"Arthur" Season 14 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lydia

In the introduction, Brain is practicing to shoot baskets for a competition in which he could raise money for the library if he wins. Buster reports on this, but he is using a banana in place of a microphone. When Buster eats his "microphone", he throws the peel at the trash can. He misses, and it lands on the floor. Brain backs up, steps on it, and trips and falls. The doctor tells him that he will need to use a wheelchair for several weeks and he will not be able to participate in the basketball competition unless he does it from a wheelchair.

Brain meets a girl named Lydia, who is permanently in a wheelchair. She plays for a wheelchair basketball team. She challenges him to a friendly competition and he accepts. He warns her that he is a great basketball player. He quickly finds himself missing every basket while Lydia has no trouble making baskets. Brain is stunned. Lydia explains that it's different when you shoot from a wheelchair (different height, different angle, and he cannot use his whole body). Brain is new to shooting hoops from a wheelchair whereas Lydia has been doing it all her life. Lydia coaches Brain on how to shoot hoops from a wheelchair.

Lydia and Brain then decide to hang out outside the basketball court. Lydia teaches Brain about life in a wheelchair on the street. When there's a steep drop and no incline from the sidewalk to the street, Brain cannot get anyone to help them. Lydia teaches him to ask people who are not in a rush. They get to Brain's mother's ice cream shop, but then they discover that the doorway is too narrow for a wheelchair.

They go to the Sugar Bowl, where Brain apologizes for his shop not being wheelchair accessible. Lydia is not upset about it. Francine goes there to talk to Brain, but then she recognizes Lydia because she has watched her basketball team play. Francine offers to do the competition instead of Brain. Lydia tells Francine that Brain will be fine because she has been coaching him, and Francine accepts that.

The basketball competition comes. Brain performs well, but he is losing by 4 points with under a minute left. He says that he cannot shoot five baskets in one minute from a wheelchair. Lydia takes over and she shoots the five baskets. To thank Lydia, Brain's mother has the doorway enlarged and she gets a bigger door. Now, Lydia can go inside Brain's ice cream shop. At the end of the episode, Lydia says that she is even better at chess than at basketball. She challenges Brain. He warns her that he's really good, but she says "Oh yeah? Where have I heard that before?"

This is one of my favorite episodes. Lydia is one of my favorite characters. It's a shame that she is only in five episodes and two of those are silent cameos. This episode focuses on her and Brain. It teaches the world about life in a wheelchair. D.W. is not even in it. That makes a great episode.

Answer: George

Mr. Ratburn assigns the class to do an oral report on one person. Buster has trouble thinking of ideas. Arthur does his report on Pal, Sue Ellen does her report on her karate teacher, Francine does her report on a firewoman, and Binky does his report on Mr. Ratburn. All of these ideas make Buster jealous and he wishes he thought of them first. George says that he will do his report on Buster, and this astonishes Buster.

Buster tries everything he can think of to impress George. He shows him his toys. He shows him a sandwich named after him at the Sugar Bowl. At the Sugar Bowl, the other kids say that they have found out some great information for their report. Buster feels sad because he does not think he is nearly as impressive as the other subjects for reports. He calls Arthur to ask why George chose him. Arthur says that Buster tells great jokes. Buster then tries extra hard to come up with funny jokes for George's report. He also spends a lot of money on joke props for the report. George does not use any of this stuff.

George asks Buster's mother for information about Buster. Buster is not happy to learn that, because he thinks that she gave him some embarrassing information. Buster stays up all night writing a report for Buster, which contains a fictional story of him catching burglars. Buster tries to give it to George at the school entrance. George rejects it and sticks with the report that he wrote.

George's report mentions that Buster is nice, funny, never complains, and he helps his mother around the house. It also mentions the events of "Arthur Accused" and "Buster's Green Thumb". Buster thinks that the information that George presented was unimpressive. Everyone else thinks that this information makes Buster very admirable.

Mr. Ratburn calls on Buster next. It turns out that Buster was working so hard on George's report he did not do his own report. Mr. Ratburn gives him a chance to make it up. Buster says that he is going to do his report on someone who is admirable because he is great at finding out admirable things about other people: George. George is stunned at first, but then he is happy to be the subject of Buster's report.

