The Feud

This article is about The Feud. You may be looking for Arthur's Family Feud.

"The Feud"
Main image Title card
Season/Series:	22
Number in season:	1b
Original airdate:	May 13, 2019[citation needed] July 9, 2019 (DVD) November 5, 2019 (TV) July 28, 2020
Credits
Written by:	Jon Greenberg
Storyboard by:	Helene Cossette Nick Vallinakis
Episodes
Previous "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone"	Next "When Rivals Came to Roost"

Read transcript

"The Feud" is the second half of the first episode in the twenty-second season of Arthur.

Summary

Just about the entire third grade class chooses sides when Arthur and Buster argue over a video game.

Plot

On a car ride, Arthur asks his parents to change the radio channel and D.W. objects. Arthur remarks that sometimes people will argue about anything. He remembers arguing with D.W. because she and their mom bought ranch dressing instead of blue cheese dressing. Then he imagines both of them continuing the argument as old people with their service droids supporting them.

The Feud

Arthur and Buster are playing a Dark Bunny video game when the screen freezes. Buster accidentally unplugs the console while trying to adjust it. Arthur accuses him of doing it on purpose, while Buster accuses Arthur of freezing the game because he was losing. Arthur angrily leaves.

The next morning, Arthur and Buster face each other like gunfighters in front of the school. Neither wants to give in.

Over the course of the day, Arthur tells Muffy his version of the events, while Buster tells Francine his version. Both girls tell other kids about the quarrel, until there are two opposing teams: Muffy, Ladonna and Fern for Arthur and Francine, Brain and Sue Ellen for Buster.

After school, Buster joins the other kids who are building two snow forts. He learns from Francine about the two teams. The teams bicker with each other and eventually, Francine and Muffy draw a line on the ground between them. Both Arthur and Buster look unhappy and felt that the troubles were all their fault.

The next day, Binky, who was absent the day before, arrives in the cafeteria to find Team Arthur and Team Buster sitting at separate tables. He thinks that the quarrel is silly, but since the others insist that he pick a side, he flips a coin. It ends up leaning against a lunchbox, and Binky decides to create Team Binky and sit by himself.

Arthur has a fantasy in which Dark Bunny (voiced by Buster) fights Dr. Aardvarkian (voiced by Arthur) while a lobmonster is destroying the city. They summon their respective teams and start fighting, while Binky warns them that their fight only makes the lobmonster stronger. Eventually, the monster throws both fighters into space.

Later, Arthur meets Buster by the snow forts. Neither of them cares about the teams, and when Buster accidentally destroys a snow wall, Arthur helps him to fix it.

When Arthur gives Buster half of his sandwich in the cafeteria, both teams get mad at them. Arthur and Buster angrily join Binky, who tells them that they need a plan.

When the teams work on their forts, Arthur, Buster and Binky show them the flyer for a snow fort contest organized by the mayor. They had hoped for the teams to join, but instead each team works on its own fort and they quarrel about the snow. After Muffy accidentally damages a snow bridge, both teams start destroying each other's work. Eventually, they realize that the only way to still win the contest is to work together and combine both forts.

The kids build a beautiful fort out of the two ruins. Then Brain realizes that the word “mayor” on the flyer is misspelled. Arthur, Buster and Binky admit that there is no contest; they just wanted the others to stop feuding. The others agree and decide go on extending the fort.

In spring, Arthur and Buster have lunch where the snow fort used to be, and reminisce about the feud. Buster asks Arthur why an argument is like a sandwich. Neither of the boys knows, and Buster reasons that that is why they are such good friends and Arthur and his friends never argued again over a video game.

Characters

Major

• Arthur Read
• Buster Baxter
• Francine Frensky
• Muffy Crosswire
• Binky Barnes

Minor

• Brain
• D.W. Read
• Dark Bunny
• Lobmonster
• Dr. Aardvarkian
• Sue Ellen Armstrong
• Fern Walters
• Ladonna Compson

Cameo

• David Read
• Jane Read
• Kate Read
• Arthur's droid
• D.W.'s droid
• Jenna Morgan
• Prunella Deegan
• George Lundgren
• Beulah McInnerny
• Maria Pappas
• Mary (3rd grader)
• Alex Davidson

Mentioned

• Mayor Hirsch

Trivia

• This is the first episode for a few things:
  • The first episode in which D.W. is voiced by Ethan Pugiotto, replacing Christian Distefano.
  • The first episode in which Brain is voiced by Evan Blaylock, replacing Max Friedman-Cole.
  • The first episode since the seventeenth season episode "Speak Up, Francine! to be written by Jonathan Greenberg.
• The video game Arthur and Buster play looks like the browser game Dark Bunny Needs Your Help. However, in the browser game, the players move only in 2D, and Sue Ellen is the second playable character while Dr. Aardvarkian is the villain. Later in the superhero fantasy, Sue Ellen is dressed exactly as in the browser game.
• This is the last episode of the series that clearly takes place during the winter. It is possible other later episodes take place during the winter months without any visible snow or ice outside, but this is the last episode that obviously has a wintertime setting.
• In April 2024, PBS Kids rereleased this episode and 18 other titles with the addition of an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter on screen, allowing individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to fully immerse themselves in the program. For more information about all of the ASL-interpreted episodes, see American Sign Language.

Episode connections

• In “Arthur's Family Feud”, Arthur also imagines himself and D.W. as old people, continuing a quarrel that started when they were kids.
• The way a small quarrel escalates until it affects most of the class is similar to “Desk Wars”.
• Binky is late to Arthur and Buster's feud. In "The Squirrels," he is the last one to rent The Squirrels, and in "Cereal," he starts watching Buster's podcast later than the rest of the class.

Cultural references

• The minivan that the Reads are driving in the intro resembles a Dodge Grand Caravan.
• A poster for Lord of the Flies can be seen in the library.
• Dark Bunny’s projecting belt buckle parodies the Bat-Signal.
• The superhero fight, with onomatopoeia like “Zoom!” and “Paf!” appearing on the screen, parodies fight scenes from the 60s Batman series.

Home Video

DVD

• Arthur Celebrates Community

Gallery

Main article: The Feud/Gallery

External links

• Transcript: Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone / The Feud. TVOKids. Archived from the original on November 18, 2020.