Family Fortune

Summary
The Treasure Caravan is coming to Elwood City, and Arthur and D.W. search Grandma Thora's attic for treasures that will make them rich and famous.

Plot
Arthur, D.W., Kate, and Grandma Thora watch Treasure Caravan at Grandma Thora's house when a man brings a chair from the 1790s that's worth $30,000 dollars. The hostess announces that the show will tape at the Elwood City Center. Arthur says that they have to take something good and visions himself bringing a bugle from the Civil War but finds out it's plastic and a fake.

Then, Arthur has a milkshake with Buster and Muffy and they talk about Treasure Caravan and what they're bringing. Muffy shows a sapphire necklace that was passed down from her great grandmother, Taffy Crosswire who was on a ship from Europe and met the Arch Duchess of Maldavia and buys the necklace from her. The next day, Arthur and D.W. visit Grandma Thora's attic and a chair that looks exactly like the chair from the show.Kate also finds a little tribe apron.

Later on, Arthur and his family go to the Elwood City Center where Muffy finds out that the necklace wasn't real sapphire and was just costume jewelry. That meant Taffy Crosswire was probably tricked. Buster also finds out that one of the hockey cards he brought were worth 5 dollars and 45 cents. Finally, it's Arthur's turn to show the chair.The hostess says it's a remarkable chair, but is only 25 dollars. Arthur is shocked and said that the chair looked just like the 30,000 dollar chair.The hostess says that the chair they found was from the 1970s, not the 1790s. The hostess notices the little apron Kate has and tells them it's from a Native American Tribe called the Chilkat. The apron was a gift at a potlatch. Kate starts crying for the apron while the hostess reveals it's worth 5,000 dollars.Arthur freaks out and tries to take the apron away from Kate, but then lets it go for Kate and the crowd claps. D.W. also says at the end of the show that they would never be that nice if they were on television and the crowd also laughs.

Major

 * Arthur Read
 * D.W. Read
 * Thora Read
 * Kate Read

Minor

 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Francine Frensky
 * Buster Baxter
 * Jane Read
 * David Read
 * Nigel Ratburn
 * Unknown Male Adult Dog (number 4)

Cameo

 * Nancy
 * Steve
 * Otis
 * Unnamed crocodile
 * Dave (rabbit)

Errors

 * Familyfortunetv.png can tell the T.V. is in the Reads' House. At the end of the episode, D.W. and the hostess are shown on the Reads' home T.V. This is impossible because everyone in the family is at the studio.
 * Buster's Rubik's cube is 3 x 3 x 4(!).

Cultural references

 * Treasure Caravan is a parody of, a fellow show on PBS.
 * The Recovery Channel may be a pun on the .
 * “Federal style” refers to architecture or furniture from the newly founded United States (ca. 1780-1830).
 * D.W.’s cigar box is labelled “Little Dan O’Brien”. That was an actual brand.
 * The sapphire necklace may be a reference to the from the film .
 * Moldavia is an actual country in eastern Europe.
 * The name "von Hapsenburg" was likely inspired by the "von Habsburg" family, which produced kings and queens of various European countries.
 * The Chilkat are an Indian tribe in what is now British Columbia. They did make dance aprons like the one shown on Arthur. The potlatch ceremony is described correctly.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: Season 10