Phony Fern

"Phony Fern"
Season/Series:	11
Number in season:	4A
Original Airdate:	June 28, 2007;
	Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Gerry Capelle
	Episodes
Previous; "Prunella Packs It In"	Next; "Brain's Shocking Secret"
	Read transcript

"Phony Fern" is the first half of the fourth episode in the eleventh season of Arthur.

Summary

Fern receives the latest phone for simple communication, but becomes addicted to the appliance.

Plot

The episode begins in the cinema. Muffy, Fern and others are watching a film when Chip, Muffy's brother, calls. Muffy answers the phone during the movie, which causes everyone else to leave. They are later seen eating in Chicken Lickin', where Muffy is texting Bailey (who is just outside the restaurant) which ends in Fern getting annoyed and leaving. Muffy shows Fern her new phone, the Portilex 360. Despite initially voicing contempt for the phone, the consumerism it generates and the fact that seemingly everyone has one, thus limiting social opportunities, Fern receives a Portilex from her parents, a happen-stance that she initially bemoans.

In light of this, Fern eventually becomes glued to the phone after being lulled by its extensive panoply of features. She uses the Portilex almost constantly, and even lands herself in trouble with Mr. Ratburn when she uses the phone in class.

When the battery begins to run low during a heated talk with Muffy, Fern frantically attempts to recharge it, but the phone is destroyed when she trips and loses it under the drum of a road roller. Fern's parents are disappointed that Fern did not stick to the phone's bare mandatory purpose, and so Fern decides upon a simple, no-frills model, deciding that she would be happier with that. The episode ends.

Characters

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Songs

"Fern's Cell Phone Song"

Trivia

Arthur makes a cameo in this episode, but does not speak at all or interact with the main characters throughout the episode.
It is ratherly shocking that 3rd graders have phones and even a 4 year old had one.

Cultural references

In Fern's opening Fantasy sequence, She and George's alter egos: Detectives Watto and Vastings, are a parody of Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings, respectively.

Errors

When the book cart is pushed out of the library in Fern's song, the background outside the doors is the school hallway.
When Fern goes to School, she has a backpack but after school when she is running home, she doesn't have it.