| This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book. |
| "Lost!" | |
| Season/Series: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number in season: | 9A |
| Original airdate: |  October 30, 1997[1] December 4, 1997[2] February 5, 2002[3] |
| Credits | |
| Written by: | Kathy Waugh |
| Storyboard by: | Gerry Capelle |
| Episodes | |
| Previous "The Big Blow-Up" |
Next "The Short, Quick Summer" |
| Read transcript |
"Lost!" is the first half of the ninth episode in the second season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book Arthur Lost and Found.
Summary
Arthur falls asleep on a bus and wakes up in a strange — and scary — part of town.
Plot
One evening, Jane receives a call from someone telling her that Arthur is lost, prompting her to exclaim, "Lost?!". D.W. and Pal both repeat "Lost?" one after another (with Pal's in barks since he can't speak). D.W. and Jane tell David, and while Jane reveals that Arthur never made it to his swimming lesson, D.W. gets emotional. Once D.W. calms down, they all wonder where he is. David says he'll drive to the school and Jane says she'll call the bus company. D.W. tries to help (by saying that she'll go tell everyone), but Jane orders her to stay at home for now; she doesn't want two lost kids. D.W. knows Arthur is "out there somewhere". She starts to cry before shouting, "Oh, Arthur, where are you?!"
Lost!
Arthur arrives home to his worried parents, who are relieved that he's alright. D.W. then believes that everyone worried for nothing since Arthur was simply at the bus station. The family then sits down in the living room, asking him to tell everyone what happened, but D.W. thinks her side of the story is much better, saying that she answered the phone and got extremely worried. When Jane says that her part will come later, Arthur starts explaining to his family what happened to him:
In a flashback at school, classes were dismissed, and Buster and Francine asked Arthur if he wanted to go bike riding, but he turned down the offer because he had to take the bus to the public pool for swimming lessons; his mother couldn't drive him because she was attending D.W's school play, where D.W. played the mashed potatoes in the pageant of foods. Francine and Buster stared at Arthur in horror, but he urged taking the bus will be fine. His friends then told him tales about the bus that frightened Arthur. Buster claimed he heard of a man who got on a bus that just kept on driving. Arthur imagines being on that same bus and asking the bus driver when the next stop is, since he is supposed to be at his swimming lesson. The driver reveals they don't make any stops. Arthur says that's impossible and screams as everyone on the bus turns into squid-like aliens, while the bus transforms into a spaceship and flies off. Francine heard that story, which was actually in a movie. She agreed with Arthur, saying he will be fine, but warned him about a child who apparently couldn't leave the bus because he didn't have the money to pay his fare. In another fantasy, Arthur imagines being stuck on the bus when he is at least 48 years old and his clothing is ragged because the evil driver won't let him get off.
The bus arrived, and Buster and Francine gave their last goodbyes to Arthur before it left. As he took a seat, a friendly woman in one row of seats down winked at him, and Arthur began to read a book about squids. He soon grew exhausted and fell asleep, sleeping through the bus pulling in at the bus stop across the street from the public pool- the one that Arthur was to get off at.
- In the present, Arthur defends that he couldn't help falling asleep; he was up all night doing some reading (which was a comic, and he continued to read it way past his bedtime). Arthur says that after he fell asleep on the bus, things got quite scary.
Back in the flashback, he woke up in a part of town he didn't recognize. Arthur asked the woman who winked at him where he was, and she answered that they were near the edge of town, before asking if he's all right. He claimed he was fine before it hit him: He missed his stop near the pool and was lost.
- D.W. back in the present gets awed by this and asks him if he was scared, which he claims he wasn't. David asks why he didn't just say anything to the bus driver, and Arthur admits he thought about it, but when the bus reached its terminus, he lost his nerve and simply got off.
On the sidewalk, Arthur questioned to himself why he had to take swimming lessons anyway. He decided to walk home, but realized he didn't know where to go and didn't have enough money to take the bus back, causing him to shed a tear.
- In the present, D.W. asks if Arthur cried, and he initially denies this, before admitting that he cried "a little". D.W. then says he should've seen how much she cried, but Jane stops her before she gets ahead of herself.
Back in the flashback, Arthur saw a payphone inside a diner, and he knew that even if his mom and dad aren't home, Grandma Thora would pick him up. He has a daydream where she would go through anything to pick him up — like jumping over an open piece of road, astonishing the construction workers. When he tried to use the payphone, it didn't work. The woman from the bus works for the diner and noticed him. She thought Arthur looked hungry and offered him a drink. He ordered milk while he waits.
- Back in the present, D.W.'s story comes.
The phone rang while Jane was trying to change Kate's diaper and D.W. was playing in her mashed potatoes costume. D.W. rudely answered the phone and asked Jane if they lost Arthur somewhere. Jane replied that Arthur was at his swimming lesson, and they'll need to pick him up soon. When she asked D.W. who is on the phone, D.W. explained that it was a man from the pool, and he said that Arthur isn't there, much to Jane's shock and horror.
- As D.W. is talking about this moment, Jane begins to cry, and D.W. reminds her that Arthur is home, safe and sound. Jane recalls that that was the worst telephone call in her life and that she doesn't want another call like that to happen again. She tells Arthur that they called the bus company, and D.W. adds that they would've called the police, but they received another call, and David stops her there. They then return to Arthur's story.
