Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival

"Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival"
Season/Series:	3
Number in season:	11B
Original Airdate:	December 28, 1998 February 8, 1999 March 7, 2002
Credits
Written by:	Joe Fallon Ken Scarborough
Storyboard by:	Robert Yap
Episodes
Previous "Double Tibble Trouble"	Next "What Scared Sue Ellen?"
Read transcript

“	Who is Dewey?	”
—D.W. Read

"Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival" is the second half of the eleventh episode in the third season of Arthur.

Summary

Arthur and Buster have an imaginary music festival featuring the whole cast in songs based on their lives, themselves, and the library.

Plot

At the beginning of the episode, D.W. hears a strange noise, and tries to figure out where it's coming from. She asks Jane, who doesn't know the source of the noise, either. D.W. thinks it might be Pal's stomach, but finds out it isn't. Eventually, she tracks the sound to the basement: Arthur is filming Buster, who is standing behind a large cardboard box made to look like a TV and is beatboxing- hence the strange noise she heard. The boys are pretending to make music videos. D.W. doesn't think much of this, saying Buster's noises weren't music, the box they have doesn't really look like a TV, and the camera Arthur's using isn't even on. She questions why they're doing something that isn't real. Arthur tells her that even pretend things can be enjoyable, and that if D.W. closes her eyes, she'll be able to "see cool videos." After Arthur promises that they aren't tricking her, D.W. agrees to "watch", and the videos start.

Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival

The episode consists of five songs (including a reprise of "Library Card"):

• Library Card (sung by kids and Ms. Turner)

The kids sing about the various books the library offers.

• Jekyll and Hyde (sung by Brain)

Brain sings about reading Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and then having a dream in which he creates a potion that turns him into an evil copy of himself. During a test at school, he drinks the potion and commits acts of vandalism. Then he finds that he transforms even without the potion. He tries to return the book to the library, but he turns into his evil self, who renews the book instead.

• Leftovers Goulash (sung by Arthur, D.W. and David)

Arthur sings about wanting his dad to make chocolate cake and ice-cream instead of crazy experiments. David sings about new strange foods he wants to create. Then D.W. sings about what food she does not want and David finishes with more odd recipes. The song is accompanied by food-related snippets from previous episodes.

• Homework (sung by Mr. Ratburn and Buster)

Mr. Ratburn sings about the homework he wants to give to his class, causing Buster to despair.

• Library Card (reprise) (sung by kids and Ms. Turner)

The kids sing about more books as well as story time and puppet shows (and Ms. Turner refers to something called the Dewey Decimal System).

The episode finishes with D.W. remarking that the videos were okay for the Reads’ basement, but they would never work on real TV (also, "who's Dewey?")

Characters

• Alan Powers
• Arthur Read
• Binky Barnes
• Buster Baxter
• D.W. Read
• Fern Walters
• Francine Frensky
• George Lundgren
• Francis Haney
• Nigel Ratburn
• Paige Turner
• Muffy Crosswire
• Prunella Deegan
• Alex (cameo)
• Amanda Hulser (cameo)
• Billy (cameo)
• Billy and Bobby (cameo)
• Bionic Bunny (cameo)
• Brian (cameo)
• Buffy (cameo)
• Catherine Frensky (cameo)
• Chester (cameo)
• Colleen (cameo)
• David Read
• Edwin (cameo)
• Emily (cameo)
• Thora Read (cameo)
• Helen
• I.Q. (cameo)
• Jack Weasel (cameo)
• James MacDonald (cameo)
• Jane Read (cameo)
• Jenna Morgan
• John (cameo)
• Kenny (cameo)
• Kiefer (cameo)
• Liam (cameo)
• Lucy (cameo)
• Lisa (cameo)
• Luke (cameo)
• Maria Pappas (cameo)
• Mary (cameo)
• Maryann (cameo)
• Ms. Morgan (cameo)
• Miss Sweetwater (cameo)
• Ms. Tingley (cameo)
• Molly MacDonald (cameo)
• Leah MacGrady (cameo)
• Mr. Marco (cameo)
• Ms. Bryan (cameo)
• Ms. Krasny (cameo)
• Nancy (cameo)
• Grandpa Dave (cameo)
• Mary Moo Cow (cameo)
• Nadine Flumberghast
• Liam(cameo)
• Wally(cameo)
• Bailey (cameo)
• Mrs. Tibble (cameo)
• Norman Hedgehog
• Rattles (cameo)
• Ricky (cameo)
• Rusty (cameo)
• Sarah (cameo)
• Steve (cameo)
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Unknown Female Aardvark (Number 3) (cameo)
• Unknown Male Monkey (cameo)
• Winky (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 2) (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 8) (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Bear (Number 2) (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2) (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Dog (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Female Dog (Number 2) (cameo)
• George's sister (cameo)
• Jessica (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Cat (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Dog (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3) (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Goat (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Rabbit (cameo)
• 3rd Grade Male Rat (cameo)
• 4th Grade Female Aardvark (cameo)
• Fletcher (cameo)
• 4th Grade Male Dog (cameo)
• 4th Grade Male Rabbit (cameo)

