Got a few poor episodes here, but the bangers here more than make up for them. I have been watching hordes of PBS Kids shows for another post, and they really make me appreciate the humans having 5 fingers on each hand. Many of these episodes put big emphasis on Helen being a dog mom. Then again a few of these episodes makes me wonder if she has a death wish.
11- Words on hot and cold, which oddly results in two episodes where Helen is ditzier than usual. Maybe writer Raye Lankford remembered she was like that at first, and the first segment is a flashback.
11A- “Skits on Ice” They recount when Skits nearly died in the ice as a puppy. I am mixed on this one, as I like the plot, but I think the execution was lacking. For one Skits is a puppy, and that makes it easy to stick out. Unlike all the other puppy Skits episodes Helen calls him “Skitsy,” and acts more like a mom to him. I like those little details. I do not think TD getting frustrated with a dog (much less his very recently former dog) is in character. It is good set up for a mystery on why Skits is scared of hockey pucks. Unfortunately the pacing is slow, and it is very predictable (my thoughts from when I was 13 when this first aired). Even though it is on paper a great episode (rare time this show has serious stakes) I think it is well below par. It Is not bad, but I expect better from this show).
The little details are memorable. It is a rare episode where all five main children have a major role. I was trying to remember what episode began with Helen not wanting to get out of bed on a cold morning. Truman said he was at Helen’s as a force of habit, but I cannot recall that since episode 1. Ronald and his friends lose to a team of younger children. They really need to work on their personal fitness.
Helen is considerably less intelligent this episode compared to Martha. Martha already knows the words and just double checks with her. She would have died trying to save Skits if Martha did not stop her. Still I did like seeing a more motherly side to her with puppy Skits.
11B- “Martha’s Steamed” On a very hot day (nice job animating the sweat) they find a dog locked in a car and try to find the owner. Again Helen is extra ditzy this episode nearly falling for Martha eating her food and jumping to conclusions. Mainly in the beginning she is oblivious to why letting TD keep his shoes in her freezer is a bad idea (odd he never appears this episode). Unlike last episode this has an intriguing mystery with lots of foreshadowing and misdirection. The dog goes in the police car to eat the donuts foreshadowing what she did earlier. Martha suspects Helen only ordered chocolate ice cream, so she could avoid sharing with Martha. I agree and cannot blame Helen, as Martha eats her ice cream on a regular basis. This is a great episode. It is very funny, educational, well animated, and memorable.
Helen wears her clothes from the very first image of the very first book. I think that was an early main design for her, and they used it for this episode. In the books Helen basically changes clothes every page.
12- “Martha’s Life in Crime” In a 2 parter Martha’s life in crime as a puppy is told to Truman. One of multiple episodes coming up that is a flashback told to Truman. Along with “Ice Cream” and “The Penguin Always Rings Twice” this is a candidate for best episode.
I have not seen the professor in a while. Have not seen a major role from Truman in a while. I do not think it is a continuity error Martha knew Kazuo. The important thing is he could not recognize a full grown dog he has not seen since she was a puppy. Good use of word “narrate” where Martha uses it after Truman teaches it to give repetition for the audience.
These one time villains make Otis and Pablum look like The Hacker (in the first five seasons). Good move stealing Madame Medusa’s design. Mr. Stubble is smarter at plans, but clueless with words. Whoever voiced that cat did a great job. It sounds very realistic and catlike. Horrible dinosaur plan, as they thought the little puppy would carry each bone up one by one. In fact the skeleton is probably mostly fake or would break anyway. One of the cops is the undercover cop from “Codename Martha.”
This time Madeline Peters voices young Helen with a different voice. I am surprised Helen did not want a cat, as there is plenty of evidence she loves cats. Maybe she just loves dogs more. I see why so much of Helen’s art is of Martha. That is what wore down her parents into getting the dog. Helen letting Goldie the goldfish swim away is a good detail on why she is a dog person. She likes letting animals push their boundaries, and dogs are the ones that come back when doing that. Now she has a dog that pushed the speech boundary. Martha called her “that little red haired girl,” an obvious reference to Peanuts. Unlike Heather, Helen is actually key in the main character’s life.
For a fan like me I really love seeing these backstory moments for Martha, Helen, and Kazuo, but the real good stuff is all the comedy. Some of it is from Helen, but most of it is either the music or jus how ridiculous the villains are. Then again they had nothing to lose trying to sell Martha with the ink on her as “an autographed pooch.”
“Martha’s Thanksgiving” is basically a prequel to this episode.
