| Dance in Smarty Pants! | |
|---|---|
| Season 4, Episode 5 (season finale) | |
| |
| Air date | September 19, 2003 (season finale) |
| Written by | Brian Meehl and Christopher Cerf Sarah Durkee Joe Fallon Michael K. Frith Louise Gikow Sharon Lerner Gentry Menzel Fred Newman Norman Stiles Carin Greenberg-Baker Ken Scarborough |
| Directed by | Lisa Simon |
| Episode guide | |
| Previous Step by Step |
Next Pigs, Pigs, Pigs!/The Three Little Pigs |
"Dance in Smarty Pants!" is the fifth and final episode of Season 4 of Between the Lions, and episode 70 in total.
| Picture | Segment | Description |
|---|---|---|
  |
Celebrity | Announcer Bunny Program Preview: Dance in Smarty Pants (EKA: You Can't Catch Me!) |
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SCENE 1 | The Lion family finish watching the Dance in Smarty Pants music video, constantly rewinding back to the part where Lionel and Leona show up. Lionel says they've played that part about "a gazillion times". They all proceed to watch it once again. |
          |
SCENE 1
(Cont'd) |
Suddenly, Marmy Smartypants shows up. The cubs ask if Arty got the fan letter they sent him, and she says it was a fantastic letter. She then cues a flashback to earlier that morning (but not before Leona asks Lionel what a flashback is), in which Arty receives the letter and is so flattered by it that he decides to put Theo and Cleo in his next music video. Lionel is initially worried because his parents don't know how to Dance in Smarty Pants, until Leona suggests that he should teach them. |
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Insert | Walter and Clay Pigeon do the Smarty Pants Dance, but they keep forgetting the words. |
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Insert | The grey hand removes the letter "a" from the word "dance". |
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Puppets | Martha Reader and The Vowelles sing the short "a" sound in the word "pan". (First: Episode 42: Oh, Yes, It Can!) |
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Film | Gawain's Word: fan |
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Celebrity | 14 Karat Soul: short "a" (First: Episode 42: Oh, Yes, It Can!) |
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Film | Missing Letter: hands (First: Episode 60: You Can't Catch Me!) |
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Celebrity | Marmy's Poetry Corner: A Funny Word with Al Franken [underpants] |
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Celebrity | Fred Says: slant |
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Insert | Sky: slant, plant, pant, pants |
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SCENE 2 | It's now time for Lionel to teach Theo and Cleo how to Dance in Smarty Pants. Leona unveils the book they will be using: The Stanispantski Method, by Konstantin Stanispantski. Theo and Cleo like the sound of that name and start singing "Ooh! Aah! Dance in Stany's pantskis." Lionel gets angry and asks them to stop. |
          |
SCENE 2
(Cont'd) |
In the book (which features a picture of Al Franken), the first step is to put the Smarty Pants on. Unfortunately, Theo and Cleo put the pants on their head at first before finally getting them on their legs. Upon putting them on, Theo declares that he's in the mood to dance, and, despite Lionel's objections, he and Cleo sing a song about rubber stamps and shiny books. They continue goofing off until Lionel finally snaps and yells at them. He doesn't want Marmy or anyone else who watches the video to see his parents acting like fools. Cleo then says that they should go "ask Arty" what he thinks about the situation, which excites the cubs, as they think this means that Arty is there in the library with them! |
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Celebrity | Get Your Mouth Moving: short a (First: Episode 60: You Can't Catch Me! |
    |
Film | Vowel Preview: The Sad Dad |
  |
Insert | Backyard: sad, sack, tack, stack |
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Cartoon | Tiger Words: A Stack of Flapjacks (First: Episode 40: The Last Cliff Hanger) |
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Puppets | What's Cooking? with Theo and Cleo: Tackled and Paddled Hamburger Patty (First: Episode 40: The Last Cliff Hanger) |
  |
Insert | The grey hand puts the "a" back in the word "dance". |
          |
SCENE 3 | It turns out that Arty isn't in the library at all; Cleo reads a book to the cubs that Arty wrote called "No Dancing". The story concerns a mean king who passes "No Fun" laws because he doesn't want people to have fun while working. Along comes Arty Smartypants himself, who convinces the whole kingdom that you can have fun while working by showing them his famous Smarty Pants Dance. |
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SCENE 3 (Cont'd) | Lionel, recognizing the parallels to his current situation, lightens up and declares that Step 1 is to "Have Fun"! And so, the Lion family head off to film the video, and have fun while they do it! |
   |
Puppets | Dance in Smarty Pants! (Version 4) (First: Episode 60: You Can't Catch Me! |
  |
SCENE 3 (Cont'd) | Lionel and Leona close out the episode by writing another letter to Arty, thanking him for letting their parents appear in his video. And thus, the fourth season of Between the Lions comes to an end. |
Featured Stories[]
- The Stanispantski Method by Konstantin Stantispantski
- No Dancing based on the folk tale by Arty Smartypants
Notes and Trivia[]
- This episode was originally going to be aired on December 19, 2002 in Season 3, but it was rescheduled back to September 19, 2003 in Season 4.
- This is the last episode to feature the show's original format.
- This is the last episode to feature the short "A" sound.
- This is the last episode to feature Announcer Bunny Program Preview.
- The sky words segment has the background from the Fred Says segment instead of the usual background.
- This is the last episode where Johnny Consonanti is the announcer for The Vowelles segments.
- This is the last episode to have Martha Reader singing with The Vowelles. Starting next season, Johnny Consonanti replaces her.
- This is also Tim Lagasse's final time portraying Theo. Peter Linz returned to the role full-time in Season 5.
- This is the final appearance of Barnaby B. Busterfield III, although he continues to be seen in the theme song. Walter and Clay Pigeon also disappear for a while after this episode, before making one final appearance in Season 9.
- This episode was last broadcasted on PBS in March 2009.
- This is the second time where Lionel writing a letter, the first was Little Big Mouse.
Gallery[]
This page has a limited amount of images in the template. For extended images, see Dance in Smarty Pants!/Gallery.
Releases[]
- VHS (Singular episode; April 26, 2005)
Cast[]
- Anthony Asbury - Lionel Lion
- Pam Arciero - Leona Lion
- Tim Lagasse - Theo Lion (new footage), Arty Smartypants, Barnaby B. Busterfield III, Johnny Consonanti, hands
- Jennifer Barnhart - Cleo Lion
- Heather Asch - Marmy Smartypants, Clay Pigeon
- Jim Kroupa - Walter Pigeon, Monkey
- Peter Linz - Theo Lion (recycled footage), Gawain
- Fred Newman - himself, Preview announcer, Golf announcer, King
- Bruno Kirby - The Sad Dad (recycled footage)
- Denny Dillon - Wise Woman (recycled footage)
- Al Franken - himself, Smarty Pants dancer
- Oliver Platt - himself, Smarty Pants dancer
- India Arie, Steve Carell, Melissa Etheridge, Mo Lewis, Kelly Ripa, Mo Rocca, Meredith Vieira - Smarty Pants dancers
- 14 Karat Soul - themselves