Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

I hate this erratic airing schedule that PBS inflicts on its shows. In the end it benefits no one. It doesn't drive up ratings, it punishes the parents of small kids who sit through the same thing over and over. It may even get parents to shut the TV off all together. I get that they can't air every episode at once, and want to spread them out. Fine. But pulling episodes into thirds and stretching them out at irregular periods, some to stupidly tie in with something (which does make sense, but it shouldn't be done) is kind of a drag on the series flow.

I certainly don't like this being 3 episodes at a time, a several month wait, and then another small trickle of new episodes. I don't see why the one week in September, one week in May model has been abandoned. I'm sure they don't care about any fans over the age of 8, but if they're so ants in their pants about Australian episodes (where they usually get 2 American Seasons at once) getting leaked to Youtube, then maybe, just maybe you air the episodes closer together. Even though those watching it on YT aren't exactly in the demographic.

 

[D'Snowth]

After corresponding with Greg Bailey and learning that the show is pretty much renewed on a season-to-season basis has me wondering if the recent season finales have been written in such a way as to have them proper send-off episodes in case they aren't renewed, yet not so obvious that it's the end in case they are. "Best Day Ever" being a clip show, "Shelter from the Storm" being like "April 9th" (which, to me, did feel like a series finale) but with a storm instead of a fire, and "The Last Day" being a remake of "The Short, Quick Summer" (yes, they're doing that one again).

The show has been really rocky this season in terms of PBS's handling of it, which is leading many to believe the next upcoming season is the last - apparently ARTHUR is falling victim to the same kind of scheduling other doomed PBS Kids shows have faced: production ends, to they spread the last remaining unaired episodes as far as they can. I mean it's odd that they're skipping some Season 18 episodes and throwing in random Season 19 episodes within the next month.

But we'll definitely know something in the next month or two.

 

[Drtooth]

"Best Day Ever" being a clip show, "Shelter from the Storm" being like "April 9th" (which, to me, did feel like a series finale) but with a storm instead of a fire, and "The Last Day" being a remake of "The Short, Quick Summer" (yes, they're doing that one again).

Sidenote: I can't wait to see Arthur Graduate from Mr. Ratburn's class only to return to Mr. Ratburn's class next year. And Binky is the one complaining about being held back.

The show has been really rocky this season in terms of PBS's handling of it, which is leading many to believe the next upcoming season is the last - apparently ARTHUR is falling victim to the same kind of scheduling other doomed PBS Kids shows have faced: production ends, to they spread the last remaining unaired episodes as far as they can. I mean it's odd that they're skipping some Season 18 episodes and throwing in random Season 19 episodes within the next month.

Well, production season and schedule season are two completely different things sometimes. This is ridiculous, however. I'm sure the production season 18 episodes will wind up airing season 19 to compensate. Also sure that some other country we're not got the entire rest of the series by the time even the last air season 18 episodes air, because American cartoons made for America mean that we're the last freaking country to get them now. But yeah, I respect that PBS has to spread out episodes for some reason, but they're going too far with it. Bad enough we get the episodes dead last, bad enough since that's the case, some put them up on YT to get taken down along with other episodes (punish them all, I say... especially a demographic that isn't the intended one that doesn't count for ratings anyway), but to make sure that we only get 2 or 3 episodes every few months?

 

[D'Snowth]

So apparently "Two Minutes" is essentially an entire episode about the trope Sibling Senority Squabble with the Tibbles.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. A whole episode devoted to the lamest twin joke cliche that's usually not even funny in 2 seconds.

HEY! I checked my local schedule and both this episode and the Pageant episode are on today. Weird.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay... obviously that was an error on the schedualer's part, so...

Anyway, I had a feeling that Buster Isn't Buying It would be a great episode. It has a great pre-Flash season (mid-series even) feel to it, and I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. I liked it overall better than Buster the Myth Maker (minus the "You really think people would go on the internet and lie" line, which is gold). And hey. Now Buster has a reason to hate Martin Spivak for lying to him all these years.

(and before the obvious canonical questions come up... I'm thinking this episode actually occurs first, leaving Buster to imagine the only job he could get after being fired from the show is telemarketer, which makes sense)

And I take back the thing about "Two Minutes" I said. They genuinely found a fun angle for it that kept it from being a retread of old 80's kiddy show plots. The level of passive aggressiveness was hilarious. Also, D.W. was more devious than the Tibbles this episode, if you think about it. And she used that to actually help them out. Loved how she reacted to Arthur almost to say "I almost feel sorry for that poor b#@$^rd.")

The episode about Buster's Aunt's dog was pretty good too. This batch is actually starting out stronger than I thought, actually.

 

[Luke kun]

I'm creating an OC for use on the show. Hey, if Lydia Fox made it, why can't mine?

 

[Drtooth]

I give them a lot of respect for the pageant episode. Insofar as having Muffy say something slightly nasty about Lydia being in a wheelchair, but feeling bad for it. I hate when kid's TV shows walk on eggshells about characters with disabilities, and having Muffy come to such a nasty conclusion and having it mirrored by someone worse shows that the writers would go there and have some character negatively react to Lydia. Because that's real life and there are people who are complete tools like that. But props also to having Lydia get her own nasty prejudgemental snipe at Muffy for being able to bribe the judges. Makes it so she's not a perfect angel either. So essentially both girls harbor equally nasty things they eventually feel bad for. Nice levels of character here.

 

[D'Snowth]

Okay, so as it turns out, the reason "Shelter From the Storm" kept being delayed all this time is because they want it to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Katrina.

 

[Drtooth]

...And that's why I'm more and more comfortable with HBO being Sesame Street's funder now. I really hate PBS's business practices when it comes to kid's shows... well...when it comes to anything, but let's talk about kid's shows. Withholding episodes to keep them culturally relevant to the premiere of something being one of their newest offenses. No wonder they go on a copyright rampage when someone posts Arthur episodes from Australia or the UK, or any other English speaking country that gets it a year before we do.

Though I would say the Storm episode was probably also on hold until a real storm hit, but as one didn't happen yet, they had no reason to air it.