| "Is There a Doctor in the House?" | |
| Season/Series: | 7 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 8b |
| Original airdate: |  November 27, 2002[1] January 29, 2003[2] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Nick Raposo |
| Storyboard by: | Gerry Capelle |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "The World of Tomorrow" |
Next "Prunella Sees the Light" |
| Read transcript |
"Is There a Doctor in the House?" is the second half of the eighth episode in the seventh season of Arthur.
Summary[]
Arthur and D.W. have to take on big responsibilities when their parents get sick: tasks like cleaning, vacuuming, and even changing Kate's diapers!
Plot[]
Jane is being unusually clumsy, and the house is a mess. Baby Kate spills milk on the kitchen floor. Arthur can't find his softball shirt as it is still wet from the washing machine, so Jane allows him to take David's Parents' Day shirt. Finally, the dishes are a mess. Mrs. Tibble calls, and it turns out Jane had forgotten about D.W. being at the The Tibble twins’ house; as a result, she doesn't have time for her tea, which she pours down the sink.
At dinnertime, Arthur talks about his softball game, mentioning that David's Parents' Day shirt is lucky. David wonders why Arthur was wearing it. D.W. chatters about the Tibble twins "selling" paper bag puppets for $19.95. Jane imagines them all as irritating clowns and realizes she's developed bags under her eyes. She shouts, "Can't we just have a little peace and quiet for once?!" then apologizes for the outburst, explaining that she hasn't been feeling like herself all day.
David takes Jane's temperature, revealing a fever. He tells her she needs a couple of days of bed rest. Arthur says they'll take care of everything, and Jane goes to sleep.
The following morning, Jane in her robe. She goes down to the kitchen, where she observes the dirty dishes, sighing, Jane walks off. D.W. is worried that David can't deal with straightening up the house all by himself.
Planning to do the laundry, D.W. turns to Pal, and remarks that Jane always folds the laundry first before placing it into the washing machine and does just that. Meanwhile, Arthur vacuums, although he is doing it in the same spot back and forth while watching TV. Arthur accidentally vacuums paper clips, keys, and a sock; he observes smoke coming out of the vacuum and turns it off. Arthur and D.W. meet up, and Arthur says he finished with the vacuuming before asking D.W. how she's doing with the laundry; she says it's going great while bringing the laundry up the stairs. However, the clothes are falling out of the basket.
David's shirt falls out of the laundry basket and Pal brings it outside and buries it. D.W. is having trouble hanging up pajamas on the hook attached to the bathroom door, so she cuts a hole in the pajamas in order to make them stay on the hook. Arthur does the dishes but forgets to rinse them and close the detergent door in the dishwasher. Kate begins to cry, and they find out that she needs a diaper change. They have a squabble about who has to change her, so they do Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot. It takes a long time because Arthur keeps winning which makes D.W. ask for another around. By then, Kate is napping.
Arthur and D.W. have ice cream in the living room; they suppose the household chores to be easy. David arrives and notices that his shirt was buried; he, like Jane, has bags under his eyes. David smells something burning, and Arthur tells him that the vacuum was not working. He tries to fix it while informing Arthur that he has to “pick up the big pieces by hand” before utilizing the vacuum; David decides he will fix it in the morning. After noticing that one of the cups is not clean, David asks Arthur if he scraped the dishes and closed the little detergent door in the dishwasher, and Arthur responses, “Um, I’m not sure.”
Kate starts to cry, and David changes her. He sneezes and notes that he doesn't feel so good, as he got sick from Jane, so he goes to go change into his pajamas. When Arthur says, “Guess we didn’t do as good a job as we thought,” D.W. corrects him, saying, “You mean you didn’t. Daddy didn't say anything about the laundry.” After a second, Arthur and D.W. look surprised when they hear David angrily shout: “Who cut a hole in my pajamas?!”
Everyone goes to sleep, and it is raining. A shadow appears near Arthur's door, which scares him, but it turns out just to be D.W. and her Mary Moo Cow doll. D.W. is scared of the storm and asks Arthur if she can sleep in his bed. Arthur allows her to.
D.W. worries about what will happen if David and Jane are not better in the morning. Arthur says that Grandma Thora is coming and that she will help with the housework.
Arthur and D.W. have a dream where Arthur is a caterer while D.W. is an accountant. When Arthur comes home, he calls for D.W., and she says that she is at the computer. When D.W, asks how the wedding was, Arthur says that he was fired again, and adds that “the catering business is tough when you only know how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” D.W. asks if he thinks being an accountant is easy when she cannot count past 10 (although the page she was working on says otherwise, as it says “6+6=12”, which is the correct answer). When Arthur asks if their parents are feeling any better, he and D.W. then look up at the ceiling when they hear them coughing hard and loud, and D.W. asks if that answers his question.
D.W. then says that she sent Kate to an orphanage, much to Arthur's shock and horror. D.W. explains that Kate deserves to be in a place that can change her diapers. Arthur agrees and quickly changes sides. Expressing their remorse at not paying attention to their mother and father's housekeeping aptitudes, Arthur and D.W. says that they are awful parents, and begin crying.
[END FANTASY SEQUENCE]
Arthur and D.W. both wake up simultaneously, and Arthur says he had the weirdest nightmare; D.W. agrees and says, “Me too.” Kate then starts to cry in D.W.’s bedroom, so they go in there. They have no other choice but to change the diaper themselves. After the nightmare they had, they become more knowledgeable about cleaning, start to get the hang of it, and become accountable for their ages; they also make sure not to repeat the previous day’s mistakes and take their time with the chores instead of rushing through them (such as washing the dishes by hand instead of trying to load the dishwasher).
Grandma Thora arrives, and she is eventually surprised at them being so responsible. All three of them then serve David and Jane their breakfast, and Thora says of the kids, "They folded the laundry, they emptied the trash, and the house is spic and span", before adding, "I don’t see why you two felt you needed to call in the reserves." She then smiles when saying that Arthur and D.W. run a very tight ship. Jane remarks “I guess we trained them well” before giving D.W. a wink. David agrees while jokingly saying that they should get sick more often, which causes D.W. to laugh a little.
Arthur and D.W. then head into the kitchen; Arthur says that he's already tired even though it's not even noon. D.W. agrees, saying that running the house is tough work, but at least there are only two sick people. However, Arthur then sneezes (showing that he has gotten sick from Jane and David), and D.W. face-palms, saying “Oh, no”. Arthur utilizes a dishcloth to blow his nose.
Characters[]
Trivia[]
Episode connections[]
- D.W. mentions Thora’s swim aerobics class, which is seen in “Arthur Makes Waves”. She also mentions bingo, which is seen in several episodes.
Errors[]
- When Jane comes to the sink, her sleeve gets wet, but when she is scrubbing the floors, it is dry.
- When Jane says, "Check the washer," her lips never move.
- After Arthur and D.W. change Baby Kate's diaper, her diaper has hearts on it, but after she accidentally spills her breakfast and the floor gets clean, it has no hearts.
- In the scene where D.W. goes into Arthur's room at night, the Mary Moo Cow doll's horns are longer than normal.
- David catches the flu from Jane; in reality it takes one to four days for a person to show signs of the flu.
Home Video[]
DVD:
Gallery[]
Screenshots
References[]