Arthur's Baby (episode)

Summary
Arthur isn't too sure he wants a new baby in the house, but once Kate arrives, he proclaims that she is pretty cute after all.

Plot
This episode opens with the Reads celebrating Kate's first birthday; she puts her face in her cake.

Arthur tells the viewers that babies do some dopey things, but then adds that “we were all babies once” before giving a few examples: his friend Buster who ate unpaid-for food in the grocery store, Mr. Ratburn who drew numbers on the wall at home, and even Jane and David.

Arthur notes that even Kate is growing up, and says he already misses the days when she was a cute little baby. But D.W. argues with him, saying that he actually doesn't. Arthur says he does, and D.W. replies that he didn't even like Kate when she was a newborn. “Did too,” Arthur replies. D.W. doesn't believe him, and says she remembers exactly what happened.

-Title Card-

Arthur and D.W. are playing a grape eating contest and she eats the last one when he tries to get it. David calls them to come to him and Jane, who announces that they are going to have a baby. While D.W. is excited about this, David told Arthur that it will be six months before the baby comes. He gets nervous because of his friends telling him what could happen after the baby is born.

At gym, Binky tells Arthur that he “better get some earplugs; babies never stop crying” before he starts laughing. Arthur then imagines the baby crying loudly while at the dinner table; Arthur then asks his parents to pass the salt. When Jane asks “What?” Arthur repeats “I said pass the salt!” A fire truck drives by; the sound of the baby's crying makes the firefighters cover their ears.


 * Buster tells Arthur that he will forget about hanging out with his friends after school and will have to babysit. Francine tells Arthur that he will start talking baby talk all the time. Arthur imagines that he is at football practice, and he catches the pass, but is tackled by Binky. The coach rushes over to tell him he made a great catch, but then asks if he's OK; Arthur responds to him in a baby voice that he “got an ouchie boo boo.” The entire team and the coach starts laughing at him. Francine berates Arthur, saying that he “talks like a baby.”

Binky then points out to Arthur how he “smells like diapers too” — causing Arthur to glare back at them.


 * At the swimming pool, Muffy tells Arthur that in a few months, he would be changing all of the baby's dirty diapers. At that point, Muffy leaps right into the pool, briefly causing water to splash onto the entire screen.


 * Buster puts a shoe on Arthur, tells him "they should protect you from those smelly diapers", but when Arthur complains that he can't smell/breath and Buster tries to pull it off, it falls with a crash that sounds like broken glass in Arthur's living room.

Arthur says no to everyone in his nightmare. Jane comes into his room and asks him if he's all right, as he was tossing and turning. He tells her that he was having a dream, and she thinks he is excited as she is about the baby coming. The next day, he tells Buster that the baby is almost here. When they see a mom with baby triplets walking by, Buster brings up the possibility of Mrs. Read giving birth to more than one baby. Arthur then daydreams that there are ten babies in the same room with him, which makes him scream. When he gets home, D.W. and Jane are in the living room. D.W. wants to show him how to diaper a baby by showing him her diapered dolls including his Bionic Bunny. He doesn't like that and scolds her for doing it.

Jane shows them the videos of them when they were babies. The first one is Arthur at age one and learning how to walk. Jane tells him that he was a cute baby. "What went wrong?" D.W. asks until her baby video comes on and she initially looks surprised, saying “That’s me?” Then, D.W. tells Jane that she hopes the new baby will be just like her, and Arthur replies that that's what he's afraid of. Jane is packing her suitcase and tells Arthur that she is ready to go to the hospital at any time now. D.W. gives her a picture of her so that she will have something to look at there.

The next day, Arthur and D.W. are racing to the bottom of the stairs. She claims she won; he says it was a tie. She laughs and heads to the kitchen. He follows until he spots Grandma Thora making blueberry pancakes. "Grandma Thora, you're in the wrong house," D.W. says. Arthur asks her where their parents and she tells them that they are at the hospital and reveals that the baby ended up being girl, meaning that Arthur and D.W. now have a sister.

D.W. is excited and does cartwheels. Arthur is not. At the hospital, they meet their new sister, Kate. The next day, Jane and David bring Kate home. Arthur is happy, but she often cries every time he gets near her. One day, Jane leaves him in charge of Kate. When he gives her her pacifier, D.W. warns him that it is dirty, making Kate cry. D.W. cleans it and puts it in Kate's mouth, silencing her. Then the doorbell rings; it's Buster and Francine. D.W. lets them see Kate peacefully asleep, but all of a sudden, she spits out her pacifier and cries. D.W. tries to feed her her bottle, but she still cries, leaving Arthur to take care of her as D.W. goes to get a clean diaper.

Meanwhile, Arthur pats Kate on the back numerous times until she burps. This act bonds them; she kisses him on the cheek as her way of thanking him, which everyone watches in happiness.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Kate Read
 * Jane Read
 * David Read

Minor

 * Thora Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Binky Barnes
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Nigel Ratburn (as a baby)
 * Lisa Ratburn (debut)
 * Mr. Marco (Arthur's daydream)

Cameo

 * Alex
 * Brian
 * George Lundgren
 * Patrick
 * Steve
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Prunella Deegan
 * The Brain
 * Maria Pappas
 * Molly MacDonald (Arthur's daydream)
 * Kiefer (Arthur's daydream)
 * Rattles (Arthur's daydream)

Trivia

 * In Arthur's imagination, Mr. Ratburn was called 'Emil' by his mom. This first name was seen in his family tree in "Background Blues" but his full name was later given as Nigel Charles Ratburn in "Bitzi's Beau." His name has consistently been Nigel ever since.
 * Moral: Dont gloat for your own benefits.
 * Even though the title was not read on the home video and DVD releases, Binky does say the name of this episode when it aired on television.
 * Though this is her first proper introduction, Kate previously appeared in "Arthur's Spelling Trubble."
 * Kate's crying is completely different in this episode (and D.W.'s Baby) compared to the stock sound effects that are normally used for Kate and other babies.
 * T-shirts should never be tucked into diapers; nonetheless, this mistake continues to be done. The only character to be properly seen with the shirt hanging out of the diaper was Arthur when he was a baby.

Episode connections

 * "D.W.'s Baby" builds on the events of this episode.

Errors

 * When Jane asks Arthur to watch Kate, Kate was wearing blue pants. Few seconds later, they changed back into her regular clothes.

Differences from the book

 * Kate's bassinet was purple; although in the book, it was white (as well as on the cover illustration).
 * The videos of Arthur and D.W. as babies showed Arthur as a toddler at the age of 1 and D.W. when she was just a baby with a lot of crying. In the book, it was a photo album that showed Arthur wearing a cowboy hat and crawling at 9 nine months and sitting in a high chair with a bowl of food on his head and eating at the age of 1, and D.W. when she was two months old and when she was 5 months old.
 * In the book, the Bionic Bunny action figure wasn't featured, and D.W. was only diapering her dolls.


 * The Brain and Muffy came to Arthur's House in addition to Francine and Buster.
 * When asked if he'd like to hold Kate, rather than trying to hold her, Arthur said that he'd pass.

Home video
VHS:
 * Arthur's Baby (VHS)

DVD:
 * Arthur's Baby (DVD)
 * Arthur: The Complete Series One