Episode
The Magic School Bus: Gets a Bright Idea
Overview
The light show at Walkerville’s old theater is illuminating, but Arnold’s bossy cousin Janet claims she could put on a much better show—if there wasn’t a ghost living in the theater!
Details
- Series
- The Magic School Bus
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 5
- Air date
- 1996-10-12
- Runtime
- 25 min
Episode context
Gets a Bright Idea is Episode 5 in Season 3 of The Magic School Bus. It aired on 1996-10-12. The runtime is 25 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 4: Under Construction
Two inches tall and trapped in a bathroom at Wanda’s house, the kids must use what they’ve learned about structures to escape before Wanda’s mother discovers them.
Episode 6: Shows and Tells
Arnold brings in a webbed hoop for the International Show-and-Tell Competition, left behind by his great-aunt, a famous archaeologist, but he has no idea what it is! Can the kids find out what it is before he takes the stage? With Alex Trebek as the “Sportscaster.”
More episodes from this season
Episode 3: Spins a Web
Ms. Frizzle transports the class into a 1950s horror movie, where a 50-foot praying mantis is wreaking havoc on the town. Ed Asner stars as the film’s power-mad protagonist, General Araneus.
Episode 7: Makes a Rainbow
The class finds Ms. Frizzle inside her closet—playing a pinball machine she created with light pulses instead of steel balls. With time and the light pulses running out, the kids must discover the secrets of color—before the principal, Mr. Ruhle, discovers them!
Episode 2: In the Arctic
“Where did the hot go?” wonders Arnold when his hot cocoa cools off. So, Ms. Frizzle whisks the class to the Arctic!
Episode 8: Goes Upstream
Ralphie wants to serve salmon at the annual school picnic, but he can’t find any at his favorite fishing spot. But when the kids are “Frizzled” inside a salmon-bus they have an uncontrollable urge to head upriver.
Episode 1: In a Beehive
Tim’s beekeeper Grandfather has the sweetest honey in town. Ms. Frizzle turns her class into bees so they can visit a hive and learn how raw honey is processed firsthand.
Episode 9: Works Out
Is Mr. Sinew any match for the Friz? At this year’s “Teacher-athlon,” the kids fear Ms. Frizzle doesn’t stand a chance against the muscle-bound gym teacher from another school, so the class travels inside her body for a closer look.
Episode 10: Gets Planted
Phoebe tries to grow a vine for the school play, Jack and the Beanstalk. But her plant is more like a beansprout than a beanstalk! With the opening curtain only moments away, Ms. Frizzle turns Phoebe into a bean plant so she’ll grow into the star of the show!
Episode 11: In the Rainforest
The kids rent a rainforest cocoa tree as an Earth Day present for Ms. Frizzle. But when the harvest arrives, there’s only one shrivelled cocoa bean! Ms. Frizzle takes the class to the rainforest to meet the impeccable Inspector 47 who keeps a tidy, mud-free cocoa grove. What has he done to the rainforest's intricate ecology web?
Episode 12: Rocks and Rolls
To celebrate the founding of Walkerville, Ms. Frizzle’s class sculpts a stone likeness of its founding father, Captain Walker. As they add the finishing touches, the statue tumbles down the mountain. Ms. Frizzle turns the Bus into a huge boulder and the kids into rocks while bumping down the mountain in a desperate attempt to save the statue.
Episode 13: Holiday Special
Wanda plans to see The Nutcracker ballet, but during a trip to Murph’s recycling plant, the toy soldier she needs to get into the theater accidentally becomes a plastic pellet! Ms. Frizzle activates the Bus’s Un-Recycler, taking the class and Murph on a song-filled field trip, where they learn how everyday items are made from recycled trash.