Arthur and the Big Riddle

Arthur and the Big Riddle is the first half of the 1st episode of Season 5 of Arthur. It first aired on September 4th, 2000, along with "Double Dare".

Summary
Arthur goes on the TV game show Riddlequest against a really smart contestant. In the final round, Arthur must decide between winning and his friends.

Plot
The episode starts off at the Lakewood soccer field. A crowd of Arthur's friends (Binky, Muffy, Francine, George, Brain, Buster, and Alex) huddle around him.

All of them have chocolate on their faces. They discuss how Arthur lost and how they're glad about it since they got fudge bars. They pick Arthur up cheer for him and carry him around. Arthur asks the audience a riddle.

The scene skips to Arthur's living room. Arthur is watching himself on his family's television. Arthur tells the audience to write down the answer if they think they know it.

ARTHUR AND THE BIG RIDDLE

Arthur and Buster are playing with action figures. Buster accuses Arthur of breaking his "Mackarelman" action figure, so they argue. Suddenly, a game show called Riddlequest hosted by Alex Lebek comes on TV and they stop arguing to watch the show. Arthur has never heard about the show so Buster tells him about it. They watch the show. Arthur gets three of the riddles correctly, including the final question. At the end of the show an advertisement showing, prompting viewers to send a letter to Riddle Quest Studios if they think they are good enough to be on the show.

Walking home, Buster strongly suggests Arthur sends a letter to request to be on the show. Arthur ridicules this idea, but Buster puts a letter with the name "Arthur Read" in the mailbox.

Mr. Higgins eventually delivers Buster's letter to Riddle Quest Studios. While Mr. Alex Lebek is getting his hair cut a man brings in a bag of letters into the room and Mr. Lebek randomly picks a letter out of it. He selects Arthur as the contestant.

Arthur gets a letter from Riddle Quest and Buster is thrilled that Arthur is going to be on the show, along with Arthur's other friends.

D.W. brings Arthur to the Tibbles' house so he can be trained. However, the Tibbles just give him mediocre riddles, which Arthur easily gets correctly. However, they think he is wrong.

Arthur complains to Buster but he disagrees with Arthur. Arthur wants to go bike riding but Buster wants him to be training. Arthur goes through very "training" tests by his friends. At the end of the Arthur becomes overwhelmed and tired of riddles and has a nightmare, involving a place called "Riddle land". He wakes up, while saying "I wanna go home". D.W. excitedly shakes him while he is waking up. She is among the many people who are excited for Arthur being on TV, since it later in the day.
 * 1) Bell ringing
 * 2) Tongue twisters
 * 3) Riddles

Arthur and his parents go to the game show. Arthur is nervous, unlike Charlotte Bickles, the girl who he is competing against. Alex Lebek, the host, asks the first question and Arthur quickly answers it and gets it correct. Arthur's friends cheer.

However, as the game show progresses, Charlotte catches up to Arthur. After that Arthur continuously gets answers correct.

Another question they answer at the same time, so none of them get the points. Since the score was tied after that question they had to do a "Super big riddle".

Arthur has trouble with that question but he thinks he knows the answer. Arthur thinks that if he answers it correctly he will be on the show until he is elderly, and thinks about answering. Just when he is about to ring the bell Charlotte answers "The letter E" and wins again.

The scene skips back to the one from the beginning. Arthur and his friends are carrying him while they are cheering for him at the same time.

Because he lost he got a ton of chocolate from competing. Arthur asks the audience if he knows the answer from the riddle he asked earlier in the show. He remarks "I hope not, because if you do you're watching too many game shows!" and the episode ends.