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Arthur's Big Hit
Arthur's Big Hit has a gallery at the Elwood City Art Museum.
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| "Arthur's Big Hit" | |
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| Season/Series: | 4 |
| Original Airdate: | September 6, 1999 |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Joe Fallon |
| Storyboard by: | Robert Yap |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "D.W.'s Library Card" |
Next "Hide and Snake" |
| Read transcript | |
Arthur's Big Hit is the 2nd half of the 1st episode Season 4. It first aired on September 6, 1999 with "D.W.'s Library Card." This was the first controversial episode because Arthur punches D.W. But it's not as controversial as "Bleep," and this episode still airs today. Its education value is somewhat misleading.
Summary
Arthur tells D.W. not to touch his model plane that he has been working hard on. However, she mistakes it for a real plane, so she throws it out of Arthur's bedroom window and it breaks on the sidewalk. Arthur punches D.W., causing her to cry. Arthur doesn't understand why everyone is against his reaction, since she did break the plane after he told her not to. But when the Tough Customers force Binky to punch Arthur, he finally realizes that hitting someone not only physically hurts but is also saying that you do not care about the person's feelings.
Plot Outline
The episode starts in a boxing arena with Francine as the referee. It is Arthur vs. D.W. in the ring. Buster helps Arthur and Nadine helps D.W. Arthur and D.W. have their mouthpieces put in. Then Arthur sees D.W. on a seat and also in the ring, and finds out that the one in the ring is actually Binky Barnes in a D.W. costume! Binky says that he had figured Arthur would rather fight someone his own size. The real D.W. laughs while Binky chases Arthur.
After the episode title card, Arthur's about to build a scale model of the Bell X-1 Model Plane; which broke the sound barrier. D.W. thinks it's a game and was smashed up because it is in pieces. Arthur kicks D.W. out of his room. The next day, he is in the middle of building the plane, but all of a sudden, D.W. spills one of his paint bottles and ran out of his sight. After a few days, D.W. plays with his plane while the paint is still drying and gets fingerprints on it, making Arthur have to repaint it. The next day, Arthur completes his project and is thinking about receiving a blue ribbon for his model plane and getting to fly the real one. Arthur and Pal celebrate his completion of his model plane. After being told multiple times not to touch his plane, D.W. disobeys him. She flies it (while holding it), then the plane falls out the window, with D.W. thinking that it flies. The model then crashes to the ground, so D.W. goes and tells Arthur that he made the plane all wrong since it doesn't fly at all, and Arthur's about to reply that he made it exactly right, only to stop short and exclaim in shock, "What?!" So Arthur and D.W. go outside and when Arthur sees his plane destroyed, he gasps and picks up one of the broken pieces, shocked, angered, and devastated. D.W. says that if the plane broke the sound barrier, then falling out of a window shouldn't break it. Arthur angrily tells D.W. that he warned her continuously not to touch his model, but D.W. keeps telling him that he made the plane wrong since it didn't fly, asks him if he even read the instructions, and that it's not her fault if he made a plane that doesn't fly.
Arthur gets extremely mad and he punches D.W. with his fist directly on her arm while screaming, "I TOLD YOU... NOT TO TOUCH IT!!!!!". D.W. cries loud enough for their parents to hear. Jane yells for him to come in the house for his punishment while David heals D.W. with ice, but she cries when he puts it on her wound because it's cold.
Jane tells Arthur to apologize to D.W., but he refuses to because she destroyed his plane, which took him a week to build, and that she should apologize to him since he already told her millions of times not to touch his plane. As David passes by holding D.W. in his arms, she bitterly says to Arthur, "You're BAD!". Then Arthur and his mom and dad go into the living room, Arthur sits in the time-out chair, and his parents sit on the sofa. David tells Arthur that he is now grounded from watching TV for a week for what he just did. He thinks that his parents don't even care what D.W. did to him and his plane model, which Arthur found to be absolutely unfair. Jane tells him that they will deal with what D.W. did, but that what he did was wrong too. Arthur still disagrees.
The next day, the Tough Customers hear about the case and dare Binky to hit the next person that walks by (which happened to be Arthur) to prove that he is still tough. Binky refuses to hit Arthur, so he avoids looking at Arthur for the rest of the school day so he wouldn't have to hit him. Arthur discusses it with his friends, and Francine asks him why he wouldn't apologize. After second recess, he discusses it with Fern, and she tells him that D.W. is "just a little girl," and that most kids her age don't know how to compare models with actual things; but he compares what she's said about D.W. to "a tornado being just a little wind".
After school, right by the Sugar Bowl, Arthur runs towards Binky and the Tough Customers and tells Binky that he dropped his pen when he ran out of school. So Binky is told to hit Arthur, which he does, making Arthur feel hurt and embarrassed. When Arthur is home, he learns that Binky kind of did him a favor by showing that it was very mean for him to hit D.W. because her feelings were hurt. In the hallway, Arthur says he's sorry to D.W. for hitting her and she says she's sorry for wrecking his plane. She asks him what kind of a plane doesn't fly, and he tells her, "A model plane." Now, D.W. has learned her lesson and she responds by saying that she didn't know and that she's just a child and to give her a break.
