The Play's the Thing

Summary
The playground has been quiet lately - too quiet - and the Tough Customers don't like it. All the rest of the kids seem more interested in electronics than in good old-fashioned fun!

Plot
The episode starts at the playground at Lakewood where Rattles is about to reveal something to the Tough Customers. He then shows them shirts he had made that have written, "The Costumer Is Always Right" and Molly questions him as to how that is scary.

The kids are too busy paying attention to the new cellphone Muffy has and the Tough Customers prepare to throw water balloons at them, but Muffy tells them that if they get her phone wet her dad will sue them and Arthur tells everyone that they should go back into the school.

Binky then uses an empty pizza box to try luring the kids into a trap and Buster almost falls for it, but Muffy's phone detects no pizza and she and Buster go back to the benches.

The Tough Customers are left with no one to pester, except George who is called on by Binky. George already has an umbrella and even he is getting tired of the same routine. Molly tells Binky that it is easy and gives him until Friday to figure out something otherwise the Tough Customers are going solo.

George then tells them to hurry up and they throw water balloons at him. Binky then tries to bribe Muffy into not using the phone during recess, but instead an idea comes up with renovating the old playground and they talk to Mr. Haney about it and he agrees to it.

Muffy tells Binky to have the Tough Customers there to run the playground. When the renovated playground opens on Friday everyone is surprised, but soon has to be shut down since students had to pay to use it, which was used to cover the maintenance of the playground.

The Tough Customers then leave and Binky goes to George and Binky talks about how fun the playground use to be. George then tags him and starts running and Binky goes after him trying to tag him.

Soon the other kids start joining in and the Tough Customers return to the jungle gym and start throwing water balloons at the kids.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Binky Barnes
 * Rattles
 * Molly MacDonald
 * Slink

Minor

 * George Lundgren
 * Francis Haney

Cameo

 * D.W. Read (title card in the U.S. only)
 * Bitzi Baxter
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Maria Pappas
 * Alex
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Fern Walters
 * Otis
 * The Brain
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Helen
 * Luke

Trivia

 * In this episode, Binky says the term, "Or my name isn't Binky Barnes!" In the episode What's in a Name?, he finds out that his real first name is Shelley.
 * D.W. is absent from the episode besides her appearance in the title card on PBS airings in the U.S. only.
 * Moral:
 * Just Because someone is doing something else instead of the playground doesn't mean you should prevent others from having their own fun for your own benefits.
 * Dont menace others for your own benefits.

Episode connections

 * In a way, this is the second time Muffy beat the Tough Customers (this time inadvertently that is). The first time occurred in "The Law of the Jungle Gym".

Cultural references

 * Buster's aging the Frosted Cakey Cake and it staying the same is a reference to the myth that last forever.
 * The episode title is a reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet: "the play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."

Errors

 * Throughout the entire episode, Bailey is colored like Carl Pacheva.
 * Muffy mentions that everyone who is bored of the playground (everyone except The Tough Customers and George) is eight years old (George has been proven 8 elsewhere, though). This isn't true, as it has been proven that Prunella is 9 and Brain is 9 or 10.

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