Answer: Molly

Francine, Muffy, and Molly are unhappy that there are no movies with female characters whom they like. They decide to make their own movie. At first, they get in a big fight over what the main character should be like. They get over that and then learn to work together.

They make a one-minute short movie about a crime-fighting girl. They then show the movie at Muffy's house. Everybody likes it. The main villain was drawn to look like Binky (because he mocked them a few times in the early parts of the episode), but even the real Binky loves the movie.

Answer: Headgear

When Brain gives Francine the nickname "Francine the Soccer Queen", several other kids also want nicknames from him. He calls Binky "Tall Order", Buster "Bust a Gut", and George "Headgear". He has trouble coming up with a nickname for Arthur. Arthur keeps pestering him for one. Finally, Brain calls him "Average Arthur". This is when the nickname fad goes downhill.

Binky makes fun of Arthur's nickname. Brain stands up for Arthur and changes Binky's nickname to "Stinky Binky". Binky then calls Buster "Antenna Ears". Buster then calls Francine "Bossy Boots". These nicknames makes everyone feel terrible and play terribly. Francine calls timeout during the game (the fact that there are no timeouts in soccer is never mentioned). Brain comes up with soccer nicknames for everyone. Arthur becomes "Awesome Action Aardvark", Binky becomes "Barnes-stormer", Buster becomes "Eat-My-Dust Buster", and Francine goes back to "Francine the Soccer Queen". They overcome a 6-0 deficit to win 10-6 (wow, what a comeback).

George is the only character that only gets one nickname in this episode, which is one reason I made the question about him even though he doesn't play a major role in this episode. The other reason is that all of the other kids have their real names as part of at least one of their nicknames, which would make it easier to fill in the blank and I wanted it to be tricky.

If you answered "Hammer", that's the nickname that George gets in "The Boy With His Head in the Clouds", not "Nicked by a Name". "The Boy With His Head in the Clouds" is a season six episode and this quiz is about season 14. So, that answer is wrong.

Answer: Muffy's phone

During recess, Muffy shows off her new phone to the other kids. Most of the other kids are interested in that and not in the playground. George uses the see-saw by himself and the tough customers get mad that there's no one to bully. The tough customers do whatever they can to trick the kids into their traps, but the smaller kids outsmart them at every turn. Eventually, Molly says that they have to do something drastic or she is leaving the tough customers.

Binky goes to Muffy's house to bribe her into not bringing her phone to recess so the kids will use the playground again. Muffy says that the playground is boring. Binky suggests that the tough customers can throw water balloons at the kids while they go down the slide so it's like a ride at an amusement park. This gives Muffy the idea to transform the whole playground into an amusement park.

Muffy presents her vision to Mr. Haney, with Binky playing some happy music on his clarinet to sway Mr. Haney's decision. Mr. Haney approves of the idea, so Muffy's World of Wonders is built. She charges the kids $3 to use the rides and she is the cashier. The tough customers are in charge of running the rides. The rides are not well-executed and the kids do not enjoy them. Not only that, but Mr. Haney tells Muffy that she is not allowed to charge the kids. When she says that she cannot run the amusement park for free, Mr. Haney makes her take it all down.

After this, the regular playground is back and most of the kids are still interested in Muffy's phone. Binky joins George on the see saw and tells him how fun it was when people used the playground. George starts a game of tag with Binky, who then runs after him. The other kids see this and they decide to use the playground again. Even Muffy leaves her phone on the table (she is lucky it doesn't get stolen) and starts running on the playground.

Answer: Sue Ellen

Sue Ellen attends a book reading and book signing by Neil Gaiman. She tells him that she loves drawing pictures. He suggests that she write a graphic novel: a story told with pictures instead of words. He gives her a free graphic novel and tells her to give him a free copy of her graphic novel when it gets published. She reads his novel at night and decides to write her own novel the next day.

When she goes to a falafel stand to get a falafel, the owner teaches her about what he calls "Falafelosophy", in which falafels are a metaphor for how people are different. He mentions that some people like round falafels and some people like pointy falafels. This gives Sue Ellen the idea to make her novel based two types of people: circles and triangles.

