Awesome / Arthur

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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PBS Kids Television Series

• After being terrorized by the Tibble twins when babysitting them, Arthur finally gets them to behave by telling them a scary story (about a swamp monster that hunts for twins) and the twins actually offer to help Arthur clean up as a result.
• In "D.W. Flips", the Tibbles are taunting Emily for telling the teacher on D.W. (for trying to do a cartwheel on the balance beam unsupervised) and D.W. sticks up for Emily (in spite of her earlier jealousy towards her) and asks if the Tibbles want to try and do a cartwheel on the balance beam instead, causing them to scamper off.
• The redemption of the Tough Customers is the culmination of several years of Character Development, especially on Binky and Molly's part. Molly tells James that bullying is wrong, and when James asks if she will apologize to those she hurt, Molly writes apology letters to Binky (she snapped at him) and George (after years of victimization).
• The show has many Very Special Episodes about topics such as cancer, Alzheimer's (or at least a similar ailment), Asperger Syndrome, fires (based on 9/11), and same-sex marriage. They all hit the mark in both logic and in execution to teach kids about subjects that would be hard for them to understand.
  • "When Carl Met George" gives an analogy to what having Asperger's is like and is generally well done, even implying how it levels out when you get older and you become less... Rain Man.
  Brain: Imagine you've crash-landed on an alien planet. It looks like earth, but there are lots of differences. For one, a lot of people seem to talk really loudly. And even though you speak the same language, you sometimes have a hard time understanding what they mean. And things that seem hilarious to you aren't funny at all to them. You wish the scientists back on earth had given you a guide book to this strange planet, but they forgot to pack one, so you have to try to learn things all on your own. Maybe there's one thing in particular that captures your interest and you study just that. Hopefully the people on the planet begin to understand you a little better. And you might even learn to fit in. But you'll always feel a little bit different.
  • "Operation D.W." Not the episode itself, but the execution of it. The operation in question involves D.W. having tubes inserted into her ears, a very common solution for recurring childhood ear infections. The beauty behind having D.W. undergo such a simple procedure is that the episode focus stays on the basics of dealing with surgery, rather than any causes of fear, stress, or pain that might come after the operation (and don't necessarily apply to everybody). The writers avoided scaring a lot of children unnecessarily.
  • In the same vein, "S.W.E.A.T" helps viewers by focusing on dealing with test anxiety, without showing outcomes that might justify that fear.
• The Batman Gambit that ultimately works in "D.W. The Picky Eater" to get D.W. to go to the restaurant: Buster calls Arthur's house pretending to be Grandma Thora, and Arthur talks loudly about how everyone's going to the restaurant after all, except D.W. Arthur also reminds D.W. that she doesn't want to go to restaurants anymore, and "This one might have spinach." This makes D.W. angry about being left out, especially since it's Grandma Thora, so she shouts, "Grandma, I'm going to your party, and I'm going to be lots of fun!" She smugly insists she's coming and promises to her parents that she'll try something new and not make a fuss.
• "Arthur Cleans Up". Pal nearly chokes to death on the Tough Customers' garbage, who were tossing it to make fun of the "Clean Up Boy" Arthur. Arthur gets fed up and puts them in their place. He demands that the Tough Customers help him to clean up the park, complete with Death Glare, and they comply. And give the show props for averting Never Say "Die" as Arthur outright says that their actions "almost killed my dog".
  • The guy who saved Pal from choking with the Heimlich Maneuver also deserves a mention.
• In "Binky Barnes, Art Expert", Binky insists that a bizarre modernist painting he's found was hung up the wrong way at the art museum, and wants to do that for a report he's doing with Arthur and Buster. The entire time, the boys are dreading that Binky will utterly humiliate them with his outlandish claims, and then we see at the end the great lengths Binky went to prove his theory; turns out Binky is much more savvy than he looks, and he proves that indeed he was right the entire time.
  • Arthur and Buster get in one when the news does a story on the discovery and corrects the painting's portrayal, telling the reporter that it's Binky who deserves all the credit for all the hard work he did. Even their teacher praises them for this.
