On This Spot

Summary
Arthur is dismayed to find out that his friends care more about celebrity sightings than local history.

Plot
After a history lecture, Arthur prints some images of the famous Native American Sitting Bull and a tree on the site where Sitting Bull performed in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Arthur's friends are not interested, and Buster starts making a tour called the "Derek Montaigne Tour" after Arthur asks what historic events have taken place in Elwood City. Arthur and Mr. Ratburn pay a visit to Seymour Turkel (a parody of the famous writer and biologist). Turkel hands a petition to Arthur to make the same tree shown above a memorial. When Buster continues the Montaigne Tour and finds out that Montaigne never visited Elwood City, he hands the tour over to Arthur, who then changes the subject of the tour. By then, Arthur gets even more signatures on the petition.

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Buster Baxter
 * Sitting Bull
 * Seymour Turkel
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * Mr. Higgins
 * Gus (cameo)
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong (cameo)
 * Prunella Deegan (cameo)
 * 3rd Grade Male Dog (cameo)
 * Nancy (cameo)
 * Otis (cameo)
 * Mrs. Tibble (cameo)
 * Helen (cameo)
 * Alex (cameo)
 * Matt Damon (mentioned)
 * Mister Rogers (mentioned)

Trivia

 * Moral: Don't make fun of celebrateys for your own benefits.
 * Timeline:
 * Arthur's line, "Actually, it was 123 years ago" indirectly reveals that this episode takes place in the year 2008.
 * Buster mentions that Mister Rogers stayed in Elwood City, which occurred in "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers".

Episode connections

 * Buster's alter ego "Dusty Buckets" already appeared in a fantasy in "Happy Anniversary".

Cultural references

 * "Buccaneers of the Bahamas, Part Four” refers to Pirates of the Caribbean. In the real world, the fourth “Pirates” movie was released two and a half years after this episode.
 * Summer School Musical is a parody of the Disney film.
 * Francine and Buster's hover scooters and the year 1885 are elements in.
 * The two dinosaurs in the opening scene are Daspletosaurus and Albertonykus, with the latter being depicted with feathers to reflect modern information on dinosaurs.