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"Elwood City Turns 100!"
Season/Series: 7
Number in season: 5
Original Airdate: United States October 14, 2002[1]
Canada January 20, 2003[2]
Credits
Written by: Peter K. Hirsch
Matthew Lane
Storyboard by: Jeremy O'Neill
Robert Yap
Episodes
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"Waiting to Go"
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"Pick a Car, Any Car"
Read transcript

"Elwood City Turns 100!" is the fifth episode in the seventh season of Arthur. It is a two-part episode. It is also the 100th episode of the series overall as well as the first 22-minute special.

Summary[]

The musical Mr. Ratburn's class is staging for Elwood City's centennial turns into a drama of missed cues, inflated egos, and alien invasions — and all of that is going on behind the scenes.

Plot[]

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt officially declares the community of Elwood a city and unveils a statue of its founder, Jacob Katzenellenbogan. Old Katzenellenbogan is angry because his nameplate was misspelled, the statue is too fat, and the city's name was supposed to be "Elmwood." Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan are jealous because Katzenellenbogan founded a city before they did, but they are sure that the city will not last a hundred years.

Elwood City Turns 100!

A hundred years later, Mr. Ratburn proudly announces that Lakewood has been chosen out of fifteen schools to stage a musical for the centennial celebration, making the class cheer. He hopes that things will go better than when he performed Hamlet as a one-man puppet show in college, as the performance was ruined by the puppet's head falling off. He lets the third-graders draw lots to decide who will do what. Arthur is the singing narrator, Brain the writer, and Buster the director. Francine is annoyed at being a chorus member, because she is a better singer than Arthur. Muffy offers to help with the publicity work.

Brain and Buster argue at the library because Brain wants the script to be historically accurate, while Buster wants it to include aliens.

During the rehearsals, it becomes clear that Arthur is not a good singer. When he practices at home, even the Tibbles give up trying to sing worse than him. Francine offers to help, which Arthur accepts after first suspecting her of wanting to replace him.

Preparations continue as Mrs. Morgan makes costumes and George builds a model of the set.

One week before the performance, the kids get into a big argument at the rehearsal. Mr. Ratburn imagines the performance failing like his Hamlet show, but Muffy gives a pep talk and the others pull themselves together. Much to Buster's delight, Brain agrees to add a scene about the city's supposed alien sighting in 1952 and Arthur allows Francine to switch parts with him.

On the night of the performance, Francine and her dad pick up a flying saucer prop for the show, tying it to the back of the garbage truck. When Oliver has to slam on the brakes for a duck, Francine accidentally hits the trash compactor button, crushing the saucer. As they attempt to continue on their way to the theater, Mr. Frensky notices that the truck won't start.

When Francine does not show up, the others talk Arthur into playing the narrator. He opens the first musical number, "Jacob Katzenellenbogan," which is about the founding of Elwood City. Francine calls to say that she is hitching a ride and the flying saucer is damaged.

The next number is Fern with a dirge to the green-tailed grebe. Meanwhile, Buster has locked himself in the janitor's closet and the Frenskys have hitched a ride with a man who has a very slow car.

The next number is supposed to be about the alien sighting. Brain improvises boring, long-winded dialogue, about natural explanations for the sighting. Buster overhears and, dissatisfied with how things are going, uses cleaning supplies to create a makeshift alien costume. Much to everyone's surprise, he comes out on stage; unsure of what to say, he makes up a song about flossing your teeth. He accidentally tears a hole in the backdrop, causing it to fall on everyone, so Mr. Ratburn calls for an intermission.

The kids are about to give up, but Francine arrives and tells them that the audience likes the play. They all look through the curtain and see that it is indeed so.

They do the last number about life in Elwood City today with Francine as the narrator, and the show becomes a big success as everyone applauds.

On the way home, D.W. suggests that next time, Arthur can play the alien. He says that the next play will probably be in 100 years, so she then suggests that Arthur could play Jacob Katzenellenbogan, since he will have a beard by then. The 100th episode of the series draws to a close as the Reads' car passes by a Katzenellenbogan statue, followed by a duck sitting on his hat.

Characters[]

Major[]

Minor[]

Cameo[]

Mentioned[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • Larry King hosts the "A Word from Us Kids" segment. This is the first episode that does not show the "And now back to Arthur" outro after the segment. Instead, Larry King says, "Thanks for tuning in, folks. And now, back to Arthur."
  • Since Elwood became a city in 1903 and the centennial is celebrated in this episode, the episode takes place in 2003.
  • After this episode premiered, PBS reran the first 16 episodes of the series.
  • Running Gag: Mr. Ratburn whispering "Curtain. Curtain!"
  • The scene in which Mr. Ratburn announces that Lakewood Elementary School has been chosen out of 15 schools to produce a musical makes connections with the Erie City School District, a Pennsylvanian school district compromising the same number of schools. Marc Brown was a resident of Erie.

Episode connections[]

Cultural references[]

Errors[]

  • The man who gives Francine and her father a ride to the play appears in the audience even before they arrive.
    • Also, in the audience, Oliver is in the crowd at the beginning of the musical before he is supposed to have arrived.
  • Arthur wears a pink sweater for a couple of seconds.

Production notes[]

  • This is the first two-part episode.
  • Counting both halves of an episode as a single episode, this is the 100th episode.
  • Marc Brown makes a cameo in this episode. He is not only on the guest list, but he is also seen in the row with the other celebrities while Arthur narrates after Fern's song. Jeremy O'Neill is also on the guest list.

Home Video[]

DVD:

Gallery[]

Main article: Elwood City Turns 100!/Gallery

See also[]

References[]


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