Throughout the episode, Sue Ellen writes her novel. Whenever she thinks of quitting, she fantasizes that she sees a tiny version of Neil Gaiman, or her "Inner Neil". He gives her advice and encourages her to continue on. A running gag is that she talks out loud to "Inner Neil", no one else can see him, and Ms. Wood always gets confused. Near the end of the episode, the real Neil Gaiman appears at the falafel stand. He and Sue Ellen go to a bench, where he gives her some more advice, but she accidentally leaves her book at the stand. The falafel guy gives it to three of her friends: Brain, Francine, and Muffy.

In her novel, the circles are always happy people. The triangles are always arguing with each other with their points. They look at the circles and see that the circles are happy and they have no points. This makes the triangles jealous. They start a war with the circles. In the end, they end the war and they decided they needed each other to remind each other of wholeness and pointiness.

When Sue Ellen reads the first chapter to Francine, Muffy, and Brain, none of them understand it. Francine gets very offended when Sue Ellen says that Francine is a triangle, thinking triangles are the villains. Brain is offended at the idea of being categorized by a geometric shape. Later in the episode, when they get the nearly-finished book, they have a change of heart. Francine embraces being a triangle, Brain embraces being a circle, the two of them get in an argument over whether it's better to be a triangle or a circle. Muffy thinks of turning it into a movie. Neil Gaiman tells Sue Ellen that her friends love the novel. Francine says "What happens next?" Neil Gaiman tells Sue Ellen that those are the best words that a writer can hear. The episode concludes by telling us how the novel ends.

In 2024, PBS stopped showing this episode because Neil Gaiman was accused of some horrible crimes. Whether he's guilty or not, I think that's a shame because it's one of my favorite episodes. The first time I watched it, I didn't understand it. Over time, it became one of my favorite episodes. This episode was released in the U.S. in 2010. He was not considered a bad man at the time and during the course of the episode, he's a good mentor to Sue Ellen. Additionally, the episode focuses on Sue Ellen, one of my favorite characters, and I guarantee you that she will never be accused of the things Gaiman was accused of. My heart goes out to his victims, but the concept of this episode remains great and this episode was not made with evil intentions.

Answer: Pal

The sock market is in danger and Pal steals every sock in the house in a desperate attempt to keep it open. When he gets to the sock market, Amigo tells him that he is too late. Mr. Toad owns all of the socks in Elwood City. The dogs are afraid there will be a "Chilly toe scare" like the one in 1929, when people couldn't afford socks and their feet smelled so bad, even dogs couldn't stand it. Pal talks with Toadie. She says that Mr. Toad does not listen to her, but she gets Mr. Toad to make an appointment with Pal. When Pal tells Mr. Toad to return some of the socks, Mr. Toad refuses. Mr. Toad loans one sock to Pal and he gives him a lot of hot dogs, but Pal has to give Mr. Toad ten socks in one week or the toads will take over the Read house. They do not have ten socks. They then decide to come up with something that Mr. Toad wants but does not have.

They soon discover that lint is soft and smells nice, so they decide to turn that into a fad. They give lint to some other dogs and soon, every dog is talking about how great lint is. When Mr. Toad comes to take the house, Pal says that he has lint. Mr. Toad takes all of the lint that Pal has in exchange for returning all of the socks and re-opening the sock market. As Pal and Amigo leave, Pal says that his lint is worthless. Amigo says that no lint is worthless because it is soft and smells nice and Mr. Toad will be happy with it. They agree that lint is only worthless when it gets wet.

PBS stopped showing this episode in 2024 because it is paired with "Falafelosophy", which has Neil Gaiman, who was accused of some horrible crimes.

Answer: No

Arthur and Francine plan to enter their pets in a contest for movies about pets. Pal and Nemo tell each other that they hate this. They come up with an agreement to not do what their masters say. Eventually, their masters get the message and do not enter their pets in the contest. Buster wins the contest for his movie about how Arthur and Francine made their movies. Arthur and Francine decide to be extra-nice to their pets to make up for this.

