| "Flea to Be You and Me" | |
| Season/Series: | 8 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 9a |
| Original airdate: |  December 25, 2003[1] March 17, 2004[2] December 27, 2007[3] |
| Credits | |
| Story by: | Cusi Cram |
| Written by: | Jonathan Greenberg |
| Storyboard by: | Gerry Capelle |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "Tales from the Crib" |
Next "Kiss and Tell" |
| Read transcript |
"Flea to Be You and Me" is the first half of the ninth episode in the eighth season of Arthur.
Summary[]
An Italian circus flea tells Kate, Pal, and Amigo about his globetrotting journey.
Plot[]
Pal has a terrible itch and is afraid he might be given a bath.
Kate and Amigo discover a flea in Pal's fur. Amigo wants to squish it, but the flea begs for mercy and begins to tell the story of its life.
The flea's name is Pepe. He and his brother Sale worked in a flea circus on the Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy. One day, a gust of wind blew him off the stage. A mouse named Alessio rescued him from being stepped on and took him to a closed open air market where they had dinner.
The next morning, Pepe found himself on a ship bound for Africa, because Alessio had decided he had had too much of humans with traps and poisons.
In Alexandria, Egypt, Pepe talked to some flies who offered him a ride on their camel. The camel took him to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
Pepe wanted to stay there with one of the flies. When he settled on a hippopotamus, the birds wanted to eat him as a parasite, but when he showed some of his circus tricks, they let him stay. Then the hippopotamus dove underwater and Pepe was without a home again.
Pepe heard safari tourists speaking Italian and hid in their luggage. Instead of Italy, he ended up in Japan. There, he made friends with a cricket who made beautiful music. When a Japanese girl captured the cricket in a jar, Pepe was caught as well. He tried to cheer up the cricket by singing. When that did not work, he jumped through an air hole and opened the jar cover.
Pepe lived a few months on the family's dog. Then he landed in a bottle of rice vinegar and ended up in the Read house as a gift from David Read’s Japanese pen pal (see “Dear Adil”). Pepe fell out of the bottle onto Pal.
Kate, Pal and Amigo suggest mailing Pepe to Italy in a letter. Pepe instead rides off on a squirrel. Mrs. Read notices that Pal is not scratching anymore, but chooses to give him a bath anyway.
Some time later, the Reads receive an ad in the mail announcing “Dottore Pulce's Amazing Flea Circus” with the reunited brothers Pepe and Sale.
Characters[]
Main[]
Minor[]
- Jane Read
- Arthur Read
- David Read
- Alessio
- Fly
- Nasra, the camel
- Oxpecker
- Zala, the hippopotamus
- Cricket
- Tatsuya's daughter
- Tatsuya Matsumoto
Cameo[]
- Dottore Pulce
- Sale
- Japanese tourists
- Unknown Male Adult Rabbit (Number 4)
- Rae's mother
Trivia[]
- Moral: You should listen to the whole story before you judge the person telling it.
- This episode first aired on Christmas Day.
- This episode ends with a partial iris-out, stopping at the faces of Kate and Pal.
- Adult fleas can only digest blood and their digestive tract is in their abdomen, not their thorax.
- "Dottore Pulce" is Italian for "Doctor Flea".
Cultural references[]
- The title is similar to the album titled "Free to Be... You and Me".
- While trapped in the jar, Pepe sings part of the famous aria "Largo al factotum" from Gioachino Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville".
Gallery[]
Screenshots
References[]
- ↑ http://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20000809
- ↑ Arthur. TVO. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013.
- ↑ https://www.fernsehserien.de/erdferkel-arthur-und-seine-freunde/episodenguide/staffel-8/3906