• Muffy's Dream Sequence in "Lights, Camera, Opera!" in which Muffy, Binky, Francine, Prunella, George, Buster and Rodney Gilfry perform an Arthur-ized interpretation of Bizet's Carmen. The characters sing ingeniously-plot-relevant lyrics to the famous melodies from Carmen; Muffy's rendition of Habanera is particularly awesome.
• "Fifteen." Arthur's report is recovered just in time to give his class a No Homework Day (which, given Nigel Ratburn, is awesome in itself), George wins a quiz show, as well as money for the school and Pal foils Nemo.
• "D.W. Rides Again". Love or hate D.W., when she taught herself to ride a two-wheeled bicycle at the end, nearly turning herself into one giant scab in the end, catching up with Arthur and his friends, and showing up the Tibble twins all in one, it was pretty impressive.
• "D.W. Thinks Big":
  • Dave manages to keep D.W. from getting hurt when she tries to put the bride and groom on the wedding cake, while cooking several dishes at once.
  • Jane prevents Cora and her mother from bullying D.W. about "breaking" Cora's locket (which was Cora's fault) by announcing bedtime and breaking up the argument.
  • D.W. volunteers to crawl inside a dirty pipe organ to retrieve the wedding ring, showing up her spoiled and show-offy Cousin Cora. Aunt Lucy gets in on the action by stealthily reminding Cora not to ruin the wedding by throwing a tantrum with just saying her name.
  • Arthur also volunteered initially to go inside the organ despite wearing his Sunday best. Though he didn't fit, that was commendable.
  • Then Arthur hands D.W. the pillow and the ring because she deserves the glory. Lucy even bestows D.W. with Cora's flower crown.
  • Cora getting what she deserves will make the audience cheer for D.W. even more. After spending the entire episode acting like an obnoxious jerk to her cousins and causing the ring fiasco in the first place, she ultimately loses her flower girl position to D.W.. When she tries to protest, Aunt Lucy silences her warningly just so she won’t spoil the wedding even further. Knowing that she has no other choice, Cora begrudgingly accepts.
• Fern gets sick of being teased for her passion in "I'm a Poet", and dares her classmates to try it.
• Fern's performance in the special "It's Only Rock and Roll". Who knew she could be so good at singing?
• Joshua Redman and Yo-Yo Ma's cover of The Crazy Bus actually makes it become a lot more bearable, and if it wasn't annoying to you, it just makes it more awesome.
• "Buster Hits the Books" sees Buster making the mistake of writing a book report about a movie, believing all movies to be based on books. Realizing he'd fail for turning in a report like this, he actually goes to Mr. Ratburn to confess his mistake. This is Buster we're talking about, who fears Mr. Ratburn more than anyone else in the class. Instead of failing Buster, Mr. Ratburn gives him a second chance to do his report properly, and after much struggle, Buster comes through on his second attempt.
• "Flaw and Order". How did Alan get his hands on sound enhancement software? Let's not question it, because it saved Arthur and Buster.
• In "The Silent Treatment", George accidentally drops Wally into the river. Without missing a beat, Sue Ellen scoots down the riverbank, stick in hand, and fishes him out. Now that's badass.
• In "Arthur Rides the Bandwagon", Arthur proves that juice caps are more fun than Woogles and starts a fad himself in the process.
• "To Eat or Not to Eat" is an episode about a very addictive and very dangerous candy bar being marketed to children. Buster puts a stop to it by learning what's in it, touring the factory, and offering the creator a candy bar, which sends him running off. Buster's mom then writes about it for the paper, putting an end to the candy company and sending the creator to jail.
  • Also, when the creator tries to weasel his way out of trying the addictive candy bar by claiming he already ate one, instead of taking his word on face value, Buster quickly deduces he's lying through his teeth. How? Being the little detective he is, he notes that if the creator had eaten one of his own candy bars, his breath would be giving off that signature sparkle that comes from eating it.
  • Even cooler, his confronting the creator feels like a 2.0 version of "Buster and the Daredevils", where he stands up for what's right and offers the antagonist a taste of their own medicine. Only instead of a couple punk kids, he's essentially confronting a drug dealer. Not every kid can claim that sort of courage.
• Season 18 has provided a couple of rare ones for D.W. In "The Tattletale Frog", Bud inadvertently gets blamed for a big mess in the Read house that he and D.W. made together and that was essentially D.W.'s idea. Later, Jane threatens to call Bud's mother about this, and D.W. breaks down sobbing, after which she confesses. It's one of the rare times D.W. has been disciplined onscreen or more importantly, shown remorse for anything she's done.