13A- “Martha Plays Favorites” Another Flashback told to Truman. He is worried his mom cares more about the babies in her daycare than him, thus Martha tells about fighting for Helen’s attention over puppy skits.
This episode puts more focus on puppy Skits than any other episode, and it makes for a very cute episode. Before I never saw this segment (I saw the end of the next one), and this was a great watch. Seeing Helen like that is a nice change of pace along with babying of Skits, and Martha’s jealous reactions.
It gives clear solutions to jealousy (giving the older one alone time even it is only a partial solution). It was at least a temporary solution that helped until Martha grew more attached.
One great image is Martha saying Helen no longer cares about her when Helen is literally on her hands and knees cleaning her mess (between this and “Martha Bakes” she is really good at scrubbing). Unlike last Puppy Skits episode TD acts like skits used to be his puppy. The acting is extra good this episode.
13B- “Martha and the Doggie Lover” TD’s cousin loves dogs, and is too rough with them. Martha tries to train him. There is a lot of bait and switch this episode. It is presented like it will be about a kid overcoming his fear of dogs instead of being too rough with them. He is scared, as he is too rough, making the dogs scare him to save themselves. Great job showing all the different methods. I really relate to this episode, as my niece is a “doggy lover.” Getting a younger dog really helped, as he can actually play with her and deal with her doing things like jumping on him and kicking his paws. That is exactly what this episode did. Another winner, and this show has been on a roll lately.
Helen, I know you are happy your dog is fine after all the massaging and icing you did, but is kissing her the best idea. You know she loves rolling in garbage.
14A- “Martha and the One Thousand Fleas” Helen is selling cookies for a school fundraiser, and her dogs eat 50 dollars of them. They put on a circus to pay her debt.
Odd Ronald was genuinely trying to help with sales. “Always be annoying” is not moral advice, but it is practical. It becomes clear his real motivation is to show off how smart he is, but at least there is nothing malicious. I enjoy how frustrated Alice is with him. As shown in” the dog shown in “Best in Show” Helen can barely muster 15 dollars. With her parents’ help she can barely do 25. 50 is a huge deal. It is a very predictable episode, but that is because this is a solid plot that has been done many times. It is not memorable (when I read the synopsis I doubted I saw it), but it is funny.
Helen’s facial expressions are very good this episode, and they really add to the comedy. I cannot think of another episode where Martha gets Helen into trouble like this. Normally that is from something outside their control or Helen being an adrenaline junkie like when she went down right next to Bob. It helps this to stick out as a high stakes episode that resembles real fears we had as children, fund raisers. I am glad my parents just paid for this stuff (to what I can tell that is normally what happens). Normally the joke is the kid eats it so the parent pays. Now it is the dog eats it so the dog mom/kid pays for it.
14B- “Nice and Crabby” Joe Fallon episode. Mrs. Demson is suddenly nice because her medical report was mixed up with a crab’s report from the vet. Meanwhile Otis and Pablum try to buy her house so they can… They have no idea why they want the talking dog anymore). I cannot judge. That is the way I often play chess.
Helen knocks their ball into Mrs. Demson’s yard (Maybe you should pass with your leg instead of your head Helen), and she instead goes out to play with them and everybody. Normally when watching this show I think Helen is freakishly good shape. Turns out she has nothing on Mrs. Demson. A lot of the comedy is how often she loses the act, and how it creeps everybody out. Nice callback to “Martha Puts out the Lights” with the petition for a parade in front of her house every day.
To add to the comedy are the two criminals. They cannot even remember why they want Martha. They forgot they will convince people they taught her how to talk and charge fortunes as dog trainers. They start seeming crazy, but as the episode goes on they become more and more the straight men. Mrs. Demson is just crazy this episode on either the happy or angry side and has wild mood swings. Helen and Martha always know something is wrong and are worried. I am not normally a big fan of role reversal episodes, but this did it great.
That delivery man needs to be fired before he gets prescriptions mixed up. This is a really funny episode and the classic Joe Fallon humor.
15- “Martha: Secret Agent Dog” Martha becomes a spy. Her employers are actually the villains.I am surprised TD and Martha are the ones bored with everyday life, while Helen is happy. Helen should know by now if she says X does not happen it means X will happen (From “Martha Changes her Luck.”) I know the popular fan theory is Martha is a reality warper, but I think that is actually Helen.
