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- "Schemer, that hat looks better on Ms. Jones."
- — J.B. King
Becky Makes a Wish is the third season premiere.
Plot
It’s a quiet day at Shining Time Station. Becky appears and walks up to the ticket counter and tells Stacy that she’s bored. She asks if the two of them could play a game, but Stacy tells her that she can’t. Today is the day when J.B. King, superintendent of the Indian Valley Railroad, comes to the stations to inspect all the clocks.
Meanwhile, the Jukebox Puppet Band is in their dressing room. When they hear Becky, they begin to feel sorry for her and Grace wishes that they could play her a song to make her feel better, to which Tito wishes that Becky had some nickels so that they could play her a song.
Mr. Conductor then appears on top of the Jukebox, holding a bag and dressed in a wizard’s robe and cap. Becky exclaims that she wished that he would show up and wonders if he heard her wish. Mr. Conductor replies that he might. Becky wonders if all of the wishes will come true, but Mr. Conductor says only the ones in the blue bag will come true, because there’s a Wishing Star inside. He mentions that Duck the Great Western Engine’s wish isn’t in the bag. When Becky asks what he wished for, Mr. Conductor tells her the story of how Duck once wished that he could sail to faraway lands.
After Mr. Conductor finishes his story, Schemer approaches and he hastily disappears, forgetting about bringing the Wishing Star with him accidentally. Schemer comes up to Becky and starts asking her what she’s doing in his arcade. He then discovers Mr. Conductor’s bag and asks Becky about it. He proceeds to open the bag hoping to find a nickel. Becky tries to stop him, but it's too late; he releases the Wishing Star instead, which he takes to be a firefly.
At that moment, Stacy comes up and begins asking Schemer if he has reset his watch for the inspection, to which Schemer starts making jokes and excuses. As Stacy tries to reason with him, Schemer wishes the two of them could switch places so that she could see how difficult things are for him. But no sooner is the wish made, the Wishing Star flies by. Schemer and Stacy literally switch places and have now adopted each other’s personalities. Amid all this confusion, Mr. Conductor reappears, takes his now empty bag, and then disappears.
After that, Midge Smoot comes in looking for Stacy, but is instead greeted by Schemer, now acting as Stacy. She wants a new train schedule and Schemer immediately knows where they are. A rather confused Midge then asks where Stacy is. Stacy acting as Schemer, walks up and starts asking if she wants spend some nickels over at the arcade. Midge spots Becky and tells her she can’t wait to tell everyone about this strange turn of events. Becky pleads with Midge not to do so, but to no avail.
Stacy is pounding and shaking the Jukebox, demanding that it either play her song or give back her nickel. Inside, the band is in their elevator trying to get to their performance room and get a bad shaking. As they hastily get into position so that they can play the song Stacy chose, “Celito Lindo”, they realize that Tito isn’t with them. They decide to start anyway, hoping Tito (who’s still in the basement) will pick up the cue. Tito does, and during the song, we see Schemer and Stacy have now swapped wardrobes in addition to their personalities as they continue doing what the other usually does throughout the day.
After the song, Mayor Flopdinger comes in, attempting to rehearse a speech. He asks for a ticket to Chubby Corners, at first not taking notice of “Schemer Jones”. As he continues to practice his speech, he’s interrupted by Stacy who asks him if he would like to “invest” in the arcade. The Mayor gets very confused as he looks back and forth between Schemer and Stacy, and finally asks Becky to explain to him what’s going on. Becky starts her explanation by asking the Mayor if he has ever wished for anything. As the Wishing Star flies by again, Mayor Flopdinger states that his wish has always been that he could “rise above” petty concerns, to fly so to speak. Sure enough, the Mayor rises off the ground and starts flying, which astonishes Becky, Schemer, Stacy and Billy Twofeathers, who ducks at the last second as Mayor Flopdinger flies through the station entrance.
At that moment, J.B. King walks in and announces that it’s time for the inspection. Billy notes that he’s early, but Mr. King decides to go on with it. But when Stacy comes up, still acting like Schemer, Mr. King immediately begins to notice that all is not right and it infuriates him. Since he wasn’t due for another six minutes and 21 seconds, Mr. King decides to return when the time is right, with the expectation that when he does, everything will run like clockwork.