• In "Prove It", D.W. manages to pull one over on Arthur—she wants to go to the Exploratorium with Brain and Arthur after she gains a new interest in science and when Arthur naturally does not want her tagging along, D.W. tells him that one day he will be begging to take her. D.W. then starts charging kids money to showcase science, only her claims are inaccurate (i.e. claiming that trees make wind and the sun goes down because it's out of gas) and Arthur is concerned about other kids being taught false information by D.W.. He and Brain try to counteract her false claims but can't prove her wrong, so Arthur indeed ends up begging his parents to take D.W. to the Exploratorium so he can dispute her claims. D.W. then reveals this was all part of her plan to get Arthur to take her to the museum.
  • In "D.W. and Bud's Higher Purpose," D.W. and Bud are determined to ride The Buzzard, a roller coaster clearly meant for older kids. D.W. spends the whole episode trying to help Bud find a way onto the ride so she can keep her end of the pact they made. She even lets Bud spit on her hand to seal the pact. When D.W. sees just how intense the ride actually is, she agrees not to go on it, whereas in earlier episodes she might've insisted on going. It shows she's maturing, perhaps because of Bud's influence.
• In "Elwood City Turns 100", there's a lot of bickering going on. Arthur getting annoyed with Francine's constructive criticism about his singing while Buster and Brain argue about whether to make the play accurate or put some fantasy in it. Muffy blows a flute and gets everyone to work together.
  Muffy: We were chosen out of 15 schools to put on this show, but maybe they were wrong to pick us. Maybe they should've picked Mighty Mountain or Glenbrook. After all, would they be arguing? No, they'd be working together. Something we just can't seem to do.
• Muffy had another rare one in Season 18's "Little Miss Meanie." She's determined to win the Little Miss Crocus pageant, having entered pageants before but never winning due to unforeseen mishaps. When Muffy discovers Lydia has entered, she thinks the other girl will automatically win based on sympathy, because she's in a wheelchair. She intends to tell Lydia to drop out because of this, but then hears another girl say the same thing. Muffy realizes how mean it is, and she and Lydia team up to defeat the pageant bully. What makes it even more awesome is that although the girls consider taking revenge, they decide to help each other do the best they can, rather than stooping to the mean girl's level. This nets them both the honor of first runner-up, while their nemesis receives no honors because she threw a tantrum after a technical difficulty messed up her act.
  • Lydia gets credit in the same episode because she originally thought Muffy would automatically win because of her wealth, but then discovers Muffy is as vulnerable and anxious to succeed as she is. This shows a character with a disability dealing with, and overcoming, her own prejudices, which is rare especially in children's programming and awesome on the part of the writers as well.
• D.W. got one in the early episode "D.W. All Fired Up." When she hears her preschool class is going to have its first fire drill, D.W. is initially afraid because she thinks the school will literally be set on fire. (The Tibble twins are no help; they claim this is true and also act overly excited during preparation for the big event). However, when the fire drill does happen, D.W. is the calmest kid in class, even helping Tommy Tibble, who panics.
  • The companion episode to that one, "I'd Rather Read it Myself," shows another awesome moment for D.W. When the Tibbles claim they can read and tease her for not being able to, she pretends to read them a book, using Slice of Life stories from her own experiences to make up a fictionalized adventure story. She might be a Bratty Half-Pint extraordinaire, but the kid definitely has a great imagination, and does show some maturity here because she handles the problem herself rather than tattling. The best part? The boys are in suspense the entire time, and even after borrowing the book and being told that it's really about Leonardo da Vinci, D.W.'s gimmick stays intact, because they think that the book is different every time that it's read. It makes sense that they would think this way; they're four years old. It's one of those rare moments where D.W. is liked rather than hated.
  • D.W.'s great storytelling gets showcased again in "D.W. Tale Spins" where she claims she can tell a better story than the Vegemorphs books (after being annoyed at being unable to read them) and after some encouragement from Grandma Thora, she tells an altered version of The Odyssey. Arthur still isn't impressed but D.W. points out the origin of the story and that Arthur dismissing it proves he has no idea what he's talking about. Buster ends up really liking the story and asks her to tell it again, and Arthur begrudgingly admits to liking it too.
