Airdate: October 23, 1996
Arthur begins by introducing D.W.'s pet bird, Spanky, going back to the time she found him at the pet store. One morning, Spanky seems to be acting sick, to which D.W. responds by fetching a cup of tea. While she's away, Spanky falls over. D.W. believes he's fallen asleep and just won't wake up, and calls Mr. Read for help. Mr. Read unfortunately has to break the news to her that Spanky has passed away. The family provides a funeral for Spanky in commemoration; later, they walk off to let D.W. have some alone time. Suddenly she is startled by a toad sitting in the can of flowers they left for Spanky, disgusting D.W. for its lack of respect. After she gets the toad to leave, Arthur takes D.W. to the pet store to find another pet for her, to no avail. Meanwhile, the same toad continues to follow her everywhere she goes it seems. Finally, she has enough and chases it around her room and then through the house. Slowly, she grows a fondness for the toad and decides to keep him, naming him Toady.
So Long, Spanky contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Animal Care: Spanky is a parakeet but everything about his care is incorrect. He's kept in a very tiny, rounded cage with no toys. He only has one swing and a cuttlebone. While he's let out of the cage, his cage is still too small and too empty. Is it any wonder he died in his debut episode?
- Artistic License – Ornithology: Parakeets have a lifespan of 5-15 years, but Spanky died a few months at most after being brought. Though that may be justified by the poor living conditions the Reads gave him. Spanky also doesn't resemble a parakeet much, not even having a blue cere like most males.
- Attack Backfire: A few classmates try to prank D.W. by putting a gag spider in her backpack, but Toady eats it, thinking it's a real bug.
- Cool Big Bro: Arthur takes D.W. to the pet shop to cheer her up; he's even willing to put up with another naughty parakeet for her. While D.W. doesn't buy any pets, she seems a little happier when talking to Spanky at his grave.
- A Death in the Limelight: See Remember the New Guy? below.
- Death Is a Sad Thing: The episode focuses on D.W. dealing with the death of her pet parakeet and learning to accept it.
- From Stray to Pet: Toady.
- Hate at First Sight: The instant D.W. sees Toady in the can she's about to put the flowers in, she gets repulsed by him. In fact, she keeps shooing him away through the episode.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": A toad named Toady.
- Pet Dress-Up: In this episode's prologue, D.W. dresses Spanky in a shirt and bonnet and has him hold an umbrella. It is at this point that Arthur mentions that he feels sorry for Spanky in these kind of situations, feeling that being D.W.'s pet is worse than being her brother.
- Put on a Bus: Toady does appear in future episodes, but apparently him becoming D.W.'s new pet was completely retconned. He only shows up as an occasional background character, and later becomes promoted to a major one again in episodes where Pal and Kate talk.
- Remember the New Guy?: Spanky was never seen or mentioned in any episode prior to this. His only other mentions/appearances in the entire show's run are in "Sick as a Dog" and in the Continuity Porn-laden episode "I'd Rather Read it Myself".
- Replacement Goldfish: Subverted. Arthur and D.W. go to the pet store to find a replacement bird, but D.W. ends up not buying any new pets. Eventually, she adopts the toad as her new pet.
- Squick: Jane's in-universe reaction when she witnesses Toady eating a fly.
- Stock Audio Clip: D.W.'s "hey!" from the show's theme song gets used in this episode. Twice. Only a few seconds apart, at that. Also, her "Wait! Come back!" from one of the title cards is heard in this episode too (which, incidentally, said title card features her trying to retrieve Toady, which is the exact same scenario it's in during this episode!).
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Spanky dies as a result of the poor care the Reads give him.
- Wham Line: "Oh...I think he's dead, honey."
Arthur is working on a science project with Buster involving magnets. One afternoon, he's expecting Buster to come by his house to watch Bionic Bunny with him and work on the project. However, Buster never comes by, much to Arthur's dismay. He calls Ms. Baxter about it, who informs him that he went mini-golfing with his new friend Mike. Throughout the episode, Arthur continues to feel lonely; it seems Buster is more interested in hanging out with Mike instead of working on his project or doing anything fun with Arthur. Arthur continues to grow more and more frustrated, especially after Buster embarrasses himself in class when Ratburn requests a progress report from him on his project work. At his tipping point, Arthur starts packing a box full of stuff that Buster gave him, vowing to rid himself of anything that reminds him of Buster. As he is delivering the box to Buster's house, he runs by him, who starts apologizing for his neglect on the project. He continues to remind Arthur that even though Mike is his buddy, Arthur is still his best friend. The two agree to watch the day's episode of Bionic Bunny together. Mike happens to stop by afterwards, and Arthur discovers that Mike is actually a teenager; Bitzi wanted more "older male influence" on Buster's life, and signed him up for the Big Brother program. The three drive back to Arthur's house, and the episode ends with Arthur asking Mike what he knows about magnets.
