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==Setting== ==Setting==
], the series' titular character, is an eight-year-old ] who lives in the ] town of Elwood City. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two working parents, his father David and his mother Jane, and his two younger sisters, ], who is in ], and Kate, who is still an infant. Arthur also has several friends who come from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family as well. ], the series' Gay character, is an eight-year-old ] who lives in the Ghetto of Elwood City. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two Lazy parents, his father David and his bitch of a mother Jane, and his bitchie sisters, ], who is in ], and Kate, who is still an infant. Arthur also has Gnagsta friends who come from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family as well.


In the TV series, Elwood City is portrayed as a largely suburban area which bears a strong resemblance to the ]; the TV series is partially produced by ]. Furthermore, Elwood City's ] team, the "Elwood City ]s", appears to be a fictional representation of the ]. The episode "The Curse of the Grebes" in Season 10 clearly references baseball lore such as ]. The same episode also refers indirectly to the ], as the Grebes have a fierce rivalry with the Crown City Kings during the World Championship, a reference to the ]. Crown City, as featured in other episodes, is apparently a fictional representation of ]. In one episode, it is inferred that an ] team sporting the WGBH logo and the ]' team colors on their uniforms are Elwood City's professional (possibly ]) hockey team. In the TV series, Elwood City is portrayed as a Suburban Ghetto Of Detroit which bears a strong resemblance to the |Metro Detroit Area]]; the TV series is partially produced by ]. Furthermore, Elwood City's ] team, the "Elwood City ]. The episode "The Curse of the Faggots" in Season 10 clearly references baseball lore such as ]. The same episode also refers indirectly to the ], as the Leopards have a fierce rivalry with the Grand Rapids Hawaiians during the World Championship, a reference to the ]. Grand Rapids, as featured in other episodes, is apparently a fictional representation of ]. In one episode, it is inferred that an ] team sporting the WTVS logo and the ]' team colors on their uniforms are Elwood City's professional (possibly ]) hockey team.


There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of ]. Most notably, the local ] in the TV series is called "Mill Creek Mall", an obvious reference to ]. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in ]. There is also an actual ] northwest of the ] area, although it does not resemble the Elwood City in ''Arthur''. There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of ]. Most notably, the local ] in the TV series is called "Laurel Park Place", an obvious reference to ]. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in ]. There is also an actual ] northEast of the ] area, although it does not resemble the Elwood City in ''Arthur''.


==Production== ==Production==

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Arthur
Created byBased on the series of children's books by Marc Brown
Country of origin United States
 Canada
No. of seasons11 (12th upcoming)
No. of episodes145 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time30 minutes (approx. 11 minutes per episode)
Original release
NetworkPBS
ReleaseSeptember 2, 1996 –
present

Template:Infobox TV ratings Arthur is a long-running American and Canadian educational television series for children, that airs on PBS in the United States; Radio-Canada, Knowledge Network and TVO in Canada; and BBC One in the UK. It is aired internationally in 82 countries and broadcasted daily across 325 PBS stations in the United States alone.

Arthur revolves around the lives of Arthur Timothy Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other. The series often deals with social and health-related issues that affect young children. There is a strong emphasis on the educational value of books and libraries as well as relationships with friends and family members. The television series is based on the Arthur book series, that are illustrated and written by Marc Brown. In 1994, the Toronto-based Cinar, now Cookie Jar Group, began production of the animated series. Arthur has consistently remained one of the highest-rated shows on PBS Kids ever since it started airing in September 1996.

Setting

Arthur Read, the series' Gay character, is an eight-year-old aardvark who lives in the Ghetto of Elwood City. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two Lazy parents, his father David and his bitch of a mother Jane, and his bitchie sisters, Disaster Warning (D.W.), who is in A Special School, and Kate, who is still an infant. Arthur also has Gnagsta friends who come from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family as well.

