Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[Drtooth]

To be ho

To be honest, I thought this show ended already.
I think it's time for it to end.
Same with Spongebob.
Nick only keeps re-funding the show because it's the only 90's show to stay alive for so long.
But even the main writers say they wanted to end it way back with "Best Day Ever."
I'm talking about SpongeBob now, sorry.

I'll say what I usually say about this. If it wasn't for Spongebob, Nick would be, like, just Nick Jr. and their terrible sitcoms. Though if there is one show that deserves to get canned it's FOP. Now, I love FOP, and I even liked Sparky and Foop. But Chloe is one character too far. And they had to turn the theme song into an unlistenable mess by rewriting the lyrics to shove her in there. She was introduced in a way at least as painful as Poochie, and frankly the writing wasn't strong last season either. Mr. Crocker went from threat to complete idiot who seems to care more about saying how much he hates his mother than to get Cosmo and Wanda (who are at this point right in front of him half the time and he's too much of an idiot now to notice).

But that's another rant for another day.

Arthur has PBS longevity on its side. Something a good half of the shows on PBS usually get. I don't really mind this for Arthur, but the writers are running out of ideas and they're playing directly to younger kids with D.W. and friends storylines. It almost feels like that was a proposed spinoff that wasn't strong enough to carry its own show, but they kept on the main program. There's too much inconsistency when it comes to the segments, but I have to admit, the fact the show still has some inconsistently good episodes every so often is a good sign.

I absolutely loved the episode about Arthur being lead on to believe a rare factory defect of a toy was worth something. It really felt more like a classically written Arthur episode that wasn't afraid to tell little kids what adults do with their toys and go on the completely speculation based market of collectibles. All the while giving classic conflict between the characters. Much nicer than episodes teaching about science and math topics it has no business teaching.

 

[LabyrinthLani]

I'll say what I usually say about this. If it wasn't for Spongebob, Nick would be, like, just Nick Jr. and their terrible sitcoms. Though if there is one show that deserves to get canned it's FOP. Now, I love FOP, and I even liked Sparky and Foop. But Chloe is one character too far. And they had to turn the theme song into an unlistenable mess by rewriting the lyrics to shove her in there. She was introduced in a way at least as painful as Poochie, and frankly the writing wasn't strong last season either. Mr. Crocker went from threat to complete idiot who seems to care more about saying how much he hates his mother than to get Cosmo and Wanda (who are at this point right in front of him half the time and he's too much of an idiot now to notice).

But that's another rant for another day.

Arthur has PBS longevity on its side. Something a good half of the shows on PBS usually get. I don't really mind this for Arthur, but the writers are running out of ideas and they're playing directly to younger kids with D.W. and friends storylines. It almost feels like that was a proposed spinoff that wasn't strong enough to carry its own show, but they kept on the main program. There's too much inconsistency when it comes to the segments, but I have to admit, the fact the show still has some inconsistently good episodes every so often is a good sign.

I absolutely loved the episode about Arthur being lead on to believe a rare factory defect of a toy was worth something. It really felt more like a classically written Arthur episode that wasn't afraid to tell little kids what adults do with their toys and go on the completely speculation based market of collectibles. All the while giving classic conflict between the characters. Much nicer than episodes teaching about science and math topics it has no business teaching.

Wow dude. I really dig your responses. And I'm really digging this site!

And I agree [Spongebob and FOP]!
Nick hasn't been doing too well.
Disney has a few good shows (my favourite being Gravity Falls). But most of them are VERY commercial, or just flat out dull.

 

[D'Snowth]

Gee, I'm still not used to the show being on at 3:00 instead of 4:00.

 

[Drtooth]

Arthur's time slot shifts like crazy here. And remember, The MA PBS station is the producer of the series. First they just shoved it to once in the morning, now there's several slots for it again. Go fig.

 

[D'Snowth]

That's why it's hard getting used to here: ARTHUR's always been on at 4:00, for several years (started out at 4:30), and now for it to all of the sudden be bumped up an hour earlier, it's an adjustment that feels oddly out of place.

Then again, my PBS's schedule used to be really consistent for the most part: I can actually still remember what our schedule used to be like during the day:
11:00am-12:00n - SST
12:00n-3:30pm - Local instructional programming
3:30-4:30pm - SST (repeat)
4:30-5:00pm - ARTHUR
5:00-5:30pm - CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG
5:30-6:00pm - ZOBOOMAFOO
6:00-6:30pm - ZOOM
6:30-7:00pm - CYBERCHASE

The local instructional programming was always on during the schoolyear, during the summer, however, that's when they had more shows to play, such as. . . .
12:00n-12:30pm - READING RAINBOW
12:30-1:00pm - WISHBONE
1:00-1:30pm - TELETUBBIES
1:30-2:00pm - BETWEEN THE LIONS
2:00-2:30pm - THEODORE TUGBOAT
2:30-3:00pm - WIMZIE'S HOUSE

Our local schedule was pretty consistent up until 2005 when PBS Kids became PBS Kids GO! Then our PBS adopted the national schedule, and in a sense, lost part of its old charm as well.

 

[D'Snowth]

So that pseudo-preachy vegetarian episode was on again today, and I caught something of a technical mistake: that scene where Francine goes to Brain's ice cream parlor with Sue Ellen, she tells Muffy that she ordered, "vegetarian frozen yogurt." Wouldn't that actually be vegan frozen yogurt? I don't believe there are actually any animals in ice cream, or yogurt for that matter, however, they're made from milk, which comes from animals, which would make it vegan, not vegetarian. Not to mention Francine eats a wedge of cheese later.

Also, Catherine mentions that Francine should eat plenty of nuts to get protein . . . but nuts aren't very healthy for you, considering how high in fat they are (same with Nutella pasing itself offas a healthy alternative to butter or peanut butter, despite it being high in fat).

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm not familiar with this series, but it's interesting that this is apparently an Italian cartoon that was dubbed in Canada, and has some of the same voice actors from ARTHUR:

Now just close your eyes and imagine Marina, Francine, and Fern play acting as super fairies.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I'm not familiar with this series, but it's interesting that this is apparently an Italian cartoon that was dubbed in Canada, and has some of the same voice actors from ARTHUR:

Now just close your eyes and imagine Marina, Francine, and Fern play acting as super fairies.

Oh yeah,I know this show. It aired on Nickelodeon for a couple of years,and I think either the show was redubbed and replaced the canadian voices with Nickelodeon stars or the canadian voice actors were simply replaced by the Nick stars later on. Anyways,Liz Gillies had this really annoying song that kept playing on the channel to promote the show.
Actually,I think the show aired on that FOX kids block that used to show stuff like "Sonic" ,Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake

 

[Drtooth]

Grrrrr. The thing that replaced Ultimate Muscle that will always be on my list. How many dubs did that thing go through after 4Kids?

Anyway, the same cast (or most of the same cast) also did various Saban licensed dubs in the late 80's, early 90's. I'm sure you all know that they're in Samurai Pizza Cats. They're also in the English dub of The New Adventures of Lucky Luke.

 

[D'Snowth]

Anyone remember Little Lulu on HBO? It was also produced by Cinar and had some of the same voices, such as Tubby sounding like Binky, Lulu sounding like a younger version of Francine's mother, Annie sounding like the first D.W., one of the West Side Boys sounding like Arthur imitating Grover, and I'm pretty sure there was one episode where an antique salesman sounded like Ed Crosswire.