Harold and the Purple Crayon is the first episode of the series Harold and the Purple Crayon that aired on December 1, 2001.
Summary[]
It was late at night meaning it was bedtime for Harold. His mother tucks him in with his stuffed dog. When she leaves the room, Harold has trouble going to sleep, from scrunching up both sides of his pillow to flipping and flopping, he just couldn't go to bed. Harold looks out the window where the moonlight is shining, which gives him the idea to go out on a walk with his purple crayon.
He draws a straight purple line which causes his bedroom to turn into whiteness. In his new world, Harold draws a path that goes straight and walks down the new path, but he ditches the path knowing he isn't going anywhere and runs along the field of blank white, and the moon even follows him. Harold draws a mountain with a waterfall and a flowing stream and rides on a turtle, then draws more as his imagination runs even more wild in a musical number. After that, all that drawing makes Harold thirsty, so he draws a glass of milk. While drinking it he makes a lot of bubbles that start flooding up the place, and Harold can't continue on because there are too many bubbles that keep lifting him up the air. Harold draws a porcupine and it's spikes pop most of the bubbles.
To thank the porcupine, particularly because a hug would be pretty harmful, Harold draws a picnic blanket with pies, or specifically nine types of pie that Harold enjoyed. The porcupine and Harold gobble more and more of the pie up, until they get too full to finish the remaining left. Harold then decides to draw a hungry moose to devour all the pies, and it does so. It ends up eating the drawn background, too. It develops a big belly and cannot move. Harold draws a wagon and with the help of a jab from the porcupine, the moose jumps up on the wagon. The three pals start moving. Harold decides to draw a forest, although because he didn't want to get lost on his way, he just actually draws one little apple tree. He also sketches a purple dragon to guard the tree until the apples get red, but it is frightening and scares off the moose and porcupine, and it even scares Harold himself. He backs away fearfully while drawing the ground, but his hand starts shaking, the straight line starts turning wavy which more or less turns into an ocean of water. Luckily Harold saves himself with a big boat, and also his animal friends with an inflatable ring.
The three set sail and travel over the ocean, until the wind dies down and the boat slows down. Harold doodles a whale which gives them a push. Eventually the wind comes back, but not for the best as it is a storm. Harold draws a stick to steer the boat in the back, but he realizes that he's heading towards the purple dragon. He attempts to steer clear from the dragon while moving in the rough waters, until the wind changes course and the boat starts blowing towards the dragon. Harold creates a paper fan that he, the moose, and the porcupine wave to get the boat moving from the dragon, which works until they meet up with him once more. Harold decides to battle it and draws a shield, and gives it a poke with his crayon. The dragon shows them a bucket full of ripe red apples from the tree, and feels sorry for causing all that trouble. Harold also feels bad too.
He draws a horn and calls the dragon back over. The dragon gets onboard, and Harold draws another sail on it's tail. Harold, the dragon, porcupine, and moose begin to eat the apples, and the dragon even juggles them. The clouds move past the moon, making Harold get a special feeling that it was time to get home. He creates an island that he gets on and says goodbye to the animals, and creates a mountain so he can see way up high where his bedroom window was, but he ends up falling off the mountain because it was incomplete. Harold saves himself by drawing a balloon that he gets up on, and also draws a basket below it like a hot air balloon. While hovering in the air he still is unable to find his window, or any houses at all. He draws a house himself with windows, but none of them are his bedroom. He draws more and more windows until he creates an entire large city. Harold was now scared, but he remembers that things aren't as bad as they seem. He draws a policeman which tells him to keep going the way he is going. After another song, Harold remembers that the moon was always in his window, so he draws his window and his bed and finally goes to bed.
Trivia[]
- The episode’s plot is adapted from the original book by Crockett Johnson.
- The episode is also titled Pilot.
- This is the only episode of the show to premiere in 2001.