Arthur (TV series)

From Freepedia

Arthur is the name of an animated series that airs on PBS in the United States and Canada. The series made it's debut on September 2, 1996. The series is based on the Arthur books by author Marc Brown. The title character, Arthur (full name Arthur Timothy Read) is an aardvark in the third grade who has two younger sisters: precocious four-year-old D.W. (short for "Dora Winifred") and baby Kate. Arthur's sibling rivalry with D.W. is often a theme of the show.

The series centers around the daily lives of a group of anthropomorphized animal elementary school characters, who deal with various problems such as school plays, classroom assignments, and so forth. Various social issues are also raised by the show, and a diverse range of characters are purposefully used. Among issues raised include asthma, blindness, and divorce.

Arthur is set in the fictional Elwood City. While the show's producers have stated that Elwood City has no specific location (so as to allow the viewers to imagine it is located wherever they wish), various fans have suggested it as being set in locations in the Northeast United States such as Massachusetts.

The show's opening theme song is the reggae song "Walking Down the Street (What A Wonderful Kind of Day)," performed by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. Each half-hour show contains two self-contained episodes, separated by a live-action vignette titled "A Word From Us Kids" featuring schoolchildren doing a project that is usually related to the subject of the first episode (this vignette is not included in the United Kingdom or Canadian versions of the show).

The series often contains a few in-jokes for older viewers (such as parents or older siblings), with Art Garfunkel, Mister Rogers, Taj Mahal, Koko Taylor, The Back Street Boys and even Yo-Yo Ma, the noted cellist, having appeared in animated form on the show. The show makes fun of conventions in children's programming. The characters watch fictional cartoons like The Bionic Bunny, Dark Bunny and Love Ducks (a parody of the Teletubbies).

CINAR Animation (later renamed Cookie Jar Entertainment) produced 125 Arthur cartoons from 1996 to 2005. In October 2004, the spinoff series Postcards From Buster, began airing on PBS Kids.

Cast

• Buster Baxter: a rabbit. Buster is Arthur's best friend, and is a big fan of "Bionic Bunny," the characters' favorite superhero, and believes aliens are real. Buster has asthma, and his parents are divorced (he lives with his mother).
• Alan "Brain" Powers: a bear. Brain is the class Geek and an only child. Brain is afraid of water, and his greatest loves are math and science. Brain's real name is Alan; however, only his parents and teachers refer to him by his actual name. Brain's parents run an ice cream shop.
• Francine Alice Frensky: a monkey. Francine is a tom boy who loves sports, Drumming and signing. She is also Jewish. Her grandfather was a holocaust survivor. He now lives with the Frensky family.
• Sue Ellen Armstrong: a cat. Sue Ellen is a recent transfer to Arthur's school, her family having lived in various spots around the world. She is also interested in the Creative arts and martial arts.
• Mary Alice "Muffy" Crosswire: another monkey. Muffy is the wealthiest girl in school, and tends to be extremely self-centered. Muffy also has a love of boy bands. Her real name is Mary Alice Crosswire. Muffy's father is the owner of an automobile dealership.
• Binky John Barnes: a bulldog. Binky acts as the class bully, though he seems to vary between pushing others around and hanging out with the other kids. Binky does enjoy playing the clarinet and ballet, however. Binky is the one character who's been held back a grade.
• Mr. Nigel Ratburn: a rat. Arthur and the others' teacher, who's quite enthusiastic about education and assigning homework assignments.
• Timmy and Tommy Tibble: a pair of twins who live near Arthur's house, and tend towards obnoxious behavior. They attend the same preschool as D.W.
• Grandma Thora: Arthur and D.W.'s paternal grandmother, who is quite caring, but tends toward being a bad cook. Grandma Thora is based on Brown's own grandmother Thora, who encouraged him by saving his childhood drawings in a bottom drawer.
• Prunella Neville: a dog. Prunella is interested in yoga and psychic and paranormal phenomena.
• Pal Timothy Read: Arthur's small pet dog, who (like the other pets of the characters on the show) isn't anthropomorized, though a series of episodes have shown him as being able to communicate with baby Kate (and vice-versa).