The Last of Arthur

 

(Two things - 1. I know I'm copying from my "Caillou Leaves PBS Kids"  post from a year ago, about another animated CINAR show that aired on PBS, and 2. Arthur never aired on Sprout, but still, there’s a bit of Sprout in there. Despite these statements, please enjoy)

Madeline Fretz - Dear friends, today is the day kids of the 90s and 2000s cry. For a show they have watched and cherished for years is ending its almost unstoppable 25 year run, and all the memories it created are fading away. Arthur Read, a lovable bespectacled aardvark, and his family and friends, brought us on their many adventures in the all-anthropomorphic animal community of Elwood City, learning about such serious topics such as death, cancer, and asthma.

Now, I have heard of the show and the books beforehand, but it was when I was five years old(?) when I became a fan of the series. How? Well, one day, I was searching for "tooth fairy"-related videos on YouTube when I came across the episode "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles/D.W. Tricks the Tooth Fairy," and decided to watch it. As time went by, I started watching more episodes, both on YouTube and on PBS, and read the books more. Needless to say, I was hooked. It was also the place where I first heard of one of my favorite shows and another WGBH-produced PBS show - ZOOM. You see, stars Caroline Botelho and Kenny Yates from the third season gave a behind-the-scenes tour of their show in one episode. And while we're at it, please check out my ZOOMBlog, which I haven't posted on for months, but still.

As time went by, I abandoned Elwood City and moved on to these guys.

I entered first grade later that year and still admired the show. However, as time went by, I discovered an episode of the original Muppet Babies, leading to my obsession with the regular Muppets from The Muppet Show, and I rarely watched or read Arthur again. This was perfect timing, since it was around the time The Muppets released their eighth movie, Muppets Most Wanted.

But this post isn’t about The Muppets, so let’s move forward (or should I say, movin' right along?).

In 2019, back when I was in a CBeebies and Yo Gabba Gabba!-heavy phase, I decided to watch episodes of the show. In fact, I watched a lot of episodes and went on the wiki a lot, I felt like I was five again. I regularly quoted episodes, and even declared "Crazy Bus" as my favorite song.

I'm no longer obsessed with Arthur as I was back then, but I still occasionally check the series out. My favorite episode is "The Last of Mary Moo Cow" from Season 5. In that episode, D.W. starts a petition to bring back her favorite show when it gets taken off the air, she gets to visit its old studio, and it starts airing again in rerun form. Now, Sprout is to me what Mary is to D.W., so I'm sure a few people who used to work at Sprout have noticed my many petitions, will invite me to Comcast Center and/or Rockefeller, and bring back the channel or at least the brand. I talked about ways to make Sprout relevant again in a previous post. I'm working on a Sprout movie and have already contacted NBCUniversal as well as a few former Sprout employees, so it could actually happen.

To promote the 25th and final season, PBS Kids went out with a bang and aired a marathon of almost every episode ever of the series, leading up to four new episodes. Fear not. According to sources, new content outside of the main show featuring the characters will still be produced, so that will probably make old fans, some of whom have been with the show since the beginning, happy.

And I say hey, it's always a wonderful kind of day, thanks to Arthur and his friends. Where you can learn to walk and play, and get along with each other. Isn't it all that really matters?

Click here to have an original point of view on the Parents and Kids Share Together forum!