  • In "Arthur Makes Waves", when Arthur learned that Molly is James' older sister, he quickly wanted to leave and tried to drag D.W. with him. D.W. refused and actually went up to Molly saying that her mother allowed her and Arthur to play in James and Molly's pool. It was pretty impressive that D.W. didn't care if Molly is older than her or is one of the feared bullies.
• "Shelter from the Storm" is awesome in general, but Muffy gets a big Moment of Awesome after meeting a new friend at the shelter where her family stays when part of their home is flooded. Muffy is telling her friend how she misses all her luxurious stuff—but then is invited to see the other girl's house. When Muffy learns her friend's home has been destroyed, she is genuinely touched and selflessly offers to let her friend's family stay with the Crosswires.
• "The Last Day" has a huge one. Arthur and Buster have spent the entire episode trying to ensure they end up in the newest teacher's class for fourth grade, because he appears to be a Cool Teacher. However, they eventually learn he is more of a Hippie Teacher with tired material. This inspires Arthur and Buster to reflect on how much Mr. Ratburn really taught them. They end up giving Mr. Ratburn the poster they worked hard on for the other teacher. Their choice is rewarded when Mr. Ratburn is not only moved, but announces he'll be moving up to fourth grade. Extra points because this also means that Binky, who was held back the year before, passed and gets to go to fourth grade with his friends. It's awesome mixed with heartwarming, because, in "Brain's Biggest Blunder," The Brain had promised Binky that he would see to it that they would move on to fourth grade together, and so it came to be.
• The entirety of "Arthur's Almost Live Not Real Music Festival". Didn't think songs in a kid's cartoon show, on PBS of all networks, could be incredibly, ridiculously, mind-numbly catchy? Well, now you know!
• The companion episode, "Double Tibble Trouble," is a Moment of Awesome for D.W. and Emily. They have had a hard time on playdates with the Tibbles, but when Timmy gets sick, both girls volunteer to act like Timmy so Tommy can still enjoy all his favorite games. Note this involves a lot of yelling, running around, and being naughty on purpose, which the girls are not used to doing (D.W.'s Bratty Half-Pint tendencies aside). Overall, they have fairly mature motives for four-year-olds.
• Although he is a Stern Teacher, Mr. Ratburn has had several awesome moments over the years. They include:
  • Helping Arthur when he went through his chubby phase during "Arthur Weighs In." Mr. Ratburn tells Arthur he used to be something of a "fatty rat," until he found an exercise that worked for him—Ping-Pong.
  • Being firm, yet understanding, when Francine plagiarized part of her report on the Pilgrims without understanding what she was doing.
  • Encouraging Maria who, as we find out in "Maria Speaks" has a stutter. Ratburn's support helps Maria get ready to do a special report on stuttering for the school news show.
  • Figuring out that George has dyslexia. During that scene, Ratburn simultaneously praises George's creative writing, and reassures him he's not the only person with dyslexia in the school. He also accepts a modified project that plays to George's strengths.
  • In “The Rat Who Came To Dinner”, Mr. Ratburn’s roof caves in from heavy snowfall and Arthur’s parents invite him to stay at their house for as long as he needs to while his house is getting repaired. Arthur finds out that Mr. Ratburn’s actually a fun guy to be around with when he’s not in the classroom; unfortunately, all of his friends alienate him because they view him as a “Teacher’s Pet” for this, with Francine and Binky being the main insignators. When Mr. Ratburn finds out thanks to D.W. having him listen to Arthur telling his parents what’s going on, not only is he disgusted with how Arthur has been treated, he comes up with the perfect way to resolve the whole issue peacefully while giving his other students Laser-Guided Karma. At lunchtime the next day, Mr. Ratburn swings by the table where his class is sitting and announces that he can’t live at Arthur’s house anymore because he needs to live closer to his house so he can oversee the repairs more easily... which is why he’s glad Francine’s parents has agreed to host him, much to her horror. He then reveals that since the Frenskys live in a two-bedroom apartment, he can only stay there for a week so he’ll be living at Binky’s house for the next week, much to his horror. He then reveals that in case the repairs aren’t done by then, he has already made arrangements to stay at Buster’s place for the next week, then Muffy’s place for the week after that, and so on and so forth with all the parents of the kids in his class. By the time Mr. Ratburn walks off, all the kids go from bullying Arthur to begging him for advice on how to deal with Mr. Ratburn living with them.