Answer: Clean up the beach

In the introduction, a man is separated from his ship, the U.S.S. Icebuster,and stranded in Antarctica. He writes a message asking for help, puts it in a bottle, and puts it in the sea. It takes 50 years for the bottle to reach anyone. It reaches Buster, who is with the Read family on summer vacation at the beach. By the time it does, only "Buster", "Please" and "Help" are still visible. Buster is stunned by this. He also sees a label on the bottom that he thinks says "Bottled in Atlantis" (it actually says "Atlanta"). He thinks that the underwater people are trying to send him a message.

Throughout the episode, Buster has dreams about how the people of Atlantis are dealing with the fact that he hasn't responded to their messages. He tries to send various messages in bottles, one of them asking what kind of help he should send and the rest of them are questions about Atlantis. He ends up littering the beach with all these bottles. One night, he has a dream in which the king of Atlantis personally pays him a visit and says, "Clean up the beach." Buster decides to do that and Arthur helps. One man sees this and he looks happy. This man looks like an older version of the man in the introduction, although only the audience knows this (Arthur and Buster do not know this).

Buster goes to the man's souvenir shop and shows him the original message in a bottle. The man recognizes it as his own. He tells Buster that he was stranded and he sent that message asking to be rescued, but eventually he was. He lets Buster keep the bottle and the message to thank him for cleaning up the beach. At the end of the episode, Buster and the Reads sit together and watch baby sea turtles hatch and go into the ocean. Buster tells them to send him a postcard when they reach Atlantis.

Buster was never told to save the baby sea turtles. He was only told that they would be hatching on a certain night and he was allowed to watch them. Those other two answers refer to events that happened in earlier episodes in earlier seasons.

Answer: Fuchsia

Grandma Thora introduces her grandchildren to knitting. Arthur becomes addicted to it. He goes to a store to get some yarn. There, he sees Dr. Fugue. When Arthur picks up a ball of yarn that he thinks is pink, Dr. Fugue says that it is fuchsia and he explains the difference. Arthur hurries out. Outside the store, Binky mocks Arthur for loving knitting. Arthur decides to hide his hobby as much as he can.

When he drops a scarf that he knitted and Brain finds it and asks whose it is, Arthur says that it is his and he knitted it.

He goes outside to have lunch alone. The tough customers are waiting there to mock him. Dr. Fugue is there; he likes Arthur's scarf, and he invites him to his knitting club. Dr. Fugue notices that Binky bullies Arthur and he loudly tells Binky that he loved his ballet recital (Dr. Fugue does this so that other people will make Binky feel the same way that Binky was making Arthur feel).

The episode ends showing Arthur, Binky, Rattles, and Mr. Frensky at the knitting club.

Answer: Muffy

Muffy watches an interview with a fashion expert on TV. Muffy then decides to be a fashion trend-setter. Most of her new fashion ideas are poorly received and they backfire in various ways. At one point, Sue Ellen wears a hat that Muffy donated to a charity store, though Muffy advised her not to wear it. Later on, everybody is wearing a hat like that. Muffy is jealous that Sue Ellen is the one who started a new trend. Muffy goes to Sue Ellen's house confessing that she will never be a trend-setter like Sue Ellen. Sue Ellen shows a photo of Muffy wearing the hat and an entry in her journal explaining that Sue Ellen got the hat to "Muffy it up." Muffy is thrilled that her name has become a verb.

The episode ends back at Muffy's house, with Bailey wearing a red tie and saying that he is trying to "Muffy it up."

Answer: She decided not to care about their insults

The barber gives D.W. a terrible haircut. The Tibbles see her hair and they call her "Dennis", which is a boy's name and she's a girl. She cannot think of a comeback. She asks various people for advice. Some of them suggest ignoring the Tibbles, but she rejects that. Some of them have suggestions that don't work on the Tibbles. Ms. MacGrady comes up with a great comeback, but it's too long for D.W. to remember. When D.W. asks Ms. MacGrady to repeat it so she can use it on the Tibbles, Ms. MacGrady realizes she is helping out with a feud.

