Postcards from Buster (episode)

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"Postcards from Buster"
Main image Title card
Season/Series:	8
Number in season:	6
Original Airdate:	December 22, 2003 December 24, 2007
Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Jeremy O'Neill Rojer Pernette (uncredited)
Episodes
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Read transcript

"Postcards from Buster" is the sixth episode in the eighth season of Arthur. It is a two-part episode.

Summary

Buster and the Reads go on a trip to New York City to meet Buster's dad. They explore the city.

Plot

Arthur and D.W. eavesdrop on their mom talking to Mrs. Baxter on the phone, while Buster eavesdrops on his mom. Mrs. Read announces that the Reads will be going to New York with Buster, so that Buster can see his dad.

Postcards from Buster

Arthur packs for the trip. He is excited, but Buster is worried that his mom will miss him. Arthur suggests being extra nice to her.

D.W. sees an ad for a Broadway musical called "Unicornicopia" and wants to go. The tickets are expensive so she tells Arthur to save money.

Buster does the dishes for his mom. She wonders what she will do without him which makes him even more worried. He talks to Arthur in the The Sugar Bowl and has a fantasy of his mom flooding the airport with her tears. D.W. scrapes the sprinkles off Arthur's sundae and asks Mr. Marino for a refund.

At home, D.W. reduces Pal's allotment of dog food, squeezes the last bit of toothpaste out of Arthur's tube, tries to feed Kate peas that had fallen to the floor, and cuts out coupons for her mom. She also searches the couch with Nadine for coins and finds Snooter, her imaginary flying pig.

Buster tries the opposite strategy and makes a mess so that his mom will be glad when he is gone. She tells him that she will miss him no matter what but wants him to have the experience.

On the morning of the journey, Grandma Thora tell the kids that she won at Bingo and bought them all tickets for Unicornicopia. D.W. is delighted, Arthur less so.

Buster and his mom get ready to leave. Buster takes tissues for her, though she claims she only has dust in her eye.

At the airport, Mr. and Mrs. Read, Arthur, and D.W. say goodbye to Thora, Kate, Pal, and Nadine. Buster and his mom are moved to tears. She gives him a video camera so he can send her tapes of his adventures.

Buster tries out the camera in the plane. Everything seen through the camera is live action footage rather than the usual cartoon.

Part 2

Bo Baxter greets the Reads at the airport. He was unable to rent a minivan, so the Reads take a taxi, while Buster rides in his dad's car. He gets his first footage of New York City.

The next morning, the Reads and Baxters meet in the hotel breakfast room. While D.W. proudly shows the hospitality gifts she got from the hotel room, Buster invites Arthur to come with him and his dad to meet the Latin Rock band that has hired Bo Baxter to fly them on their tour. They are supposed to meet at a place called “The Point”.

Arthur, Buster and Bo Baxter stop in Chinatown where Buster visits a Chinese bakery. The baker shows him how zongzi are made.

Meanwhile, D.W. and the Read parents take a long time to leave the hotel, because D.W. keeps forgetting things and needs to use the bathroom.

Bo Baxter and the boys find that the car has been towed because it stood in a no-parking zone. They take the subway and watch some people break-dancing at Grand Central Station.

D.W. and her parents get off a horse-drawn carriage in Central Park.

Bo Baxter and the boys end up in El Barrio after their train breaks down. Buster interviews a man doing sidewalk drawings. Then they ask for the way in a Puerto Rican restaurant and are shown pasteles.

D.W. and her parents have lunch at the Hotel Metropole. D.W. has a fantasy of living there.

Bo Baxter and the boys get lost after a cab took them to the Bronx. They go to a bakery and ask two girls for the way. The girls take them to “The Point”, which is a youth center where kids learn juggling and photography and do homework.

After that they have a hotdog in a small restaurant. Arthur realizes that the musical will begin in fifteen minutes.

Nadine takes Arthur's seat at the musical. D.W. is disappointed by the show. Arthur misses it completely. The Baxters and Reads reunite in front of the theater. Buster apologizes, but Arthur is glad to have seen so much of New York City.

Characters

Major

• Buster Baxter
• Arthur Read
• D.W. Read
• Bo Baxter

Minor

• David Read
• Jane Read
• Bitzi Baxter
• Thora Read
• Nadine Flumberghast
• Chinese Baker (live action)
• Break Dancers (live action)
• Dr. De La Vega (live action)
• Boy at "La Fonda Boricua" (live action)
• Sharay (live action)
• Jasmine (live action)

Cameo

• Kate Read
• Ramon Molina
• Pal
• Snooter
• Otis
• Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 3)
• Unknown Female Adult Rabbit (Number 4)

Trivia

• This is the first episode in which Arthur meets Bo Baxter in person. He appeared in flashbacks in earlier episodes.
• This is the pilot episode of the Postcards from Buster series, which premiered the following year. The main gimmick of the series, like this episode, is that the scenes filmed with Buster's camcorder are live-action and feature real people.
• Bo's character design looks completely different in this episode compared to the Postcards from Buster series. However, he is voiced by Marcel Jeannin in both.
• Peter K. Hirsch, the writer for the episode, is the man who tells the gang that their car has been towed.
• Snooter is also the name of a dog (who was Jackie's dog) in Zoboomafoo, another series that Wild Brain produced.

Cultural references / Real life locations

• When making postcards, D.W. mispronounces the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, and the Statue of Liberty (in "D.W. Goes to Washington", she pronounced Statue of Liberty correctly).
• In Chinatown, Bo Baxter and the boys start at the corner of Canal Street and Mott Street, then walk to Baxter Street.
• May May Gourmet Chinese Bakery used to be at 35 Pell Street. It closed in late 2007, almost four years after this episode aired.
• The Chinese baker shows Buster zongzi, the Chinese version of tamales. They are traditionally wrapped in bamboo leaves.
• Bo Baxter and the boys change subway trains at Grand Central Station.
• D.W. and her parents visit Central Park and plan to go to the Museum of Natural History.
• Bo Baxter and the boys have to leave the train at El Barrio, also known as Spanish Harlem or East Harlem.
• The restaurant La Fonda Boricua is at 169 East 106th Street.
• In La Fonda Boricua, Buster is shown pasteles, the Puerto Rican version of tamales.
• D.W. and her parents have lunch at the Hotel Metropole.
• D.W.'s imagination sequence about living in a hotel refers to the book series, Eloise.
• Valencia Bakery is at 801 Edgewater Road.
• The Point is a youth center at 940 Garrison Avenue.

Episode connections

• This is the second time the Reads travel to a real world city, the first being Washington, D.C. in "D.W. Goes to Washington."
• Arthur mentions Buster staying with his dad in season 2 between “Arthur's Faraway Friend” and “Buster's Back."

Production notes

• This episode has never been aired on UK television, likely because of the spinoff series that follows this episode not airing on CBBC.^{[citation needed]}
• This episode does not feature an A Word from Us Kids segment at all.

Errors

• The aircraft model changes several times: in animation, it shows a Boeing 727 and when taking off, it changes to a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In live action footage, it's an Airbus A320.
• Bo tells Buster to point his camcorder out the window to get a shot of the plane taking off. However, FAA regulations at the time required that personal electronic devices be turned off during taxi, takeoff and landing.

Gallery

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Promotional images

Buster and Arthur on the subway

Screenshots

Peter K. Hirsch (left) makes a cameo appearance

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