Arthur's TV-Free WeekPrincipal Haney introduces a challenge for his students: go without television for one week. If you succeed, then you receive a little badge. All of Arthur's friends sign up except for Binky, but Buster goes Oh, Crap! on realizing it means no Bionic Bunny for a week.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Arthur nearly breaks and rides his bike towards Binky's house when his dad reveals he made gelatin rabbits and turtles for a customer, and Arthur sees them as Bionic Bunny characters.
- Comically Missing the Point: "Buster, we're so close." "I know, only a few steps from the door." This is a conversation between Arthur (who's talking about how close they are to completing a week without television) and Buster (who thinks he's talking about the distance from his living room).
- Continuity Snarl: Later episodes show that D.W. lets nothing stop her from watching her favorite show, Mary Moo Cow, if she can help it.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Binky is a bit of a troll announcing the Bionic Bunny special, Arthur notes that he won't tattle on anyone breaking the TV special if they watch with him.
- Gilligan Cut: Once TV-Free Week is over, Buster says it was easy and he could do it again. It then cuts to Buster glued to a TV watching Bionic Bunny, ignoring his mom calling him for dinner.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: After their first night, Buster comes to school seemingly well-adjusted from a night of no TV. Then when Binky shows up, he gets down on his knees and begs to know what happened on Bionic Bunny.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Binky has one that the TV-Free Week is a dumb idea because all you get out of it is a little badge. He says that he did think about it and felt that it wasn't worth the effort, especially with a Bionic Bunny special coming on. Sure enough, everyone is relieved to have finished the challenge, with Francine saying it was awful and Buster going back to watching television more than before. No one learned anything about spending time with family.
- Last-Second Word Swap: On Sunday, Arthur tells his dad that he's bored. David suggests that he read a book, clean his room, or watch... er, him cook.
- Not So Above It All:
- Oliver Frensky tries to be a good sport about the challenge and turn on the radio for game broadcasts. He gets dejected when there's too much static to listen to anything. Francine mentions they've tried this for at least two days.
- Ironically enough, it's Jane who gets side-tracked at the idea of watching television a few times. When Arthur is trolling D.W. by giving her a fraction as part of a magic trick, Jane tries to break it up by reaching for the remote before David warns her. The second occurrence is while she's running an errand, and an accompanying D.W. (a mere child) has to (if doggedly) discourage her from breaking the television hiatus.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The idea of TV-Free Week is that you find other meaningful activities to do, and spend time with your family. Arthur finds that spending more time with D.W. means playing baby games, with even David and Jane getting impatient. Francine is bummed that she can't keep up on her sports games, and Buster is on the verge of a breakdown of missing Bionic Bunny. By the end, they all agree that this was a dumb challenge and they're relieved it's over.
- Reconstruction: Towards the end, however, just before Buster throws in the towel, Arthur comes to a realization. If not for the sake of "spending time with family", he and Buster managed to get through almost the entire TV-Free Week for themselves. What's more, they decide to spend their final TV-free day doing activities they normally wouldn't be able to do while watching television, like playing frisbee.
- Shout-Out: Mr. Ratburn buys a collection of Masterpiece Theater tapes, only to realize he needs to wait another week to watch them. Both Masterpiece and Arthur are produced by WGBH.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Buster breaks down after only the first night of TV-Free Week, Francine realizes that this is gonna be a very long week.
- What You Are in the Dark: With a few hours to go before the challenge is over, Arthur and Buster both want to see the Bionic Bunny special. They know they can't watch it at their houses, so they start going to Binky's house. Arthur does say that Binky won't tell so no one will know. When Arthur realizes that Buster is in the same boat, however, he says they can both handle the last day by playing together.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: On the last day of the television hiatus, Buster tells Arthur he's going to throw in the towel and watch television. Instead, Arthur protests and points out to Buster they've already gone so long without television and that shows some willpower on their part. If they can survive six whole days without it, they can surely go one last day. This motivates Buster to spend their last day playing outdoor activities with Arthur, making it count for something.
