Buster's Back

Summary
Buster is returning from a trip to exotic places all over the world, and Arthur wonders whether his friend will have changed. Will Buster still want to hang out with "plain old" Arthur?

Plot
Arthur, at the NASA Mission Control Center, makes a call to Buster, who is returning from Jupiter. Buster tells Arthur that he has pictures, and Arthur suggests they get together and look at them at the Sugar Bowl. When Buster lands, he is mutated from cosmic rays as Arthur says "I don't think this is going to be like old times."

Buster's Back

Arthur tells his family about his nightmare. Suddenly, Bitzi calls him to say that Buster is on his way home, exciting Arthur. David bakes a special cake in the shape of Buster's head. Arthur goes to his room to find checkers, and D.W. suggests that Buster may not want to play checkers after going all around the world.

Arthur asks his friends for advice. Francine, Brain, and Prunella all predict that Buster will change as Arthur imagines what the "new Buster" will be like. He realizes how uninteresting his activities were while Buster was away, and worries that Buster will find him boring now. At the library, Arthur checks out books on the places Buster has visited and tries to read them all at home. He is interrupted by hearing that Buster's plane has landed back in Elwood City, and waits by the phone for Buster to call him.

Fearing that Buster will not want to play checkers, Arthur puts the game away. He angrily throws away his pictures of Buster when Buster interrupts and shows his presents for Arthur and D.W. Arthur realizes that Buster does not know much about where he visited, and that the one thing he was looking forward to on his trip was returning home and playing checkers. D.W. is surprised that Buster still wants to be friends with Arthur, and after they finish playing checkers, they go down to eat David's cake.

Major

 * Buster Baxter
 * Arthur Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Bitzi Baxter

Minor

 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * The Brain
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Kate Read

Cameo

 * Mr. Samuels
 * George Lundgren
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Pal
 * Steve
 * Maria Pappas
 * 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
 * Paige Turner

Mentioned

 * Francine's cousin

Trivia

 * Part of this episode was included on the sample VHS included with the Microsoft ActiMates TV Pack.
 * This is one of the few episodes where Arthur cries.
 * Timeline:
 * Arthur and Buster love playing checkers. They also play in "The Ballad of Buster Baxter", "Buster's Growing Grudge", "The Substitute Arthur" and "The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur."
 * Buster returns to Elwood City to be a major character. He left in "Arthur's Faraway Friend" and only appeared in flashbacks and fantasies during the second half of season 2.

Cultural references

 * Buster's mutations before the title card (stone, fire, stretching, invisibility) are a parody of the powers of the . Buster even implies that cosmic rays are responsible for them.
 * In Arthur's imagine spot about Buster being a Japanese martial artist, Buster says "Osamu Tezuka-san wa manga no kamisama desu". This translates to "Osamu Tezuka is the god of manga". Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.

Errors

 * Before the title card, when Buster is in space and Arthur is communicating with him, Buster's head is seen behind Arthur.
 * When Arthur tells Muffy that Buster's coming home, he shows a her a piece of paper underwater unscathed, which would be impossible because the paper and his drawing would normally get ruined underwater.
 * During the flashbacks where Buster comes over to Arthur and D.W.'s house as different things, the front door doesn't have a mail slot on it, but when Buster shows up as a cowboy riding a donkey, Arthur slams the front door and the mail slot is on it, after that, the mail slot is gone again.

Production Notes

 * This is the first episode to use Buster arriving on a Spaceship as a title card.

Episode connections

 * Prunella gives a job-related prediction to Arthur. In "Bugged", she does the same to Brain, though neither boy has a job.

Home Video
DVD: VHS:
 * Arthur's Best Friends
 * Arthur: The Complete Series 4
 * Arthur's Best Friends