Tales from the Crib

"Tales from the Crib"
Season/Series:	8
Number in season:	8B
Original Airdate:	December 24, 2003 March 10, 2004
Credits
Written by:	Jonathan Greenberg
Storyboard by:	Robert Yap Julian Harris
Episodes
Previous "Muffy's Art Attack"	Next "Flea to Be You and Me"
Read transcript

"Tales from the Crib" is the second half of the eighth episode in the eighth season of Arthur.

Summary

Vicita gets a new bed, but she wants to keep her crib. To help her get through her troubles, D.W. tells Vicita the story of how she grew out of her crib.

Plot

(NOTE: Purple text is a flashback)

The episode starts with a show called "Baby Cribz", hosted by D.W Read, that takes you on a tour of the crib of a really young child. Today, they are visiting Vicita's crib in the heart of Elwood City. Vicita shows the viewers the solid maple-constructed bars that make her feel that she sleeps safe, and shows how great the jumping is, and of course, the toys she keeps in there! Vicita then says she wouldn't give up her crib for the entire world.

{TITLE CARD}

One day, while D.W. is playing at the Molina house, she accidentally breaks one of the latter's Christy doll's heads off. However, Vicita immediately forgives her and is about to get another doll when she finds her crib is disassembled, and she got a new bed.

She is worried and wants her crib, but D.W. tells her about how she got through sleeping in a bed.

About one year earlier, because D.W. was getting to be a big girl, Mrs. Read chooses to buy D.W. a new bed, though D.W. wants to sleep in the crib all her life. Mrs. Read then adds that the new baby is going to need a crib. D.W. tells her mother that she should get one like hers, but the baby is going to sleep in D.W.'s crib. When asked if D.W. and the new baby are going to share the crib, Mrs. Read tells her that she is going to give D.W.'s crib to the baby and buy her a new bed.

D.W. and her parents went to the store to buy D.W. a bed. At the store, a salesman shows D.W. a sunflower bed with a "secret" pull-out drawer, but D.W. isn't impressed, and responds rudely towards the salesman. Her father suggests a bed with monkeys on the headboard, but she turns down that one, too. Before she can finish insisting she wants the same crib she always had, she observes a royal unicorn bed and picks that one.

Then she tells the Tibble Twins about this, but they say they'd never sleep in a bed because of "Arachnar: Lord of the Spider People." But that was just an Irving Legend ("the kind of story [one's] old [non-existent] Uncle Irving tells, which is real scary, but doesn't actually happen [either]").

That night, D.W. gets too excited about her new bed to go to sleep, and soon discovers that because her bed doesn't have any bars like her old crib, she gets right out of bed and goes through every book on the shelf. She then realizes not only doesn't she need to stay in her bed, she doesn't even have to stay in her room. So she exits her room and sneaks into her parents' room where Mr. and Mrs. Read are sleeping, as D.W. gets in their bed, they start talking sleepily, but D.W. is caught after saying something. Mrs. Read brings D.W. back to her bed, declaring that she knows it's new to sleep in a bed, but she and daddy also need their sleep, and she therefore tells her to stay in bed. She kisses D.W. good night.

Again, D.W. gets out of bed, assuming it's OK to do so if she's quiet, and goes into Arthur's room to play tea party with his teddy bear, Stanley. When she's about to "warm up [Stanley's] cup", she only inadvertently knocks it (with pens and pencils inside it) over, causing Arthur to wake up and scare him (as he thinks there are robbers). Mr. Read comes in and brings D.W. back to bed and tells her not to get out of bed anymore... and Arthur tells her not to play with Stanley anymore. D.W. is amused that Arthur was so scared, but he denies it. Then they all go back to bed ("No exceptions," adds Mr. Read) and stay in for the rest of the night.

Vicita asks if D.W. wasn't scared getting out of bed like so because of the possibility of the robbers getting her, but D.W. says there were none. The "robbers" were just Arthur being a scaredy-cat. Vicita questions the possibility of Uncle Irving getting her. She tells her there is no Uncle Irving. (either) Vicita, not getting the point, bets that's because the robbers got him, much to D.W.'s chagrin.

The next night, everything starts off normally, and Mrs. Read (tucking D.W. in) tells her not to get up from her bed tonight. Although D.W. desires to get some sleep, she thinks about how much there is to explore. She gets up again (though she was told not to), and she tried turning on the TV, but there's a lot of static roaring on it, so she turns it off. Then she accidentally steps on a clown doll who tells her to press the button on her tummy. She then sneaks into the kitchen for some ice cream. Although she manages to get the ice cream, she drops it due to "Arachnar," and spills it, leaving Pal to eat it up. She then runs back to bed and sees something in the bed, and tries to escape to the crib, but gets caught by the blanket (who seems to be alive). This wakes Arthur who thinks the robbers are in D.W.'s room. He goes in to try to save her, but ends up fighting with D.W. instead (by accident). Mrs. Read reveals that the thing in her bed was only her doll. D.W. cannot believe she let the Tibbles' story scare her, and Mrs. Read reveals that there's nothing wrong with fear, but Arachnar is nonexistent; however, D.W. asks her to sleep with her that night anyway, which she does, thus ending her trouble of sleeping in her bed.

Back in the present, Vicita still doesn't want to sleep in a big-girl bed, but later, Vicita invites her to sleep over on her first night. That night, although Vicita is now sleeping, D.W. gets up from the bed to see what kind of ice cream the Molinas have. (She probably must have been sleeping in her own bed at her own house)

Characters

• D.W. Read
• Jane Read
• David Read
• Vicita Molina
• Ramón Molina
• Mrs. Molina
• Alberto Molina
• Arthur Read
• Timmy and Tommy Tibble
• Pal
• Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 3)(cameo)
• Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)(cameo)

Trivia

• It is revealed that D.W. hates non-anthropomorphic monkeys.
• When little D.W. steps on Arthur's face, Michael Yarmush's scream effect is heard.
• Innuendo: D.W. tells a talking toy, "But I didn't turn you on!"
• Moral: Change may not be easy but you have to deal with it no matter what.

Cultural references

• The episode's title, "Tales from the Crib", is a reference to a horror comic and show entitled Tales from the Crypt.
• Baby Cribz is possibly a parody of the show MTV Cribs.
• When D.W. talks about "Irving legends" she means Urban legend: stories that are circulated as if they happened to somebody when they are in fact made up.

Errors

• D.W. may have made up this story to help Vicita:
  • D.W. looks younger and less mature here than she does in "Arthur's Baby", when David and Jane give her and Arthur the news about the new baby.
  • The crib remained in D.W.'s room after she got her new bed, but in "D.W.'s Baby", David and Jane move the crib into her room.
  • When D.W. sees the bed that she gets, it has unicorns and rainbows on it, but when it is in her room, it is a plain solid aqua/teal color. D.W.'s bed remains this way throughout the series.
  • In the scene where D.W. gets the ice cream, Pal is seen under the table, despite chronologically him not even being born yet when the flashback took place.

Gallery

• 
• 
• 

  Tommy and Timmy visit D.W.'s house after she gives up her crib.

• 

  D.W. enjoying her new bed for the first time.

References