Mr. Conductor motions for Becky and Billy to meet him in the workshop so that they can figure out what to do. They finally decide that when they see the star, they’ll wish everything back to normal. Becky says she’ll never make another wish again, but Billy tells her that wishing can be a good thing, and how that some of the greatest things started off as a wish. Mr. Conductor agrees with Billy, and conjures a magic bubble which plays a song about wishes and making them come true. The song is so catchy Mr. Conductor starts singing along before quickly composing himself and disappearing to look for the star.
The moment he leaves, Midge Smoot runs into the workshop and begins to tell Billy everything that has happened, from Mayor Flopdinger being able to fly to Schemer and Stacy changing places. After she leaves to do some more snooping, Billy comments that Midge has a good heart, but wishes that she would zip her lip. Realizing what he just said, he and Becky run back out to the station to find Midge attempting to talk to Stacy with a large zipper over her mouth.
Chaos begins to break out as Mayor Flopdinger comes floating back, still reciting his speech, and then Schemer comes running up, now worriedly counting down how much time they have left until Mr. King returns. Feeling rather flustered, Billy wishes he had just stayed in bed. But the Wishing Star flies by and Billy is now in a bed fast asleep.
While Schemer is frantically trying to wake up Billy, Mr. Conductor manages to catch the star with a fishing net, and Becky quickly wishes everything back to the way it was. Stacy and Schemer are themselves again, Billy is awake, and Mayor Flopdinger has stopped flying. All of them of course having no memory of what has transpired. And just in time, too, because now Mr. King has returned for the inspection. After checking the clocks and watches, Mr. King announces that everything is in order.
Once Mr. King has left, Becky and Mr. Conductor release the star back into the sky. After Mr. Conductor disappears, Midge Smoot passes by, now without a zipper. She asks Becky why she and her friends always hang out at the station, especially when nothing seems to happen. Becky simply replies that sometimes a quiet day is everything she could wish for.
Characters
- Mr. Conductor
- Stacy Jones
- Billy Twofeathers
- Schemer
- Becky
- J.B. King
- Midge Smoot
- Mayor Flopdinger
- Duck (mentioned)
Thomas Story
- During his work at the Harbour, Duck discovers the regatta and wishes that he could sail to far away lands beyond the sea. Percy tries to convince him out of his desires, until Harold arrives carrying a man from the regatta with an injured man. Duck is asked to take him to meet Bertie to reach the hospital. He does so with ease and speed, and afterward, though he still wonders about the sea, Duck feels happier about being a steam engine.
Jukebox Band Segment Song
- Cielito Lindo
Cartoons and Songs
- Help Your Wish Along
- Color Classics - Somewhere in Dreamland (1934)
- Color Classics - Bunny Mooning (1937)
- Little Audrey - Butterscotch and Soda (1948)
- The Magic Horse (1949)
- MGM - Doggone Tired (1949)
Trivia
- This is the first and only episode where Becky appears without Dan or Kara.
- This episode is the first where the Jukebox Puppet Band is seen in their dressing room and in the basement of the Jukebox.
- This the second time Schemer wears Stacy's station-manager cap.
- This is the first episode in which we see Stacy in a wig.
- The third season of Shining Time Station is unique in being the only 25 PBS Kids shows to bear the recently-released pink PBS closing identification.
- After a season of getting credited with the guest cast and semi-regulars, "Danielle Marcot as Becky" is finally listed during the opening titles later airings of season 2 followed.
- When Mayor Flopdinger says "Ask not for what I can for you, but rather, what you can do for me". The line is similar to John F. Kennedy's famous phrase from whom he was elected president: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what can do for your country!"
- The voice telephone conversation that Stacy hears before Mayor Flopdinger arrives at the station is actually sped-up audio from a scene with Stacy and Harry from Promises, Promises.
- Mr. Conductor tells All At Sea to Becky in this episode.
Gallery
Episode
