Season 5

Season 5 of Arthur premiered on PBS in the United States on September 25, 2000 with the episode "Arthur and the Big Riddle," and ended on November 27, 2000, with "Muffy Gets Mature." The TV special "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" premiered alongside this season, with its debut on November 23, 2000.

"Arthur's New Friend" was released on home video five months before this season debuted, but it is not considered part of the season.

Episodes

Screenshot	Title	Number	Episode	Original Airdate
	"Arthur and the Big Riddle"	76	1a	September 25, 2000
	Arthur goes on the game show, Riddle Quest, against a really smart contestant. In the final round, he must decide between winning and his friends. Alex Trebek guest stars as the host, Alex Lebeck.
	"Double Dare"	76	1b	September 25, 2000
	Arthur, Buster, Francine, and Brain resent the large amount of homework they are assigned, which culminates in a large number of dares issued to skip school. However, the next morning, everyone agrees to call off the plot due to guilt (personified by a giant clam). Francine fails to receive the message and carries on with the dare.
	"Kids are from Earth, Parents are from Pluto"	77	2a	October 2, 2000
	Lakewood Elementary is having an open house and Arthur and his friends are embarrassed by how their parents will act, judging from the previous year's open house. This prompts Sue Ellen to ask her parents to act more "normal".
	"Nerves of Steal"	77	2b	October 2, 2000
	Buster wants the new CyberToy, but they're too expensive, so while he's at the drugstore, he slips a CyberToy into Arthur's backpack without him noticing. Buster feels guilty later, so he and Arthur try to return it without getting into trouble.
	"It's a No-Brainer"	78	3a	October 9, 2000
	Buster beats Brain at a class Mathathon, so Brain gives up on his studies and becomes a comedian, leaving Buster to represent the class. Buster realizes that he can't do so, and comes up with several plans to turn Brain back to the way he was.
	"The Shore Thing"	78	3b	October 9, 2000
	Arthur, Buster, Binky, Sue Ellen, and Brain are excited that Arthur's dad is going to take them some place that is promised to be even better than Aqualand. Although disappointed that they're brought to the beach, Arthur's dad tells them about "Ocean Zone", and leaves them to find it. They have fun at the beach and realize that it is Ocean Zone.
	"The World Record"	79	4a	October 16, 2000
	Arthur and his friends attempt to break a world record by making the world's largest pizza.
	"The Cave"	79	4b	October 16, 2000
	Mr. Ratburn's class takes a field trip to some caves in Palisades Park. Arthur is afraid of going into the caves, but inside, he's not the one that's spooked the most. He uses his advice that his dad told him and gets everyone out of the cave calmly.
	"The Lousy Week"	80	5a	October 23, 2000
	When Muffy gets head lice, she is nervous about how her friends will feel. However, it ends up spreading to everyone at school, forcing them to be checked everyday and instead of doing homework, they are forced to stay up late and have their parents take nits out of their hair.
	"You Are Arthur"	80	5b	October 23, 2000
	Arthur is training for and running a 3k race. Everything is seen from his point-of-view the whole episode.
	"The Election"	81	6a	October 30, 2000
	Mr. Ratburn's class holds a class election. Muffy takes the candidacy for class president seriously and a competitive campaign against Arthur ensues. However, they both lose to Binky and learn about elections and campaigning in the process.
	"Francine Goes to War"	81	6b	October 30, 2000
	Being annoyed by her new neighbor, Francine tries to get her to move by setting traps to scare her. This doesn't work, and she makes a new friend as she gets to know her.
	"Sleep No More"	82	7a	November 6, 2000
	Buster believes it's his destiny to go to Pizza Paula's Pizzaland and win the pizza-eating contest for free pizza for life. While he is there, he goes back to the hotel room to sleep early for the contest. However, he can't fall asleep.
	"Pet Peeved"	82	7b	November 6, 2000
	Francine pays Binky to look after Nemo for the weekend, but he doesn't take a look at her written instructions. When Nemo acts strangely at the mention of Francine, Binky keeps him away from her, thinking she is a bad owner.
	"The Last of Mary Moo Cow"	83	8a	November 13, 2000
	When D.W.'s favorite show, Mary Moo Cow, is canceled, she starts a petition to try to get it back on the air and visits its set at the TV station.
	"Bitzi's Beau"	83	8b	November 13, 2000
	Buster's mom has a boyfriend and Buster is nervous to meet him. At first, he thinks it's Mr. Ratburn, but finds out it's not. When he eventually meets her boyfriend, Harry, he finds out he's not so bad.
	"Just Desserts"	84	9a	November 20, 2000
	Arthur has a stomachache after eating too many sweets and has dreams involving fairy tales made famous by the Brothers Grimm.
	"The Big Dig"	84	9b	November 20, 2000
	Arthur and D.W. don't want to spend time with Grandpa Dave because all he does is play checkers and sleep. He tells them about a buried family treasure, but they don't want to wait up for him, so they take the map and look for it themselves.
	"Arthur's Family Feud"	85	10a	November 27, 2000
	After Mr. Read's soufflé is destroyed, Arthur and D.W. both explain their sides of the story and ultimately attempt to bake one to compensate for the one they destroyed.
	"Muffy Gets Mature"	85	10b	November 27, 2000
	Feeling that Francine is not mature enough, Muffy hangs out with Francine's sister, Catherine. Catherine's friends don't receive Muffy well and ridicule her because she uses "Mature Miss" Magazine as her guide for acting mature.

