Arthur Wiki
Register
Advertisement
This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book.
"Sue Ellen's Lost Diary"
Season/Series: 2
Number in season: 14a
Original Airdate: United States April 9, 1998[1]
Canada September 10, 1998[2]
Germany February 12, 2002[3]
Credits
Written by: Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by: Ivan Tankushev
Episodes
Previous
"Arthur the Unfunny"
Next
"Arthur's Knee"
Read transcript

"Sue Ellen's Lost Diary" is the first half of the fourteenth episode in the second season of Arthur. It was later adapted into the book Arthur and the Lost Diary.

Summary[]

While helping Sue Ellen look for her missing journal, her friends start to wonder what exactly is in it.

Plot[]

In the introduction, Arthur imagines what it would be like to look into people's minds. He tries it on his family and sees D.W. playing with a doll-sized Arthur and Pal thinking of food. When he tries it on his parents, they notice him and think of him going to bed. Arthur concludes that it is better to not know what people are thinking.

Sue Ellen's Lost Diary

Sue Ellen loses her diary in the library. She accuses Francine of taking it, but Francine is in fact reading a joke book.

Francine tells Muffy about Sue Ellen having lost her diary and they wonder what is written in it. Francine has a fantasy in which Sue Ellen tells a psychiatrist how mean Francine is. This leads to Francine being diagnosed with “ogreism” and being locked up in a mental institution.

Muffy offers to help Sue Ellen search and tries to coax her into revealing the diary's contents. Sue Ellen starts telling her that she is writing a story about a princess, but then she realizes what Muffy is up to. Muffy imagines a story in which she is a princess who saves a town from a dragon by spraying it with perfume. Sue Ellen is her lady in waiting.

Muffy tells Binky about the diary and he says that he saw it on a library cart. They look for the cart, but it is gone. Binky imagines that Sue Ellen has written about being in love with him, and that he has been oblivious to her affections towards him.

Francine, Muffy and Binky search together when Arthur comes with the diary which he found. Arthur is initially against reading it, but struggles with his curiosity. All four put their hands on the diary, but nobody can make up their mind to open it.

They end up returning the diary to Sue Ellen, who tells them that she will write about having the best friends in the world. Binky holds the door open for her, Muffy offers to help with Sue Ellen's story and Francine is especially nice. Sue Ellen does not understand why and asks Arthur whether they really did not read the diary. Arthur confirms it and Sue Ellen confesses that she wrote some nice things about him, causing him to blush.

Characters[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Cameo[]

Trivia[]

  • At the end of the 2000 rerun intro on PBS Kids before this episode, Arthur’s crashing sound changes to a big splash of water.
  • Sue Ellen is implied to have a crush on Arthur, while Binky is implied to have a crush on Sue Ellen.
  • In Arthur's Really Rockin' Music Mix, Sue Ellen claims she can't sing but in this episode she was singing perfectly.

Episode connections[]

  • Sue Ellen's comment at the end, "I said some pretty nice things about you!" is a reference to Arthur's original crush on her in the books.
  • This crush is also based on how Marc Brown based Sue Ellen on his first girlfriend and Arthur on himself.
  • During Muffy's fantasy, she plays as Princess Millicenta who wears a blue princess dress and long curly hair. After the dragon comes into the castle, Millicenta began to wear her blue princess hat. After the knight is stuck in the castle door, Millicent's hat is gone. When Millicenta comes out of her castle, she wears a single braid, but still wearing a princess dress. However, in "Arthur's New Friend" and "Arthur's Perfect Christmas," Muffy stills wears a princess dress and a princess hat, but double braids just like in her original appearance.
  • Sue Ellen's diary is a major plot point in "April 9th."

Cultural references[]

  • In Muffy's fantasy, Millicenta's castle looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
  • Millicenta using her hair to descend the tower may refer to Rapunzel, though Rapunzel does not use her own hair to climb in the original fairy tale.
  • Sue Ellen's love song is based on "Cielito Lindo."

Errors[]

  • When Francine is about to explain what Sue Ellen meant about ogre-ism to Muffy, she turns to Muffy in one scene, then again in the next.
  • When Sue Ellen closes the locker that Binky struggled to open, she didn’t close it all the way, but the locker sounds as if it did.
  • At the end of the episode, Sue Ellen and Arthur are outside talking, but when Arthur blushes after Sue Ellen leaves on her bike, he is suddenly inside the library.

Home Video[]

DVD[]

Gallery[]

Show/Hide gallery

Screenshots


Show/Hide gallery

References[]


Advertisement