Arthur and the Square Dance

"Arthur and the Square Dance"
Season/Series:	2
Original Airdate:	January 28, 1998
Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Gerry Capelle
Episodes
Previous "Arthur's Faraway Friend"	Next "Water and the Brain"
Read transcript

Arthur and the Square Dance is the second half of 12th episode of the Arthur's second season. Together with Arthur's Faraway Friend, it first aired on January 28, 1998.

Premise

Arthur's and Francine's friends think that they are in love with each other, leading both of them to think the other is in love. The two avoid each other afraid of getting "cooties" and finally solve the problem.

Plot

It starts as Arthur dreams he is running a catering business when he arrives home to find out that his wife is Francine and she tries to kiss him! Then in real life, Francine and Arthur are partners for Mrs. MacGrady's square dance class.

Muffy is shown struggling with Binky as her partner Then Binky inadvertently gives Muffy a high five too hard inadvertently pushing her into Sue Ellen and The Brain causing everyone to fall over like dominoes Alex kicks the chair and Mrs. MacGrady snatches it out of the air before it hits the floor and Prunella criticizes Binky for what he did.

So outside Muffy asks Arthur if the next time they square dance he'll switch with her. Instantly when Arthur agrees, Francine gets mad and demands to know who her partner is and offers Arthur a ride home.

Then when Binky and Muffy are left alone on the steps they are down to think that Francine and Arthur are in love, due to what Francine said. Next morning, when Arthur is walking past Binky, Binky states that Francine and Arthur are dating, which makes them girlfriend and boyfriend.

Arthur assumes this is a joke at first until he goes on to tell Francine what Binky said to him but she stops him and tells him about the two cowboy hats she bought for them to wear. Then they start dancing randomly, as a joke.Then when he sees Binky looking at him, he says he has to leave.

The next scene, Muffy and Francine are in the locker room preparing to play baseball for gym, when Francine says she got a new glove and she offers her old glove to Muffy, the glove is very important because it won last year's championship, but Muffy refuses because her hand is too small for the glove so Francine tells her to give it to Arthur because she thinks it may make him play better.

When Muffy gets out on the field, she gives the glove to Arthur. Making Arthur think that maybe she will be in love with him, because she will never let anyone keep her glove, but then he changes his mind saying she would never like him. But when Francine gives him a thumbs up and says good luck for the game, he starts thinking she likes him.

Next, they are both at the Sugar Bowl, he wants to ask Francine if she likes him or not, but then he sees Binky through the window making smoochy faces, he gets shocked and leaves, making Francine suspicious.

Arthur on the other hand, tries avoiding her because Buster said to avoid her to make her stop liking you. But he does awfully weird things like almost going into the girls washroom and when Francine saved a spot for him in the cafeteria, he refused and said he wanted to sit with new people and sat with older kids.After that, in recess, Francine goes up to Prunella and tells her Arthur is acting weird lately.

Then Prunella asked Francine questions like does his cheeks go red when he's around you and does he stutter when he talks to you, when Francine says yes to all of these, Prunella suggests he likes her, she gets confused and refuses that suggestion but Prunella tells her it just might happen. When Mrs.

MacGrady tells them it is going to rain which means square dancing, they tell each other, they shouldn't dance with each other. When it is time for square dancing, they tell each other to stop dancing with each other, they both say "I'M NOT IN LOVE WITH YOU!" and they question each other. Concluding this episode, Francine and Arthur promise to each other to not let a stupid thing like love come between their friendship.

Trivia

Notes

• First cameo appearance of Buster Baxter since he left in Arthur's Faraway Friend
• Since Muffy doesn't like Binky's movements, she wishes Buster was with her.

Goofs

• In Arthur's dream about running his own catering business, he says he had his 18th birthday and was married to Francine, although marriage law in the United States was since restricted to couples ages 18 and over.
• Also, the son in the dream looks exactly like Arthur and is purely an aardvark, although if Arthur and Francine had children, their children would usually be half-aardvark and half-monkey, since Arthur is an aardvark and Francine is a monkey. However, it might be likely that Arthur would appear to have married another aardvark, and then divorced her, and then married Francine where she would rather be the aardvark son's stepmother.
• Arthur and his friends mention that the worn-out glove was a "glove that won last year's championship". However, Arthur did not have the talent for baseball until in Arthur Makes the Team, which took place in his and his classmates' third grade year.
• Arthur and Francine's son looked to be around 5, that must have meant he was born when Arthur was 13.

References

• Francine joking to Arthur that she would rather have head lice is a foreshadowing to the Season Five episode The Lousy Week which aired approximately two and three-quarter years later.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur's Best School Days

VHS:

• Arthur's Best School Days