Animation

The first eleven seasons of Arthur were animated by a South Korean animation studio, AKOM Productions. Production of Season 4 started in 1998 and ended the next year. Pre-production frames (drawings on paper) were sent from CINAR (now called WildBrain) in Canada to South Korea and were polished, colored and fully animated with watercolor backgrounds. The finalized animation was sent back to CINAR in tapes to be edited with vocals and music. The fully completed episode was sent to WGBH and home media distributors such as Random House in floppy disks to be released to the public via television airings on PBS stations and VHS/DVD releases respectively.

This season would continue with its use of digital ink and paint animation for episodes with more competence than in season 4. A few cels would be made for promotional purposes. After the animation crew would draw movements made by characters or objects, frame by frame, by hand on paper with storyboards and character models being used as reference, a primitive digital click and paint tool would then be used for animated characters and objects that could only support 46 colors.

Backgrounds in the fifth season were still drawn and painted traditionally by hand, as they were in the previous four seasons. When painting was completed, the backgrounds were then scanned so that the colored characters and objects could deposited on them digitally

Production of Season 5 would be rushed as a result of the quota also demanding the production and release of "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" and "Arthur's New Friend"

Trivia

• This is the last season for a few things:
  • The last season in Arthur media released in the 20th century.
  • The last season to have Michael Yarmush as the voice of Arthur, as his voice continued to mature further when Season 4 finished airing. He would be replaced by Justin Bradley beginning in the next season, though Yarmush would later return to start voicing Slink in Season 9, and reprise the role of Arthur as an adult in the show's finale, "All Grown Up".
    • Sound effects of Yarmush's yelps and screams from Season 1 were used for Arthur due to Yarmush's voice being noticeably even more deeper in this season.
  • The last season to use the original color palettes for the characters. Starting with the next season, new, brighter color palettes were introduced.
• This is the first season for three things:
  • The first season released in the 2000s.
  • The first season in which Steven Crowder voices Brain, replacing Luke Reid.
  • The first season to be incompatible with the ActiMates toys since their discontinuation. A barcode is not present on the left side of the screen.

• "Francine Goes to War" and "The Last of Mary Moo Cow" are the only episodes to not be released on Home Video.
• On March 21, 2000, The Toronto Star reported that Cinar was working on the fifth season of Arthur and the primetime Christmas special, despite financial uncertainty.