Episode 51: Rats

Rats is the twenty-first episode of Season 2 of Between the Lions, and episode 51 in total.

Plot
Leona comes crying from the playground because she has been called a nasty name by her friend Tammy, while Frank the rat reads "Tales of the Irish Rats" to the family. Walter and Clay Pigeon parody the story titled "Cats!" with special guest Barnaby B. Busterfield III.

Segments and Songs

 * Martha Reader and The Vowelles singing the fabulous short "a"-- "ah"-- sound in the word "hat". (with crowd cheering and applause)
 * Robots: hat, sat, cat
 * Barnaby Busterfield and the Pigeons: Cats! (part 1)
 * Replaced Letter Songs: The Madison Cats (animation by Reelworks Animation Studios) (EKA: The Sad Dad)
 * Moby Duck: Flappy the fantastic white rabbit
 * What's Your Name?: Short A (season 2 version) (EKA: The Last Cliff Hanger)
 * 14 Karat Soul: Short A (rammalam) (EKA: Oh, Yes, It Can!)
 * Leona (song)
 * If You Can Read: at (EKA: The Sad Dad)
 * Fred Says: rat, rattle
 * Color Patterns: rattle, rat, rag, tag
 * Gawain's Word: tag
 * Rectangular Bugs: tag, tan, an, pan, pant, pants
 * Dance in Smarty Pants! (Version 2, with Bert)
 * Barnaby Busterfield and the Pigeons: Cats! (part 2)

Featured Stories

 * How the Rats Were Rhymed out of Ireland by Shannon Shamley; illustrated by Jon R. Friedman
 * How the Rats Came Back by Shannon Shamley; illustrated by Jon R. Friedman

Notes and Trivia

 * Bert from Sesame Street makes a cameo in the segment "Dance in Smarty Pants" while later he is replaced with Elmo.
 * We now know Leona has a friend named Tammy.
 * The Robots said the word hat at the beginning of their sketch in this episode instead of making the sounds of the letter H, A and T.
 * The topic of this episode is typical for PBS Kids, Since it deals with the serious topic of Name Calling. Which there are many other PBS Kids episodes that deal with the same thing.
 * The color pattern words segment has the same music as in The Good Seed and the same background as in Poetry Day.
 * This episode was released on VHS on October 30, 2001, along with it's 24 other episodes. They are:
 * Episode 1: The Sad Dad
 * Episode 2: Humph! Humph! Humph!
 * Episode 3: The Good Seed
 * Episode 4: Icarus's Wings
 * Episode 5: Zoop! Zoop!
 * Episode 6: Clickety-Clack, Clickety-Clack!
 * Episode 7: Poetry Day
 * Episode 8: Bobby the Hopping Robot
 * Episode 9: Teacher's Pet
 * Episode 10: The Last Cliff Hanger
 * Episode 11: Pebble Trouble
 * Episode 12: Oh, Yes, It Can!
 * Episode 13: Five, Six, and Thistle Sticks
 * Episode 14: Bug Beard
 * Episode 15: Trains and Brains and Rainy Plains
 * Episode 16: Quest, Quest, Quest!
 * Episode 17: The Spider and the Lie
 * Episode 18: Why the Baboon's Balloon Went Ka-boom!
 * Episode 19: But, Mama, But...
 * Episode 20: Dreaming Shakespeare
 * Episode 22: Tweet! Tweet!
 * Episode 23: Good Night, Knight!
 * Episode 24: The Chess Mess
 * Episode 25: Stop That Chicken!
 * This episode was released on reprint VHS on October 1, 2002, along with the other Season 2 episodes (excluding Dreaming Shakespeare).
 * This episode was released on the Complete Second Season 4-Disc DVD Boxset on September 2, 2008. Along with the other Season 2 episodes (excluding Dreaming Shakespeare).
 * This episode was last broadcasted on PBS in April 2005.

Goofs

 * During the credits, Sesame Street is misspelled as Sesmame Street.
 * When Frank falls off the table trying to reach for the book, a hand can be seen toppling the books.

Gallery
This page has a limited amount of images in the template. For extended images, see Rats/Gallery.