Arthur's Eyes (episode)

"Arthur's Eyes" is the pilot of Arthur. It first aired on September 2, 1996, along with "Francine's Bad Hair Day". It is based on the book Arthur's Eyes.

Summary
Arthur recounts to D.W. where his glasses came from, as well as the teasing that followed.

Plot


The story/series opens with D.W. waking up Arthur in the middle of the night using a flashlight. She shows him some old family photos of Arthur when he was little, but D.W. thinks he is a lost brother. Arthur denies this and tells her that it is him. Because Arthur wears glasses, D.W. doesn't believe it and thinks Arthur was born with glasses. Arthur knows better since D.W. was only two years old then and didn't remember. To refresh her memory Arthur begins to tell D.W. how he got his glasses.

---Arthur's Eyes---

Arthur's tale starts with him and his friends in Mr. Marco's math class. Arthur has trouble reading the numbers on the blackboard and has to ask Francine which number is which, which annoys her. The math quiz results come in, and Arthur did poorly. Later all of the kids are in the gymnasium playing a game of basketball, but due to Arthur's poor eyesight, he plays clumsily. When Arthur tries to do a free throw he misses completely, disappointing his team. Arthur's class begins their eye examinations in the nurse's office by reading a visual chart. Arthur comes up to the chart and is unable to read the chart properly, which results in him being sent to the eye doctor.

The eye doctor tests out Arthur's eyes and finds that all Arthur needed was glasses. Arthur browses and tries out different frames. He comes across a pair of circular frames which he likes and accepts. But Arthur's troubles begin when he returns to school. Francine and the other kids begin to tease Arthur about the way he looks and call him 'four eyes' (Francine even says in a sing-song voice, "Arthur's a four eyes! Arthur's a four eyes! Arthur's a four eyes!"). Even Buster starts imitating him in the cafeteria by taking two water glasses to his eyes, which gets Arthur angry and upset.

Reluctantly, Arthur returns home covering his face with his jacket, which scares D.W.. Arthur decides that it would be better to lose his glasses than wear them to school and get teased. So he places them in a case and launches it with a slingshot, which amazingly hits a telephone line, bouncing it into his room and landing next to his stuffed bear Stanley. Arthur is frustrated and tosses the case out the window, which lands in the pile of leaves his dad was raking. Arthur enters the kitchen, only to find his glasses again on the kitchen table. He tries again by putting his glasses on a hammer and nails toy, trying to get D.W. to smash them. She closely misses. Arthur's mom sees this and asks Arthur what he was doing; he makes an excuse that D.W. took them and that he was recovering them. His mom asks him to be more careful with his glasses. D.W., being only 2, hits Arthur on the hand with the toy hammer, hurting his hand.

The next day Arthur walks to school, but on the way he takes off his glasses. At school Mr. Marco asks him where his glasses are, and Arthur says he lost them as an excuse. Buster asks Arthur why he won't wear them, and Arthur claims he doesn't need them and that he knows where everything is in the school. He even tries to prove this by finding the boy's restroom, since he knows that it is the third door from the corner. Arthur miscounts this though for Mr. Marco and Mr. Haney were talking at the first door, blocking Arthur's view. He walks over to the fourth door from the corner and enters, but it turns out to be the girl's restroom with Muffy and Francine within. Both Arthur and the girls are shocked, but Arthur couldn't get out fast enough and a lot of other girls walk in, getting the same results as Francine and Muffy. They scream and run out of the restroom. After they are all out, Arthur walks out to see a large crowd of students and teachers before him, startling him. Back at home, Arthur is gloomy that he will just have to be a 'four eyed weirdo', he watches TV and begins to watch the making of the Bionic Bunny Show, but he then sees that Wilbur Rabbit, the actor portraying Bionic Bunny, wears glasses just like his.

On the next day of school, Francine calls Arthur 'four eyes' again, but Arthur ignores it. Binkybeginsto tease him too, but again, he is not bothered by it. Arthur tells Binky that Wilbur Rabbit wears the same glasses too; Binky says he has seen it too, although Francine hasn't. Back in Mr. Marco's class, there is another math quiz, but this time, Arthur can read the blackboard clearly. In the gymnasium, Arthur plays basketball with his friends. Unlike before, Arthur plays much better and scores a point against Francine. Mr. Marco begins handing out the quiz results to the students and is delighted to see that Arthur got every question correct. Right then, Francine asks Arthur if he wants to play on her team at the next basketball game. Arthur sees that Francine is wearing movie star glasses (with no glass of course). Francine reminds Arthur that Wilbur Rabbit wears glasses. Arthur responds that his glasses are just like his.

Arthur's story ends and we see Arthur and D.W. looking at the photo album. Arthur tells D.W. that he has worn glasses ever since. D.W. looks at the photos again and notices a picture of their mom and dad dancing together. D.W. doesn't recognize their dad though, for he had brown hair, a mustache, and a beard then, and thinks their mom is divorced. She runs to their parents' room to demand an explanation. Arthur runs after her to prevent her from doing so.