In the TV series, Elwood City is portrayed as a Suburban Ghetto Of Detroit which bears a strong resemblance to the |Metro Detroit Area]]; the TV series is partially produced by WTVS. Furthermore, Elwood City's professional baseball team, the "Elwood City [[Leopards)", appears to be a fictional representation of the Detroit Tigers. The episode "The Curse of the Faggots" in Season 10 clearly references baseball lore such as The Curse of the Faggots. The same episode also refers indirectly to the rivalry between the Tigers and the New York Manatees, as the Leopards have a fierce rivalry with the Grand Rapids Hawaiians during the World Championship, a reference to the World Series. Grand Rapids, as featured in other episodes, is apparently a fictional representation of Chicago. In one episode, it is inferred that an ice hockey team sporting the WTVS logo and the Boston Bruins' team colors on their uniforms are Elwood City's professional (possibly NHL) hockey team.

There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of Dearborn Heights, Michigan. Most notably, the local shopping mall in the TV series is called "Laurel Park Place", an obvious reference to Millcreek Mall. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in Dearborn Heights, Michigan . There is also an actual Ellwood City northEast of the Grand Rapids area, although it does not resemble the Elwood City in Arthur.

Production

The series was captured by Nickelodeon and now broadcasts on Nickelodeon UK, And will broadcast on Nickelodeons new channel Nicktoonsters,The TV series' reggae-style theme song was recorded by Ziggy Marley. A remixed techno version of the song, called "Believe in Yourself", has played during the closing credits since the sixth season. Many celebrity guest stars have also appeared on the show, including Art Garfunkel, Fred Rogers, Michelle Kwan, Joshua Redman, Koko Taylor, The Backstreet Boys, Yo-Yo Ma, Johnny Damon, Alex Trebek, Matt Damon and Frank Gehry, each providing the voice for their anthropomorphic animal counterpart.

Although the program is primarily produced by WGBH of Boston, Massachusetts, the production of the animated portions of the show is done in Montreal, Quebec. This includes the writing, animation and voice acting. The entire cast of Arthur lives in Montreal or Toronto, where Cookie Jar Entertainment's studios are located. The only segments of the show that are filmed outside of Canada are the "A Word from Us Kids" interstitials, filmed at elementary schools or other educational sites in the Boston area. Beginning in Season 11, the "A Word From Us Kids" segment was replaced by a segment called "Postcards from You", where a couple of live-action videos sent in by young viewers were spotlighted per episode.

Marc Brown's children, Tolon, Eliza and Sarah, are referenced in the show many times, just as they are in the Arthur book series. For example, the town's moving company is called "Tolon Moving", everyday items such as cups or pencil sharpeners have the word "Eliza" printed on them, and Arthur and his friends often drink a soda named "Sarah Soda". References to Cookie Jar Entertainment and WGBH also appear often on the show. In one episode, Francine and Buster are shown playing a table hockey game in which one team's players wear shirts in the Montreal Canadiens' signature colours with Montreal-based Cinar's logo on them and the other team's players wear shirts in the Boston Bruins' colors with Boston-based WGBH's sting logo on them. Subsequent episodes that involve hockey also depict players wearing these sweater designs. Also, in the episode "The Big Blow-Up" in Season 2, a racecar driver wears a jersey with "Cinar" written on it and a car with "WGBH" written on it. In the episode "Prove It" in Season 4, The Brain introduces D.W. to science while watching a non-animated episode of Nova, a science series also produced by WGBH.

Awards

The series has been acknowledged with the George Foster Peabody Award and four Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Children's Animated Program. In 2002, TV Guide ranked Arthur Read No. 26 on its list of the "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time."

