Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[FunnieGuy]

At least it had a good long run if it does get canceled anytime soon.Also, I just found out who Idina Menzel is....so why is she playing a therapist in the season finale,exactly?

 

[D'Snowth]

Again, IIRC from Hubert's old Arthur forum, Greg Bailey has said that he and the rest of the production staff want to keep doing the show for as long as they can, and it doesn't seem like they're going to be stopping any time soon - they seem to almost always plan 2-3 seasons in advance (we were already getting news for Seasons 17 and 18 before 16 even aired).

Season 16 was obviously a rocky season what with the switch to 9 Story and the disorienting experience of seeing the show animated in Flash; Season 17 was an improvement, both storywise and animation-wise; Season 18 is just pretty much falling flat in my book - so far, Nadine's deep inner obsession with D.W., Buster reprising his old private I. facade, and the Marina episode have been the only highlights for me this season.

 

[Drtooth]

I'd say the episodes are middle of the road. They're not that great, but they're not outlandishly bad. Not even the Too Short episode. They want to keep the show going, and I get that. But PBS would gladly keep them forever if they stopped producing episodes. Clifford still airs in my market. I'm amazed. Teletubbies was on the air 10 years. A whole 8 and a half years after the novelty wore off. Barney is still in my market. Yet my PBS is being really frosty to Word Girl lately, and there's still a season of episodes in production.

 

[D'Snowth]

It's almost hard to imagine, looking at this thread, it was started five years ago, and even then, we were talking about how it's evident that the show has run its course and is lacking fresh ideas...

Five years.

 

[mr3urious]

Remember the botched episode "Arthur's Big Hit" and its screwed up anti-violence moral? Well, someone on Deviantart (Geekygirl43) opted to fix it, and she did a bang-up job.

http://www.deviantart.com/art/How-Arthur-s-Big-Hit-Should-Have-Been-Written-461550722

As Arthur left his model plane, to give Pal a treat a passing DW spotted it, picked it up and began to play with it. AS she was playing she spotted an open window and threw the plane outside. CRUNCH DW fled downstairs and said to her brother, "Arthur, you built the plane all wrong. It doesn't fly at all." "No DW I made it exactly rig- WHAT!?"

When Arthur rushed outside and witnessed the crushed plane was beyond repair, thunder began to rumble, and wind started to pick up. DW met him outside"If it could break the sound barrier, falling out of a window shouldn't be able to break it." Arthur dropped the broken pieces, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!" He began to grit his teeth. Completely oblivious to his anger DW went on, "You built it all wrong, can't you even read directions? It didn't fly for one second." Arthur started to grit his fist at his little sister's naive comments. "It's not my fault that you built a plane that can't fly." Arthur finally snapped, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH IT!" His fist impacted his little sister's left arm. Upon falling DW started screaming and crying. When she entered inside he heard his mother's voice, "Arthur Timothy Reed, COME HERE!" Arthur's Anger quickly changed to worry, "Uh oh, middle name."

Inside DW sat down on the counter with a bruised arm and her father tending to her wound, "Are they gonna have to amputake my arm?" Asked the 4 year old. "No honey it's amputate not amputake." Corrected her father. "They're going to amputate!" Panicked DW. "No, I'm in charge, and I'm putting ice on it." Her father applied ice to it and DW screeched. "What's wrong?" "That's cold."

In the living room, Arthur was confronted by his mother. "Arthur apologize to your sister." "NO WAY! SHE SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO ME!" Showing his mother the broken plane he followed, " I worked on it all week, and I told her a million times not to touch it!" Arthur's mother began to think upon seeing the mangled plane and Arthur's side of the story. As dad walked carrying DW, DW shouted, "You're bad!" "NO YOU ARE!" Arthur argued back. "That's enough, both of you come here." Said their father in a low tone voice.

As both of the children were sat down in front of their parents, their father and mother faced both of them. "Arthur, DW, we have both thought about what you both did to each other. Arthur, hitting DW like that was wrong and you should think before you act, and DW you should have listened to Arthur when he said no, you have been told several times by us that when someone says no, they mean no. As a result, both of you have earned no TV for a week."

