| ‘90s | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 |
| Rides Again | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 |
| Mighty Explorers | Season 1 |
Season 4 of The Magic School Bus Classic is the fourth season in total. It began on September 13, 1997 with "Meets Molly Cule" and it ended on December 6, 1997 with "Takes a Dive". It contains 13 episodes.
According to the production slates in the broadcast masters for the Classic series' run on PBS, episodes from this season underwent production during the Season 3 era in 1996, and were completed in between seasons, prior to September 1997.
Descriptions[]
Netflix (before 2021 takedown) "Welcome to another season of discovery and wonder as Ms. Frizzle and her class set off for still more adventures aboard the Magic School Bus."
Cast[]
One-Time Characters and Guest Stars[]
| Character | Voice | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| Molly Cule | Wynonna Judd | "Meets Molly Cule" |
| Horace Scope | Dabney Coleman | "Sees Stars" |
| Mr. McClean | Malcolm McDowell | "Gets Programmed" |
| Flora Whiff | Bebe Neuwirth | "Makes a Stink" |
| Mikey Ramon | Kevin Zegers | "Gets Programmed" |
Episodes[]
| No. | Episode name | Topic | Airdate (PBS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Meets Molly Cule | Molecules | September 13, 1997 |
| When Wanda's favorite singer, Molly Cule, comes to town, she chooses Ms. Frizzle's class to wash her famous car. They clean it from top to bottom, but when she insists they missed a spot, they shrink down to see the molecules that make up the car. Only then can they discover how to clean it down to the very last bit. But time is running out, and they'll need a molecular miracle to get it clean before her concert begins! | |||
| 2 | Cracks a Yolk | Eggs | September 20, 1997 |
| When the principal, Mr. Ruhle, has to go out of town for a few days, he leaves his beloved pet chicken, Giblets, in Dorothy Ann's care. Unfortunately, the minute he leaves, Giblets flies away. How will Dorothy Ann ever find another prized Rhode Island Red to replace him? Where do you get chickens anyway? And which comes first, the chicken or the egg? The next thing Dorothy Ann knows, Ms. Frizzle and the class are on a field trip to see how eggs are made—from the inside out! But will the one they pick have everything it needs to become "Giblets the Second"? | |||
| 3 | Goes to Mussel Beach | Tidal Zones | September 27, 1997 |
| The class is enjoying a normal summer day at the beach until Ms. Frizzle discovers a letter from her Uncle Shelby, who wants them to look after his beachfront property. They soon discover that this "luxurious" accommodation is only a tiny spot on the shoreline. Why would anyone want to live in a spot where they're battered by waves at high tide and baked by the sun at low tide? To find out, Ms. Frizzle turns the class into...mussels!? | |||
| 4 | Goes on Air | Air | October 4, 1997 |
| "We got assigned air, and it's not fair!" The only contribution Ms. Frizzle's class has made to the Walkerville Space Capsule is an empty jar. "It's not empty," argues Keesha. "It's filled with air!" "But air doesn't do anything!" wails Ralphie. They discover that's not true when the bus shrinks and gets stuck inside the jar—and they find that their only hope for escape is air! | |||
| 5 | Gets Swamped | Swamps and Wetlands | October 11, 1997 |
| The debate is intense: Should Walkerville get rid of the swamp by the river and replace it with a fantastic new shopping mall or build the latter somewhere else? Carlos, representing his class, is given the thankless task of persuading the town council to keep the smelly old swamp. If he loses the debate, he'll do so to Arnold's pesky cousin, Janet! The class learns that the swamp is an important habitat and natural water filter, but the council's not convinced until...FLOOD!! | |||
| 6 | Goes Cellular | Cells | October 18, 1997 |
| It's the night of the rock lovers' annual Granite Awards, and Arnold is about to become the first kid ever to win the coveted Rocky Award. He's so excited that all he's been able to eat for weeks are Sea Wheedies—and lots of them! When he arrives for the big event, he's totally nervous and totally...orange! Once the class determines that it isn't on his skin, they shrink down to explore what's underneath. They discover that his whole body is made of living cells—and they're all orange! But where is the orange coming from...and how can they make it go away? | |||
| 7 | Sees Stars | Stars | October 25, 1997 |
| When the class sees Horace Scope on the Star Shopping Network, they decide to buy Dorothy Ann a real twinkling star for her birthday. Before doing so, they blast off in the bus to inspect the merchandise. They visit a young star, a middle-age star, and decide that the third and last star is the one they want to buy. But when they give Horace their money, KABOOM!, the star explodes! Have they lost it forever? | |||
| 8 | Gains Weight | Gravity | November 1, 1997 |
| Guess who's selected to give an exhibition of a slam-dunk during half time of the big basketball game? Phoebe! The problem is she can't jump high enough. "If only gravity didn't pull on me!" she moans. Never one to be tied down, Ms. Frizzle sends the class into space and turns the bus into a planet with adjustable gravity! Basketball's a snap with low gravity and a riot with none at all, but when there's way too much, things get really heavy! | |||
| 9 | Makes a Stink | Smelling | November 8, 1997 |
| Flora Whiff, the famous expert on smell—whose "nose knows"—comes to school to judge the Smell Search. Ms. Frizzle's class creates a unique smell which is bound to take first prize, but Arnold's cousin, Janet, determined to win by herself, changes it to an odor only a skunk could spray. The class discovers the secret to what makes things smell...now they have to make sure their creation doesn't make a big stink! | |||