I missed the “Part One” in the title card, and I was surprised this was a cliffhanger. It seemed like a normal wacky episode with a self-contained plot. Good job figuring it all out Helen; especially as the auditorial version she heard had less clues than the visual version. Granny Flo is back after a lengthy absence. There is a big dream sequence chase which results in actual results. It has some major highlights like being buried in fleas, but below par. The best part is TD playing and losing checkers to a mannequin in the between the episodes clip. Granted, I never cared about the spy genre.
Next comes season 3. Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman is back to master episodes meaning this is down to being the second best season on PBS Kids at the time. It is the second half of season 2 in production order, so not much is actually changed.
1- “The Martha Show” Two Parter by Joe Fallon and Ken Scarborough. They try to make a show, and it really feels like The Arthur episode “The Contest.” Unfortunatly Martha’s costar is Mrs. Demson.
There are lots of meta jokes this episode. In universe TD and Martha delivered the script at the last second and said there was no time to fix the weird ending. Seems like commentary on modern film production. It has many parodies of children’s shows. Parody of Clifford is “Bluey.” My favorite is the spy show due to how ridiculous it is. Educational television is mocked, as Fallon is known for hating when it is too on the nose. The joke about “who would want to watch us” was frequently done by this pair in Arthur. I enjoy the commentary that sometimes shows force people to work together that dislike each other, but I cannot help but wander if that is evidence the rumors Marc Brown and Joe Fallon got into fights are true
TD faints at the sight of blood, so I am surprised he is into medical dramas. It has the same actors as the pickle movie? Carolina’s merchandise idea was portrayed as morally wrong, but it was logically sound. Nice callback to “Truman on the Ball” with TD being a fan of Moby Dick. I definitely enjoyed this more as an adult than a boy. I do not remember how I felt about it, but I enjoyed it now. As I typed earlier it is very similar to one of the best Arthur episodes (Scarborough wrote or co-wrote both). Sure it is a worse version, but a worse version is still very entertaining.
A major highlight is the opening with all the wind to show how much they fear Mrs. Demson. It is over the top comedy.
I did not remember Book Bots failing to become a show in universe, as it has two sequel episodes. I have fond memories of one, and the other remember only seeing a few minutes and thinking it looked bad.
2A- “Martha’s Millions” A dog inherits a huge fortune and is thrown out by his deceased master’s nephew. In a complex episode Martha tries to give the rich dog a voice, while he has no idea what he actually wants or what to say.
It drags at times, and if not for that I think this would be seen as one of the show’s best episodes with the three mentioned above. Leaving money to pets happens, but it normally means it goes to a trusted person who will take care of them with it. These idiot reporters actually believe that the dog took the collar and bow off. It has been a while since most people did not know Martha talked. Then again maybe it is just these dumb reporters who missed the memo (I just love it when they are portrayed as clueless). Check is for 5 sextillion dollars. That is enough to make the national debt look like nothing. Carolina better hope Helen is in a forgiving mood, as she got hordes of reporters hounding her and her dogs. If not Carolina might turn up dead or lose her only social connection she has.
Great usage of power of words. So much of the episode is finding just the right thing to say due to how complex thoughts are. I think this should have been the season premiere.
2B– “Carolina’s Gidted” Carolina’s gift card is about to expire, and she has no idea how to use it resulting in a low stakes episode on using money.
I do not know why Helen was whispering the definition of “gift certificate” to Martha. Maybe she wants Carolina to view Martha as smarter. Why is she then torturing her dogs by not defining “squirrel away”? Helen paid TD back 32 cents for buying her lunch last week. I think she was just seeing if he would actually save it, as I would think that cost more. Helen, and only Helen, is eating chocolate ice cream. Most likely that is to avoid her dogs’ begging. Episode started boring, and it then had some funny highlights (mostly from TD). Why was Carolina thinking she and Helen have the same fashion sense. Poor episode. It really needed something bigger to make it more interesting.
I like seeing Martha and Skits waiting for the school bell to ring, as one of my dogs and one of my cats used to wait in the front yard for me to come home. It is something I never saw at school (but I saw it at church), so I like seeing this pet loyalty in cartoons. I think this is an animation mistake, but they greeted her while inside the school, and the janitor did not notice
3A- “Truman’s Mad” Truman buys a science kit thinking it will be amazing and is disappointed in the results. He learns how to make his own version from cooking. It is a predictable episode. Otis and Pablum actually made a decent toy, and they have come a long way from “flea farm” and “possum on a stick.” It had some funny scenes like chasing the mailman. The best part is the contrast in attitudes towards the magnets. Truman thinks they are boring, Martha thinks they are very exciting, and Helen is in the middle. It feels more like an Arthur episode than Martha Speaks, and that is ironic. The writer, Ron Holsey, is one of the few who was not a regular writer on Arthur. He only wrote one episode. Okay episode. Better as background noise.