The next day, Binky apologizes to Arthur, who has learned his lesson, and Arthur thanks him. Then Molly invites Arthur to join the Tough Customers, but Binky dissolves the club and tells them that making someone to do something they don't want to do is wrong. Binky founds a new club with no violence, and will beat anyone who breaks that new rule.
Trivia
Notes
- This episode was rated TV-Y-7 for Arthur punching D.W.
- Many fans consider this to be one of the two most violent episodes, the other being "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles."
- Arthur doesn't have a bandage on his arm until he and D.W. go to the dining room.
- Arthur's middle name is Timothy, which is revealed when Jane yells to Arthur, "Arthur Timothy Read! Come here!".
- Both Arthur and D.W. got hit on the left arm.
- This is the 4th time that Arthur's grounded for doing something wrong; the first time was in "Play it Again, D.W.," when he said that he would wreck D.W.'s Crazy Bus CD, even though it wasn't heard. In "Arthur the Wrecker," Arthur was grounded from the computer for a week. In "Arthur's Knee," he was grounded for breaking into the dump.
- When working on the plane for a week, Arthur's red shoes weren't worn the next few days.
- During the week in which Arthur made his plane, he wore more different outfits than he's usually seen wearing in most of the series.
References
- Arthur saying that Binky's huge is a reference to "Bully for Binky."
- In the later episode "Bleep," Arthur was working on another model plane as a replacement for the one D.W. broke in this episode. But in that episode, D.W. said the curse word which made the second one break, too.
Goofs
- The sky turns grey and cloudy when Arthur finds his plane broken on the ground outside, but it was sunny right before and afterwards. This is most likely for dramatic effect.
Voice cast
- Michael Yarmush as Arthur Read
- Oliver Grainger as D.W. Read
- Daniel Brochu as Buster Baxter
- Jodie Resther as Francine Frensky
- Melissa Altro as Muffy Crosswire
- Bruce Dinsmore as David Read / Binky Barnes / Rattles Ciccone
- Sonja Ball as Jane Read
- Luke Reid as The Brain
- Patricia Rodriguez as Sue Ellen Armstrong
- Holly G. Frankel as Fern Walters
- Maggie Castle as Molly MacDonald
Quotes
- D.W.: Arthur, you made that plane all wrong! It doesn't fly at all.
- Arthur: No, D.W. I made it exactly ri-....... WHAT?! (Gasps outside then imagines the same thing as he was on a real one and falls off it screaming down into the earth below)
- D.W.: If it could break the sound barrier, falling out of a window shouldn't be able to break it.
- Arthur: I told you not to touch it!
- D.W.: You built it all wrong! Did you even read the directions? (Arthur angrily gets on his feet and grits his teeth, and gets his fist ready while D.W. is too busy talking to be terrified) It didn't fly for one second! It's not my fault if you made a plane that can't fly......
- Arthur: (Enraged) I TOLD YOU... NOT TO TOUCH IT!!!!!! (He punches D.W., and she hits the ground; D.W. crys in pain as she heads back inside)
- Jane: Arthur Timothy Read! Come here!
- Arthur: (Shocked) Uh-oh! Middle name!
- D.W.: (In the kitchen) Are they gonna have to amputake my arm?
- David: No, honey, it's amputate, not amputake.
- D.W.: They're gonna amputate?!
- David: No. I'm in charge, and I'm putting some clean ice on it. (places an ice pack on D.W.'s punched arm until she crys in pain, again) What's wrong?
- D.W.: That's cold.
- Jane: Apologize to your sister!
- Arthur: No way! She should apologize to me! I worked all week on it! I told her a million times not to touch it!
- D.W.: (Being carried by David's arms) You're BAD!
- David: (In the living room after Arthur refused to apologize to and punched D.W.) Arthur, this means no TV for a week!
- Arthur: WHAT?!?! That is so unfair! You don't even care what she did to me!
- Jane: We'll deal with what she did. But what you did is wrong, too.
- Francine: Arthur, why didn't you just apologize?
- Arthur: Oh, come on! She wrecked my plane! Why can't anybody see my side of this?
- Muffy: Uhh, because you're wrong?
- Francine: Hey, Binky, did you hear that Arthur hit his little sister?
- Binky: Well, I haven't seen Arthur. As far as I know Arthur isn't even here.
- Francine: Binky's so upset about for what Arthur did and won't even look at him!
- Arthur: (To Fern about D.W.) She broke my plane!
- Fern: But she's just a little girl!
- Arthur: Saying that D.W. is just a little girl is like saying a tornado is just a little wind.
- Arthur: (Back home explaining what happened after Binky punched him) And the next thing I know, I was on the ground. And it hurt, and it was embarrassing.
- David: Well, maybe that's how D.W. felt when you punched her.
- Arthur: Well maybe, but what's that got to do with this? I mean, Binky Barnes is HUGE! (Realizes) Yeah, oh well, I guess I get it. (In the dining room with D.W. alone) I'm sorry I hit you.
- D.W.: And I'm sorry I broke your plane. But what kind of a stupid plane doesn't fly?
- Arthur: A model plane?
- D.W.: Well, I didn't know! I'm just a child! Give me a break!
