Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

## Stats

**Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day** is the 6th episode of the series *HBO Storybook Musicals* that aired on September 10, 1990. It is based on the book of the same name by Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz' originally published in 1972.

## Synopsis

One morning, a boy named Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair after falling asleep with it in his mouth. After his mother tells him to get downstairs for school in two minutes after he didn't want to get up for school, he hops out of bed and steps on his skateboard, causing him to skate on it briefly until he crashes off-screen. He goes into his bathroom with his sweater, but he drops it in the toilet. Looking for his purple yo-yo that glows in the dark in his drawer, he accidentally takes the whole container out and drops it on his foot. Alexander could already tell it was going to be a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day". At the breakfast table, he asks his family about his yo-yo, his mother suggests he looks at school, meanwhile, his two brothers, Nick and Anthony get prizes in their cereal boxes, a code ring, and a Corvette Stingray car respectively. Alexander's prize, however, is just "breakfast cereal". He tries to pour the cereal back into the box but spills most of it on the kitchen floor. Kneeling down to pick it up, Alexander comments he wants to move to Australia.

On the carpool ride to school with some of his neighbors, Alexander is stuck in the middle of the seat and is worried that he will get carsick. Alexander's class is drawing pictures at school, and when the teacher comes to see it, he says the picture has towers and flags, as well as a moat. The teacher questions what does, and he answers his invisible castle, making the class laugh but his teacher didn't. At recess, Alexander asks if he can play with a group of friends, but they claim they already have a monkey in the middle and they don't want another one and yell at him to give back their ball. He goes to the monkey bars where he blocks the way of his best friend and questions why he is playing with someone else. He says that Alexander is no longer his best friend, and Alexander roasts his friend, saying he hopes his friend sits on a tack. Later on, the class takes turns practicing their singing. Alexander sings "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", and afterwards, the teacher corrects him on a few things, such as it being "row", not "roll", and "merrily" instead of "Mary Lee", and to sing softer. During lunchtime, when all his other classmates at his table show their desserts, Alexander doesn't have any in his bag. During counting time, he says 15 instead of 16, making his teacher remind him again that he left out sixteen which he roasts the number by saying "Who needs sixteen?" making his class laugh

After school, Alexander is still looking for his yo-yo when his friends ask if he wants to come play ball with them at the park, but he told them that he has a dentist's appointment. At the dental office, he keeps messing with the automatic adjuster for the chair, the spit-sink, and the toothpaste so the dentist annoyingly tells him to stay still for a minute. The dentist tells his mother that he has a cavity and will have to come back next week to fix it, and Alexander comments that next week he's going to Australia. On the way out, he narrates that the elevator door closed on his foot, causing Nick and Anthony to laugh and mock him. Alexander gets mad and runs to punch Anthony, but he fights back and Alexander lands in the mud. Nick laughs and Alexander then fights him. When his mother stops the two, Alexander sings about if he could be the only child, and eventually the two other brothers pitch in as well. At the end of the song, the two older brothers apologize to their younger brother for hurting him. Afterwards, the family goes to the shoe store. Alexander wanted blue sneakers with red stripes, but the worker said that they were sold out of them, so he asks for green ones instead, but the worker said they were sold out of those too (because Alexander has much bigger feet), ultimately, Alexander ends up getting plain white sneakers, which he hates. They meet their father at work, and Alexander causes trouble there as he knocks over the books on his shelf and plays with the new copying machine. So his dad angrily made him sit on the couch for a time-out but Alexander also dials a number on the phone, which was a long-distance call to Australia. In response, his dad said to his family to not pick him up anymore. As his brothers comfort him, Alexander calls it a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day".

Later that night after he got home, as he narrates as he tries once again to find his yo-yo again that he complains more about how he hates lima beans and they had it for dinner, he got soap in his eyes when he was taking a bath that was too hot, his marble went down the drain, how he had to wear his railroad train pajamas, and he come to his conclusions that someone had stolen his yo-yo. As his mother tells him that it is bedtime and that she'll be up there to say good night, his lamp also burns out when he tries to turn it on. Nick comes into his room and takes back a yellow pillow he told Alexander that he could keep, which he changed his mind about. When Alexander gets on his bed, he bites his tongue, and Anthony comes in. Alexander asks where Timothy, his gray cat, went, and Anthony answers that he's sleeping with him again. Alexander performs a final number about his day today. When he falls asleep, his mom turns off his closet light, where the glow in the dark yo-yo shines on a shelf. She gives it to him in bed and leaves, turning off the room light. Alexander comments that some days are terrible and rough, even in Australia as Timothy changes his mind to sleep with Alexander.

## Songs

* So Much to Do in the Morning
* The Only Child
* A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

## Errors

The dentist's calendar is mostly incorrect:

* The calendar is missing its 12th day.
* June only has thirty days.
* Furthermore, the calendar year reads 1989 (most likely when the episode was in production). June 13th that year was a Tuesday.

## Trivia

* This episode was animated by Klasky-Csupo, a company that is well-known for its animated shows on Nickelodeon such as *Rugrats*, *The Wild Thornberrys*, *Rocket Power,* and *As Told by Ginger*.
	+ Coincidentally, Chuckie Finster from *Rugrats* shares a resemblance to Alexander, both having similar red hairstyles, and even sharing the slightly same personalities.
* The episode thumbnail on Apple TV is an image from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
* Alexander is voiced by Danny Tamberelli, who also played Little Pete in *The Adventures of Pete and Pete* and voiced Arnold in *The Magic School Bus*. He would later go on to work as a cast member in the sketch comedy show *All That* (original) and even later voiced/mocapped Jimmy in *Grand Theft Auto V*.
* The story would later be re-adapted as a live-action film by Disney in 2014, starring Ed Oxenbould who played the title role.
* This is the longest episode of the series, clocking in at 29 minutes. Although that also includes the HBO Storybook Musicals opening and closing sequence.