Difference between revisions of "Buster's Back"

"Buster's Back"
Season/Series:	3
Number in season:	1a
Original Airdate:	November 16, 1998; September 6, 1999; January 21, 2002;
	Credits
Written by:	Joe Fallon
Storyboard by:	Gerry Capelle
	Episodes
Previous; "Sue Ellen's Little Sister"	Next; "The Ballad of Buster Baxter"
	Read transcript

Latest revision as of 22:11, 27 September 2022

"Buster's Back" is the first half of the first episode in the third season of Arthur.

Summary[edit]

Buster is returning from a trip to exotic places all over the world, and Arthur wonders whether his friend will have changed. Will Buster still want to hang out with "plain old" Arthur?

Plot[edit]

Arthur, at the NASA Mission Control Center, makes a call to Buster, who is returning from Jupiter. Buster tells Arthur that he has pictures, and Arthur suggests they get together and look at them at the Sugar Bowl. When Buster lands, he is mutated from cosmic rays as Arthur says "I don't think this is going to be like old times."

Buster's Back

Arthur tells his family about his nightmare. Suddenly, Bitzi calls him to say that Buster is on his way home, exciting Arthur. David bakes a special cake in the shape of Buster's head. Arthur goes to his room to find checkers, and D.W. suggests that Buster may not want to play checkers after going all around the world.

Arthur asks his friends for advice. Francine, Brain, and Prunella all predict that Buster will change as Arthur imagines what the "new Buster" will be like. He realizes how uninteresting his activities were while Buster was away, and worries that Buster will find him boring now. At the library, Arthur checks out books on the places Buster has visited and tries to read them all at home. He is interrupted by hearing that Buster's plane has landed back in Elwood City, and waits by the phone for Buster to call him.

Fearing that Buster will not want to play checkers, Arthur puts the game away. He angrily throws away his pictures of Buster when Buster interrupts and shows his presents for Arthur and D.W. Arthur realizes that Buster does not know much about where he visited, and that the one thing he was looking forward to on his trip was returning home and playing checkers. D.W. is surprised that Buster still wants to be friends with Arthur, and after they finish playing checkers, they go down to eat David's cake.

Characters[edit]

Major[edit]

Minor[edit]

Cameo[edit]

Mentioned[edit]

Francine's cousin

Trivia[edit]

Part of this episode was included on the sample VHS included with the Microsoft ActiMates TV Pack.
This is one of the few episodes where Arthur cries.
This is the first episode to use Buster arriving on a Spaceship as a title card.
Irony: Arthur worries that Buster will have changed, and does a lot of reading to catch up on all the places where his best friend visited. Buster actually just wants to sit down, shoot the breeze, and play some checkers.
Timeline:
- Arthur and Buster love playing checkers. They also play in "The Ballad of Buster Baxter", "Buster's Growing Grudge", "The Substitute Arthur" and "The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur."
- Buster returns to Elwood City to be a major character. He left in "Arthur's Faraway Friend" and only appeared in flashbacks and fantasies during the second half of season 2.

Cultural references[edit]

Buster's mutations before the title card (stone, fire, stretching, invisibility) are a parody of the powers of the Fantastic Four. Buster even implies that cosmic rays are responsible for them.
In Arthur's imagine spot about Buster being a Japanese martial artist, Buster says "Osamu Tezuka-san wa manga no kamisama desu". This translates to "Osamu Tezuka is the god of manga". Osamu Tezuka created Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion.

Errors[edit]

Before the title card, when Buster is in space and Arthur is communicating with him, Buster's head is seen behind Arthur.
When Arthur tells Muffy that Buster's coming home, he shows a her a piece of paper underwater unscathed, which would be impossible because the paper and his drawing would normally get ruined underwater.
During the flashbacks where Buster comes over to Arthur and D.W.'s house as different things, the front door doesn't have a mail slot on it, but when Buster shows up as a cowboy riding a donkey, Arthur slams the front door and the mail slot is on it, after that, the mail slot is gone again.

Episode connections[edit]

Prunella gives a job-related prediction to Arthur. In "Bugged", she does the same to Brain, though neither boy has a job.

