Richard Scarry's Best Counting Video Ever is the second video of the Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever series. It was released on August 31, 1989 on VHS and rereleased on October 16, 2001 on DVD and uploaded on early-late 2010s on Youtube and Dailymotion.
Storyline
Join Lily Bunny as she spends her counting day from one to twenty!
Plot
The video starts off with the busy people working in Busytown and Mr. Frumble chases his hat. Then it goes on to Lily Bunny reading a counting book at the Bunny family's house. Her father (Mr. Bunny) decides to make today a counting day and tells her to start by counting one of something, and then count two things, until she reaches to ten, in which it is her lunch time. Lily starts by counting one of herself, and then two hands, feet and long ears. Then she goes outside to find three of something while she sings the counting day song. She counts three friends riding three tricycles with three horns. On the way to the farm, she counts four cows mooing, along with five funny frogs and five big splashes. Then, Lily goes to Farmer Fox's farm, where she counts six crows and six scarecrows, and then the wind blows away the hats. She counts the six silly hats, including one more making seven, which she wonders where that hat came from. The seventh hat happened to belong to Mr. Frumble, who was chasing it. Lily counts seven airplanes flying in the sky. One of them crashes into Farmer Fred's tractor, and eight watermelons roll off and bounce away, so Farmer Fred has to chase them. Then, Lily goes to Farmer Fox's farm stand while she sings the counting day song again. At Farmer Fox's farm stand, Bananas Gorilla orders nine banana cream pies. Farmer Fox shows Lily the surprise: ten baby chicks are hatched from ten eggs, thinking Lily is their mom. Farmer Fox says so long to Lily and she giggles and really softly all on her way home for lunch.
Back home, Lily sings to her parents about her day counting up to ten. Next, Lily's dad wants her to count all the way up to twenty, so Lily comes over to Huckle's house and tells him it's her counting day. She asks him if he and Lowly wants to come with her, and they agree, so they go into Busytown while they sing the reprise of the counting day song. There, Lily and Huckle count eleven members of a pig family, who are going to Busy Burger for lunch. At Busy Burger, they count twelve pancakes for one hungry hippo. Lowly sneaks in and eats a stack of pancakes, when is called to come back by Huckle convincing him to find thirteen scouts. Then, Huckle and Lily count thirteen scouts crossing the street. At the zoo, Lowly buys fourteen balloons, and gets lifted off by them, but luckily, a giraffe saves him. At Father Cat's grocery store, Huckle and Lily count fifteen delicious apples as Mom Crocodile buys them. In one of Mom Crocodile's fifteen apples, Lowly is hiding inside it which scares her, causing a mess in the store and Mr. Frumble continues to chase his hat. But he trips over the apples and fell on the ground. In the playground, Huckle and Lily count sixteen children sliding down a slide. In the library, they count seventeen books, which Mr. Lion is carrying. He tries to juggle them, but fails. Then they see Lowly at a florist buying eighteen roses. Lowly brings them to Hilda Hippo on her birthday. She sneezes them away, leaving eighteen beautiful stems. The trio also watches a parade and count nineteen big bass drums, followed by Lowly being in a tuba and being blown out when it sounds. It's getting late and it’s time for Huckle and Lowly to go home for their dinnertime, but Lily tells them they haven't counted to twenty yet. However, Huckle apologizes to Lily and he and Lowly must go home. Lily feels sad and agrees with both Huckle and Lowly that she must go home, too. Lily sadly says goodbye to both Huckle and Lowly as she watches them go out of sight on her way home.
When she comes back home and back inside, she tells her family that she and Huckle only counted up to nineteen, but they didn't make it to twenty. Lily’s dad tells her that her counting day isn’t finished and she might be able to find something to count at home, until Lily realizes there are no more things to count. But at dinner time, when something catches Lily's eye on the dinner plate, she finally counts twenty carrots at the dinner table and her family applauds for her.
At bedtime, Lily’s parents tell her that it has been a very busy day. Her mother (Mrs. Bunny) sings Tomorrow You Can Count Again to Lily as the video ends. Also, at the end of the lullaby, a silhouette of Mr. Frumble chases his hat and the fireflies arrange the words "THE END."
Contents
- Title/Introduction
- Lily reads a counting book and Lily's father decides her daughter to make today a counting day/One bunny
- Two hands, two feet and two long ears
- Won't You Come and Count With Me? (Tra La La, 1, 2, 3)
- Three friends on three tricycles with three horns
- Four cows and four moos
- Five funny frogs and five big splashes
- Six crows and six scarecrows
- Seven airplanes
- Eight watermelons/Won't You Come and Count With Me? (Tra La La, 1, 2, 3) (reprise)
- Nine banana cream pies
- Ten baby chicks
- Lily returns home/Lily's Counting Day Song/Mr. Bunny wants his daughter to count all the way up to twenty
- Lily meets Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm to go to Busytown/Won't You Come and Count With Me? (Tra La La, 1, 2, 3) (reprise with Huckle Cat)
- Eleven pigs
- Twelve pancakes and one hungry hippo
- Thirteen scouts
- Fourteen balloons
- Fifteen delicious apples
- Sixteen children
- Seventeen books
- Eighteen roses
- Nineteen big bass drums/Lily says goodbye to Huckle and Lowly
- Lily returns home again/Twenty carrots
- Lily's bedtime/Tomorrow You Can Count Again/The End
- End Credits/Copyright
Characters Featured
- Lily Bunny
- Willy Bunny
- Mr. Bunny
- Mrs. Bunny
- Huckle Cat
- Lowly Worm
- Farmer Fox
- Farmer Fred
- Bananas Gorilla
- Sergeant Murphy
- Hilda Hippo
- Mr. Frumble
- Mr. Lion
- Wrong-Way Roger
- The Pig Family
- Bob Fox
- Grocer Cat
- Mom Crocodile
- The Narrator (Offscreen only)
- Other Busytown people
- Bugs
- The giraffe
- David Cat
- Alex Cat
- Pablo Cat
- Harry Mouse (Title screen only)
- Baron von Crow (Title screen only)
Trivia
- This title of the video is based on and named after the book, Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever.
