Arthur's New Year's Eve

Summary
On New Year's Eve, Arthur and D.W. are determined to stay up until midnight to see what occurs.

Plot
Arthur has never stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve, because his parents have always told him that he is too young. He has tried a couple of times on his own to stay up, but has fallen asleep before midnight each time he tried; therefore, this year he chooses not to even try to stay up until midnight.

Arthur's New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, Arthur is making his bed when Pal jumps on it, wanting to play. Jane comes in and tells him that she and David are going out for New Year's Eve, and that Grandma Thora will be babysitting. D.W. comes in and asks Jane if she can stay up until midnight and Jane tells her that she's too young but she gives Arthur the permission to stay up until midnight but he says that he is not going to.

Arthur and Pal then go outside to play in the snow and Prunella stops by and asks Arthur if he is going to stay up to see the green flash tonight on New Year's Eve and that if there's no green flash it has to stay the same year again.

After Prunella leaves, Arthur goes and tells Francine about the green flash, but Francine tells Arthur that there is no green flash, and that on midnight on New Year's Eve, everyone has to throw out last year's calendar, because it becomes officially illegal and that the New Year's Police will check on people and anyone who still has last year's calendar will be arrested. Arthur then imagines that the New Year's Eve police come to his house and find that Grandma Thora still has last year's calendar, and arrest her.

Arthur then goes to the Barnes' house and tells Binky about the New Year's Eve Police, but Binky says that there isn't any New Year's Eve Police. He says that on New Year's Eve at midnight there's this wrestling show that comes on T.V. where this baby (representing the new year) and this old man (representing the previous year) fight and if the baby wins the New Year begins but if the old guy wins the baby has to go and live with a groundhog and there's six more weeks of winter. (Binky obviously is mixing it up with Groundhog Day.)

Arthur then goes to Buster's condo and tells him about the wrestling show to which Buster says that's the silliest things that he's ever heard. Buster then says his theory on where all the parents go to on New Year's Eve. He says the parents talk out all the rotten things they did to their kids the past year, and plan new awful things to do to kids the next year. However, what Arthur's friends explained to him about New Year's Eve were just complete myths.

Back at home, D.W. develops a plan to stay up till midnight with pinching and ice cubes. Later that evening, their parents go out, leaving Grandma Thora in charge of Arthur and D.W. D.W. gets out her alarm clock and ice for her plan, and begins to hypnotize herself with her clock. Meanwhile, Grandma Thora and Arthur are thumb-wrestling when thew see D.W. getting a glass of water. Later, they are playing Go Fish when D.W. goes to get another drink of water. Back in bed, she's feeling tired, so she sends an ice cube down her back, which makes her jump around and yelp. Meanwhile, Grandma Thora and Arthur are using their noisemakers for a practice run when D.W. comes in, saying she had a nightmare. Arthur then falls asleep on Grandma Thora's shoulder at 11:30. Half an hour later, it reaches midnight, but without anything fancy happening, much to D.W's chagrin. However, she feels better when telling Arthur about it.

Arthur is sad he missed it, but he cheers up after Grandma Thora tells him that as long as he remembers all the things he did in the past year, he didn't miss a thing, because that is what New Year's Eve is really about. Arthur thinks about this, and feels better. He even wishes Pal a Happy New Year, and adds that maybe they will see all the cool stuff his friends mentioned (like the green flash, the wrestling and the New Year's Police).

Characters

 * Arthur Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Thora Read
 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes
 * Kate Read(cameo)
 * Pal(cameo)

Trivia

 * To commemorate the new year and the end of the show’s first season, the ending features a montage of clips from several previous episodes as Arthur is implored by Grandma Thora to remember all his memories from the past year.
 * 4th Wall Break: After Buster tells Arthur the story of parents' New Year's Eve meetings, a UFO pops out of a toaster as a transition to the next scene. Arthur and Buster react to the UFO as it pops out.
 * Moral: Don't brag about something you got to something the other person didn't get for your own benefits.

Production notes

 * A repeat of this episode aired on December 31, 2010 on KCET Los Angeles, which made it the last Arthur episode to air on KCET Los Angeles due to the station dropping its affiliation with PBS after 40 years on January 1, 2011.
 * Some TV providers incorrectly list this episode's original air date as June 2, 1997.

Errors

 * Jane should have said to D.W., "You can do it, when you're one year older."
 * Because when D.W. is Arthur's age, Arthur will still be 4 years older.

Episode connections

 * Clips from "Buster's Dino Dilemma", "Team Trouble", "Francine Frensky, Superstar", "Sue Ellen Moves In" and "Arthur Makes the Team" are shown at the end of this episode.

Home Video
DVD: VHS:
 * Arthur's Celebration
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 1
 * Arthur's Celebration