Cast and characters

Characters

Main article: List of Arthur characters

Voice cast

Arthur's Missing Pal Cast

Episodes

Main article: List of Arthur episodes

Each episode of Arthur runs a half-hour. Episodes consist of two completely self-contained 11-minute stories separated by a one- to two-minute live-action interstitial called And Now a Word from Us Kids (or, in some cases, a permutation of that title more specific to its contents). The live-action segments almost always feature children from elementary schools (generally in the Boston area) presenting subjects they are currently learning about or projects they have been working on in their classes. (The subjects covered here relate to the first cartoon segment in the half-hour.) This segment is seen exclusively on PBS telecasts of the show, filling space otherwise used for commercials, which are generally forbidden on PBS. There is also a relatively new segment that sometimes appears at the end of the second 11-minute episode called "And Now a Word from Marc Brown" where he shows the viewers how to draw various main characters from the show. In 2007, the show began encouraging viewers to send in "video postcards" (similar to those used in the spin-off show Postcards from Buster), which are now shown in the interstitials of new episodes.

In 2008, the Marc Brown Studios website announced that Seasons 12 and 13 are being produced .

Postcards from Buster

Main article: Postcards from Buster

Another series based on the show titled Postcards from Buster premiered on October 11, 2004, with recurring characters that had appeared.

Arthur franchise

Television

In addition to the television series, the Arthur franchise has spawned three hour-long movies, which are often run on PBS during pledge drives. The latest, Arthur's Missing Pal, was produced by Mainframe Entertainment and is the first animated Arthur project to make use of three-dimensional computer-generated imagery. . Arthur's success has also lead to the spin-off series, Postcards From Buster.

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 from 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 reads 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 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 (Playstation One): Released between 1999 and 2000, This game has Arthur scouring 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 is not done by the original voice actors.
  • Living Books: There were several interactive storybooks in the Living Books series based on Arthur, including Arthur's Teacher Trouble.
  • Arthur's Pet Chase: Arthur's first side-scrolling adventure, similar to Super Mario Bros..

DVD Sets

  • Arthur DVD sets are announced, Season 10 is going to be released before Seasons 1 - 9. Season 10 was released by WGBH Boston Video on March 25, 2008.

Popularity with older fans

Although Arthur is directed primarily toward a child and preteen audience, over the years it has gained a substantial cult following among older viewers. The show regularly incorporates satirical parodies of adult-oriented topics and references to pop culture, including parodies of South Park, The Sopranos, Beavis and Butt-head, the Indiana Jones adventures, the James Bond series of films, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Jerry Springer Show, Oprah and Law & Order. Many of the references and topics covered are ones with which the target audience most likely would not be familiar. In the episode Desert Island Dish, Francine holds up a cage containing a swallow and then shows a coconut, saying the bird was carrying the coconut. This is a subtle reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail and could only be picked up by older audiences.

The series is also noted for its self-referential humor. In one episode, Arthur's class is unnerved by an impending appearance in the regular mid-episode interstitial of a popular educational program, "The Magic Tool Box", a play off of the popular children's program The Magic School Bus, which, coincidentally, also aired on PBS. The interstitial is called Let's Talk to Some Kids, a reference to Arthur's own interstitial, And Now a Word from Us Kids, and is presented the same way the "And Now A Word From Us Kids" is presented -- with hand-held "camera work" and children who speak in stilted sentences. Also, there was an episode where the gang wanted to enter a contest sponsored by a cartoon they watched (Andy & co.) that was very similar to Arthur, itself.

The series also features a discernible, complex continuity, which is uncommon in children's cartoons. Although the episodes themselves are not in chronological order (a single episode may have one story that takes place in the winter and another that takes place in the summer), many episodes (particularly more recent ones) are rife with references to past events within the series' continuity, in particular D.W.'s missing snowball for which she blames Arthur, and the episode in which Fern makes a contest of the scariest story, Arthur makes a reference towards the underwear incident. These are often intended to amuse long-time viewers.

References

  1. http://www.marcbrownstudios.com/arthur_facts.asp
  2. http://www.marcbrownstudios.com/arthur_facts.asp
  3. "About the Program". PBS Kids. Retrieved 2007-09-11. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

Arthur by Marc Brown
Characters
Seasons
Episodes
Books
Related
PBS Kids original programming
Current
See also
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