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"Poor Muffy"
Season/Series: 1
Number in season: 26b
Original Airdate: United States November 11, 1996[1]
Canada February 10, 1997[2]
Germany January 17, 2002[3]
Credits
Written by: Ken Scarborough
Storyboard by: Gerry Capelle
Episodes
Previous
"My Dad, the Garbage Man"
Next
"D.W.'s Blankie"
Read transcript

"Poor Muffy" is the second half of the twenty-sixth episode in the first season of Arthur.

Summary

Muffy's allergic to the new carpets in her house, so she decides to stay with Francine while the carpeting's being removed. She brings with her some of the things from her room including televisions, wardrobes and sculptures. During Muffy's stay, Francine can't handle Muffy's spoiled attitude, and Muffy can't deal with the less-than-wealthy condition in which Francine's family lives.

Plot

The intro begins with Arthur cleaning his room when he trips. Arthur then begins to wonder what it would be like if he had a different family, like Brain's family, but realizes it wouldn't be that great. Then he thinks about Binky's family, but states that living where he does is okay for now. Then D.W. comes in and makes Arthur's room messy again, to his dismay.

Poor Muffy

While Francine is over at Muffy's house, Muffy keeps sneezing. Francine suspects that Muffy has allergies, and Muffy's parents try to help her figure out what she's allergic to. It turns out that Muffy's allergies are from the new carpeting being installed in the house. Francine suggests that, until the carpeting gets removed, Muffy can stay at her apartment. Muffy moves in to Francine's place, bringing with her a lot of her possessions, among them televisions, wardrobes, and statues. Since Francine and Catherine's bedroom gets so crammed with Muffy's items, Catherine ends up staying at Muffy's house.

Muffy bosses Francine around, having her move her stuff around the bedroom while she lies on Francine's bed. This makes Francine angry, and causes her to shout "Muffy! I'm not your servant, you know!"

Muffy apologizes, saying that she just wanted Francine's room to look great, and asks Francine to forgive her. Francine does, and apologizes for yelling. Then Mrs. Frensky calls them for dinner, to which Muffy replies "Thank goodness. With all this moving, I'm famished."

At dinner, Muffy calls the food "vomitrocious" because it's leftovers (e.g. it's cold and has been touched by others).

After dinner, Muffy complains that there's something wrong with Francine's T.V. because it only gets 3 channels, to which Francine sarcastically replies that they can get another channel, but they have to put the antenna on their heads and dance around and asks Muffy if she wants to try it.

Later, as Francine and Muffy walk out of the apartment building, Muffy complains how the Frenskys have no video games or VCR. Mr. Frensky comes out and plays football with Francine, but Muffy wants to go out for ice cream. Francine tells her that they can't, because it's Tuesday, and they go out to eat ice cream on Fridays, but Mr. Frensky agrees that they can go get ice cream.

At the Ice Cream Shop, Francine and her dad have medium size ice cream while Muffy order a ham ripple ice cream with extra sprinkles and nuts. While Muffy is waiting for her ice cream, Francine ask if they can move their ice cream nights to Tuesdays. However, her father said this was just an exception since Muffy is over, and they are trying to keep her comfortable since she is their guest, and it's kind of hard for her to live in a different house. He thinks it is also hard for Catherine to be staying at Muffy's house (however, a transition to Muffy's house shows that Catherine is doing fine).

After they go home, Francine goes to take a bath before bed and Muffy asks Mr. Frensky how it is that his family doesn't have the same amount of money her family has. He explains this difference in lifestyle to her and explains that there are many nice people who are rich, and many nice people who aren't. However, he's quite happy with the life he lives since he already has lots of fun with Francine. At that moment Francine tackles the two on the bed like a shark, which Mr. Frensky finds funny but Muffy's feet get caught under them.

As the week goes by, Muffy starts taking too much advantage of staying at the Frenskys. She hooks up all of her appliances while getting her hair and nails done, and ends up causing a power outage through the apartment. She has her chauffeur Bailey narrate the cartoon she had been watching at the time to her over the phone, but decides it's not the same and lets him off the hook. That night, she plays the music on her radio up to full blast and dances to it loudly, causing a massive racket that prompts complaints from the neighbors. Francine tells Muffy she can't be doing that, and Muffy starts complaining about how much she doesn't like the circumstances of her visit. Fed up with her complaining, Francine suggests she goes home. Muffy obliges, saying she's sick of being "poor".

That night, Francine is still very bitter about Muffy, and tries to forget Muffy ever stayed over. She then gets a phone call from Muffy, who says that she is leaving (yet, she is only a few feet away at the front door). Mr. Frensky talks to her and tries to convince her that she can stay, playing along with the fact that she's right there. Muffy agrees to reconsider, but Francine insists that Muffy ask for her permission to stay first. Muffy then asks upfront if she can, and is shocked when Francine flat out refuses to let her stay any longer, for she has been rude and selfish the entire time.

That night, Francine begins to regret her attitude towards Muffy, but is still frustrated at how selfish she was. Mr. Frensky explains that Muffy may not be used to a house with different rules, and that Francine should talk to her about it at school. The next day, Francine meets Muffy outside on the way to school and Muffy apologizes for her behavior, admitting that she did like it at Francine's place. She also chooses to walk to school with Francine instead of taking the limo, though she keeps Bailey close by, anyway. She explains that she has been at the hotel missing the life she was living at Francine's apartment, and although the carpet's almost out of her house, she asks if she can spend just one more night at Francine's. Francine agrees, if Muffy can survive the simpler circumstances by which the Frenskys live. Muffy insists that she can do much better this time, though not long after, she starts complaining about how "far away" the school is.

Characters

Major

Minor

Mentioned

Trivia

  • In this episode, it is revealed that Muffy's mom's name is Millicent.
  • Even though Arthur appears in this episode, he only appears in its cold opening, and after the title card is show, he isn't shown for the rest of the episode.
  • It's revealed that the Frensky's apartment is just down the road from Lakewood Elementary.

Cultural references

Errors

  • When Millicent hands Muffy a wad of money to sniff, Muffy says, "Money?", but the closed captioning credits this line to Millicent (as "Mother").
  • When Francine is taking a bath, her skin and hair colors are lighter than normal.

Gallery

Screenshots

Home Video

DVD

References


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