The Half-Baked Sale

"The Half-Baked Sale"
Season/Series:	1
Number in season:	20B
Original Airdate:	November 1, 1996 January 31, 1997
Credits
Written by:	Ken Scarborough
Storyboard by:	Jean Lajeunesse
Episodes
Previous "Arthur's Almost Boring Day"	Next "Sue Ellen Moves In"
Read transcript

"The Half-Baked Sale" is the second half of the twentieth episode in the first season of Arthur.

Summary

Grandma Thora has made goodies for the bake sale, but Arthur worries about what people will think when they discover her terrible cooking.

Plot

Arthur explains (while cleaning the garage with D.W.) that his grandma is great, that she helps when people are sick and listens to Arthur when he is telling what happened on Bionic Bunny, but that her cooking is really bad; when she announces that she has cookies they both hide behind boxes.

Arthur's parents are going away on a trip to see Grandpa Dave. Arthur's mom is going through a list of things, the last one is about Dr. Bailey's number, but she forgot where it was. Grandma Thora reminded her she left it on the fridge. Jane thanks her for covering, but Thora says she loves nothing better than taking care of them and says she is going to cook them something special. Arthur & D.W. look surprised. Arthur's dad says that wouldn't be necessary because he left money for fast-food. She may not be a professional like him, but she's still going to cook and says she is going to experiment.

The next scene she's on the phone saying she is going to help with something. While she is one the phone she makes lots of mistakes with her special dinner. Baby Kate even gets a sample and starts crying, because it tastes nasty.

Then Arthur & D.W. start coming up with ideas to get out of dinner. D.W. suggests they get sick, but Arthur says then they would be given her chicken soup. Grandma Thora then says it's dinner.

Arthur & D.W. hate their dinner because it looks like an olive loaf and tastes nasty. D.W. suggest to Arthur to smash his food and spread it around his plate so it look like that they ate some. She even tried trading with Pal, but Arthur says not to plus Pal growled at her. Later Arthur and D.W. are watching TV and Grandma Thora gave them burnt pudding. She said that she was on the phone for the PTA fundraiser and Arthur asks if she is doing bingo. Grandma says no bingo this year because she'll be cooking for other people. Arthur and D.W. panic and then Grandma Thora tells Arthur to make signs.

The next day Arthur asks Buster about it, he says it's not that bad, and suggests to tell them it's not for eating, but for exercising or a statue. Arthur says he doesn't think it will work out then Buster says he has no choice, but to tell her the truth about her cooking then Arthur says he is afraid he would say that.

The next day they're shopping for food, Grandma Thora is getting cookie ingredients. She picks up a tomato and Arthur asks her what she is doing she said you can't make cookies without tomato, Arthur almost pained again when he heard that and she says she will earn lots of money from the bake sale with Arthur's signs.

Arthur nearly told her that she is bad at cooking, but he didn't want to make her sad, another is because he was interrupted by Mrs. MacGrady when he heard that and she says she will earn lots of money from the bake sale with Arthur's signs then Arthur nearly told her that she is bad at cooking, but he didn't want to make her sad, another is because he was interrupted by Mrs. MacGrady who helped carry her groceries home.

She tells Arthur that the bake sale would have never happened if his grandma didn't help out and says he must be proud of her. Arthur agrees and then offers Grandma Thora help. But Grandma says no because she already has two assistants.

Inside Arthur is complaining that he should help, but says she has got it under control. Then, Thora tells him that that cooking runs in the family, that his father started to cook at age 8 (Arthur's age).

He decides that the only thing to do is stop people from eating them so the next day he takes his money and buys all the cookies and hides them in the janitor's closet. But Mr. Morris goes in and slips on the cookies and nearly breaks his leg.

She tells them how did they get in there and Arthur & D.W. say they did it and tell her they didn't want to hurt her. She asks Mrs. MacGrady if her cooking is bad she blushes and says why does she ask and she looks sad.

Then Mrs. MacGrady says it's okay because she's too busy doing other things and Arthur & D.W. say they still love her even if she is a bad cook. They go inside to clean up, but find out that Buster is eating them. He is officially the only person ever to like her cookies.

Characters

• Arthur Read
• D.W. Read
• Thora Read
• Leah MacGrady
• Nigel Ratburn
• Buster Baxter
• Jane Read
• David Read
• Kate Read
• Mr. Morris
• Francine Frensky (cameo)
• Oliver Frensky (cameo)
• Pal (cameo)
• Uncle Bud (cameo)

Trivia

• Timeline: Grandma Thora's bad cooking has also been revealed in My Music Rules, Arthur Loses His Marbles, and Just Desserts.

Episode connections

• Grandma Thora puts tomatoes in chocolate. Buster does the same thing with his Buster Clusters in "Buster's Sweet Success."
• Thora bakes pecan pie without shelling the pecans. Binky repeats her mistake in "Arthur's Perfect Christmas."
• Mr. Morris injures his leg again in "April 9th."
• Strangely in "Arthur's Birthday", Thora asked Arthur what birthday cake she should bake him, which Arthur enthusiastically responds "chocolate", hinting that he actually likes Thora's cooking.
• Thora makes the worst chocolate chip cookies in this episode, but in Go to Your Room, D.W. during D.W.'s imagination flashback, she moves in with her, and D.W. eats gallons of cookies which he loves, meaning that Thora has actually made the best chocolate chip cookies.

Errors

• Although Mrs. and Mr. Read leaves the house, her voice can be heard calling the kids to dinner instead of Grandma's Thora's voice.

Home Video

• DVD: Arthur Loses His Marbles
• Free on-demand episode courtesy of: PBS (Thirteen)

Gallery

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