Arthur and D.W. Clean Up

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"Arthur and D.W. Clean Up"
Season/Series:	3
Number in season:	15A
Original Airdate:	January 1, 1999 May 31, 1999
Credits
Written by:	Anne-Marie Perrotta Tean Schultz
Storyboard by:	Robert Yap Jeremy O'Neill
Episodes
Previous "D.W.'s Perfect Wish"	Next "The Long, Dull Winter"
Read transcript

"Arthur and D.W. Clean Up" is the first half of the fifteenth episode in the third season of Arthur.

Summary

Arthur and D.W. need to clean their rooms and work together to get things done quicker. However, each is persnickety about what stays and what goes and how it all goes together.

Plot

Arthur is sitting at his desk in his room thinking about how he could make a few changes to his bedroom, and proceeds to daydream about himself living in a large house, equipped with everything he could ever want. It contains many rooms, among them the arcade, the wobbly room (which he says is "good for bouncing"), and a roller coaster ride. The house even has the ability to clean itself, much to Arthur's pleasure. His daydream is then interrupted by his mom, who asks how his room is coming along. He says that he's "working on it", but we can see that his room is actually a huge mess.

Later, Arthur and his friends are discussing the upcoming Happy Crazy Wow Day event in the Elwood City Park, and are all looking forward to going. The gang decides they want to play soccer, so Arthur goes to fetch his soccer ball from his room (which he can barely walk through because of the messes he's made).

His mother, Jane, insists he clean his room, but he says he'll "do it later". That night, Arthur is trying to watch Alien Zoo Squad, but Jane tells him to go clean his room.

Instead of cleaning, he calls Buster to tell him what's happening on T.V., but Buster's too distracted, so he has Buster place the phone by the T.V. It works until Jane hears the movie on the telephone line, and makes him get off.

The next day, Arthur says he is going to the Happy Crazy Wow Day event at the park, but Jane forces him (and D.W.) to stay home and clean up their rooms. Arthur says it will take forever, so their dad, David, suggests they clean Arthur's room together, and then D.W.'s.

Despite their objections, he asks them to just try it. Arthur tries to clean up, but D.W. annoys him by throwing out his stuff, including Buster's postcards and a bag to Muffy's cookies (with his picture on it), which he wants to save.

She also takes out his light bulb costume and moon boots, which annoys Arthur even more. When she tries to throw out a Popsicle stick, he objects yet again, claiming it's part of his collection (even though he doesn't have one). When she throws it out anyway, he has her rearrange his book shelf, and she sees the homework he has, remarking that he must love to do homework.

A note stuck in one of the books catches her attention, and she takes the opportunity to tease Arthur, thinking it's a love note by saying in a sing-song voice that he has a girlfriend. Even though he corrects her (explaining that the note actually says for him not to forget to bring his baseball mitt to school on Monday and is signed "Francine"), D.W. continues to tease Arthur for being in love. So he calls Jane in his annoyance.

David comes up instead and tells them to stop arguing, then the work will move a lot faster. The two do so, and are able to clean up the room quickly, and when they are done, it looks as good as new.

However, just as Arthur is about to leave for Happy Crazy Wow Day, D.W. tells him that they're not done yet; they still have to clean her room. She immediately criticizes him for arranging her dolls wrong, messing up her rock collection and for mishandling her doll supplies.

When he snaps that her doll supplies are put away, she calls up their parents, and they start arguing over Arthur's failure to cooperate. They tell him that had he cleaned his room earlier, he wouldn't have had this problem.

D.W. interrupts and asks that she clean her room alone, not wanting Arthur to touch her stuff. Although David objects, Jane and Arthur are happy at the idea, and Arthur thanks D.W. for letting him go.

Arthur finally makes it to the park in time for Happy Crazy Wow Day, and has fun with his friends. After the festivities, Francine asks Arthur why he was late. Although Arthur initially blames D.W., he then admits the fault is his because he hadn't cleaned his room in a while. Brain said that he had done something similar to that, and adds that one time his mother wouldn't let him do any extra credit projects until he cleaned it up.

Francine's dad, Oliver, then shows up and says he's glad they stuck around. He then asks them to help him clean up the park, saying "Many hands make light work," much to Buster's amusement and Arthur's chagrin.

Characters

Major

• Arthur Read
• D.W. Read
• Jane Read
• David Read

Minor

• Buster Baxter
• The Brain
• Francine Frensky
• Nigel Ratburn

Cameo

• George Lundgren
• Jenna Morgan
• Fern Walters
• Binky Barnes
• Maria Pappas
• Alex
• Prunella Deegan
• 3rd Grade Female Aardvark
• 3rd Grade Male Cat
• 3rd Grade Male Rat
• Mary
• 3rd Grade Male Rabbit
• 3rd Grade Female Cat (Number 2)

Trivia

• The cat villain on Alien Zoo Squad is one of very few anthropomorphic Arthur-characters to have a tail. He is promptly told to chase it.
• David says he has a brother, but the character he mentioned has never been shown in the series; although his brother could be the husband of Arthur and D.W.'s Aunt Bonnie, and father of Cousin George.
• When Jane says, "It's as messy as your brother's!", Mr. Read can be seen on the newspaper.
• This is the only episode written by Tean Schultz.
• At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur’s crashing sound changes to the Season 5 version.
• This is the first episode of Arthur to air in 1999 in the U.S.
• Timeline:
  • Arthur's moon boots reappear in this episode, as does his Poogle, despite him having given away the latter.
  • Arthur still has one of Muffy's cookie bags that has his picture on it from the Strawberry Festival contest.
  • Arthur has Buster's lightbulb costume from the Thomas Edison play in "Francine Frensky, Superstar". However, Buster played the part of the lightbulb in that play and Arthur was the phonograph, so it's strange why Arthur would have the light bulb costume; yet he claimed it to be his in this episode. This goof might be because the phonograph costume would be too heavy for D.W. to wear.
  • The fake UFO from "Arthur's First Sleepover" was seen, too.
• Irony: David and Jane tell Arthur that if he had cleaned up his room earlier, he wouldn't be missing the festival. And they're right, as he admits at the end.
• Moral: Don't be bossy for your own benefits.
• Originally, only three seasons of Arthur were planned, so what might have been the third- and second-to-last episode of Arthur are full of references to previous episodes. While “D.W.’s Perfect Wish” contained lengthy clip shows, this episode is full of meaningful objects:
  • the No Guessing game from “Arthur the Loser”
  • Buster's postcards from “Arthur’s Faraway Friend” to “Buster’s Back”
  • the Poogle from “Arthur Rides the Bandwagon”
  • the lightbulb costume from “Francine Frensky, Superstar”
  • the moon boots from “Arthur Bounces Back”
  • a cookie bag from “How the Cookie Crumbles”
  • the sword from “The Return of the King”
  • the fake U.F.O. from “Arthur’s First Sleepover”
  • the elephant trunk from “Play it Again, D.W.”
  • a Woogle from “Arthur Rides the Bandwagon”

Errors

• During the credits of the Audio Descriptive version of this episode and "The Long, Dull Winter," the narrator says the title card information for "Mom and Dad Have a Great Big Fight"/"D.W.'s Perfect Wish."

Home Video

DVD

• Arthur: The Complete Series 4

Gallery

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References