The Busy World of Richard Scarry - Season 5

Bananas is doomed to bad luck... or at least that's what he thinks, and he ends up causing himself and Busytown lots of bad luck. Huckle, Lowly, and Hilda try to get Bananas to make his own luck, with the help of a mysterious fortune teller. And when Bananas' luck changes... Busytown's back to normal. / Couscous, the greatest detective in North Africa, is shocked to learn that Pépé le Gangstaire and his gang of dirty rats are to be let out of jail... FOR GOOD BEHAVIOUR. The sickly sweet Pépé and his dirty rats are just out to do some robbing, so Couscous lures them into a huge safe, which is really a paddy wagon, and it's back to jail for Pépé le Goodstaire. / Mr. Frumble is delighted to learn that Busytown is going to get its first ever drive-in movie, but he can't understand what all the fuss is about––the drive-in sure looks like a parking garage. And that's because he made a mistake and he is driving around a parking garage. When Mr. Frumble finally makes it to the show, people ask him what he thinks of the new drive-in movie? Not too much... and it's much too hard on his pickle car.

It's Busytown Day, and a delighted Hilda, and a not so delighted Huckle are chosen as King and Queen. They will have the honour of riding on Mr. Fixit's fabulous float. Hilda's got her own ideas of what the theme should be, and they're not the same as Mr. Fixit's. And when Huckle gets sick it looks like the parade's over... until Lowly pulls it all together and the parade is a success. / Through rain, sleet, snow, and dark of night, the mail must get through... or does it? Well, little Piggy S. Press thinks it should, and with the help of Copper, her horsy pal, she's going to make sure that message gets through to the next town. But... gosh, it sure is a long way. And it's so cold. And dark. Maybe she'll just take an office job. But not copper... he's all set for the next mail delivery. / Huckle, Hilda, Lynnie, and Lowly aren't too keen on Miss Honey's selection of music for the school recital, so they don't practice nearly enough. The three beggars take it upon themselves to show the kids that music is a wonderful thing, you just have to get in the mood. And do they ever.

There's going to be a big race in Busytown, and the first prize is a neato bike–and everyone wants to win, so much so that the competition in Busytown gets a little too fierce. Billy Dog and Huckle Cat are both sure they're going to win, and their friendship is put at risk... until during the race they both learn that being friends is much more important than winning a silly race. / Little Manuel and his lively imagination are back as he and Pedro play jungle explorers. But they take their game a little too far when they actually follow two real explorers deep into the jungle. Pedro and Manuel help find an ancient ruin, but it sure is difficult convincing everyone after all their tall tales. / Pig Will and Pig Won't have their ideas about what happens when you go to the doctor's. So when they hear they have their first appointment with Doctor Lion, they try every trick in the book to get out of it, but even hiding in a closet doesn't work. In the end Pig Won't and Pig Will realize that going to the doctor's is very important––everyone wants to be healthy, happy pigs.

All the big kids are playing basket ball, and Sally and Robbie want to play too, but they're a little too small to compete. Lowly and Bananas Gorilla give the little kids some coaching and they learn to use their smallness to their advantage... and it's a good thing too, because they're needed for the big game against Workville. / It's time for the big festival of giants in Belgium, and Albert and his wife think they have the best giant costume ever. The only problem is getting it through the locks and canals to the big event, and that becomes even harder when Albert falls off his barge. Now it's a race against time before the barge, the costume, and Albert's wife all end up... in the sea. / It's raining, it's pouring, and Huckle, Lowly, and Sally are bored stiff. Mother and Father Cat tell them to use their imaginations and make their own fun, except their imaginations and fun keep un-doing all the home projects their parents are working on. Finally, in the attic, the kids actually help out by cleaning up the place, and they play department store... even when the sun starts shining.

When renovations are required after a fire, grouchy Mr. Gronkle must look for some place to stay. He's overjoyed when Sally offers the Cat Family house as his home away for home, and does Mr. Gronkle EVER move in. By week's end the cat family's exhausted, but when he's gone, they find the house almost too quiet, and they are delighted when Mr. Gronkle invites them to a big thank you dinner at his house. / Leo-pardo Da Vinci is great at everything he does. He's a genius. So when a rich merchant asks him to paint the portrait of his daughter, Mona, he sets to the task with vigor. But how can he paint a portrait of someone who's allergic to everything and is always sneezing? That's why they call her Mona Sneeza. But Leo-pardo's a genius––and he gets her to stop sneezing and for once... she even smiles. / Mr. Root is given a very difficult task by Mayor Fox: to make Busytown Bloom. Now that's a lot of work for one small armadillo. But with Huckle and Lowly's help, they come up with the Blooming Busytown contest and people start working in their gardens. Even Mr. Frumble... and he doesn't know anything about the contest.

