Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

[D'Snowth]

First the former Courage head writer, now former Chipmunk writers (from the 80s, mind you) are writing for Arthur now - they wrote today's episode about Prunella being jealous that her mom is spending so much time with Marina, ugh, I mean, the episode about D.W. being jealous that Thora is babysitting other toddlers in town.

But that episode about Bud learning to tie his shoes? I mean, really, ARTHUR is suffering the same problem that SST's been suffering: gradually becoming a show for younger and younger kids. Bud learning to tie his shoes felt like something we'd see on Barney, not Arthur.

 

[Drtooth]

To me, it wasn't so much about it being an episode about a kid that doesn't know how to tie their shoes so much as it had to be about Bud. I could easily see a shoe tying episode about D.W. or maybe the Tibbles and it working better and being more entertaining, but with Bud, it was just tedious and boring. I'd say the worst episode of the season so far. Then again, I was in a bad mood when I watched it. The one about D.W. and Thora was alright, if redundant. I mean, they still do show that episode about Prunella from time to time (it isn't season 1 after all). It does exactly the same thing, but at least it was sort of interesting compared to "Bud wants boots, so he has to learn to tie them, then doesn't want them."

 

[D'Snowth]

There's two other glaring things I have to nitpick from "Bud's Knotty Problem."

1. Canadian voice actors faking southern (specifically, Cajun) accents. It's not so much the accent that bothers me, it's that there are certain words and sounds that they still pronounce in a more Canadian matter - Ladonna tells Bud to go "oat-side." Southeners say "owt-side." But, oh well. I still remember that episode of BEWITCHED where Samantha was put under a spell and sent back to 1868 New Orleans as a southern belle: the accent wasn't bad, but she still said certain words with a northern flair, like "raw-ther" instead of "rahh-ther."
2. The glaring animation error! It's one of those blink-and-you'll-miss it moments, but when Ladonna is hanging upside down from the tree branch, she suddenly shifts make further down the branch at one point.

But hey, what a world they live in that Silly Puddy can copy full color adverts.

 

[D'Snowth]

Oh, and Bud is four, can't tie his shoes, but can use the word "vexed" in a sentence correctly? Makes me think of the joke Tom Bergeron once made about how kids never sound like kids, but thirtysomething screenwriters with a sense of wit and wordplay.

 

[Mr Snrub]

Am I the only one who was kind of annoyed with Carl's role in the Bionic Bunny special episode from Wednesday? I feel like, despite being true in some cases, Carl's ability to remember the Bionic Bunny special like that was a bit stereotypical autism, which isn't a bad thing, but it just seems a bit below Arthur standards

Also, the official PBS site released a game commemorating the 20th anniversary. It's a collection of minigames, and most of them are... pretty lame. Like a low-speed, repetitive WarioWare. On the plus side, the whole game is built around items from classic episodes.

http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/arthur20/

Which, I mean, I didn't expect much more from PBS, but I remember when I was a kid, they had some enjoyable games. There was a Minesweeper type thing where you had to navigate DW's room without making noise and waking up Kate. Another one was where you played as George, delivering ice cream to multiple Elwood City citizens, and you had to map out the shortest route. They weren't great, but they were fun.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Am I the only one who was kind of annoyed with Carl's role in the Bionic Bunny special episode from Wednesday? I feel like, despite being true in some cases, Carl's ability to remember the Bionic Bunny special like that was a bit stereotypical autism, which isn't a bad thing, but it just seems a bit below Arthur standards

Also, the official PBS site released a game commemorating the 20th anniversary. It's a collection of minigames, and most of them are... pretty lame. Like a low-speed, repetitive WarioWare. On the plus side, the whole game is built around items from classic episodes.

http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/arthur20/

Which, I mean, I didn't expect much more from PBS, but I remember when I was a kid, they had some enjoyable games. There was a Minesweeper type thing where you had to navigate DW's room without making noise and waking up Kate. Another one was where you played as George, delivering ice cream to multiple Elwood City citizens, and you had to map out the shortest route. They weren't great, but they were fun.

I still remember those games very well.

 

[D'Snowth]

Holy crap, has ARTHUR finally been canceled or something?! I don't see it on PBS's schedule anywhere!

 

[Mr Snrub]

Holy crap, has ARTHUR finally been canceled or something?! I don't see it on PBS's schedule anywhere!

It's still on regularly on my stations

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Holy crap, has ARTHUR finally been canceled or something?! I don't see it on PBS's schedule anywhere!

It's still on my schedule. And if Cyberchase is still going without any advertisements and airing at six in the morning, than i'm sure Arthur is safe for at least another few years.

 

[D'Snowth]

I would venture to guess it's just my PBS, but my PBS adopted a national schedule several years ago, so I don't know what's going on here.