- A running gag in the video is Mr. Frumble constantly seen trying to catch his flying hat. The same thing happened in Be Careful, Mr. Frumble! and it would happen in The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Busytown Mysteries.
- This is the second video of the Richard Scarry's Best Videos Ever series.
- This video, along with Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever, will also be in two Children's Book-of-the-Month Club videos, Richard Scarry's Best Learning Video Ever and Richard Scarry's Best ABC Plus Counting Video Ever.
- This video, along with Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever and Richard Scarry's Best Learning Songs Video Ever, will be in the Random House video, Richard Scarry's Family Feature Starring the Busytown Friends, and another Children's Book-of-the-Month Club video, Richard Scarry's Best Learning Video Ever: ABC-123-Learning Songs.
- This is the only episode where the plot focus is on Lily Bunny.
- This is the second video Hilda Hippo has a crush on Lowly Worm when he buys eighteen roses to her.
- It was Hilda Hippo's birthday on the same day as Lily Bunny's Counting Day. Also, it’s revealed that she is allergic to roses.
- This is the first time that Busytown takes place in nighttime at the end of this video.
- On the number 6 segment, those birds are called crows. But on Richard Scarry's Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever, those birds will be called blackbirds.
- This is the first time where we see Lily Bunny in her pajamas in Tomorrow You Can Count Again from this video. The second time will later then be in the song Mixed Up Sounds in the second story Mr. Fixit Fixes It from Richard Scarry's Best Silly Stories and Songs Video Ever.
- This is the first time where we see Lily's father is wearing the same suit. The second time will later then be in the song Mixed Up Sounds in the second story Mr. Fixit Fixes It from Richard Scarry's Best Silly Stories and Songs Video Ever.
- This is the only time Lily Bunny sings Won't You Come and Count With Me? (Tra La La, 1, 2, 3) and Lily's Counting Day Song. However, after she greets Huckle Cat to count to 20, he and Lily sing Won't You Come and Count With Me? (Tra La La, 1, 2, 3) when they and Lowly go to Busytown.
- This is the only time Mrs. Bunny sings Tomorrow You Can Count Again as Lily goes to bed.
- Fireman Ralph and the pig and mouse firefighters are absent. So do Able Baker Charlie, Freddie Fox, Susie Tiger, Edna Bunny, Arthur Pig and other characters.
- This is also the debut of Lily Bunny, the Bunny Family, Farmer Fox, Farmer Fred and others.
- The 20 number segments are not from Sesame Street either.
- This is the second video the Narrator says, "Welcome to Busytown!" in the introduction segment.
- This is the second video the Narrator says, "The End" before the credits start.
- This is the second time there is a song in the ending of this video.
- This is the second video Lowly Worm doesn't speak.
- This is the second video that this episode has been produced by Jerry Lieberman Productions.
- This is the first video the Narrator narrates the introduction, and later, he names each number from 1 to 20 after Lily Bunny or both she and Huckle Cat count things.
- This is the second video Huckle Cat's voice is high. He sounds like he's excited. He will continue his high voice from the future TV shows, The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Busytown Mysteries. But on other videos, his voice was and will be normal.
- Stock animation footages of the sign plane title "Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever" replaced with "Richard Scarry's Best Counting Video Ever", the birds-eye view of Busytown, the Busytown people working and the wallpaper screens, "Based on books and characters created by Richard Scarry" and "Produced entirely in New York City", are reused from Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever. However, the Busytown people working animation is slower and choppy, and these animations are in comprehensive color.
Quotes
- Mr. Bunny: Lily, what book are you reading?
- Lily Bunny: It's my counting book, Daddy! I'm learning my numbers!
- Mr. Bunny: That's nice, Lily. What have you learned so far?
- Lily Bunny: I've learned how to count to ten! Listen. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
- Mr. Bunny: That's wonderful counting, Lily.
- Lily Bunny: Thank you, Daddy.
- Mrs. Bunny: (she and Mr. Bunny tucks Lily Bunny in bed) Settle down, Lily. It's time to go to sleep. You had a very busy day.
- Mr. Bunny: We're very proud of you, Lily. You did a wonderful job counting up to 20. (then he and Mrs. Bunny kisses Lily goodnight)
- Lily Bunny: Maybe tomorrow I can count up to 30! Or 40! Or even 100!
Gallery
"Bye, Lily" - Alex Cat
"Bye, Lily" - Pablo Cat
Video
Richard Scarry's Best Counting Video Ever!
Watch the video