"B-but that's not fair! You don't even care what she did to me." Arthur complained. "We do so Arthur, which is why on top of DW's no TV she will be having a few toys confiscated for the week as well." Arthur mentally smiled a little bit inside. "What? My toys? But he punched me." Complained DW. "DW, you should have listened to Arthur, you refused to do so, and you broke his model plane that he worked on for a whole week."

THE NEXT DAY

As Arthur was walking to school with Buster, he was ranting and raving the whole way there, "So I missed Bionic Bunny last night, and I can't watch TV all week. Can you believe that?" "No I don't believe it, you hit your sister? That's terrible" Commented Buster. "Oh come on, like you never hit anybody."

Meanwhile at DW's preschool things were not going any better. "So Emily, Arthur built the plane all wrong and it broke when I threw it outside, and he hit me for it. But why do I get in more trouble too?" "Maybe when Arthur said no, you should have listened." Stated Emily.

At Arthur's school, he was still talking to his friends in the hallway about hurting his sister but he seemed to receive the same comments. "I may be a kid sister myself and I can understand where you're coming from, but hitting DW is kind of extreme." Voiced Francine. "Yeah Arthur, while you did have a right to be angry at DW hitting her is taking it a bit too far, she's just a little kid." Stated Fern. "Saying DW, is just a little kid is like saying a tornado is just a little wind." Arthur countered. Binky then overheard the conversation, "I can't believe it, Arthur hit his little sister." Just then Molly had a lightbulb go off in her head, "Hey Binky, that shouldn't surprise you, you hit kids all the time.Like the time when..." Molly then paused for a moment and moved her pointer finger to her cheek, "Ya, know I can't remember the last time you hit someone. Why don't you hit the next kid you see that comes around since you've never hit anyone in a while?" Before Binky could say a word Arthur came around the corner. "Well, there's your chance Binky, go for it." The bell rang and Binky rushed to class. "If you don't hit him, you're out of the club!" Shouted Molly as he rushed to class.

Back at preschool DW was molding and squishing colorful clay on the table and began to roll it into long logs. She then began to stack one color on top of another. "Look Emily, I made a rainbow." Emily spotted her friend's arts and crafts project. "That's good DW, now let's leave it to dry." As the two friends walked away from the clay table, they took a ball out of a drawer and began to roll it back and forth between each other. A few seconds later Tommy and Timmy came to the table, "Hey DW, nice rainbow." Said the blue scarfed one, "Thanks but don't touch it please." " And thanks for getting us some red clay. We need it for our dragon." As the Tibble with the red scarf picked up the long red strip, DW ran over shouting, "HEY DON'T TOUCH THAT TOMMY!" The Tibble with the blue scarf then picked up the purple strip, "And we need this color for the spots." "DON'T TOUCH THAT!" DW then looked at her rainbow with missing strips and shouted, "MISS MORGAN! TOMMY AND TIMMY RUINED MY RAINBOW EVEN THOUGH I SAID DON'T TOUCH IT!" The teacher walked over to the twins and got down to their level. "Tommy, Timmy, what you did was naughty, you are both going into time out." They were both placed on a red mat that read, "Time out." Miss Morgan got down to their levels again, "You are both in time out for five minutes because you wrecked DW's rainbow when she said, don't touch it." Miss Morgan then took back the clay and gave it to DW before she rolled it out again. Emily began to help DW with the purple clay, "Ya know DW, isn't that how Arthur felt when you touched his plane." Miss Morgan crouched down to DW, "Emily is right DW, you said don't touch to Tommy and Timmy and they didn't listen to you, that's why they're in time out. You should listen to your brother when he says don't touch." DW then began to look at her ruined rainbow and saw the plane she ruined in it's place.

