The first story within the first episode of "Arthur" Season 22 is titled "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone." Shortly after it begins, the students learn that their teacher Mr. Ratburn is going to get married. Though they don't know any of the details. Frankly, they were shocked that their teacher even has a social life. Up until now, they'd assumed that he spent all of his free time sharpening pencils, eating kale, and dreaming up horrible homework assignments.
The kids quickly get on the wrong end of the stick when they see Mr. Ratburn running around with an extremely type-A woman named Patty. Assuming that she is Ratburn's fiancee and fearing that she will end up making him even tougher as a teacher, Arthur and his friend go about trying to sabotage the wedding.
Obviously they fail. But just as they were about to interrupt the wedding and list all of the reasons that it shouldn't continue, Mr. Rutburn walks down the aisle with his fellow groom -- a chocolate shop owner named Patrick!
The wedding is quickly glossed over and we're instantly transported to two of the more important wedding elements -- eating cake and dancing on the dance floor!
All in all, this was a fun episode -- and a stark difference from nearly 15 years ago when PBS came down hard on "Postcards from Buster," the "Arthur" spin-off series for airing the now infamous "Sugartime!" episode that featured Buster's Vermont adventure with a bunch of kids and their lesbian moms. I remember blogging about that episode back in the day, but can't find it now. It must have happened on my now-defunct Beliefnet blog. PBS ended up not airing "Sugartime!" on most of its stations, but you can watch it online and on DVDs all over these days.