Family Fortune

"Family Fortune"
Season/Series:	10
Number in season:	4B
Original Airdate:	May 18, 2006; November 6, 2006;
	Credits
Written by:	Joel Barkow; Stephanie Simpson
Storyboard by:	Jeremy O'Neill
	Episodes
Previous; "Feeling Flush"	Next; "D.W. Aims High"
	Read transcript

"Family Fortune" is the second half of the fourth episode in the tenth season of Arthur.

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.

Arthur and his family on TV

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.

Characters

Trivia

Irony: Arthur could have given Kate another blanket.
Moral: Dont ruin someone luckyness for your own personal benefit.

Errors

Buster's Rubik's cube is 3 x 3 x 4.

Cultural references

Treasure Caravan is a parody of Antiques Roadshow, a fellow show on PBS.
The Recovery Channel may be a pun on the Discovery Channel.
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 Heart of the Ocean from the film Titanic.
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.

Production notes

Like all episodes of Season 10, this episode included the number '10' hidden in various places. For a list of them, see ARTHUR Season 10 Scavenger Hunt.