The Boy Who Cried Comet

"The Boy Who Cried Comet"
Season/Series:	6
Number in season:	5A
Original Airdate:	October 22, 2001
Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Elie Klimos Zhigang Wang
Episodes
Previous "Brother, Can You Spare a Clarinet?"	Next "Arthur and Los Vecinos"
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"The Boy Who Cried Comet" is the first half of the fifth episode in the sixth season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book Arthur and the Comet Crisis.

Summary

Buster uses Muffy's new telescope to try to prove that the UFOs he has been seeing are real, but discovers something even more frightening: a comet headed straight for Earth!

Plot

Arthur walks through a desolate area. He tells the viewers to imagine they could go to another dimension where teachers are aliens (Mr. Ratburn appears and pulls his head off, revealing he was an alien), principals who are robots (Principal Haney appears as a robot and explodes) and more UFOs than stars in the sky. He then concludes the intro, saying "Your next stop, the Buster Zone."

In the episode, Arthur and Fern are at Arthur's locker when Buster rushes up to them, saying that something's happening. The trio heads to Brain's mom's ice cream parlor, where Buster explains that the night before, he believes that he saw a fleet of UFOs. Brain immediately proves Buster wrong, saying that it's only a crazy theory. Buster sets out to prove him wrong.

After he and Arthur set up a telescope that they borrowed from Muffy, Buster attempts to get proof of a UFO, but he fails. One night, however, he does discover a comet, and finds out that one is expected to come to Elwood City in 37 days. He dreams of such an occurrence happening later that night.

The next day, he tries to warn everyone at school, but no one listens to him, so he tells the Brain to warn everyone. Brain reluctantly does so, only to find out that Buster's findings were correct.

The other kids run around the treehouse panicking, until Fern steps on a screw that was missing from the telescope. As she explains to Arthur and D.W. the next day at the Sugar Bowl, the missing screw was the reason why Buster believed that a comet was going to hit Elwood City. Buster and Brain soon arrive to the Sugar Bowl with newspapers that have Buster on the front cover. Brain then tells Buster that there might be life forms in the future, and then an actual alien appears, revealing that this episode was part of a TV set on the moon, with alien actors taking place as the kids.

Characters

• Arthur Read
• Buster Baxter
• Fern Walters
• Alan Powers
• Muffy Crosswire
• Francine Frensky
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Binky Barnes
• Bitzi Baxter
• Nigel Ratburn
• Francis Haney

Trivia

• The name of the episode is based on the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf', where a boy claims many times that he sees a wolf and when there actually is one, nobody comes to help him.
• The newspaper refers to Buster as "Cat Saver", referring to the name given to him for his actions in "Buster Baxter, Cat Saver"; this is odd, as it had since become known that Buster's actions in saving the cat in that episode were not truly heroic.
• The telescope part that Fern picked up appears to be a fastening bolt for the telescope tripod and the telescope, however this part does not appear to be a computer part, so the computer shouldn't have malfunctioned without it.
• The fact that Ratburn pulled off his head to reveal he was an alien in the teaser is a reference to the episode's ending.
• When Arthur and Buster pull of their heads, their alien forms are seen. However, Brain's, Fern's and D.W.'s alien forms are not seen. However, as the screen zooms out to show Arthur-alien and Buster-alien walking out, if the screen is paused at the right time, the viewers can see a yellow alien wearing a pink dress (D.W.), a purple alien with a white shirt (Brain) and a blue alien with a purple shirt (Fern) walking away.
• The Justin Bradley version of this episode story is available on the VHS and DVD editions of Arthur Gets Spooked.

Cultural References

• The opening of this episode is a parody of the opening of the show, The Twilight Zone.

Errors

• D.W., the Tibble Twins, and several preschoolers are seen briefly in the background when Buster climbs up the jungle gym.

Home Video

DVD:

• Arthur Gets Spooked

VHS:

• Arthur Gets Spooked

Gallery

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Screenshots

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  Fern holding the missing telescope part.

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References