A Word from Us Kids
A group of children discuss the Arthur's Eyes book. They say that sometimes people need glasses. Several of them draw pictures that reenact events from this episode. One child says it isn't nice to judge people on how each other looks. They say it is good to be different. Another says that what happened to Arthur was nice. The whole class takes turns telling something that makes them unique. For instance, black hair, green eyes, orange hair, long nose, brown skin, red shirt, and a weird nose. One girl says it doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it's what's on the inside that counts.

Characters
All characters shown below are their debuts, since this is the first episode.

Trivia

 * Francine's movie star glasses will reappear in "Arthur's Spelling Trubble" and "Sick as a Dog".
 * Arthur's trenchcoat will reappear in "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" for nearly identical purposes.

Differences from the book

 * Dr. Iris has a gray complexion and blonde hair. In the book, she had brown fur and was hairless.
 * When Arthur attempts to destroy his glasses, he put them in a glasses case and shoots it with a slingshot, which the telephone lines send his glasses back into his room, and then he drops the glasses out the window for his dad to rake with the leaves, and then tricks D.W. into smashing it with her toy hammer. In the book, he hid his glasses in his sweater, and then his mom found the glasses in his sweater while doing laundry, and warned him to be careful with those glasses, because they could get smashed in the washing machine.
 * In the book, Mr. Marco was a moose and wore reading glasses. In the cartoon, he is an aardvark and doesn't wear any glasses at all.
 * Francine's movie star glasses are green; although in the book, they were pink.
 * Sue Ellen, Muffy, the Brain, Binky, Prunella, and the third grade teachers are seen in this episode; although the book was first published in 1979 and Sue Ellen first appeared in Arthur's Valentine in 1980, Muffy and the third grade teachers (except Mrs. Fink) first appeared in Arthur and the True Francine in 1981, the Brain first appeared in Arthur Goes to Camp in 1982, Binky first appeared in Arthur's April Fool in 1983, and Prunella first appeared in Arthur's Teacher Trouble in 1986.
 * In the book, Mr. Marco's second grade class was getting a class picture; but in the cartoon, they did not have a class picture.
 * The signs to the boys' and girls' restrooms are represented in symbols; although in the book, they were represented in words.
 * Francine called Arthur "four-eyes" in both the book and the cartoon show. In the book, Buster called Arthur a "sissy". However, the word "sissy" was removed in the cartoon show, because "sissy" is a slang word to refer to a cross-dressing male.

Goofs

 * Sue Ellen wasn't meant to appear until "Sue Ellen Moves In".
 * After Buster mocks Arthur with the glasses he begins to feel reluctant of this, but in the very next scene he is seen laughing again.
 * After Arthur leaves the girl's restroom, D.W. and James are seen in the crowd. This may lead to the fact that Marc Brown was originally planning for D.W and her classmates to be in Kindergarten instead of Preschool.
 * Even if Marc Brown was planning for D.W to be in Kindergarten, the bathroom scene is still a goof because at the beginning of the episode, Arthur says D.W. was only two years old when the story happened, but when Arthur leaves the girls' restroom, D.W. is seen in the crowd.
 * In the same scene, Binky is shown, but miscolored; he has Brain's clothes and skin color.
 * Additionally, Sue Ellen has different colored hair in different scenes.
 * At the beginning of the lunchroom scene, Otis is seen at two different tables.
 * At the beginning of the lunchroom scene, a gray rabbit is seen two different places.
 * At the beginning of the lunchroom scene, a brown rabbit with a orange shirt is sitting beside Buster. But when Buster is shown again a few seconds later, the gray rabbit is sitting beside him instead.
 * When Arthur is in the hall with his new glasses for the first time, a rabbit with brown hair and a blue and pink striped shirt is wearing glasses, yet a few seconds later, they are gone. It might be likely that she was originally going to be a cartoon version of the rabbit girl Maria who is in Mr. Ratburn's class, but that the creators decided to remove the glasses.
 * When Arthur picks out his round brown glasses at the eye center, they were first shown to be teal-colored instead of the actual brown before the close-up.
 * When Mr. Marco is giving the class directions for the quiz, Otis is smaller than usual. His legs don't come close to the floor.
 * Muffy is seen in this episode before Arthur got his glasses but when Muffy arrived at Lakewood Elementary School in the episode "Arthur and the True Francine," Arthur already has glasses.
 * When Mr. Marco hands back the quizzes to the classes he marks that Arthur got every single problem wrong but actually Arthur answered one of the questions right which was 7+9=16.
 * When Arthur enters the house while coming home from school after his friends teased him, the front door was green instead of the actual brown.
 * Also, when Arthur walks into his room, his door was green instead of the actual white.
 * The TV that sits on the cart in the living room below Arthur's room was purple in this episode; but in later episodes, that TV is green, but has rarely ever appeared again since.
 * In the Read family's photo album, Jane's ears were brown like her hair in the picture of her and David dancing together in their early dating years.
 * Mrs. Wood can be seen in the crowd, but she is not a teacher.

Merchandise
In 2011, Fortune East Group released a wooden puzzle named after and based on the episode.

Home video
Arthur's Eyes was first released on VHS with Francine's Bad Hair Day on March 23, 1997. It was re-released on DVD on June 8, 2004 and it added Draw! from Season 2.