Home Video[edit]

DVD:

VHS:

Arthur's Best Friends

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

[1] ttps://web.archive.org/web/19991012041437/http://www.pbs.org/whatson/1998/11/N/19981116.html

[2] ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120413104003/http://ww3.tvo.org/program/157024/arthur

[3] ttps://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-3/3906

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 |next episode = [[The Ballad of Buster Baxter]]
 |writers = [[Joe Fallon]]
-|storyboarders = [[Gerry Capelle]]|number = 1A|titlecard = Buster's Back Title Card.png}}{{EpisodeHeader|1|1|3}}
+|storyboarders = [[Gerry Capelle]]|number = 1a|titlecard = Buster's Back Title Card.png}}
+{{EpisodeHeader|1|1|3}}
 ==Summary==
 Buster is returning from a trip to exotic places all over the world, and Arthur wonders whether his friend will have changed. Will Buster still want to hang out with "plain old" Arthur?
 ==Plot==
-The episode begins with Arthur at the [[NASA]] Mission Control Center making a call to [[Explorer 17]]. Explorer 17 turns out to be Buster. Arthur asks Buster how his trip to [[Jupiter]] was. Buster tells Arthur that he has pictures, and Arthur suggests they get together and look at them at the Sugar Bowl, just like old times.
+Arthur, at the [[NASA]] Mission Control Center, makes a call to Buster, who is returning from [[Jupiter]]. Buster tells Arthur that he has pictures, and Arthur suggests they get together and look at them at the Sugar Bowl. When Buster lands, he is mutated from cosmic rays as Arthur says "I don't think this is going to be like old times."
-Buster's spacecraft lands and is greeted by a cheering crowd, including Arthur. Arthur calls out to Buster that he has their bikes ready to go. Buster says that it's great to be home, and proceeds to exit the spacecraft.
-But as he walks down the steps strange things start happening to him. His foot catches on fire, his head becames transparent, his right arm suddenly turns to stone, his left arm becomes all twisty, and he grows to a tremendous size. Buster remarks that the town has changed, to which Arthur replies that the town is the same and Buster has changed.
-Buster, whose voice suddenly becomes much deeper, blames his changes on the cosmic rays. Arthur looks toward the camera and says that he doesn't think things are going to be the same anymore.
-After the title card, the scene changes to the Reads' kitchen. It's a typical morning, Mom is having trouble getting Kate to eat her breakfast, Dad is cooking fried liver paste on the stove, and D.W. is spitting her cereal into her hand.
-Arthur walks in and mentions that he had a nightmare in which Buster went to outer space and came back completely changed. D.W. asks who "Bumster" is, much to Arthur's annoyance. Then the phone rings.
-It's Buster's mom, with the message that Buster is on his way home! This makes Arthur really happy. He jumps on his bike and races around town telling his friends (and forgetting to hang up the phone in the process).
-Arthur goes back to his house and reminds his mom to stock up on food because Buster eats a lot. Dad bakes a special cake in the shape of Buster's head. Arthur then goes up to his room and begins searching through all his things.
-D.W. asks what he is doing, and Arthur says he's looking for his and Buster's favorite game so they can play together when he gets home. The game turns out to be checkers. D.W. points out to Arthur that Buster may not want to play checkers (or even be Arthur's friend anymore) because Buster has been all over the world while Arthur was mostly in his room. This worries Arthur.
-Arthur asks his friends for advice. Francine tells Arthur that her cousin once went to Kentucky for the summer and came back with an accent...almost as if she were a different person. Arthur has a vision of Buster showing up at his door with an English accent and dressed in a posh suit. Arthur then asks the Brain his opinion.
-The Brain tells Arthur that people do indeed change when they add to their knowledge. Arthur has another vision of Buster, this time as an Italian racecar driver. Arthur then goes to Prunella, who checks Buster's horoscope, which reads "Big changes in store."
-You feel like a new person." Arthur, now really worried, has several visions of Buster, first as a Japanese martial artist, then as a cowboy riding a donkey (with handlebars, pedals, and a kickstand), then as a Scotsman riding an elephant through an obstacle course training for the Grand Nationals.
-Arthur compares the stuff he did while Buster was gone to the things Buster did on his trip. While Buster was at the Parthenon in Greece, Arthur watched "The Origin of Bionic Bunny" 100 times. While Buster climbed Mt. Everest, Arthur played in puddles of water in the rain.
