Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

At this point in time, I'm with you, I'd kind of like to see some more episodes where, oh, I don't know... Arthur is the focus. Arthur's barely even been a minor focus of the season so far, and we've had more episodes where he's completely absent. I get that the show's been on for so long and there's so many other different characters that they can explore, and they have, but it's still Arthur's show after all, and it'd be nice to see an episode where's the focus... and not forcefully out of character like in "So Funny I Forgot to Laugh."

While I'd hate to defend that horrible episode, how come no one else picked up on how out of character he was in that episode where everyone kept giving George the business? He was actually worse in that episode than the other one. In fact, that entire episode was a far better anti-bullying episode all over, and a turning point for the character of Francine. George's heartbreaking line of "it's not safe here," punctuated with paranoid looking around speaks better volumes than a crybaby Sue Ellen who was also out of character.

But yeah, Arthur's lack of appearances really seems like it stems from the "Arthur is the every kid, and that's boring" bit. On the one hand, I'll admit some of the other kids are more interesting. I like Buster and Binky much more anyway. But on the other hand, he's a flawed character with personal problems of his own. His existence is rife with drama and comedy potential, even without D.W. bratting it up all over. Sure, they can't inflict him with asthma, dyslexia, or developmental issues that kept him back a year, but it's not that long ago when things were happening to Arthur that the other kids were involved in.

 

[mr3urious]

After watching the episode "Sue Ellen Chickens Out", I got to thinking, why didn't Sue Ellen and the others just convince Carl the proprietor not to sell the Sugar Bowl? I felt that could have made a better conflict rather than attacking the Chicken Lickin' people simply for being a big bad corporation that sells greasy food that people like. Had Chicken Lickin' actually done something dishonest or immoral, now that would have put Sue Ellen in the right for protesting. But all they did was give Carl a generous cash offer fair and square.

 

[D'Snowth]

I liked the episode back when it was new, but ten years later, it comes off as unrealistic and as a result, depressing; in today's economy, Carl would have sold the Sugar Bowl irregardless since these little soda shops and mom and pop stores are virtually nonexistent in this day and age, and are snatched up by bigger corporations for new locations for their franchises... so, yeah, in a real world scenario, the Sugar Bowl would be replaced by a Chickin Lickin' in the blink of an eye.

 

[Drtooth]

There's a strange irony to that. Every KFC I know of closed down and was replaced by smaller, local restaurants. I'm not kidding.

After watching the episode "Sue Ellen Chickens Out", I got to thinking, why didn't Sue Ellen and the others just convince Carl the proprietor not to sell the Sugar Bowl? I felt that could have made a better conflict rather than attacking the Chicken Lickin' people simply for being a big bad corporation that sells greasy food that people like. Had Chicken Lickin' actually done something dishonest or immoral, now that would have put Sue Ellen in the right for protesting. But all they did was give Carl a generous cash offer fair and square.

The realism is that, if you're a kid, you don't actually get that subtlety. At least, if Sue Ellen didn't get the info straight that it was being sold. That's the point...Mr Menino was the one that wanted to sell the Sugar Bowl, not being forced to sell it by Chicken Lickin' (as per D'Snowth's more realistic scenario). He wanted to get rid of it because he couldn't trust his family to want to settle down and live in the same town to take care of it, and didn't have it occur to him to just sell the store to someone who would just keep it under new management. Heck, Muffy wanted to buy it to put a Taco Bell (or whatever parody lawyer friendly equivalent). Thora was the one who got him to keep the store up with gentle convincing. Not even hard of a sell.

So, essentially the moral is, don't bother protesting, it doesn't work. Especially if you're protesting the wrong people. Yeah. Really think they should've caught that one before it went out. But then again, Sue Ellen was strong enough to have beliefs that she would go and complain to the wrong side for the wrong reasons. Sure beats freaking the heck out when someone tells friendly jokes about how ugly her coat was.

 

[D'Snowth]

There's a strange irony to that. Every KFC I know of closed down and was replaced by smaller, local restaurants. I'm not kidding.

