals rehearsal. At the rehearsal, Francine is angry because Sue Ellen's camera costume has no sprocket holes, which would ruin the film, so the Brain fixes it. Francine then notices Arthur (Dressed as a phonograph) is not weaing his bell because it echoes, so she forces it on him and shouts that she'll "uninvent" (expel) him if he takes it off again and that he won't be in her play at all, much to his annoyance of Francine shouting at him, in which she really does not have the authority to expel anyone.

The class is at the Sugar Bowl and deeply regrets asking Mr. Ratburn to give Francine a good part, as she acts like it's her show, not theirs. Prunella explains that Francine insulted Muffy's clothes she wanted to go shopping for. Binky threatens to pound Francine, but after pounding down on his soda, he gets stained with soda. Arthur decides to reason with her, but Francine refuses to accept his call as she is still studying her inventions. The next day, the class prepares to put on the play for the Kindergartners. Buster can't breathe because his light bulb's air holes are now sealed by bandages, but Francine doesn't care. Arthur tells Francine flat out that everyone is angry at her because of how she's treated everyone, but she coolly brushes it off because "they don't have her talent at winning personality". Fed up, the students vow to teach Francine a lesson.



During the play, before it starts, Muffy welcomes everyone, and she refers to Menlo Park as "Mental Park", but then Francine pops out of the curtains and angrily corrects her. In the first scene, Francine as Edison presents Arthur as the phonograph but instead of playing music Arthur does phone imitations which amuses the audience but makes Francine annoyed. Next, Francine presents the first light bulb but discovers that Buster has a huge grid in the front of his costume. When she flips on the light to turn him on, he squirts her in the face with a water gun, annoying Francine once again. Then she uses her kinetoscope (Sue Ellen) to film "The Great Train Robbery". Binky chugs along until the robbers (Jenna and Muffy) rob him, but they mess up the act when Binky beats back the robbers, telling them to "put 'em up!" The play ends but Francine tries to stop the closing curtains, but ends up getting knocked onto the stage floor. Her friends were making mistakes on purpose to get back at her for her rudeness.



Francine later cries in the dressing room, humiliated at what her friends did to her. Mr. Ratburn is disappointed too, and asks that the children fix things up before the parents' show later. Francine blames her friends for messing up her show, but they explain to her that it belongs to all of them and that they all worked hard to put on a good show. Francine thinks this over and realizes what a poor sport she's been, and apologizes for her bad reputation. She then asks if they would be willing to help her put on a great show together, and they happily agree.



That night, the parents' play goes well and is a total success. Francine gives credit to her whole cast for it's play, but after the curtain closes, she says they couldn't have done it without her, causing her friends to pull her back behind the curtain even though she hasn't actually finished what she said yet as the show ends.

Trivia

 * Apparently, in a future episode, Arthur owns Buster's lightbulb costume.

Controversy
Buster's light bulb costume which required the wearer the breathe through the air holes had gone through a major health controversy when bandages sealed the air holes. People wearing the costume without air holes would suffocate and pass away after prolonged periods of time, although Buster survived and eventually had a huge grid to squirt water in Francine's face to teach her a lesson not to do such cruel things, and his revenge was comparably the strongest of everyone's.

Goofs

 * In the play finale for all the families to see, another Francine and some of her classmates can be seen in the crowd; although Francine and her classmates in the play are the actual ones.
 * Although Catherine made her debut in here, her and Francine's bedroom lacked her bed (showing only Francine's bed), which was also lacked in Francine's Bad Hair Day and many other episodes in this season. This might have led to the fact that Francine was originally going to be considered an only child in the family, but that they decided to add a sibling for her. The beds have only room for one person, and before Catherine's bed was added, she would have slept on the floor, which is less comfortable.
 * When Arthur proves to Francine that she is abusing her classmates in the play (mostly Buster), Arthur first tells her with a happy face; but when he runs to her and tells her again, he is disappointingly angry. It's strange why he could smile in order to prove what she's doing is abusive.
 * When Muffy says "Me too" the Brain's hand is pale.
 * In the scene at the Sugar Bowl, Buster has the Brain's clothes in one shot.

Home Video
DVD:

Arthur Makes a Movie