Arthur (TV series)

''Arthur'' is an animated educational television series for children ages 4 to 8, developed by Kathy Waugh for PBS, and produced by WGBH. The show is set in the fictional U.S. city of Elwood City, and revolves around the lives of Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other.

The television series is based on the ''Arthur'' book series written and illustrated by Marc Brown. WGBH Boston along with Montreal-based Cinar (now WildBrain) began production of the animated series in 1994, and aired its first episode on October 7, 1996. During its 25-season run, the show has broadcast 253 half hour episodes.

A pilot for the spin-off series ''Postcards from Buster'' aired in December 2003 as a season 8 episode of ''Arthur''. ''Postcards from Buster'' aired from October 11, 2004, to November 21, 2008; the series faced several years of hiatus, until a brief revival in February 2012, only to be cancelled after airing three unseen episodes that had been held over from the show's third season.

In June 2018, it was announced that ''Arthur'' was renewed for four additional seasons, through its 25th season. It was subsequently announced on July 27, 2021, that the 25th season would be the final season. ''Arthur'' concluded its original run on PBS Kids on February 21, 2022. Despite concluding after 25 years, the show will continue to have new content on PBS Kids and on the video app.

The series often deals with important issues families face such as asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes, and autism spectrum disorder. It also encourages reading and relationships with family and friends by explaining that people have different personalities and interests. It was the longest-running children's animated series in the U.S., and the second longest-running animated series in the U.S., behind Fox's ''The Simpsons''.

Setting

Arthur Read, the series' titular character, is an anthropomorphic brown aardvark who lives in the fictional town of Elwood City. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two home-working parents, his father David (a chef) and his mother Jane (an accountant), his two younger sisters, Dora Winifred (D.W.), who is in preschool, and Kate, who is still an infant, and his dog Pal. Arthur also has several friends who come from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family.

Elwood City is portrayed as a largely suburban area which bears a strong resemblance to the Boston area; the TV series is partially produced by WGBH. There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Most notably, the local shopping mall in the TV show is called "Mill Creek Mall", a reference to Millcreek Mall. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in Erie, and specifically noted that Mr. Ratburn is based on a middle-school algebra teacher he had at Westlake Middle School.

Production

Development

In 1994, Marc Brown was approached by WGBH and PBS about the possibility of adapting the ''Arthur'' books into a television series. Brown was reluctant at first to become a part of a medium for which he had little respect, but soon agreed when he learned that the objective of the television series would be to use the powerful medium of television to encourage children to read books.

Although the program is primarily written and produced by WGBH of Boston, the production of the animation and voice acting are done in Montreal, Toronto, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The animation of the show was done at AKOM Production Company from season 1 to 11, then at Animation Services (HK) Ltd from season 12 to 15. The entire cast of ''Arthur'' lives in Montreal or Toronto, where Cookie Jar Entertainment's studios are located. The only segments of the show that are filmed outside Canada are the "A Word from Us Kids" interstitials, filmed at elementary schools or other educational sites in the Boston area. Beginning in Season 11, the "A Word From Us Kids" segment was replaced by a segment called "Postcards from You", where live action videos sent in by young viewers were spotlighted per episode, and then replaced with "A Word from Us Kids" in season 12. The segments are omitted from all airings outside the US.

Marc Brown's children, Tolon, Eliza, and Tucker, are referenced in the show several times, just as they are in the ''Arthur'' book series. For example, the town's moving company is called "Tolon Moving", and everyday items such as cups or pencil sharpeners have the word "Eliza" printed on them. References to Cookie Jar Entertainment and WGBH also appear often on the show. In one episode, Francine and Buster are shown playing a table hockey game in which one team's players wear shirts in the Montreal Canadiens' signature colors with Montreal-based Cinar's logo on them (Cinar was the predecessor to the Cookie Jar Entertainment) and the other team's players wear shirts in the Boston Bruins' colors with Boston-based WGBH's sting logo on them. Subsequent episodes that involve hockey also depict players wearing these sweater designs. Also, in the episode "The Big Blow-Up" in Season 2, a racecar driver wears a jersey with "Cinar" written on it and a car with "WGBH" written on it. In the episode "Prove It" in Season 4, Brain introduces D.W. to science while watching a live-action episode of '' Nova'', a science series also produced by WGBH. Brown's son Tolon, for whom Brown first invented the character of Arthur the Aardvark in a bedtime story, was the executive director of the show.

In October 1999, Cinar was investigated for tax fraud. It was revealed that both the chairman Micheline Charest and president Ronald Weinberg invested $122 million (US) into Bahamian bank accounts without the board members' approval. Cinar had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. However, ''Arthur'' itself was not involved in the scandal as it was publicly known to be co-produced with an American company. Head writers Joe Fallon and Ken Scarborough left around that time, but not because of the scandal; Fallon left about a year before the investigation began. Following the departures of Charest and Weinberg, former CBC and YTV executive Peter Moss took over Cinar, assuming Charest's former position on the show as an executive producer alongside WGBH's Carol Greenwald. By season 7, Moss had left Cinar to join Nelvana as a development executive, and financial director Andrew Porporino took his place as executive producer. He was replaced by longtime producer Lesley Taylor in season 8.

In the Season 14, the series began producing and airing episodes in 1080i HD. However, until October 15, 2012, in the U.S., the episodes still aired in 4:3 aspect ratio, with the left and right sides cropped out. They have since begun airing in 16:9 on October 15, 2012. Season 12 also marks the switching of animation studios from ''AKOM'' to ''ASHK''. Starting with season 16, the series was produced by 9 Story Entertainment (now 9 Story Media Group) and airs in 16:9 aspect ratio. Alongside this change, 9 Story produced a re-mastered opening theme for the series in 16:9, and animation was moved in-house using Adobe Flash. Season 19 was the last season to be produced by 9 Story, with Montreal-based-Oasis Animation taking over starting in season 20.