She then tells D.W. an Indian story in which a tortoise is carried by two geese by biting the middle of a stick while the geese bite the other two ends. A duck insults the flying tortoise and when the tortoise tries to insult him back, his mouth loses control of the stick and he falls to his death. D.W. sees the duck and the tortoise again in her dream, and then she realizes what she has to do. The next day, when the Tibbles call her "Dennis" again, she says that she does not care what they call her. This astonishes them. They keep trying to insult her and she keeps ignoring them. Eventually, the pre-school teacher, Ms. Morgan, gives her a chocolate brownie as a reward for her good behavior and she eats it in front of the Tibbles. This satisfies her desire for revenge. Eventually, her hair grows back.

Answer: D.W., Chiekh, and Brain

The pre-school has a new student, Cheikh, who is originally from Senegal. D.W. decides to learn all about Africa to impress him. Cheikh's cousin is Brain, so D.W. talks to him. Together, they write a song about Africa that mentions all 54 countries. Chiekh hears them singing it in Brain's house and he decides he wants to be part of the song, too.

The three of them perform the song in Ms. Morgan's class. They are well-received.

Answer: Carl

Buster asks his friends for help building a model rocket. The friends he asks include Arthur, Francine, Muffy, and George. George invites his best friend, Carl, to work on the project because he's good at building things and he knows a lot about rockets. When George introduces Carl to everyone and Carl tells Buster what he knows about rockets, Buster is glad to meet him.

At first, the kids are constantly feuding. Then Buster puts Francine in charge. Most of the kids do better under her leadership. Her best friend, Muffy, refuses to do what she says. Muffy and Francine end up getting in a fight and ripping the parachute. They go to the Sugar Bowl to discuss whether or not they should launch the rocket without a parachute. Carl says that's a bad idea. Buster says that he is considering quitting. That's when a real astronaut overhears the conversation. He introduces himself as Mike Fincke and he tells the kids that mistakes happen (he gives an example from his own life), but that's no reason to give up. Muffy notices a waitress wearing a neckerchief and then realizes that can be made into a parachute. Muffy gets the waitress's permission to use it.

On the day that the rocket is ready, it rains. However, there is a small window of sunlight before the rain comes. Carl convinces the other kids that it is fine to launch the rocket then. They launch it, but it flies far away and out of sight. Buster is depressed because he thinks the rocket is lost. Mike Fincke catches it with his box (it's a box of pie from the Sugar Bowl). He remembers the conversation he had with kids at the Sugar Bowl and he remembers how long Buster's ears are, so he knows who the rocket belongs to and he returns it. He is invited inside Muffy's home to get dry and have coffee.

Adil technically appears in this episode because it is paired with "The Long Road Home" and he's in that segment, but that would be his third appearance. His first appearance is in the season eight premiere "Dear Adil" and his second appearance is in the season 12 premiere "Is That Kosher?" Therefore, that answer is wrong.

Answer: George

George is part of a relay race with Francine, Sue Ellen, and Jenna. The girls give their team a huge lead for George, the last runner. However, George is not a fast runner and they lose, which makes Francine very angry. George goes into the Sugar Bowl, where Arthur gives him some water. Arthur and Buster console George by saying that being a fast runner isn't an important part of friendship. Buster says that his uncle just walks everywhere. Buster also says that his uncle once tried to walk from Crown City all the way to Elwood City, a seven-hour walk. Buster says that his uncle twisted his ankle and didn't finish. Arthur asks if anyone has attempted that walk since then. George says, "Well, maybe someone will."

George tells kids at school that he is going to walk from Crown City to Elwood City with his father. He has a sign-up sheet and asks for them to sponsor him. It's one dollar for every hour that he walks. The money will go towards autism research (his best friend Carl has autism). He gets a lot of signatures. Mr. Ratburn misunderstands the request (he thought George wanted Mr. Ratburn to walk with him) and decides to join them. The three of them walk together. Mr. Ratburn twists his ankle just as they see Elwood City. George walks on ahead and finishes the walk. He gets congratulated for everybody and he gets the money he earned. The episode ends with Mr. Ratburn on crutches being supervised by George's father.