Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

I really wish they had a better venue for airing the episodes than they have now. Even their Netflix offering is a scant couple of seasons. Forget exactly which ones, but there's hardly that many episodes to chose from. Forget how many Huluplus has, but I don't have or share someone's hulu Plus account. I'm sure PBS's own sites and apps have less episodes as well. They certainly were no help when I was trying to find a very specific Word Girl for fan art purposes.

I get the whole not airing the almost 20 year old episodes from season 1. I don't fully agree with, but will accept the excuse about dated technology. The episode where Arthur gets lost by falling asleep on the bus falls safely in the pre-cel phone era. So many TV shows and movies are rendered pointless because of that, after all. And I guess it makes sense to have to streamline a number of episodes being aired for the sake of cost effectiveness (how many cable reruns of your favorite shows/cartoons ignore whole seasons?). But Arthur was only released to DVD (and shockingly still is) in 3 11 minute episode segments, and not full on box sets. And I'm sure if they were, like the 2 seasons they did bother to release in such a fashion would cost a fortune. Especially those seasons that had more than 10 episodes.

There's always fuzzy, poorly captured VHS to Youtube videos. At least until WGBH gets a bug up its butt and pulls them down.

 

[mr3urious]

I get the whole not airing the almost 20 year old episodes from season 1. I don't fully agree with, but will accept the excuse about dated technology. The episode where Arthur gets lost by falling asleep on the bus falls safely in the pre-cel phone era. So many TV shows and movies are rendered pointless because of that, after all.

That and the episode where Arthur and Francine accidentally get locked in the library overnight. Even if they did have cell phones, you couldn't get away with the old cliché of having their phones lose reception in this case.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Apparently a few Season 1 episodes will be making a triumphant return next month, so I guess those reports that Season 1 had been permanently retired from rotation were either an unsubstaintiated rumor, or maybe PBS has changed its mind, I don't know. I noticed "Arthur's Cousin Catastrophe" is slated to air next month - this ought to make people happy, as Cousin Mo is another one of those minor characters who seems to have tons of fans, much like Maria.

As for Oasis producing and animating 14 episodes has me a little confused. Why 14? Is that a misprint or typo? Or have the number of episodes per season been reduced? Or is it even possible that 9 Story already animated at least six episodes before they made the switch to Oasis (like how Fred Wolf did half a season of the Chipmunks in the 80s)?

Yaay I was afraid they would never show them again,they even took them off of Netflix.

 

[Drtooth]

That and the episode where Arthur and Francine accidentally get locked in the library overnight. Even if they did have cell phones, you couldn't get away with the old cliché of having their phones lose reception in this case.

I really think the advent of cell phones lead to the death of staples story writers used to live by. Look how much effort they took into trying to squeeze the iconic shoe-phone into the 2008 (or so) Get Smart movie. Only way Rocky Horror would work now is if there wasn't any reception (like you mentioned) and they needed to get into the castle for a landline. But then that specific Arthur episode gives a special case, and indeed the reason why kids carry the things now. If that episode were to be written today, the worst that would happen is Arthur would still be in the same place, but, considering he's a kid, his parents would have given him a phone to track his location for the very possibility that happened.

The episode would play more like "Mom! I fell asleep on the bus and don't know where I am." "Aw, crap. Well, let's use the GPS to find where you are and Dad will come get you." The again, you wonder why there's so much free rangeness of the children in this series get. You'd think that Arthur would have at least had his parents send one of his friends with him. That's the oddly recursive book version (he gets lost with Buster). Then again, plot. Had he had one of his friends with him keeping him awake and constantly talking to him, they would have reached the destination no problem.

Still, you look at the Seinfeld episode where they all loose track of each other because George and Kramer go to the wrong theaters... could never get away with that today unless it's an excuse of bad phone reception or one of them was dumb enough not to turn their phone on or charge the thing.

 

[D'Snowth]

I really think the advent of cell phones lead to the death of staples story writers used to live by. Look how much effort they took into trying to squeeze the iconic shoe-phone into the 2008 (or so) Get Smart movie. Only way Rocky Horror would work now is if there wasn't any reception (like you mentioned) and they needed to get into the castle for a landline. But then that specific Arthur episode gives a special case, and indeed the reason why kids carry the things now. If that episode were to be written today, the worst that would happen is Arthur would still be in the same place, but, considering he's a kid, his parents would have given him a phone to track his location for the very possibility that happened.

The episode would play more like "Mom! I fell asleep on the bus and don't know where I am." "Aw, crap. Well, let's use the GPS to find where you are and Dad will come get you." The again, you wonder why there's so much free rangeness of the children in this series get. You'd think that Arthur would have at least had his parents send one of his friends with him. That's the oddly recursive book version (he gets lost with Buster). Then again, plot. Had he had one of his friends with him keeping him awake and constantly talking to him, they would have reached the destination no problem.

Still, you look at the Seinfeld episode where they all loose track of each other because George and Kramer go to the wrong theaters... could never get away with that today unless it's an excuse of bad phone reception or one of them was dumb enough not to turn their phone on or charge the thing.

Basically, this is why although HOME ALONE was intended to look and feel like a timeless movie that would remain relevent 10, 15, 20 years later, it's sadly dated, all because of cell phones.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've realized what the one thing I've hated the most about the Flash animation: it's not the stiff robotic movements, it's not the cold and impersonal facial expressions, and it's not even how some of the characters' proportions have been off model since the switch to Flash. Nope. The thing that bugged me the most? Whenever a character is in bed, tossing and turning, yet the covers stay in the exact same position while they do so.

 

[mr3urious]

I wonder if Oasis will utilize cutout/motion tweening techniques for the animation or draw everything frame-by-frame? The latter will take a longer period of time, but I think they can handle it considering the small number of episodes they'll be saddled with.

 

[Drtooth]

You know, I'm not so much worried about the animation as I am about the substance. It's absolutely typical for a long running show to go through wild fluctuations of good and poor episodes because there's less margin for originality of plot with each passing episode. This past production season (as opposed to airing seasons, which would be about 2 seasons) was a striking example of that.

We had episodes they oddly never thought to do before, episodes that resemble stock plot lines from 1980's kid's shows, episodes that almost hit the mark, and episodes that are clearly made for the youngest viewers as opposed to the older ones that want to see slice of life type stories. The roller coaster of good episode vs. bad episode is much more shaky. How can you have another season when the writing well has been running dry for the past several years of the show?

And will this return to a former animation studio signal the return if the Arthur Affliction? Will we have to deal with more characters or characters that have heretofore unannounced illnesses? Will we finally see the episode they've been working up to where Grandpa Dave dies? Or will the series continue to play to the younger set and just be "The D.W. and Bud Fun Show with Arthur's Friends and maybe some Arthur himself Actually In It?" There's too many questions about the show's future.

 

[D'Snowth]

And will this return to a former animation studio signal the return if the Arthur Affliction?

You forget we still had an Arthur Affliction during the 9 Story era, though the episode still hasn't aired in the U.S. yet: Maria is a stutterer. And Brain's emotional/anxiety issues resurfaced in "Shelter from the Storm."

 

[Drtooth]

I have to admit, I appreciate that they're less frequent now.

The one where Binky likes to hold his mother's hand still kinda baffles me. Even moreso than Brain's odd staying behind in Kindergarten bit.