3B- “Dog for a Day” For a School experiment TD and Martha try to switch species for a day. Again a common plot, but this is done much better than the last few segments. OG and Helen are into this in different ways. OG wants to make sure it is accurate, while Helen is enjoying the show (rare time she laughs at TD’s expense). Helen is so proud Martha knew the capital of South Dakota and could keep a schedule. I have seen dogs learn to tell time, so I am not surprised she pulled that off. This was very good. It is funny and wacky, and it does a common plot well.
In episode 4 Carolina’s newspaper returns for words on the news.
4A- “Martha: Deadline Doggie” Carolina needs a story fast, so Martha gathers information. the published scoops make many problems, and then Carolina does not want to hear it when Martha discovers Pablum and Otis are about to steal a statue.
Great opening where Carolina looks for news and misses a python escape, a bank robbery (and actually helps him), and an alien abduction. I am surprised Carolina lets Martha into her room. I am surprised Helen is interested in snakes, but that might just be to avoid stereotypes. Helen clearly thinks bribing Martha with a burrito to get news is a bad idea. That or she does not want the dog who sleeps in her bed to have bad breath. Why is Mr. Parkington and all these other adults reading a newspaper by a middle schooler? I honestly cannot blame Martha. Carolina is the human who published it and did not think this through. Why not just go to the police station.
That shirt is ruined forever Helen. In spite of those logic flaws I really like this one. There are many funny small details and lines, and it teaches a complex message. Eavesdropping and gossip are not morally permissible even if it is correct. It is right if it is an emergency.
4b- “It’s the Giant Pumpkin, Martha” Ronald and his friend Reginal try to put Carolina’s paper out of bussiness. It does not help her source keeps being TD who suffers with exagerations.
TD suffers from equivocation fallacy. Feels like it has been a while since Peter Hirsch wrote an episode. I am really surprised Carolina stuck with this hobby. First appearance of Reginald Steinglass, Ronald’s much smarter partner in crime. Lousy ending, but refreshing to see threatening villains again. Not that good of an episode.
Does Helen invite TD to “do homework” at her house or does he just goof off there? Nice metajoke about TD thinking “learning new words makes you do better in school” is fake news. From what I heard about them it from Scarborough and Fallon.
5-Both episodes seemed to be made to cast characters in different roles than usual, and they both involved constant costume changes, so I am sure this was a hard episode to make. Then again the animations seemed stiffer than usual.
5A- “The Dog Did it” Martha tells them the (state in show to be incorrect) history of how dogs made civilization, philosophy, science, and art.
Focus on educational point of show is vocabulary, and it tells young viewers not to take fake history lessons seriously. Now that I have actually read several origin myths I really appreciate cavemen story. Many of them the details on how X happened feel really forced and contrived. I enjoy how Truman hates it for the inaccuracies, TD is hooked, while Helen is moderately into it.
I never noticed this, but Helen takes advantage of TD being into the story to pelt him with a snowball. This is after he tried to get her, and she somehow dodged it at point blank range (I think TD needs glasses). On the computer I could tell she was mad he tried that and then hypocritically pleased with herself for getting him. It really helps them to feel like real kids. Galileo one is the funniest. I like the refences. They seem simple to me now, but to teenage me they were challenging to keep track of.
I think this is the only time Skits gets to talk. Very funny episode, and that should not be surprising from Scarborough and Hirsch both writing it.
5B- “Martha Out West” They film a western movie.
They really liked using their cowboy designs. So in their first story Helen can easily carry gold in a wagon, while Ronald cannot move it at all in a bag, as that much weight should destroy the wagon. Eh, it still teaches children about weight and using machines to make a job easier. Also it is funny. “Help me put [struggling noises] put this [struggling noises] gold in it.” I get what they are going for with milkshake joke- sub for anything, oil, alcohol, and bullets, but I do not think it is funny. Feels more like an Arthur episode. Ironic, as the writer of this episode wrote one episode of Arthur. The writers of the last one combined wrote 140 and head wrote the whole series. The space episode is a better version of this. It definitely has flaws, but it has funny moments. The milkshake song is very catchy, and Helen in a dress makes it stand out more, but I do not like the song, but I think most of the fandom loves it. Still not a good one.
60 episodes done, and that will be it for this year. I will continue the reviews in January and write a general thoughts in November.
Thanks for staying ’til the end.
The Animation Historian 