  • In a moment not related to his students, Mr. Ratburn comes to D.W.'s rescue in "Clarissa is Cracked." D.W. accidentally breaks Grandma Thora's doll. As it turns out, she's made of the same material Ratburn uses on some of his puppets. This moment turns into a Funny Moment for D.W. when she describes Ratburn as "Arthur's teacher who's really nice and not scary like Arthur says."
  • In "Mr. Ratburn's Secret Identity," Arthur, Buster, and Ladonna gradually become convinced their teacher is a superhero because they see him running off to take mysterious phone calls and apparently leaping onto his roof in what looks like a cape and tights. Actually, Ratburn is the costume designer for The Pirates of Penzance. But the kids do learn he is much better than a superhero when Ratburn, who knows every line and lyric in the show, is called on to replace an actor with laryngitis.
• Francine's dad, or rather, his portrayal about his attitude to his job as a garbageman. He's completely secure and happy with it. In My Dad, the Garbage Man, Francine's sister needles him about getting “a real job” with “a briefcase and a suit and tie” because she thinks his job is embarrassing, he basically turns it around and makes fun of HER rather than get upset and happily carries on doing his work.
  Mr. Frensky: [Pretending to sob] I can't do it, Catherine! I can't ever have a real job because... I don't know how to tie a tie! Nobody ever showed me how! [He and Francine laugh]
• In "Locked in the Library" there are several moments:
  • Arthur and Francine's schemes to get out when they find themselves trapped. They start by building structures out of books to reach the second-story windows. This fails not because the structures were unsound, but that the windows were jammed shut and they refused to work as a team.
  • Francine having the presence of mind to check the catalog for a book how "how to escape from a library." The only reason that fails is that someone else checked it out, leading to Francine having a "Fridge Logic" moment.
  • Arthur calling out Francine for being a Hypocrite in how she takes offense at being called a "marshmallow". He points out that she called him "Four Eyes" when he got glasses, which made him scared to wear them, and that at she made fun of his loose tooth, something he couldn't control. It's doubly awesome that Arthur has to hit a Rage Breaking Point to do this.
  • Francine explaining as her and Arthur's report, since they forgot to do it in the chaos, that it taught them how to be heroes. Ratburn then gives them an extension on the report while commending them for having learned from the experience.
• "Francine Frensky, Superstar"
  • Brain saying that though he could be a great Edison and would be, he suggests Francine instead since she never gets a good part. Instead he becomes the costume designer.
  • While Francine's ego and ruthless directing get out of hand, you have to admire her initial effort to do as much research as possible for her first good role.
  • Arthur trying to talk to Francine several times before the cast commits mutiny. Namely he resorts to Brutal Honesty in telling her that everyone is mad at her.
  • The cast's mutiny during the dress rehearsal: Arthur pretends to be a telephone instead of a phonograph, Buster sprays her with water, and the Great Train Robbery goes off-script. Muffy also calls Edison, Francine's character, the "wizard of mental park".
  • Mr. Ratburn then defuses the aftermath so that Francine apologizes after she realizes she's being a jerk.
• Sue Ellen gets herself another in "Sue Ellen Vegges Out". Having announced her decision to become a vegetarian, Sue Ellen sees Muffy also announce she's becoming one for the purely superficial reason of following the diet of one of her favorite celebrities; Francine refuses to believe she can do it, and when Muffy throws out her pledge the moment her idol goes back to eating meat, Francine swears to outdo her. Sue Ellen finds herself caught between both girls trying to diffuse their competition while trying to show them how to be true vegetarians. Things come to a head when after several traps, Muffy throws a potluck dinner made entirely of meat-related dishes just to trip up Francine. Her scheme works, but Sue Ellen immediately shuts both girls down, blasting them both for their hypocrisy and revealing the much more personal reason she had for giving up meat, and chews them both out for having trivialized her decision. Realizing how insensitive and dishonest they'd both been, Francine and Muffy make up with each other, go back to enjoying meat and treat Sue Ellen with brand new vegetarian dishes at school.