We still have KFC here... three of 'em, I believe (one's practically down the road from my house), but, we have the same situation with Baskin-Robbins: every single location in this town closed and they're now Froyoz. Then again, I heartell that the reason ice cream shops are closing down and being taken over by froyo shops is because apparently ice cream is now "too expensive" to produce, while froyo is apparently cheaper to produce, so to cut costs, they're shutting down ice cream shops in favor of froyo shops. In a way, I guess it kind of makes sense; you yourself said cheese is like 20 cents a slice. Dairy's expensive. There's a local farm in this part of the state that sells milk for $6.00 a gallon.

 

[Muppet Master]

I liked the episode back when it was new, but ten years later, it comes off as unrealistic and as a result, depressing; in today's economy, Carl would have sold the Sugar Bowl irregardless since these little soda shops and mom and pop stores are virtually nonexistent in this day and age, and are snatched up by bigger corporations for new locations for their franchises... so, yeah, in a real world scenario, the Sugar Bowl would be replaced by a Chickin Lickin' in the blink of an eye.

I have not seen that in a while, but do you expect, it is only Arthur, the kids will end up getting their way.

 

[mr3urious]

So, essentially the moral is, don't bother protesting, it doesn't work. Especially if you're protesting the wrong people. Yeah. Really think they should've caught that one before it went out.

It's just when people boycotted Chick-Fil-A restaurants over the whole Henson fiasco. The majority of those are actually franchised, which means boycotting them would really only hurt the local owners and operators. I feel someone should have called out Sue Ellen for her blunder.

Then again, I heartell that the reason ice cream shops are closing down and being taken over by froyo shops is because apparently ice cream is now "too expensive" to produce, while froyo is apparently cheaper to produce, so to cut costs, they're shutting down ice cream shops in favor of froyo shops.

But it's a dairy product fermented by bacteria! Wouldn't it be more expensive to ferment it along with freezing it?

I can't stand fro-yo or frogurt or whatever you want to call it, BTW. It's essentially sour milk in frozen form. And leave off the free potassium benzoate-laced toppings while you're at it.

 

[Drtooth]

It's just when people boycotted Chick-Fil-A restaurants over the whole Henson fiasco. The majority of those are actually franchised, which means boycotting them would really only hurt the local owners and operators. I feel someone should have called out Sue Ellen for her blunder.

Well, that's slightly different, as the CEO was funneling profits into hateful anti-gay organizations. When word got out because of the boycott, it was bad PR, and they promised to stop funding those groups and letting the CEO say anything in public. And it worked the opposite way because homophobic masses still claiming religion passive aggressively started coming out in support of how heroic being a fake victim was. But in the end, everyone kinda got what they wanted, and the business was still booming because the general public didn't care. They're still big draws in the mall, so if they lost anything, they sure made it up right quick. There's always a line.

The one that really didn't work was when eveyone got on the case of that Duck Dynasty jerk because of his "It's totally my Christianity" excuse (with the media casually missing the racist "blacks are on the welfare, and I don't want to pay for it because I have money" crap which is actually worse). When whatever crap station threatened to fire him, he actually became stronger, as he got to look like the victim of bullying. He got to even write a book to appeal to other angry old guys that feel like victims for self serving, backwards thinking. So, protesting him made him more successful and gave him a cross! Nice going. If you just ignored him, they would have disappeared from reality TV. Of course, Duck Dynasty merchandise over here sells like a lead brick filled with sugar free gummi bears, so, at least it's something.

But it's a dairy product fermented by bacteria! Wouldn't it be more expensive to ferment it along with freezing it?

Frozen Yogurt is the big thing now, but it seems that there are too many little yogurt shops with similar names and identical stores that soon there will be a huge Yogurt crash. And then FroYo will retreat and come back in 10 years. The major thing about these places is that they're self serve, and you pretty much don't know how much you have unless you're really good at guessing weight. But make no mistake... these things are profitable for one reason. The toppings. They absolutely screw you on the toppings. Yogurt is sold by the ounce, and it's relatively light stuff. You so much as put an Oreo crumb on it, and the price rises immediately. So, I wouldn't say Ice Cream was expensive so much as hip stuff they can screw you with the price of is more profitable.

 

[D'Snowth]

According to WGBH, S18E05 isn't scheduled to air until the end of January, and the remaining half of Season 18 doesn't even have scheduled airdates.

This seems... odd...

 

[D'Snowth]

I recently noticed that the head writer from COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG is writing for this show now; the episode where George becomes a baseball announcer is one of his.