Buster's New Friend provides examples of:
- Amusing Injuries: In Arthur's second Imagine Spot, he pictures himself demonstrating the properties of magnetism on Buster dressed in a suit of armor. Buster gets stuck to his magnet, and then to Mike's bigger one. When Mike and Arthur demonstrate putting two magnets with identical poles facing each other, Arthur is launched into the school's basketball hoop.
- Bad "Bad Acting": When Arthur and Buster meet Bionic Bunny "in person" at Bionic Bunny On Ice, the person portraying Bionic Bunny is doing a blatantly poor job. He's still wearing his ice skates despite not being on the ice, chowing down on a hot dog and is clearly more overweight than the Bionic Bunny in the Show Within a Show.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with Arthur waiting for Buster to show up to watch Bionic Bunny with him. The episode ends with them finally watching an episode.
- Every Episode Ending: An In-Universe example, where The Bionic Bunny Show closes out each episode with someone thanking Bionic Bunny for saving the day, to which a Lois Lane-esque reporter asks Bionic Bunny, "But, who are you really?" Bionic Bunny just answers with what he normally does ("Just a citizen trying to do his duty" or "Just someone who's trying to do the right thing in a mixed-up world") and flies off, to which the reporter fawns over him and the dust from Bionic's flying spells out "The End".
- Fiction 500: Muffy says that since Buster didn't show up to help her choose a bike, she bought every single bicycle in the shop.
- For Want Of A Nail: If Buster hadn't shown up on his skateboard while Arthur was delivering all their friendship memorabilia, then they may have never reconciled. Buster is genuinely apologetic, learns about magnets from Arthur, and watches Bionic Bunny with him. Arthur decides to not end their friendship and return home with their things.
- Imagine Spot: Arthur has three involving Mike and Buster; in them Mike is shown to be Arthur and Buster's age with his face always obscured and having a voice very identical to Arthur's:
- The first is Buster and Mike inviting Arthur to join them in mini-golfing.
- The second is Mike hypnotizing Buster to never see Arthur again or be his friend.
- The third is Mike messing up Arthur and Buster's presentation for their magnet project, showing up with a much more powerful magnet that nabs Buster in his suit of armor, and repels Arthur's magnet, sending him flying into a basketball hoop.
- Jerkass Realization: Buster realizes how much he was hurting Arthur's feelings after Arthur gives him a What the Hell, Hero? speech.
- Just Ignore It: The kids try to ignore Buster in retaliation for him standing them up at various occasions. He's so busy eating lunch and happily talking about bowling to realize.
- Karmic Shunning: Buster has been so busy hanging out with Mike, he has ignoring his other friends and responsibilities. Arthur and the others become so fed up with this, they start giving him the silent treatment, until Arthur tells him off for not helping him with their science project all week. Fortunately, Buster apologizes to Arthur (and, it's implied, everyone else) for being a bad friend.
- Mistaken Age: Arthur initially imagines Mike to be his and Buster's age. He doesn't realize until the end of the episode that Mike is actually a teenage man. Played for Drama when Buster says Mike is coming in his car.
- One-Shot Character: Mike never makes any appearances following this episode.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The music played on the phonograph in "Francine Frensky, Superstar" plays in the background when Buster is telling his friends about how bowling and going to the movies with Mike, oblivious to the others intentionally ignoring him.
- Stealth Pun: The third Imagine Spot reflects how Arthur feels that Mike's "magnetic" personality will take Buster away from him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bitsy was the one who signed up Buster for the Big Brother and Big Sisters program, and the one who didn't explain properly to Arthur that Mike was a volunteer for community service. If she had made it clear that Buster was spending "sibling time" with Mike, then Arthur wouldn't have been doubting his friendship with Buster.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Arthur tries ignoring Buster's happy ramblings about bowling with Mike, until Buster offhandedly mentions they haven't done much work on their science project. Arthur blows up and tells Buster he did plenty of work while Buster was bowling with Mike, and that if Buster doesn't really care, then Arthur can finish the project alone. Mr. Ratburn also gets on it when Buster can't give a progress report on the project, and asks to see Buster after class.
