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Arthur (TV series)

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Arthur
File:Arthur logo.jpg
Created byWGBH, based on the series of books by Marc Brown
StarringSee Cast.
Country of originUnited States and Canada
No. of episodes135
Production
Running time30 minutes (approx. 11 minutes per episode)
Original release
NetworkPBS
ReleaseSeptember 2, 1996 –
current

Arthur is a 1996 American and Canadian educational children’s television series which airs primarily on PBS and TVO, but has been syndicated to numerous other stations. The show first premiered on 2 September 1996. The show usually revolves around Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, and his daily adventures with his peers and family. The show has not only provided skeptics with positive entertainment, but has also helped children deal with various health and social issues.

Although the series first aired in 1996, the original concept of the series was first conceived by Marc Brown in 1976. Arthur originally started off as a children’s book series, which was illustrated and written by Brown. In 1994, CINAR Animation (now Cookie Jar Entertainment) began production of the animated series, which eventually debuted on PBS in September of 1996.

About Arthur

Template:Infobox TV ratings Arthur, the main character, is an aardvark in the third grade who has two younger sisters, the precocious four-year-old D.W. and baby Kate. Arthur's rivalry with D.W. is a frequent theme of the show. The species of animal that a character is portrayed in can be obvious or sometimes ambiguous at best; generally tails are not shown. Ironically, dogs are shown both as human-like characters and as conventional pets. Arthur lives in Elwood City, a fictional city which is partially eponymous to the area where Marc Brown attended high school.

The theme song played at the start of each episode is the song Believe in Yourself, which was recorded by Ziggy Marley. Each half-hour episodes contains two self-contained stories, that are separated by a live-action vignette entitled A Word From Us Kids. Each segment features various school children learning, or giving their insights towards a particularly field of knowledge (it should be noted, however, that international airings of the show omits the said A Word From Us Kids segment).

Although the Arthur was directed towards a prepubescent audience, it managed to gain popularity among older audiences and retain a large portion of its younger viewers into their teenage years. The show often incorporates satirical parodies of adult-oriented humor and pop culture themes such from South Park, Beavis and Butthead, and The Sopranos. Furthermore, myriads of celebrities such as, Art Garfunkel, Fred Rogers, Michelle Kwan, and Yo-Yo Ma have lent their voice talents during various portions of the series.

In addition to the book and television series, Arthur has also spawned three one hour movies, which occasionally air on PBS. The latest movie, which was produced by Mainframe Entertainment, recreated the "Arthur Universe" using Computer-generated imagery. [1]. The movies only air on PBS during special holidays or fundraiser campaigns. In addition to the movies, Arthur's success also spawned a spin-off series entitled Postcards From Buster.

Cast and Characters

File:ArthurTV Guide.jpg
Arthur on the March 14, 1998 issue of TV Guide.

Characters

Main article: List of Arthur characters

Cast

Episodes

Main article: List of Arthur episodes

Toys and games appearing on the show

Like many real life kids, Arthur and company are also often kept busy by games and toys. Below is a list of toys and games that have appeared in the show throughout its run so far.

Toys

  • Arthur Doll: A life-size doll of Arthur which Brain mistakes for actually being Arthur. Breifly seen in Breezy Listening Blues.
  • Cindy Crawfish make-up kit: A toy make-up kit received by Muffy in Arthur's Perfect Christmas.
  • Calculator: A standard calculator Muffy receives in Arthur's Perfect Christmas
  • Clarissa: A china doll Grandma Thora owned since she was a child. When D.W. borrowed the doll, the doll cracked, only to be repaired like new by Mr. Ratburn.
  • Cyber-Cod: A toy that looks similar to Techno-Trout, but has a different color scheme and instead of a speckled belly it has kung-fu fin action. It is Buster's Christmas present in Arthur's Perfect Christmas
  • Mr. Haney Piñata: A piñata in the likeness of Mr. Haney's head, seen in Arthur's Birthday
  • Mr. Haney Transformer: A Transformer-like toy that transforms into various vehicles and a robot with a likeness of Mr. Haney.
  • Funny Farm:Like Whack-a-Mole but with animal creatures popping out instead the make animal sounds while popping out. D.W is seen playing it in Arthur Plays the Blues.
  • Moon Boots: a pair of boots that you could jump very high with. Only mentioned in "Arthur Bounces Back"
  • Polly Locket: A take-off of the Barbie doll and a play on the Polly Pocket dolls. These dolls have secret compartments in their faces. One time Prunella got two Polly Locket dolls for her birthday.
  • Poogles: A Woogle knockoff, Arthur bought it without knowing due to a rack of watches covering the P on the Poogle sign. Arthur did not know that it was a knockoff of a Woogle until Francine and Muffy tested the ability of his "Woogle".
  • Quackers: A talking duck doll that D.W. got for Christmas rather than the "Tina the Talking Tabby" doll she wanted.
  • Stanley: An old stuffed teddy bear owned by Arthur for years that became ragged and torn even when Arthur tried to sell it at a yard sale to Vicita (and having Vicita rename it "Chico") until it was passed on to Mrs. Tibble, who repaired the doll for Arthur to make it look like new.
  • Techno-Trout: A toy belonging to Buster, mentioned in Arthur's Perfect Christmas. It has a speckled belly.
  • Tina the Talking Tabby: Mentioned in Arthur's Perfect Christmas, and voiced by Sonja Ball on the radio in the said episode, but never seen on the series. D.W. really wanted one for Christmas, but ended up with Quackers instead.
  • Wally: a giraffe ventriloquist dummy owned by George. He was supposedly given to D.W. by George at the end of Arthur's Dummy Disaster, but he was apparently returned to George sometime later, off series, for unspecified reasons.
  • Woogles: Potato-shaped talking squeezable figures in many colors and many names like Archie, Tiny Einney, and Snuffles, which were a take off on the Beanie Baby craze. Arthur never attempted to get his own (except for a present from Grandma Thora) but got a rip-off of a Woogle called a "Poogle" named Charles. Arthur soon replaced the Woogle fad with a musical juice cap fad.*
  • World Girls: Dolls similar to American Girl dolls, but while American Girls are only about American history, World Girls consist of dolls from around the world.