Songs

• Library Card
• Jekyll and Hyde
• Leftovers Goulash
• Homework
• Library Card (Reprise)

Trivia

• Several of the Glenbrook students make a cameo appearance in Library Card.
• The Homework song is not shown on some PBS stations during its Pledge Drive/Syndication. The And Now A Word From Us Kids segment is edited out too.
• The songs that were sung in this episode are featured on the Arthur and Friends: The First Almost Real Not Live CD (or Tape) CD.
• Stock footage from many previous episodes of Season 1, 2, and 3 is used during Homework and Leftovers Goulash.
• This is one of the episodes focusing on music (with the others being Arthur vs. the Piano, My Music Rules, Arthur Plays the Blues, Brother, Can You Spare a Clarinet?, Big Horns George, Tipping the Scales, Lights, Camera... Opera!, Binky's Music Madness).
• Crazy Bus, Go to Sleep, Lucky Pencil, and The UFO Song are not featured in this episode.
• This has the most cast of characters.

Episode connections

• When D.W. and Arthur are singing Leftovers Goulash, several different previous episodes are featured such as D.W.'s Imaginary Friend, D.W. Gets Lost, Arthur Makes a Movie, Buster's Dino Dilemma, Arthur Accused!, Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe, Arthur's Family Vacation, The Half-Baked Sale, D.W.'s Snow Mystery, Arthur's Lucky Pencil, D.W., the Picky Eater, Arthur's Baby, Arthur's Faraway Friend, D.W. Blows the Whistle, Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest, How the Cookie Crumbles, Dad's Dessert Dilemma, Poor Muffy, Buster Baxter, Cat Saver, So Long, Spanky, D.W. Thinks Big, My Dad, the Garbage Man, Buster's Back, Arthur Cleans Up, D.W.'s Perfect Wish, The Big Blow-Up, Arthur's Mystery Envelope, Meet Binky, D.W.'s Deer Friend, Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble, Attack of the Turbo Tibbles, Arthur's Spelling Trubble, Arthur's Chicken Pox.

Cultural references

• "Library Card" contains many references to real life authors, books, and painters:
  • Fern mentions two real life books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Half Magic.
  • The Tibbles sing "Hop on Pop! Fox in Socks!", which are both books by Dr. Seuss.
  • Arthur mentions three authors: Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury.
  • Prunella says that the library has paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Pablo Picasso.
  • Mr. Haney "confidentially" reads Go, Dog. Go!
  • Buster mentions three children's books: "There's The Giving Tree, and Jumanji, and Where the Wild Things Are!"
  • The Dewey Decimal System is how libraries organize and arrange books. It is named after Melvil Dewey.
• The song Jekyll and Hyde is loosely based on Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
• True to its name, Leftovers Goulash combines melodies from various old pieces of music.
  • Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
  • Georges Bizet – Toreador Song from Carmen
  • Jacques Offenbach –Infernal Galop (Cancan) from Orpheus in the Underworld
  • Ludwig van Beethoven
    • Symphony No. 5, Allegro con brio
    • Symphony No. 9, 4^th movement
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Allegro
• Homework mentions Balboa's journey.

Home Video

• DVD: Arthur: The Complete Series 4

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