In November 2018, Bruce Dinsmore (voice of Binky, Mr. Read, and Bailey) revealed that he has finished recording the final episodes in advance. Production of the final season was completed by the end of 2019. The series finale, "All Grown Up" featured Arthur's original voice actor, Michael Yarmush voicing his adult self.

Music

The TV show's reggae-style theme song, "Believe in Yourself", was written by Judy Henderson and Jerry de Villiers Jr. and was performed by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. A remixed techno version of the song has been officially released on the third album and a shortened version has been played during the closing credits for the sixth season. The Backstreet Boys covered the song with the original instrumentals for the ending credits of television special ''Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll''.

The original music score was produced by Ray Fabi.

In season 2, the song "Crazy Bus", written and performed by then-head writer Joe Fallon, was introduced. It served as the alternate anthem of the television series. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz composer Joshua Redman covered the song on the ending credits of the season 4 finale episode, "My Music Rules". When Joe Fallon left Arthur after season 4, the song was officially retired from the show. The show mentions to this on the TV special ''Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll'' when D.W. says, "Crazy Bus is for babies; I know a million better songs."

Guest stars

Many celebrity guest stars have appeared on the show, each providing the voice for their anthropomorphic animal counterpart, except for Joan Rivers, who played as Francine's maternal grandmother. Lance Armstrong and Joan Rivers are the only guest stars to make more than one appearance on the series.

Cast and characters

Characters

Arthur's immediate family is the focus of the series, with most episodes involving Arthur, his younger sister D.W., their parents David and Jane, Baby Kate, and their dog, Pal. Arthur's closest friends include Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, Brain, and Sue Ellen, along with others such as Fern, Prunella, Jenna, and George as frequent supporting characters.

The adults in ''Arthur'' play important roles: Mr. and Mrs. Read display a significant amount of stress from parenting, Arthur's friends' parents are shown struggling in middle-class jobs, and Mr. Ratburn endures the demands and expectations of teaching elementary school. Even in difficult, adult situations, these grown ups maintain a cheerful attitude. Arthur, D.W., and Kate also visit their paternal grandmother, Thora Read, and maternal grandfather, Grandpa Dave.

Voice cast

Unlike most animated television series, ''Arthur'' showcases a wide range of voice actors. While the majority of the main supporting characters such as Jane, David, Buster, Francine and Binky have been voiced by the same set of actors since the beginning of the series, many of the young characters including Arthur, D.W., Brain, the Tibble Twins, and James have each been voiced by several actors throughout the seasons due to the producers' choice to employ young male actors for these parts.

* ''Arthur''
** Michael Yarmush (Seasons 1–5, "All Grown Up")
** Justin Bradley (Season 6)
** Mark Rendall (Seasons 7–8, season 6 redub (U.S. only))
** Cameron Ansell (Seasons 9–11)
** Dallas Jokic (Seasons 12–15)
** Drew Adkins (Seasons 16–17)
** William Healy (Seasons 18–19)
** Jacob Ursomarzo (Seasons 20–21)
** Roman Lutterotti (Season 22–25)
* '' D.W. Read''
** Michael Caloz (Seasons 1–3)
** Oliver Grainger (Seasons 4–6)
** Jason Szwimer (Seasons 7–10)
** Robert Naylor (Seasons 11–15)
** Jake Beale (Seasons 16–17)
** Andrew Dayton (Seasons 18–19)
** Christian Distefano (Seasons 20–21)
** Ethan Pugiotto (Season 22–25)
** Nissae Isen ("All Grown Up")
* '' Buster Baxter''
** Daniel Brochu (as "Danny Brochu" from seasons 1–4)
* ''Francine''
** Jodie Resther (as "Jodie Lynn Resther" from season 20–25)
* ''Muffy''
** Melissa Altro
* ''Brain (Alan)''
** Luke Reid (Seasons 1–4)
** Steven Crowder (Seasons 5–6)
** Alex Hood (Seasons 7–9)
** Paul-Stuart Brown (Seasons 9–11)
** Lyle O'Donohoe (Seasons 12–15)
** Siam Yu (Seasons 16–19)
** Max Friedman-Cole (Season 20–21)
** Evan Blaylock (Season 22–25)
*'' Binky/Mr. Read/Bailey''
** Bruce Dinsmore
* ''Mrs. Read''
** Sonja Ball
* ''Mr. Ratburn/Bionic Bunny''
** Arthur Holden
* ''Grandma Thora''
** Joanna Noyes
* ''Grandpa Dave/Mr. Crosswire''
** A. J. Henderson
* ''Prunella''
** Tamar Koslov
* ''Sue Ellen''
** Patricia Rodriguez (Seasons 1–8)
** Jessie Kardos (Seasons 9–25)
* ''Tommy Tibble''
** Jonathan Koensgen (Seasons 1–6)
** Aaron Grunfeld (Seasons 7–8)
** Tyler Brody-Stein (Season 9)
** Ryan Tilson (Seasons 10–11)
** Jake Roseman (Seasons 12–13)
** Jake Sim (Seasons 14–25)
* ''Timmy Tibble''
** Ricky Mabe (Seasons 1–5)
** Samuel Holden (Seasons 6–9)
** Tyler Brody-Stein (Seasons 10–11)
** Chris Lortie (Seasons 12–13)
** Dakota Goyo (Seasons 14–15)
** Jacob Ewaniuk (Seasons 16–25)
* ''Emily''
** Vanessa Lengies (Seasons 1–8)
** Sally Taylor-Isherwood

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