Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

If the point of the episode really was about not steryotyoing people because of where they are from (and getting wrong information from bad resources), they could have...no...wait, they couldn't have done it any better. The only thing that they could have done better was not make a whole song out of it

They di-i-i-i-i-id.... It was the one where Arthur gets a Turkish pen pal. Arthur had some idea that his pen pal, Adil, lived in some weird Arabian Nights fantasy land by reading thinly veiled parody Indiana Jones comics. Then Arthur's neighbor from Ecuador points out how incredibly inaccurate they are, and that the American shows he saw in his home country lead him to believe that American kids "Surf to get home to their skyscrapers," where they then "put ketchup on everything." (well, he got that last part right...) They did it without a lousy song but with gentle humor (Buster's angry protest that "Pepperoni is not boring!") That's an episode you'd want to see over and over again, not avoid like the flu. And the worst bit is, it was paired with an actual GOOD episode, but thankfully the good cartoon happens first, so you can just stop watching halfway.

A D.W./Cheik show would be completely awful. Though, if they were singing about continents, it would thankfully last only 7 episodes).

But if it happens, they didn't learn their lesson from the boring and unwatchable "postcards from Buster."

 

[Sgt Floyd]

I mist have been thinking of a different episode when I was tihnking of the Pen Pal episode then

 

[Muppet fan 123]

But if it happens, they didn't learn their lesson from the boring and unwatchable "postcards from Buster."

Is that show still on? I remember that show and I remember really not liking it.

 

[Drtooth]

Oh, it's gone. It's totally gone. You know it's a bad sign when the PBS affiliate that's the show's production company drops it first. There were a couple meh episodes... even the controversial one with the same sex parents was dull. I mean, to say the least of the huge logic gap in a cartoon where every character is an anthropomorphic character using footage of live action humans.

That was totally a Scooby and Shaggy series...

Scooby and Shaggy series: (n) a show where in you take the best, funniest characters out of a show and give them their own, and it's decidedly inferior to the original.

 

[Hubert]

It was a truly terrible episode that I could only swear is a plea for a lame spinoff series with Cheik and D.W.

Yeah, tomorrow I'll turn on my TV and they'll say:
"Coming soon on PBS Kids: D.W.'s African Adventures"

They di-i-i-i-i-id.... It was the one where Arthur gets a Turkish pen pal. Arthur had some idea that his pen pal, Adil, lived in some weird Arabian Nights fantasy land by reading thinly veiled parody Indiana Jones comics. Then Arthur's neighbor from Ecuador points out how incredibly inaccurate they are, and that the American shows he saw in his home country lead him to believe that American kids "Surf to get home to their skyscrapers," where they then "put ketchup on everything." (well, he got that last part right...) They did it without a lousy song but with gentle humor (Buster's angry protest that "Pepperoni is not boring!") That's an episode you'd want to see over and over again, not avoid like the flu. And the worst bit is, it was paired with an actual GOOD episode, but thankfully the good cartoon happens first, so you can just stop watching halfway.

Exactly, kind of goes to show that they're running out of ideas for the shows.

But if it happens, they didn't learn their lesson from the boring and unwatchable "postcards from Buster."

Yeah, "Postcards from Buster" isn't all that great. I didn't mind the "pilot" episode, an Arthur episode, but the series, just didn't quite work. I was thinking, "I'm tired of seeing these live-action people! I want to see Buster again!" I think the show may have even worked well if they did a Toot and Puddle type thing, if anyone's ever seen that show. It's basically about two pigs who travel to different places, and it is all animated. And they meet other animals from different places they visit and the episode usually teaches a lesson, like "always be prepared." Sort of like the episode where Sue Ellen and Muffy went to crown city. I think that if any Postards From Buster series was to be made, that format would've worked the best.

That reminds me, I think Arthur is coming on soon. I'll have to watch it. Maybe it's the Muffy's Book Club episode.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, tomorrow I'll turn on my TV and they'll say:
"Coming soon on PBS Kids: D.W.'s African Adventures"

I'd see something like this as a series listing:

The Adventures of D.W. and Cheik Singing about Countries:

In this new spinoff of a highly superior series, we find D.W. and her new friend, Brain's inexplicable African cousin think they're the Animaniacs singing songs that seem like a bad rip off of Yakko's World, or Wakko's America with no humor and fun or anything interesting of any kind. Guaranteed to teach geography to kids who will probably be uninterested and forget everything by the time they hit grades where they learn this stuff.

Yeah, "Postcards from Buster" isn't all that great. I didn't mind the "pilot" episode, an Arthur episode, but the series, just didn't quite work. I was thinking, "I'm tired of seeing these live-action people! I want to see Buster again!"

Hehe... I was kinda like that back in the day... (oh wait... even NOW!) when they showed a particularly long film about kids on Sesame Street. I'm like... I'm a kid, I know kids... I wanna see Ernie and Bert do something funny that I can't relate to because they're actually puppets.

But I will say this, the kids on Postcards from Buster were energetic and lively. not the dull, mumble mouthed, tongue tied type you would see in, say, "And now a Word from us kids." That's like the segment that says "Hey kids! Run to the fridge for a snack. You got 2 minutes." but more likely "If PBS cancels us, this is where commercials will go."

 

[Hubert]

I'd see something like this as a series listing:
Hehe... I was kinda like that back in the day... (oh wait... even NOW!) when they showed a particularly long film about kids on Sesame Street. I'm like... I'm a kid, I know kids... I wanna see Ernie and Bert do something funny that I can't relate to because they're actually puppets.

Yeah, when I watch some old Sesame Street episodes, I'm thinking, "Boy, people must have really been patient back then." There are just these never ending films with these kids that I can barely sit through. I actually fell asleep during one.

 

[Drtooth]

That's the one teeny tiny complaint I have about older Sesame Street episodes. There's nothing wrong with long segments and all, but I've yet to see one that couldn't use some editing. Come to think of it, if they did, they'd be like 2 minutes long at most. I could take the obvious route and go with that cow thing again (just saying, Joe Raposo would have wrote a song so catchy, we'd be humming it well into our 40's)... but there was one that was fairly more recent... sometime in the 90's, I assume, where 2 kids were writing letters to each other, and they kept going on and on and on. When you thought their correspondence was through, there were like 5 more letters back and forth. Almost felt like it was in real time too. it took me 3 weeks to get through a 7 minute segment.

Sesame Street has always been a potpourri show, even today. But even Abby moves faster in 10 minutes than some of the live action films did in 5-7. Plus, come on... why would I be talking about this show still if it wasn't for the Muppet characters?

 

[Dominicboo1]

Looks like PBS has a new pattern in airing reruns: one good episode one day a week (usually Monday), and bad episodes for the rest of the week.

But aside from that, I read the most hilarious YouTube comment today: someone commented about how dramatic D.W. always is, and said if she's that bad now, imagine what she'll be like as a teenager and has her periods.

If you think that's hilariosu, you should watch DW thinks big, and read some comments about Cora! Brat!

 

[D'Snowth]

If you think that's hilariosu, you should watch DW thinks big, and read some comments about Cora! Brat!

I've read some of those coments on Cora, but I agree, that twerp was a great big witch with a b... then again, it's kind of clear her parents really spoil her, so she's probably spoiled rotten.