Fern's Slumber Party

"Fern's Slumber Party"
Season/Series:	2
Number in season:	15B
Original Airdate:	April 10, 1998 September 11, 1998 February 13, 2002
Credits
Written by:	Sandra Willard
Storyboard by:	Nelson Dewey
Episodes
Previous "Grandma Thora Appreciation Day"	Next "Love Notes for Muffy"
Read transcript

"Fern's Slumber Party" is the second half of the fifteenth episode in the second season of Arthur.

Summary

At her mother's urging, normally shy Fern tries hosting a slumber party.

Plot

Fern is playing with her toys when she notices the viewers and becomes shy. Fern's mom then greets the viewers and tries to teach Fern to introduce the show, but Fern stops her when she mentioned the ending and suggests they move to the title card.

Fern's mom is thinking about signing Fern up for a computer program. Fern's mom explains that Fern is a great speaker; she believes so, but Fern doesn't. At an open house at Lakewood Elementary, Francine volunteers to pass out cookies, and everyone notices her bracelet. Muffy reads that it's made in Japan. At home, Fern's mom suggests throwing a slumber party. Everyone doesn't like it and choose to do their own activity when the time comes. On the night of the party, the girls came and everyone was bored, and Fern didn't like it either. Suddenly, Francine's bracelet goes missing. Fern explains that Francine put it on the cabinet, and Muffy took it and put it on the table, then Jenna buried it. Then she finds her bracelet in the trash. She explains that Prunella accidentally threw it away. Meanwhile, Fern's mom comes and overhears Fern and the girls. She then comments that the party was a good idea.

Characters

Major Fern Walters Doria Walters Francine Frensky Sue Ellen Armstrong Jenna Morgan Prunella Deegan Muffy Crosswire

Minor Arthur Read

Cameo Alex Bailey Binky Barnes Bitzi Baxter The Brain Ed Crosswire Laverne Frensky Maria Pappas Mary Mr. Armstrong Francis Haney Mr. Marco Nigel Ratburn Mrs. Armstrong Mrs. Barnes Mrs. Fink Unknown Adult Male Rat

Trivia

• This is one of the few episodes in which Jenna has a major speaking role.
• This is the first episode written by Sandra Willard.
• In "Jenna's Bedtime Blues", Jenna has problems wetting the bed, but she has no problems in this episode.

Cultural References

• Fern mentions a "Bora Borean peanut". Bora Bora is a group of islands that are part of French Polynesia. Poisons from exotic places feature in several Sherlock holmes stories, e.g. „The Devil's Foot“.
• „The Hound of the Baskervilles“ (1902) is a Sherlock Holmes novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. Fern reads from it at the end of the episode.
• „The Adventure of the Dancing Men“ (1905) is a Sherlock Holmes story that does feature a code where stick figures stand for letters. However, the figures used by Fern are not from the story and make no sense.
• Leroy „Encyclopedia“ Brown is the young hero of a series of detective books by Donald J. Sobol published between 1963 and 2012.

Episode Connections

• Fern mentions to the viewer to just move over to the title card in the intro, similar to Arthur mentioning to move to the title card during the intro of The Last of Mary Moo Cow.

Errors

• During the open house, Francine and Arthur are seen in their normal clothes at first, but are dressed up a few seconds later.
• There are multiple goofs involving the cookies at the open house:
  • At the start, there are eight cookies on the plate, but when the plate is set on the table, the green bush-shaped cookie is not present. The missing cookie then reappears when Francine picks up the plate.
  • Francine gives Arthur a pink cookie, but that same cookie appears on the plate while the other third graders after Arthur are getting their cookies.
  • Francine gives Sue Ellen a green, circular cookie that has two spots on it. Immediately after, Francine gives the same exact cookie to Fern, saying that she is giving it to Fern because she doesn't know what it is. There was only one cookie of that design originally on the plate, and Francine originally had no problem giving the design to Sue Ellen.
  • A green triangle cookie originally appears on the plate, but disappears, even though it was not passed out. This may be the cookie that Sue Ellen was actually planned to get by the crew.
  • A yellow star cookie originally appears on the plate, but disappears, even though it was not passed out to anyone.
  • A white square cookie with an X on it originally appears on the plate, but later on it appears as a white triangle.
  • The Eiffel Tower cookie changes appearance throughout the short sequence, varying in length and its size.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur: The Complete Series 3

Gallery

Screenshots

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References