• "Is There A Doctor in the House?" - after messing up the first time and somehow having a joint fantasy sequence in which they imagine what things will be like if their parents remain ill and they don't step up, Arthur and D.W. get on the ball. Working together without bickering, whining or complaining, they change Baby Kate's diaper, do the laundry, clean and vacuum the living room, and wash and dry a couple day's worth of dirty dishes by hand. And all of it done so well that when Grandma Thora arrives, she not only has nothing to complain about (or chores left to do), but is singing praises of the both of them to Mr. and Mrs. Read. A truly admirable effort.
• "Spoiled Rotten" has several, where Muffy is finally called out upfront for being selfish and spoiled by her friends.
  • Francine saves up the money she needs to buy a brand new pair of sneakers she had her eye on at the mall.....Only for Muffy to buy the last pair just as Francine had come for them. Not helping Muffy is that Francine told her how much the shoes meant to her beforehand, and so Francine chews her out for her inconsiderate actions.
  • Buster of all people gets one when Muffy asks him and Arthur if she's spoiled, and threatens them when they lean towards a yes. The kids see a charity drive for clothes they don't need anymore, to which Buster plans to donate his old coat. Muffy comments that her clothes are all much too nice to be donated with clothes that are "ratty"; Insulted, Buster tells her right to her face that she is indeed spoiled, leaving Muffy at a loss for words.
  • Later, Muffy tries to convince Francine that she isn't spoiled by donating her jacket, but in truth tries to retrieve it after school is out. Expecting this, Francine catches her in the act, deeming her "spoiled rotten" and leaving Muffy too ashamed to speak up.
  • At the end of the episode, when Muffy happens upon a discount store supporting the local soup kitchen, finding that the store owner has plenty of valuable items worth far more than what he's charging. She helps him to reinvent the entire store, improving business dramatically and in turn helping them to fund the soup kitchen.
  • Francine finally getting her sneakers, donated to the store by Muffy.
• "Brain's Chess Mess", in which Rattles gets to show off his amazing chess-playing skills and beats Brain rather quickly. When Brain has a hard time dealing with a very smug girl who beat him in chess and was rubbing it in his face, Rattles decides to tutor Brain and his friends, until he falls sick with a stomachache. Rattles' illness was actually a Playing Sick gambit to get Brain to play against the girl without his help, because Rattles was confident Brain was skilled enough to beat the girl by himself. It works, and Brain not only beats the girl, he earns her respect.
• In "Arthur Unravels", when Arthur's knitting hobby is outed by Binky and the Tough Customers proceed to tease him, Dr. Fugue comes to his rescue and stands up for him, putting the Tough Customers in their places by outing Rattles as a member of his knitting club (who shrugs and smiles sheepishly as if to say, "Guilty as charged.") and compliments on Binky's Swan Lake ballet performance. Binky's expression afterwords is priceless.
• "The Good Sport" has one from guest star Michelle Kwan. Throughout the episode, she is polite and soft-spoken. This episode had Francine at her most boastful and Muffy at her bitchiest; Francine is dismayed that she lost the Athlete of the Year award, with the prizes of meeting Michelle Kwan and 10 tickets to the then far-off 2014 Olympics, to Jenna. Throughout the episode, she disses badminton (Jenna's sport) and figure skating as "wussy". Then Francine has a dream about claiming she can easily figure skate while watching the award banquet on TV until Michelle pops out of the screen, yelling, "I've had just about enough, Francine Frensky!" and pulls Francine inside. Michelle then challenges her to actually try figure skating. Francine finds out that the sport is much harder than it looks when she can barely keep her balance on the ice while Michelle skates axels around her.
  • To a smaller degree, Muffy gets hers too in the previous scene. For context, Muffy has spent the entire episode trying to be a "good sportsman" on Francine's behalf and throw Jenny a big hoo-hah party. When she follows Jenna into the bathroom to tell her off for being "ungrateful" and that Francine should've been the winner, Jenna tearfully admits she knows it could've been Francine and is sick of them rubbing it in her face. When she runs out crying, Francine (who overheard the whole thing) is guilty at having driven Jenna to tears like this. Muffy, meanwhile, is proud she told Jenna off. To this, a disgusted Francine tells her to stuff it, much to her friend's surprise.