Huckle, Lowly, Hilda, and Sally come to the realization that P.S. Pig and Mr. Frumble are two adults in Busytown who are alone, so the kids work to get Mr. Frumble and PS Pig together––not an easy task. Hilda makes a to-do list and when the kids are through, P.S. Pig and Mr. Frumble are certainly together––when they fall into the pond. / in Uruk, in 3,000 B.C. the royal architect, Forget-Bur has a problem: he keeps forgetting things and wishes there was some way he could remember. Especially when the king orders a new monument to be built in his honour. Think of all the details to remember. So when Forget-Bur is inspecting the bricks for the monument, he invents the first ever form of writing: and it's one big shopping list. / It's happened. Hilda has a tooth ache and she is in denial, so Lowly decides to accompany her to the dentist. Now it's not that Hilda's afraid of the dentist: it's Bananas Gorilla who's afraid. Hilda's just "unsure"––especially about the sound the drill makes. Lowly comes up with a solution, listening to music, and it's a solution that could work for Bananas too... if they can ever get him to keep an appointment.

There's a new neighbour moving to Busytown, and she's moving into the old spooky house. Huckle, Lowly, Billy, and Hilda become convinced the neighbour is a witch because she keeps disappearing and popping up in different places. But she's not a witch... just a twin, and that explains everything... or... does it? / A long long time ago, people were afraid of the ghosts and goblins that live in the forest, so when a young man and his wife get lost, they are very afraid, but they get fed up being scared so they turn the tables on the ghost and goblins by putting on spooky costumes and scaring them right back. Except the ghosts and goblins they scare are really the villagers who've come looking for their friends, and in the end, they all decide they've found a wonderful new tradition: dressing up and saying... Boo! / Sally is having trouble learning her numbers, so much so that she decides she doesn't need numbers and doesn't have to learn them. Huckle remembers the time he couldn't spell his own name and Lowly helped him, so they decide to help Sally. They make learning numbers fun, using the old song, One, Two, Buckle my Shoe and Sally realizes just how important numbers really are.

On a particularly busy day in Busytown, Mr. Gronkle gets fed up with the hustle and bustle and the NOISE. So he decides to move to the country. Huckle and Lowly are sad to see him go. Busytown just won't be the same without him. But even out in the country Mr. Gronkle's not happy, especially when it rains, so he sneaks back home. And when Huckle and Lowly see someone in his house, they think it's a robber, and that's when things really get noisy. / Long ago, before people knew their numbers, a young scribe is given the task of taking inventory of a wealthy man's estate. So many things to count, and so many ways to record the amounts, but they are all so complicated. With the help of his young daughter, the scribe convinces the master that there's a simpler way: and his way has spread all over the world. / Billy is not a great speller, but when luck has it and he knows how to spell the word responsibility, he is chosen to represent Busytown at a big spelling bee. Huckle, Lowly, and Hilda help Billy become a great speller, but on the big night, Billy chickens out... until Lowly reminds him of the word that got him here in the first place and Billy realizes it's his responsibility to do his best: and he does!

it's spring, and while playing soccer, Huckle knocks a bird's nest out of a tree. He decides he can't leave the baby birds alone, so he takes them home to raise them until they are old enough to fly. But... how do you teach a bird to fly? All you need are a couple of feather dusters, a lot of patience, some luck, and a great deal of love. / we don't really know who invented the first valentine, but it's pretty certain that person was in love, just like the Roman emperor's secretary who loves the emperor's daughter. But how to make her notice him? Give her a gift. And that's exactly what he does, but the emperor keeps intercepting the gifts. Finally, with determination but in great fear, the secretary tells the emperor's daughter he loves her. Well, she loves him too. And that's just what the emperor was hoping for. / When Denis is invited to Sprout Goat's sleepover, he realizes that he's a little scared about sleeping in a barn and away from home, but he decides to give it a go. Things don't go very smoothly, and they get worse when he realizes he's the only one still awake in the middle of the night, but that's when he smells smoke. There's a fire in the orchard, and Denis overcomes his fear to sound the alarm and help put out the fire.