-While Buster was in Africa on a safari, Arthur was in his treehouse watching a bug attempt to climb up the wall. Arthur worries Buster will think he's boring. Dad then informs Arthur that he called the airport and Buster's plane will arrive in two hours. Arthur has only two hours to get ready for the new Buster!
-Arthur goes to the Library and checks out a bunch of books on all the places Buster visited. He lays them out in a circle on the floor in his room and tries to read them all. Pal, who was watching the clock, barks to let Arthur know that times up, and Buster will be there any minute.
-Arthur asks his mom if Buster called, to which she answers "No." Arthur is too nervous to read anymore. After waiting for Buster to call, Arthur accepts the fact that Buster probably doesn't want to talk to him anymore. Dad tells Arthur that he's sure Buster will call as soon as he can.
-Arthur then imagines himself and Buster sitting at the table in his room. Arthur wants to play checkers. Buster, dressed in an Aristocratic outfit, declares that he will not fritter away valuable time on such triviality, and if checkers is Arthur's idea of an exciting game he perhaps needs a new friend, as Buster has been around the whole wide world.
-Arthur proceeds to put the game of checkers away. D.W. walks in and asks Arthur if he's still going to play an exciting game of checkers with "Bus Stop". Arthur angrily declares he has other friends and he doesn't need Buster in order to have fun.
-He then starts taking the photos Buster sent him off the wall and throwing them into the garbage, saying "How interesting can some old ruins be anyway?" Buster's voice answers that they were really interesting.
-Buster walks into the room, looking exactly the same as he did before. Arthur, very relieved that Buster is finally home, explains he was "organizing Buster's photos". Buster brought some presents for Arthur and D.W., and they go downstairs to check them out.
-Arthur recognizes the model building Buster brought as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France and asks Buster if it's 980 feet tall, to which Buster replies "I guess." Then Buster shows them a model of a double-decker bus and says he rode on top of one in London.
-Arthur asks Buster if in England a truck is referred to as a "lorry" and if the trunk of a car is called a "boot", to which Buster replies "I think so". Then Buster says that there was one exciting, cool thing he was looking forward to doing the whole time he was away.
-Arthur tries to guess what it was. Was it climbing Mt. Everest? Was it walking along the Great Wall of China? Was it riding a mule through the Grand Canyon? Buster says it was something "exciting". He then tells Arthur that he wanted to play checkers, just like old times.
+<center>'''Buster's Back'''</center>
-Buster explains to Arthur that he the reason why he didn't come over earlier is because he had fallen asleep on the ride home and his mom didn't wake him up. Arthur thought it was because he didn't want to come over.
+Arthur tells his family about his nightmare. Suddenly, Bitzi calls him to say that Buster is on his way home, exciting Arthur. David bakes a special cake in the shape of Buster's head. Arthur goes to his room to find checkers, and D.W. suggests that Buster may not want to play checkers after going all around the world.
-Buster then sees all the books Arthur got from the library and asks if he read all of them. Arthur says he just got started. D.W. then walks in and expresses her disbelief that Buster still finds checkers exciting and asks if he's sure he went around the whole wide world.
+Arthur asks his friends for advice. Francine, Brain, and Prunella all predict that Buster will change as Arthur imagines what the "new Buster" will be like. He realizes how uninteresting his activities were while Buster was away, and worries that Buster will find him boring now. At the library, Arthur checks out books on the places Buster has visited and tries to read them all at home. He is interrupted by hearing that Buster's plane has landed back in Elwood City, and waits by the phone for Buster to call him.
-Buster says he thought checkers was exciting before he went around the world, and then proceeds to make his move, winning the game. Buster is glad Arthur still likes checkers because he was worried Arthur might have changed while he was gone.
+Fearing that Buster will not want to play checkers, Arthur puts the game away. He angrily throws away his pictures of Buster when Buster interrupts and shows his presents for Arthur and D.W. Arthur realizes that Buster does not know much about where he visited, and that the one thing he was looking forward to on his trip was returning home and playing checkers. D.W. is surprised that Buster still wants to be friends with Arthur, and after they finish playing checkers, they go down to eat David's cake.
