| "Binky vs. Binky" | |
| Season/Series: | 10 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 8a |
| Original airdate: |  May 24, 2006[1] September 22, 2006[3] November 15, 2006[2] May 5, 2008[4] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Raye Lankford |
| Storyboard by: | Patricia Atchison |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "D.W., Bossy Boots" |
Next "Operation: D.W.!" |
| Read transcript |
"Binky vs. Binky" is the first half of the eighth episode in the tenth season of Arthur.
Summary[]
Binky overcomes his fear of competition within athletics when he takes up biking, and finds out that winning is not everything, but rather, the courage to continue in the light of failure.
Plot[]
In the introduction, Binky remarks that people can be proud of strange things like rare blues records or eating a huge pizza. Binky himself is proud of a violet polka-dot shirt.
Lakewood Elementary is playing a soccer match against Mighty Mountain. Right before the end, Lakewood is losing by one goal. Francine wants Binky to charge ahead while she follows with the ball. When she trips, Binky gets the ball and has a great chance to tie the match. Suddenly, his self-doubts materialize and confuse him so much that he tries to pass back to Francine, leading to Mighty Mountain scoring another goal. After the game, Francine is angry. Arthur and Brain point this is not the first this has happened, as it turns out Binky does well at baseball and swimming but whenever he has to compete against others, he does not do well.
At home, Binky is embarrassed because his mother wants to keep a trophy he got for merely participating in a competition. He has a nightmare of his friends making fun of him and his awards.
The next day, Binky almost throws the trophy in his trash can but realizing his mother would put it back, decides to ride his bike to the city dump to get rid of the trophy. On the way, he overtakes Mr. Frensky. Mr. Frensky tells him that he is a natural at biking and should try the racecourse at World's End Park. He also tells Binky about famous bicycle racer Vance Legstrong.
Binky starts biking on the racecourse regularly and writing down his times. When Mr. Frensky suggests he compete in an amateur race, Francine tells him that Binky does not like to compete. Binky tells her she is wrong, but when he is about to fill out the application form, his self-doubts reappear. His Vance Legstrong poster starts speaking and tells Binky to compete only against himself and ignore all others. Binky tells him "You're the best cyclist in the world!" Then Vance asks Binky "How do you think I got to be the best cyclist in the world?" He then becomes a poster again.
On the day of the race, Binky easily takes the lead while racing up a hill, but then he crashes. He is about to give up when another Vance Legstrong poster reminds him to compete against himself. Binky gets back on his bike, overtakes his materialized doubts and finishes the race. Francine congratulates him for finishing despite the crash and still not being last. Mr. Frensky gives him the violet polka-dot shirt that Binky won for being the best hill climber.
Binky ends the episode explaining that the shirt may look funny but feels great to wear and says bye to the viewers and shuts the door but he opens it again and angrily tells the viewers to knock before they enter next time and shuts the door again.
Characters[]
Major[]
Minor[]
- Oliver Frensky
- Brain
- Sam Scarborough
- 3rd Grade Male Bear
- 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 7)
- 3rd Grade Female Bear (Number 3)
- 3rd Grade Male Aardvark
- 3rd Grade Female Bear
- 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 5)
- 3rd Grade Female Aardvark (Number 5)
Cameo[]
- Muffy Crosswire
- Fern Walters
- Jessica
- 3rd Grade Male Dog (Number 3)
- George Lundgren
- Helen
- D.W. Read
- David Read
- Jane Read
- Millicent Crosswire
- Laverne Frensky
- Patrick (4th grader)
- Alex Davidson
- 4th Grade Male Rabbit
Trivia[]
- This episode (including its second segment "Operation: D.W.!") was pulled from the rerun rotation in the United States, following the Lance Armstrong doping case. In this episode, the character Vance Legstrong is a parody of Lance Armstrong.
- The last national airing of this episode was on January 30, 2013, on PBS,[5][6] five months after Armstrong was charged.
- It is believed that this episode pair continued airing in reruns on a few select local PBS stations that opted to air Arthur reruns on an independent rotation, as opposed to the national one, one such station being WFWA, which is known to have aired the episode as late as 2017.[7]
- This episode pair was one of five to be excluded from the February 2022 marathon on PBS Kids.
- This episode pair is still available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.[8]
- The episode can still be found on the DVD releases "Arthur: Season 10" and "D.W., Bossy Boots."
- In an apparent error, this episode was temporarily added to the PBS Kids Video app on February 7, 2025, along with its sister episode "Operation: D.W.!" and Season 9's "Arthur Weighs In/The Law of the Jungle Gym."
- Binky is shown to be 10 years old in this episode.
- The interior design of the pizzeria featured in Buster's flashback was later recycled for Pizza Paula's.
Cultural references[]
- This episode's title is a reference to Columbia Pictures' 1979 Oscar-winning film Kramer vs. Kramer.
- Vance Legstrong is a parody of Lance Armstrong.
- Loop d'Italia, which Vance Legstrong won four times, alludes to the Giro d'Italia, which Lance Armstrong never won. However, Armstrong did compete in the race in 2009, three years after this episode originally aired. He finished in 12th place, though this was stripped along with the rest of his racing results after his lifetime cycling ban.
Errors[]
- Despite his intense aquaphobia seen in "Water and the Brain," Brain is shown participating in swimming practice. Although, he could have gotten over it since then.
Production notes[]
- Like all episodes of Season 10, this episode included the number '10' hidden in various places. For a list of them, see ARTHUR Season 10 Scavenger Hunt.
Home video[]
DVD[]
Gallery[]
Screenshots
References[]
- ↑ http://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20001008
- ↑ http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/2006-11-15
- ↑ Arthur. TVO. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.
- ↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-10/3906
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20170616020540/https://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20001008/
- ↑ https://tv.azpm.org/schedules/kuat6/2013/01/30/#6.a.m.
- ↑ Recording of the episode credits from January 8, 2017.
- ↑ https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0RV4BHZXJ6KB5C3VIG15ACNKIU/ref=atv_dp_btf_el_3p_sd_tv_resume_t1ALAAAAAA0wr0?autoplay=1&t=0