Night Fright
Arthur in the Cold Open talks about how bedtime and the night darkness bring fear of monsters. The episode proper has Binky struggling with nightmares, which only go away when he uses a night light. He tries to cover up his fears at school, but Mr. Ratburn is suspicious of the tough guy personality. Then Arthur has to spend the night at Binky's house, finding out about the night light. He promises not to tell anyone, seeing how important it is to Binky, but Binky doesn't believe him.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Big Eater: Binky's dream initially consists of him having a huge valley of burgers all to himself to eat. When he wakes up after it becomes a nightmare, Binky complains he didn't get to eat anything.
- Blatant Lies: When Binky tries hiding his night light, Arthur notices he's hiding it behind his back. Binky says that it's his reading lamp, and demonstrates how he reads. Arthur comments that it doesn't look very comfortable.
- Book Ends: The episode proper begins and ends with Binky's dream in the fast food world, but while the opening is a nightmare where the food chases Binky down, the ending is Binky now terrorizing the fast food as payback.
- Both Sides Have a Point: While Binky is ultimately proven wrong about his friends finding his night light babyish, it's still something he's initially uncomfortable sharing with others and he's well within his right to keep it secret if he wants to. Binky simply lets his fear get the best of him when he doesn't believe Arthur when the latter promises to not tell anyone about his night light.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Binky finds out that he was overreacting about how people would react to him sleeping with a night light. Arthur doesn't care, and Mr. Ratburn finds it normal and says as much. At the end of the episode when Binky goes to apologize to Arthur (and demand back all the favors he gave Arthur), Arthur once again assures him that it's okay.
- Downer Beginning: The Cold Open has Arthur forced to listen to monsters in his room battling it out, while the proper episode opens with Binky's dream being twisted into a nightmare where he is chased down by his food and ultimately forced over the edge of a cliff.
- His Own Worst Enemy: Binky likely would have kept his night light a secret if he hadn't made a big deal about it. He rushes to the nightlight to hide and unplug it, lying to Arthur that it's a "reading lamp", and has a loud nightmare which wakes Arthur up. Arthur insists he doesn't care and won't tell anyone, but Binky spends the next day at school bribing him and buttering him up out of paranoia. In the end, Binky realizes that he was overreacting when Mr. Ratburn states having a night light is perfectly normal.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Binky's dream of eating the burgers turns on its head when the burgers come to life, and a gigantic mother burger begins hunting him down.
- Loud Sleeper Gag: In the teaser, Pal annoys the monster under the bed with his snoring. That gives the monster under the bed a headache.
- Magic Realism: Despite the grounded nature of the series, the Cold Open has Arthur's room with real monsters under his bed and in his closet.
- Mama Bear: Binky's nightmare has him chased by a gigantic burger who is the mother of the countless burgers in the valley.
- Nightmare Sequence: Binky's dream has him chased down by living fast food, only to fall to his doom after trying to fly away off a cliff.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: In the Cold Open, Arthur says that he hates it when the monster under his bed and closet respectively start bickering at night. He hides under the sheets as they toss his toys at each other.
- Parental Bonus: Buster pronounces "Notre Dame" like "Notre Damn", letting a swear (for a kids show anyway) slip through. The other children gasp in horror, ostensibly at the story, but it is probably meant to be them reacting to Buster's accidental swear.
- Properly Paranoid: Binky's fear of his friends making fun of him and laughing at his night light isn't completely unfounded given numerous other episodes where the children did laugh at something potentially embarrassing happening to someone.note He goes too far when he simply doesn't believe Arthur's promise to not tell.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. Ratburn is this. He overhears the kids discussing their fears, and asks them to talk about them in class. When Binky lies, Mr. Ratburn lets it slide but gives a disbelieving "hmm".
- Shout-Out:
- Binky's dream has him with his arms outstretched, carefree in a huge peaceful valley, saying "the hills are alive with the smell of burgers, and they're all mine!"
- Buster brings up the story of "The Lunch Box of Notre Dame".
- You Are Not Alone: Binky is worried that everyone in class will think less of him once they learn he needs a night light to sleep. As it turns out, everybody has coping mechanisms for sleeping well at night, easing Binky's worries and convincing him to share his secret about the night light without shame.