-Arthur asks Buster if he would like to have some of the cake his dad made. Buster says yes, but only if they can play another game of checkers afterwards.
 ==Characters==
@@ Line 71: / Line 31: @@
 *[[Arthur Read]]
 *[[D.W. Read]]
+*[[Bitzi Baxter]]
 ===Minor===
 *[[Francine Frensky]]
 *[[Muffy Crosswire]]
 *[[Binky Barnes]]
-*[[Alan Powers]]
+*[[Alan Powers|The Brain]]
 *[[Prunella Deegan]]
 *[[Jane Read]]
 *[[David Read]]
-*[[Bitzi Baxter]]
 *[[Kate Read]]
 ===Cameo===
-*[[Mr. Samuels]] (cameo)
+*[[Mr. Samuels]]
 *[[George Lundgren]]
 *[[Sue Ellen Armstrong]]
 *[[Pal]]
+*[[Steve]]
+*[[Maria Pappas]]
+*[[3rd Grade Female Aardvark]]
+*[[Paige Turner]]
+===Mentioned===
+*[[Francine's cousin]]
 ==Trivia==
+*Part of this episode was included on the sample VHS included with the Microsoft ActiMates TV Pack.
+*This is one of the few episodes where [[Arthur Read|Arthur]] cries.
+*This is the first episode to use Buster arriving on a Spaceship as a title card.
+*'''Irony:''' Arthur worries that Buster will have changed, and does a lot of reading to catch up on all the places where his best friend visited. Buster actually just wants to sit down, shoot the breeze, and play some checkers.
+*'''Timeline:'''
+**[[Arthur Read|Arthur]] and [[Buster Baxter|Buster]] love playing checkers. They also play in "[[The Ballad of Buster Baxter]]", "[[Buster's Growing Grudge]]",  "[[The Substitute Arthur]]" and "[[The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur]]."
+**Buster returns to Elwood City to be a major character. He left in "[[Arthur's Faraway Friend]]" and only appeared in flashbacks and fantasies during the second half of season 2.
 ===Cultural references===
-*Buster's mutations before the title card (stone, fire, stretching, invisibility) are a parody of the powers of the ''[[wikipedia:Fantastic Four|Fantastic Four]]''. Buster even implies that cosmic rays are responsible for them.
+*Buster's mutations before the title card (stone, fire, stretching, invisibility) are a parody of the powers of the {{W|Fantastic Four}}. Buster even implies that cosmic rays are responsible for them.
 *In Arthur's imagine spot about Buster being a Japanese martial artist, Buster says "Osamu Tezuka-san wa manga no kamisama desu". This translates to "Osamu Tezuka is the god of manga". Osamu Tezuka created ''Astro Boy ''and ''Kimba the White Lion''.
 ===Errors===
 *Before the title card, when Buster is in space and Arthur is communicating with him, Buster's head is seen behind Arthur.
 *When Arthur tells Muffy that Buster's coming home, he shows a her a piece of paper underwater unscathed, which would be impossible because the paper and his drawing would normally get ruined underwater.
-===Production Notes===
+*During the flashbacks where [[Buster Baxter|Buster]] comes over to [[Arthur Read|Arthur]] and [[D.W. Read|D.W.]]'s house as different things, the front door doesn't have a mail slot on it, but when [[Buster Baxter|Buster]] shows up as a cowboy riding a donkey, [[Arthur Read|Arthur]] slams the front door and the mail slot is on it, after that, the mail slot is gone again.
-*This is the first episode to use Buster arriving on a Spaceship as a title card.
+===Episode connections===
+*Prunella gives a job-related prediction to Arthur. In "[[Bugged]]", she does the same to Brain, though neither boy has a job.
 ==Home Video==
-'''DVD''':
+'''DVD:'''
 *[[Arthur's Best Friends (DVD)|Arthur's Best Friends]]
-'''VHS''':
+*[[Arthur: The Complete Series 4]]
+'''VHS:'''
 *[[Arthur's Best Friends (VHS)|Arthur's Best Friends]]
 ==Gallery==
-===Screenshots===
 <gallery>
 Buster's Back.JPG
@@ Line 113: / Line 85: @@
 IMG_0046.PNG
 IMG_0047.PNG
+A762409-4BC6-4794-B361-9BBE4B16CAF0.jpeg
+B52599-0D4E-49B9-AB86-A6FE1B167A1C.jpeg
+A369F6-2D89-4A5A-BA7F-02D779B2388D.jpeg
+EB591AC-3CF5-412C-B8FB-F2EB857A9F61.jpeg
+B38DB-6EEA-436E-BBD5-95C050D7AC5F.jpeg
+DA-03CA-4DCC-B0A0-D326F07F41A3.jpeg
 </gallery>
 ==References==
 {{Reflist}}
 {{EpisodeNav|3}}
+{{TitleSort}}
 [[Category:Season 3 episodes]]
-[[Category:Episodes]]
 [[Category:Paragraph Needs Improvements]]
 [[Category:A to Z]]
+[[Category:Arthur episodes]]
+[[Category:Pages with Wikipedia links]]

Difference between revisions of "Buster's Back"

Latest revision as of 22:11, 27 September 2022

Contents

Summary[edit]

Plot[edit]

Characters[edit]

Major[edit]

Minor[edit]

Cameo[edit]

Mentioned[edit]

Trivia[edit]

Cultural references[edit]

Errors[edit]

Episode connections[edit]

Home Video[edit]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

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