• In “Arthur’s Tooth”, Francine keeps calling Arthur a baby because he hasn't lost his first baby tooth yet. After a trip to the dentist, Arthur tells his friends that some kids don’t lose their teeth until they're nine because everybody is different, which impresses his friends. Francine, however, just ignores this and makes up a game called “Tooth Fairy” where she poses as The Tooth Fairy, but doesn’t invite Arthur because he’s a “baby”. That’s when Arthur calmly says that it's fine, but also tells her that in reality, she was the one who was the real baby. Buster, Sue Ellen and the rest of the gang agree with Arthur when they realize how much of an immature jerk Francine had been acting and leave her.
• In "The Big Blow-Up", Francine and the Brain do a header simultaneously, with the same ball.
• In "Buster and the Daredevils", Slinky and Toby having been daring Buster into doing embarrassing stuff for the whole episode, then when they dare him to eat a bug, Buster finally has enough and refuses to do so.
  Buster: You eat it!
  Slink: What?
  Buster: I dare YOU to eat the bug!
  Toby: C'mon, how stupid do you think he is?
  Slink: Yeah, how stupid do you think I am?
  Buster: Ohhhhhhhh, you're saying it would be stupid to do something just because somebody dared you to do it?
  Slink: That's right!
  Buster: Well thank you for telling me, I guess I won't eat it then.
• In "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Arthur finds out that D.W. has been faking losing her voice (after temporarily losing it earlier) so she can keep making him do stuff for her, but his parents don't believe him. So Arthur, Buster and Francine all come up with a plan to expose D.W.'s lies. How do they do it? Make D.W. think she's losing her hearing as well by muting the T.V., unplugging the phone and opening their mouths without saying anything, leading to D.W. running to her mom in panic and revealing her lie. Sure we don't see her get punished for her actions, but Mrs. Read's response and tone clearly tells us that she's definitely going to deal with what she did.
  Arthur: See? D.W.'s voice is fine!
  Mrs. Read: I do see. What a miraculous recovery, young lady.
• Sue Ellen standing up to Binky in "Bully for Binky" after he tries to bully and intimidate her. She even shows no signs of fear when Binky challenges her to a fight. After learning that Sue Ellen is taking Tae Kwon Do, he then becomes too afraid to fight her.
• In "D.W. Blows the Whistle", D.W. sees a kid about to cross the street and immediately blows her safety whistle, getting the attention of the kid's mother just in time for her to pull the kid from the street right before a car comes by.
• Even in “The Last Tough Costumer”, the kids are no longer afraid of the Tough Customers and actually do stand up for them. Even teachers stand up for them as well. The best part is when George, of all people, uses reverse psychology on Slink to trick him into pelting himself with a water balloon meant for George.
• D.W. reuniting Arthur and his friends in "My Club Rules". She also sketches her idea for the parade float entirely on her own. Quite impressive for a preschooler.
• Kids shows would rarely ever tackle homosexuality. But that mostly changed when "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone" was aired. You gotta give the creators of the episode props and respect for showcasing a serious topic like homosexuality to kids.
• Arthur's frantic trip through the Toy Town store in "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" is both this and funny. Complete with him quickly climbing up a tower of bricks practically reaching the ceiling, jumping onto a large kangaroo toy and bouncing throughout the store, until he's tossed up onto the monkey bars and climbs across them, until he jumps onto a large plush panda and is left unharmed. And all in an attempt to escape the Jingle of the "Tina the Talking Tabby" toy that D.W. is obsessed with.
• In "Arthur Calls It", Arthur substitutes the umpire and makes a call that everyone on his team disagrees with. Francine in particular is not having it and tries to get Arthur to admit he was wrong, to no avail. Muffy even tries to bribe him to get him to admit he was wrong. While it was annoying for Arthur, it takes guts to not give in to that kind of pressure, even though at some point in the episode, he started to doubt his decision.
  • As for Francine, she gets hit with Laser-Guided Karma. After pestering Arthur for the entire episode and when everyone agrees with his decision at the softball game, Francine still refuses to agree with the decision that was made and tells Muffy to replay the tape to see if Buster was out or not...only to find out that Muffy filmed a blimp during the game after Buster hit the ball.

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