At the diner, the woman from the bus made Arthur a burger and fries. She told him that she noticed he goes to Lakewood Elementary School and she lives near there. She said that she usually takes the bus to get home from work. When Arthur asked her what she does if she had no money, she asked him if he needed her to lend him some cash. Arthur said his dad told him he should never take money from strangers, and the waitress complimented him on this great advice. She suggested that if she didn't have money, she would talk to the bus driver, Sam, and he wouldn't get mad or charge her extra. When it turns 6:00 P.M., she said the bus heads back to town soon and says that Arthur's meal is free.
Arthur headed to the bus stop, right when the bus zooms by. He ran after the bus and the bus driver stopped and opened the door. Arthur explained his predicament, talking about how he fell asleep and missed his stop, and had no money for a return trip and didn't even know where he was. The driver told him he had heard enough; when Arthur began to leave, the driver assured him that what happened to Arthur "happens all the time". The two introduce themselves each other, and Arthur learns the bus driver is Sam, who the waitress had told him about. Sam gave Arthur a ride home and even called his parents to let them know. When the bus stopped, everyone on it, including Sam, said goodbye to Arthur as he headed to his house.
Back in the present, Arthur's parents tuck him into bed. David and Jane are glad that their son is okay and tell Arthur that they're proud of him for what he did: asking someone for help when he didn't know where he was. Arthur and his parents say goodnight to each other and Arthur goes to sleep. However, D.W. soon comes into her brother's bedroom, waking him up. D.W. admits that she was honestly really scared and concerned for Arthur when he was lost. Arthur seems touched by this and allows D.W. to sleep with him for the night, promising her that he'll never get lost like that again.
Characters
Major
Minor
- Buster Baxter
- Francine Frensky
- Thora Read (in Arthur's imagination only)
- David Read
- Jane Read
- Kate Read (in Arthur's story)
Cameo
- Pal
- Alex Davidson
- Muffy Crosswire
- Maria Pappas
- Jenna Morgan
- Prunella Deegan
- Brain
- Binky Barnes
- 3rd Grade Male Dog
- Manny
- Photographer
- Mrs. Wood
- Edwin (in Arthur's imagination only)
- Liam (in Arthur's imagination only)
- Bill (dog)
Trivia
- Morals: Don't be afraid to ask anyone for help, especially when you are in a difficult or dangerous situation.
- At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur’s crashing sound changes to pots and pans.
- This is one of the many times where Arthur doesn't introduce the episode, not even appearing during the introduction.
- This is one of the few times Arthur is shown to cry. This time, actual tears fall from his eyes, unlike in the other episodes where Arthur cries in.
- Lost! became adapted into a book in the Arthur Adventure series and re-titled as Arthur Lost and Found.
- Grandma Thora's license plate is LOVEY.
- It's interesting that Arthur's parents say not to accept money from strangers, but Arthur is fine with eating food from a stranger. (This might be because it's a restaurant.)
- The bus Arthur travels on is based on the Flxible New Look transit buses. Coincidentally, Marc Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania had several of these types of buses built between 1967 and 1973, some of which might still have been operating around the time this episode was created. Flxible went defunct in 1996, one year before the episode aired.
- The aerial shot of Elwood City was shown twice in this episode.
- This is one of the few times where D.W. worries about Arthur.
- When Buster and Francine tell Arthur stuff about the bus that frightens him, Francine tells him about a kid who was forbidden from getting off the bus because he didn't have any money to pay his fare. A similar story is told by a train conductor to Sue Ellen in "Strangers on a Train", when he tells her about a little girl who was forbidden from getting off the train because she lost her ticket and didn't have any money, just like the kid Francine told Arthur about.
Errors
- The photographer can be seen sitting next to Arthur on the bus, but when the waitress is shown, he is also seen sitting next to her.
- During the time Arthur is on the bus, the bus goes past the same buildings multiple times. This is likely because backgrounds were reused.
- The truck that can be seen at the beginning of the episode is pink, but at the end of the episode when Sam drops Arthur off at his house, it is purple.
- When the camera pans over to Arthur's street, the bus is on the other side of the street in front of a house across from the Read's house but when the camera cuts to Arthur getting off, the bus is right in front of the Read's.
- In one scene with D.W. wearing her mashed potatoes costume, part of her hair changes in-between frames.
- When the bus stops for Arthur as he runs up to it, it's rear wheel is in a spinning animation making it seem as if the bus was still moving.
- At the beginning of Arthur's story, Binky is the first to exit the school but when the camera changes shots, he's nowhere to be seen.
Differences between the book and the TV episode
- In the book, Arthur went on the bus ride and spent the evening with Buster, and they got lost together. In the T.V. episode, Arthur gets lost all by himself.
- In the book, Arthur and Buster had more money when they came to the diner, but they spent it without thinking on chocolate winkies and strawberry soda. In the T.V. episode, Arthur went into the diner with only one coin and was given a free meal. (Likely because the waitress took pity on him since he is a young child.)
- In the book, Arthur thinks up the idea of talking to the bus driver himself. In the T.V. episode, the waitress suggests it to him.
- In the book, Sam is shown wearing glasses, but in the T.V. episode, he does not.
Production Notes
- This is the first episode to use Pal Howling as a title card and is the first title card in the series that does not feature Arthur. It is also one of two post-first season title cards to have the circle edge vibrate, à la the first season title cards (the other is the Fairy D.W. title card).
Home Video
DVD:
VHS:
Gallery
.png "Sam (bus driver).png (431 KB)")
References