| 10 | Gets Charged | Electricity | November 15, 1997 |
| "It's Valentine's Day and the class is selling light bulbs. When they stop at Ms. Frizzle's house to sell her one, they find that her battery-operated doorbell doesn't work. While looking for her to tell her it's broken, Wanda overhears her talking on the telephone. "Ms. Frizzle has a boyfriend," she says, "and he's on his way over to see her! We've got to fix the doorbell or she'll never know he's here!" But first they have to figure out how it works. | |||
| 11 | Gets Programmed | Computers | November 22, 1997 |
| "Ms. Frizzle's class arrives early to open the school for Mr. Ruhle. But there's so much to do! "There must be a way to do all of these chores without actually doing them," says Carlos. The janitor, Mr. McClean, is in total agreement. Enter Mr. Ruhle's new computer and Carlos' whiz kid brother, Mikey, who programs it to do all the chores! But when Ms. Frizzle shrinks him and the class and sends them inside it for a guided tour, everything goes haywire. The only person who can fix the problem is Mikey–and he just landed somewhere between the CPU and hard drive! | |||
| 12 | In the City | Urban Wildlife (some releases) City Critters (some releases) |
November 29, 1997 |
| Ms. Frizzle's class is visiting the zoo, which is, according to Tim, the only place in the city where wild animals can survive. To test this idea, Ms. Frizzle turns the class into opossums, foxes, and falcons! The bus, with Liz inside, becomes a bear and wanders off, looking for food. Will the class be able to find it before the zookeeper does? And is Tim right? Can animals (like themselves) survive in the city? | |||
| 13 | Takes a Dive | Coral Reefs | December 6, 1997 |
| When Wanda discovers that one of Ms. Frizzle's ancestors was Redbeard the pirate, she naturally wants to follow the treasure map he left. It leads the class to a coral reef, where they learn first hand that life there is risky. They find that many plants and animals form surprising partnerships to survive. But Wanda is not interested in that—she just wants to find the treasure! When Ms. Frizzle turns the class into different sea creatures, Wanda begins to understand that partnerships are more valuable then she thought. | |||
Trivia[]
- This is the final season of The Magic School Bus. Season 5 would be considered Season 1 of The Magic School Bus Rides Again.
- The color scheme is overall is more vibrant and more saturated in this season than the previous seasons. A notable example is Arnold's hair, which is a brighter ginger. New camera technology gave a higher quality picture in this season.
- This is the only season to use the P-Pals logo with the E/I balloon (“Makes a Stink”).
- New music tracks play in this season, with the exception of "Takes a Dive", which plays the regular Walkerville Elementary School opening cue.
- In the DVD releases, the audio goes back to mono after Season 3 used a stereo codec with voices on the right track and music on the left.
- Throughout this season, Arnold and Tim's voices are noticeably deeper this season, because Danny Tamberelli and Andre Ottley-Lorant were going through puberty at that time in production, they are eventually replaced by Miles Koseleci-Vieira and Kaden Stephen in the next season, respectively.
- The reason this was the last season of the original series was because PBS demanded more programs aimed towards younger kids. A year after this season aired, the series repeated on FOX Kids from 1998 to 2002, and then repeated in syndication on TLC and Discovery Kids from 2003 to 2009. It then repeated on Qubo from 2010 to 2012. From 2015 to 2021, the "high-quality era" seasons (S02-04), as well as Season 1, which survived the 2021 takedown, streamed on Netflix.
- The book promo at the end of the PBS broadcast version of each episode features The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks, The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth, The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor, The Magic School Bus in the Time of the Dinosaurs, The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane, The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive, and The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip.
- In this season only, the book promo at the end of the PBS broadcast version of each episode is followed on the master tapes and its dubs by a series of spots produced for the PTV Park block by ITVS, such as It's All How You Look At It (1996–2013).
- Also, all the books from the first nine books --in the original series books-- appear (except for Lost in the Solar System).
- This is the only season to have slates on all of its episodes' master tapes.
- Keesha, Tim and Arnold's voice are deeper and sounding more teenager-like due the actors Erica Luttrell, Andre Ottley-Lorant, and Danny Tamberelli getting puberty.
- The original producer is present for all segments in this season.
- Throughout the entire season, the lettering in the end credits changed from yellow to plain white.
- Due to being the final series of the original Magic School Bus television series from 1994-1997, this is the last season...
- ...to feature Phoebe.
- ...in 480i standard definition.
- ...of the original series.
- ...of the 1990s.
- ...to be featured in the 4×3 aspect ratio: 640×480.
- ...in cel animation.
- ...with 29.97 frames per second.
- ...in which Danny Tamberelli, Daniel DeSanto, Tara Meyer, Erica Luttrell, Stuart Stone, Andre Ottley-Lorant, and Lisa Yamanaka voice Arnold, Carlos, Dorothy Ann, Keesha, Ralphie, Tim, and Wanda, respectively.
Tubi[]
- Cracks a Yolk
- Goes to Mussel Beach
- Goes on Air
- Gets Swamped
- Goes Cellular
- Meets Molly Cule
- Sees Stars
- Gains Weight
- Gets Charged
- Makes A Stink
- Takes A Dive
- In the City
- Gets Programmed