After school was over, Arthur was walking home and Binky was standing just around the corner, "Man I've been avoiding Arthur all day, should I really hit him?" As soon as Arthur came around the corner, he bumped into Binky. Binky raised a fist when Arthur got up, but he stopped at mid point. "N-no, I can't do it." "What are you talking about Binky?" Asked Arthur adjusting his glasses. "The tough customers wanted me to punch you because I didn't punch anybody in a while, and if I can't do it I'm out of the club. But I can't do it. What makes me better by hitting someone? Arthur, just because you hit your sister doesn't mean anyone should hit you. And If I have to hit someone to have friends, then I guess I don't need those people as friends. Also, it is best to apologize to your sister. Just imagine if I hit you right now." Arthur then saw his own face on Binky's body and himself in DW's position. "I guess you're right Binky." When Arthur walked home, the tough customers rushed over to him, "Wait, Bink we're really sorry about forcing you to hit a guy right now, we just heard everything you said, and that was more gusty than hitting someone." Said Molly. "Thanks guys, come on let's get some ice cream." Said Binky.

At home Arthur and DW faced each other again, "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday." They said in unison. "No, I'm sorry DW. I shouldn't have hit you." "I'm sorrier Arthur I shouldn't have touched your plane." They both held out each other's hands and shook them, "Apology accepted." And they continued to their rooms.

As you can see, she made sure that both Arthur and D.W. get punished, and that both learn their lesson in the end. Another problem the original had was that Arthur only learns his lesson on not hitting D.W. by having Binky hit him instead. This bit of hypocrisy is nowhere to be found in this rewrite.

 

[D'Snowth]

While I think the whole thing could have been written just a little bit better, the story itself was a lot better: D.W. got a taste of her own medicine with the Tibbles ruining her clay rainbow, so she finally got the message, but most importantly, she got punished too for her own actions and disobeying Arthur. Great.

And I agree, I didn't even think about Binky's part in the story, but it was also a good rewrite to have him decide despite the pressure he was under to not hit Arthur after all.

 

[Drtooth]

Big hit doesn't bother me half as much as Binky's Music Madness. That episode pretty much gets away with one of the worst abuses of "the Complainer is always Wrong" I've seen since The Bisketts. I rewatched it, and it made me even more annoyed than I did at first. To wit-

While Francine genuinely likes the music, Muffy only likes it because she's told it's artistic (though she learns to actually like it later on). So, Arthur and Buster listen to it and like it... nothing really bad there.. but then Binky gets a listen and he outright hates it. The other characters love it, he doesn't, and it's illustrated in one of those ever recurring fantasy sequences. Where in everyone's a zombie forcing the music Binky hates on him. Binky gets so ticked off that he makes a sound effect rhythm song thing specifically as a passive aggressive take that against Bang on a Can. It's ambiguous that he liked it or not, but he worked hard on it. So the band comes by, compliments his piece, which was totally sticking it to them, and because they liked the thing Binky didn't really like doing so much, Binky actually likes their music now.

So again... Binky hates the music, and because he doesn't like the music, he's been wrong the entire episode even though the band members at the beginning specifically said, "Or Music isn't for everyone."

What the Smurf, Arthur?

 

[D'Snowth]

I want the next Disease of the Week episode to be about rosacea; it's something I have, so I want to see which character they would suddenly give it to and how they would handle it on the show.

 

[Drtooth]

The main characters are covered in a layer of fur... don't see how that would play out much.

If there's anything I'd personally like to see, it's more continuity with D.W. outgrowing Nadine. It's a very powerful concept, but it seems that it barely went anywhere and was only hinted at in one recent episode, not without snapback. There's a depth in D.W. the writers seem almost reluctant to want to use, opting for the "I had an annoying little sister, so take that" version of the character.

Seriously... I think we could have a nice, dramatic episode where D.W. finally lets go, but we're getting "too short to ride the rollercoaster, but in the end it was for the best" storylines.

 

[Dominicboo1]

I want the next Disease of the Week episode to be about rosacea; it's something I have, so I want to see which character they would suddenly give it to and how they would handle it on the show.

I don't know much or anythign about that disease, but I'm wondering something. Why are so many people here against that? Sometimes people find out they have diseases or disorders unexpectedly. It happens in real life, so it's more realistic and is done pretty well in the episodes.