The Frensky Family Fiasco

	"The Frensky Family Fiasco"
	Main image; Title card;
Season/Series:	12
Number in season:	2b
Original Airdate:	October 13, 2008; January 23, 2009; April 7, 2009; November 15, 2012[citation needed];
	Credits
Written by:	Peter K. Hirsch
Storyboard by:	Nick Vallinakis
	Episodes
Previous; "Room to Ride"	Next; "D.W.'s Stray Netkitten"

"The Frensky Family Fiasco" is the second half of the second episode in the twelfth season of Arthur.

Summary[]

Francine wants the Frenskys to be closer as a family, so she proposes a weekly Family Night. But spending quality time together turns out to be more complicated than expected.

Plot[]

The episode begins with Pal and Francine performing a parody of the show's intro. Arthur then shows up and stops the music. Francine starts the music again, but Arthur again stops it. Francine asks him why he always does the show opener and why someone else can not do it for a change. D.W. suggests the show should be called "D.W." Buster suggests the show be called "Buster." Francine tells him to be quiet and that he already has his own show. D.W. thinks "D.W." is a great name, but Buster tells her no one knows what it stands for. D.W. replies it stands for Dora Winifred. Arthur states that on this show, they are one big, happy family. He pauses when Francine asks Buster "Can't there be one single episode where we don't mention aliens?" Then Binky announces the episode as "The Binky Show," tells Arthur to move it, and rolls the tape.

The Frensky Family Fiasco

One day in Mr. Ratburn's classroom, the class is watching a documentary about the strong family ties of baboons. A young baboon is saved from a lion because its family took the liberty to save it.

At her apartment, Francine greets Laverne as she is leaving for her bowling night. Oliver is out biking, and Catherine is on the phone. A Chickin Lickin' commercial plays, in which Beauregard Poulet is commemorating the values of family. Francine sighs and walks off, feeling miserable.

At breakfast the next morning, Francine presents a plan to bring her family closer to each other: One night a week, they have a family night where they all do activities together. Her parents agree, although Catherine objects, envisioning both a beach party with her friends and a boring game of cards with her family. Francine suggests Tuesday nights, which Catherine doesn't want to give up but she reluctantly agrees when Laverne gets offended.

For the first family night, It's Catherine's turn to choose the activities. The Frenskys go out for sushi. Francine accidentally covers her sushi with wasabi (which she mistook for guacamole) and then ends up drinking soy sauce, leading to her getting sick. At home, everyone watches Starcast which Francine thinks is boring. The phone rings and Francine answers it. It is Muffy who tells Francine about how her family cooks and plays games together, which Francine says would be a good idea. As a result, she misses the finale of Starcast.

Francine prepares for the next family night, buying pizza ingredients at the supermarket, picking fresh vegetables from the community garden, learning pizza baking skills from Mrs. MacGrady, and finding a board game to play.

Next Tuesday, the Frenskys begin making their pizza. Catherine admits that this activity is fun. Francine starts making a salad with a ketchup and mayonnaise dressing, which Catherine thinks is disgusting. They get into an argument, and forget about the pizza. When they finally remember, they are surprised to find that the pizza is burnt.

So, they order a pizza, and after dinner, Francine presents Megalopolis, a game they can all play. However, it doesn't end well as everyone starts bickering over various moves in the gameplay. Francine admits that family night wasn't such a good idea and Catherine proposes that this be the last one which no one objects to.

That night, Francine has a nightmare in which her family are baboons, and their family ties are not strong enough to save them from a vicious lion. The next morning, Francine observes both her and Catherine's bowling jerseys, and suggests to her family that they go bowling once a week. Oliver, Laverne and Catherine agree to this activity.

Characters[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Cameo[]

Trivia[]

This episode is paired with "Room to Ride," which features Lance Armstrong. Due to the Lance Armstrong doping case, this episode pair was pulled from the rerun rotation in the United States.
- The last national airing of this episode was on March 15, 2012, on PBS.^[4]^[5]
- It is believed that the episode continued to air on a few select local PBS stations that opted to air Arthur reruns on an independent rotation as opposed to the national one.
- This episode pair was one of five to be excluded from the February 2022 marathon on PBS Kids.
- This episode pair is still available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.^[6]
- The episode can still be found on the 2011 DVD release of "The Good Sport!"
Catherine is revealed to be a vegetarian in this episode.
Although the Frenskys are Jewish, Laverne eats eel and Francine eat pepperoni, neither of which are Kosher foods. However, in Postcards from Buster, Francine states that her family is not Orthodox, which means they can eat non-Kosher foods.
The calendar which Francine shows her family has thirty-one days. This gives a wide range of months which the episode could have taken place in: January, March, May, July, August, October, and December. However, Francine is in school when she watches the baboon video, which rules out July and August (some schools, however, start in August).
During the intro, Francine mimics Arthur walking down the street with Pal seen in the opening theme song.
When playing Megalopolis, Catherine accuses Francine of giving herself "an extra $20" when making change. If one looks closely as Francine puts down a $100 bill and picks up several $20 bills, she did, in fact, pick up six $20 bills (totaling $120) instead of five.
This episode marks the only time that the theme song is interrupted.

Episode connections[]

Buster and Brain do a version of the Arthur theme song in "And Now Let's Talk to Some Kids."

Cultural references[]

Francine telling Buster he already has his own show is a reference to the Arthur spin-off show, Postcards from Buster.
Megalopolis is a parody of Monopoly.
- Megalopolis would be shown again in "The Substitute Arthur" and "Francine's Cleats of Strength."
Starcast is a parody of American Idol.
Binky makes a brief reference to P. T. Barnum and his circus when he says "Of the Binky show, the greatest show on Earth!"
Francine and her family are barefoot in the sushi restaurant. It may be customary to remove footwear while eating on a traditional Japanese tatami mat.

Errors[]

When Oliver offers Catherine and Francine $20 from his "reserve" in the Megalopolis game, the bills appear to be yellow. When the camera zooms out, the bills are purple.
When Francine's family looks at the burnt pizza, Laverne is wearing an adult-sized version of Francine's clothes (see main image).
Catherine says she is a vegetarian, but earlier in the episode, she is seen eating sushi. However, it is possible she is eating vegetarian sushi, especially since it is green in the middle. Also, not all sushi has meat/fish in it, as the word "sushi" comes from an old Japanese word basically meaning "sour/soured rice." She later goes to Chicken Lickin' with Chip Crosswire in "Matchmaker, Match Breaker."

Home video[]

DVD[]

The Good Sport! (2011 DVD)

Gallery[]

Screenshots

References[]

[1] ttp://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20001202

[2] ttp://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/programmes/formats/animation/schedules/2009/04/07

[3] ttp://ww3.tvo.org/program/157024/arthur - Season 2008, Page 2

[4] ttp://web.archive.org/web/20180619130615/https://www.ket.org/episode/ARUR%20%20001202/

[5] ttps://tv.azpm.org/schedules/kuat6/2012/03/15/#6.a.m.

[6] ttps://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/0J7Y9URJNA5XG5P87L41ONDRJS/ref=atv_dp_btf_el_3p_sd_tv_resume_t1ALAAAAAA0wr0?autoplay=1&t=879

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