Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto

"Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto"
Season/Series:	5
Number in season:	2a
Original Airdate:	October 2, 2000 January 9, 2001
Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Mario Cabrera Patricia Atchison Marie Blanchard
Episodes
Previous "Double Dare"	Next "Nerves of Steal"
Read transcript

"Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto" is the first half of the second episode in the fifth season of Arthur.

Summary

Lakewood Elementary is hosting a Parents Open House. How will the kids survive their parents' embarrassing antics?

Plot

Arthur starts the show off by pointing out the differences between parents and children. According to him, adults are more than just larger versions of children because they care too much about warm clothing in winter and words like 'sale' and 'clearance'. Then Arthur says, "But nothing is as weird as a bunch of parents getting together."

--Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto--

The episode starts at the Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur and his friends are worried about the upcoming parent's open house night, an annual event at the school where all parents are welcome.

Each of Arthur's friends is worried about how their parents will act this year because last year's open house didn't go so well.

Francine is worried that her father will fall asleep again, Arthur is worried that his father will tell more bad jokes, Binky is afraid that his parents will call him baby names (like Binky Winkums), and Brain is worried that his parents will fail the traditional pop quiz.

Sue Ellen is new to the school so she isn't worried about her parents, but Arthur thinks that she should be. He tells her that when she first moved to Elwood City, Buster thought her parents were aliens because they acted so multi-culturally.

Sue Ellen starts to worry about her parents then. She wishes that her mother wouldn't wear such exotic dresses and she fears her dad talks too much about all the places they've been.

When she gets home after school, Sue Ellen notices her mother wearing a strange dress again. Then, while at a grocery store, her father starts talking about different cultures. Sue Ellen convinces her mother to let her help pick out the clothes for the open house, and she tells her father to be less talkative that evening.

The night of the open house arrives quickly, and Mr. Ratburn decides to scrap the traditional pop quiz, much to Brain's surprise. Instead, he has each of the parents tell the class about themselves. Sue Ellen's parents give a really short and boring speech.

They make hardly any conversations the whole night, just like their daughter wanted, but Sue Ellen gets more annoyed by how boring they are now and tells them to act like themselves again, which her mom and dad both like and agree with.

Arthur's father continues telling bad jokes, Francine's father falls asleep again, and now Sue Ellen's parents are once again acting strange. But the children eventually realize that they actually like their parents for who they really are anyway.

The episode finishes with all the parents watching Sue Ellen's mother dancing while Sue Ellen's father plays the drums, and clapping in a circle. Jane remarks that it's too bad the kids won't join them; they must be too embarrassed. David, who is wearing a tie on his forehead while dancing himself, says sarcastically, "Embarrassed? I can't imagine why!"

Characters

Main

• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Mr. Armstrong
• Mrs. Armstrong

Major

• Arthur Read
• Binky Barnes
• The Brain
• Buster Baxter
• Francine Frensky
• Nigel Ratburn

Minor

• Oliver Frensky
• David Read
• Jane Read
• Mr. Barnes
• Mrs. Barnes
• Mrs. Lundgren
• Mr. Powers
• Mrs. Powers
• Ed Crosswire
• Millicent Crosswire
• Mrs. Bofini

Cameo

• D.W. Read
• Bitzi Baxter
• Laverne Frensky
• Mr. Lundgren
• George Lundgren
• Francis Haney
• Muffy Crosswire
• Leah MacGrady (in a flashback)
• Jenna Morgan
• Alex
• Luke
• John
• Maria Pappas
• Helen
• Mary
• Fern Walters
• 3rd Grade Male Rat

Trivia

• Before this episode, the intro uses the boing sound in Arthur’s crash.
• The mid-show feature for this episode (on PBS airings in the US) is called "And Now a Word from Us Parents," a one-time special where the parents talk about their children.
• Timeline: Binky is worried about embarrassing nicknames. “What's in a Name?” reveals that his real name is Shelley and that his parents nicknamed him Binky because he was so fond of his pacifier as a baby. Brain, on the other hand, is the only character who is usually called by his nickname, but not by his parents.
• Moral: Dont humiliatlate kids for your own benefits.

Episode Connections

• "Fern's Slumber Party" also features an Open House at Lakewood Elementary.
• Mrs. Drone is named for her way of talking, like Ms. Tremello from “Arthur’s Substitute Teacher Trouble”.
• Buster refers to the events of "Sue Ellen Moves In." Two scenes from that episode are shown again.
• Prunella told the third-graders horror stories about Mr. Ratburn in “Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn”, but she was telling the truth about Mr. Ratburn usually giving quizzes on open house night.

Errors

• In the classroom during the open house, Francine and her parents aren't seen in a wide view of the classroom, but Francine is later seen sitting at a desk beside her father.
• Throughout, Sue Ellen's father's skin color changes from caramel to a paler color.
• When Sue Ellen tells her parents that being normal is boring, her father's eyebrows can be seen switching from brown to black and back to brown in a quick flash.
• When Mrs. Lundgren is taking to Mr. Armstrong in the cafeteria, her hair is brown instead of black and she has a lighter complexion.
• The central cross on Mrs. Armstrong's Union Jack dress is blue, even though it is red on the actual flag.
• On Amazon Prime Video, this episode is incorrectly titled as "Kids Are From Earth, Parents Are From Mars." The first letter of every word in the title is capitalized, and "Pluto" is replaced with "Mars."

Cultural references

• The title is a reference to the 1992 relationship book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray, Ph.D.
• Sue Ellen imagines being asked by Mr. Ratburn who the 6th President of the United States was. (The answer, as Mr. Ratburn tells her, is John Quincy Adams.
• Brain made a tribal mask like that of the Yoruba people in West Africa.
• Brain's lessons for his parents include the Pythagorean theorem and Benjamin Franklin.

Gallery

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References