Board games

  • No Guessing: Board game involving answering questions correctly. Arthur was known for cheating at this game.
  • Confuse the Goose: A board game first featured in Arthur's Almost Boring Day. The rules of the game was never clearly stated, although one would surmise that it plays a lot like the virtual goose game featured on Sue Ellen gets her goose cooked
  • Tower of Cows: First mentioned in Double Tibble Trouble, this game is played by putting one cow on top of each other to form a tower. One can deduct that the loser would be the one who places the losing cow and causes the tower to collapse.
  • Rocks in a Box: Briefly mentioned in Sue Ellen Gets her Goose Cooked, it's said to be about "real rocks in a real box".
  • Weasel Rally: First mentioned in Arthur's Almost Boring Day. Not much is known about this game.

Video/Computer games

  • Dark Bunny 6: Curse of the Moomy: a video game that Arthur likes to play. Seen in the episode "Crushed".
  • Deep Dark Sea: Featured in Arthur the Wrecker, Arthur grew addicted to the game, and at one point while fighting for control of the computer apparently damaged it. In the end it turns out to be a poor contact on a connection and it's Mrs. Read's turn to get addicted to the game.
  • Fish Finder 6: A video game and hand-held electronic game (it is seen as both of these) that is seen throughout the series. Arthur is seen playing the video game in the episode "Sue Ellen's Little Sister". In the episode "Francine Redecorates", D.W. tries to sell the hand-held game to Francine at their garage sale, but Arthur puts it away to keep.
  • A Mario-like game featuring Francine as Mario: Seen for a few seconds in Arthur's Perfect Christmas while Muffy is singing What's the Use of Presents.
  • Peabrain and Nuthead: An arcade game with characters based on Beavis and Butthead played by Toby and Slink in Buster and the Daredevils. Not much is known about it.
  • Virtual Goose: Introduced in 2001, a version of the Confuse the Goose board game that is played on computers. The object of this game is to shoot balls into a goose's mouth. The game is called "Virtual Goose", and it's very noisy. Arthur explains how the game is played -- a giant goose spins around really fast in the center of the screen, and stops facing one of four colored circles. You then have to shoot balls into the goose's mouth. The more balls you manage to shoot in, the higher your score, and you can play online, against other players all over the world. The game also exists as a single-player game (player versus computer posing as various Arthur characters) on the Arthur website. However, the gameplay of the game on the Arthur website is different - instead of shooting balls into the goose's mouth, you have to shoot the right ball into the goose's mouth.
  • Virtual Goose 5.0: While Virtual Goose 2.0-4.0 was never mentioned on the show, Virtual Goose 5.0 (likely subtitled Best of the Nest) was featured in the story Best of the Nest, which follows Sue Ellen gets her goose cooked. This game is also apparently a mix between Tamagotchi, survival horror games and also various reality TV series, notably Survivor. It is also apparently online-based.

Arthur in other media

Music albums

Main article: Arthur TV soundtracks

Actimates

In 1998, both Arthur and D.W. were made into Microsoft Actimates, sophisticated toy dolls who could interact with children, with each other, with certain computer software and the Arthur website, and also with the Arthur television show and videos.

To get the Actimates to interact with the TV show or the videos, a hockey puck shaped transmitter device called a TV Pack must be purchased separately and connected to the video-out connector of the TV set, while to have the Actimates to interact with the specialized computer software (developed by Creative Wonders and published by Microsoft) and the website, another hockey puck shaped transmitter device called a PC Pack must be purchased separately and be connected to the MIDI/game port connector of the PC.

For the TV show and videos, the TV pack reads coded information forms a thin bar-code-like strip along the left edge of the screen and retransmits it to the actimates. This strip is typically invisible when viewed on a normal television, but can be seen by other means, such as watching Arthur on a computer screen by using a TV tuner card, or by sending the tuner signal from a VCR to a video monitor that is capable of overscanning, which is possible on many professional-grade video monitors.

Meanwhile, interaction between the specialized software and the website with the Actimates is a little more complicated. The software makes use of a special programming library called "ToyAPI", which communicated with the Actimates via the PC Pack. The website, on the other hand, makes use of special script files embedded in each page. These script files are parsed by a special plugin that you'll be prompted to download and install on your first visit to the page. This plugin would read the script and send instructions to the Actimates, again through the PC Pack.

Due to the difference in functions between the PC Pack and TV Pack, the actimates will not interact with the Arthur TV Show if the show is being watched on a computer monitor using a tuner card with the PC Pack plugged in. Likewise, it will not interact with a TV that is connected to a computer and has a TV Pack is plugged into the TV.

Microsoft discontinued the Actimates line shortly before season 5 aired, most possibly due to a lawsuit pertaining to patent infringement[2] and the fact that sales were dropping. It has been noted that Post-Season 4 episodes of Arthur have not included any Actimates code. Newer videos and DVD releases of the show does not carry Actimates code either. The enhancements on the website were removed when the site was redesigned in 2002 and thus the Actimates would no longer interact with the website. Likewise, re-releases of the Actimates software by Creative Wonders do not interact with the Actimates because the library that controls the PC Pack has been replaced with a dummy library file (reports state that the software will resume interaction with the Actimates if the library file is replaced with the original one).

Video Games

  • Arthur's Absolutely Fun Day [Mattel Interactive/The Learning Company/Ed Magnin and Associates (GBC)]: Released between 1998 and 1999, This game has you piloting the head of Arthur throughout a map of part of Elwood City and partaking in minigames so he could go visit the amusement park.
  • Arthur: Ready to Race [Mattel Interactive/The Learning Company/Runescape (PSOne)]: Released between 1999 and 2000, This game has Arthur scouraging around for parts to build a cardboard box racer. It consists of mostly minigames which the player partakes to gain parts, although the player is only confined to exploring a small area in Elwood City. The graphics are 3D CGI style with three pre-rendered CGI cutscenes. The voice acting in the game, while not done by the original voice actors, sounds reasonably close to the originals.
  • Living Books: There were several interactive storybooks in the Living Books series based off of Arthur, including Arthur's Teacher Trouble.

Other Facts

  • Many Arthur sound effects recorded in 1995 are still being used in newer episodes of the series. The "Arthur laugh" (featuring the voices of Michael Yarmush and Melissa Altro) has been used from 1996-2006, despite the fact that Michael Yarmush left the show in 2000. Also, in episodes where Arthur is played by other actors, Michael Yarmush's voice can still be heard--whether it be a laugh, gasp or etc.
  • Arthur's eyes in the first season (mainly seen in the first episode Arthur's Eyes) are shown to be regular drawn eyes, similar to Buster, D.W., etc. But in the second season, his eyes were changed to have ''dots'' instead.
  • There have been 7 episodes to date where Arthur does not make an appearance: "Prunella Sees the Light", "FernFern and the Secret of Moose Mountain", "Thanks a Lot, Binky!", "Big Horns George", "Fern and Persimmony Glitchet", "My Fair Tommy", and "World Girls".
  • Long before the television series, Arthur appeared in a 1983 episode of the PBS show Reading Rainbow in an animated reading of the book "Arthur's Eyes" narrated by Bill Cosby. A 1988 Reading Rainbow episode featured an animated reading of the somewhat Arthur related The Bionic Bunny Show book narrated by Gene Klaven.
  • Arthur appeared as a guest in hand puppet form in a 1999 episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (which Mister Rogers made a visit to Marc Brown's house, and later Arthur made a visit to the Neighborhood of Make Believe) and Mister Rogers appeared in an Arthur episode in animated form as an aardvark himself).
  • Arthur is broadcast with two distinct caption tracks in the US - Standard and simplified. The simplified caption track is inconsistent with the show and will show text that is simplified to either allow younger children who are just learning to read to use the caption or for providing a simple explanation of what is being said to younger children. There's also word that some broadcasts of Arthur carry a third Spanish language caption track. Also, Arthur broadcasts in the US carry a DVS SAP audio track to aid vision-impaired folks in grasping what is happening onscreen.
  • Although the program is primarily produced by WGBH of Boston, Massachusetts, the actual production of the show is all done in Montreal, Quebec, which includes the writing, drawing and voice-acting. In fact, the entire cast of Arthur lives in Montreal.
  • Cinar and WGBH are referenced many times on the show. In one episode, Francine and Buster are shown playing a bubble hockey game where the teams are wearing shirts with Montreal Canadiens colors with Montreal-based Cinar's logo on one team and Boston Bruins with WGBH's sting logo on another. Subsequent episodes that involve hockey also have players wearing the sweaters of the same teams, and in one episode it can be inferred that WGBH/Bruins are Elwood City's "home" team. Also, in the episode "The Big Blow-Up", a racecar driver had "Cinar" on his jersey,and on the car "WGBH".
  • For a list of products and items satirized on Arthur, see Parodies featured on Arthur

Funding

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