Erdferkel Arthur und seine Freunde

Arthur is a great show for kids that is not only charming, relate- able and fun and taught great morals to watch but also had great characters. Like the ever reliable best friend Buster who had a running gag of eating questionable food, the tom boy Francine who is hinted to be a love interest for Arthur, Binky the on and off again bully, Fern the adorable shy girl and many more. But for every good character on this show there is a bad trait put in to 1 of the worst characters of any show ever DW! DW is annoying, bratty, mean, selfish, loud, snot nosed, whiny, rude, greed and just plain a shot in the foot to the show for having so many episodes with her put in the lead role. For a show called Arthur their sure is a lot of his sister and some episodes really could have been better if they just swapped her out for someone else. Their are good episodes with her in the lead role like the fire drill episode or Bleep. But there are the bad ones like the one where she gets an allowance but is jealous that her friends get more and does some pompous bull crap to trick her parents into giving her more or one of the episodes I hate the most, "Never, Never, Never" where she has to donate toys she doesn't play with anymore but obviously she doesn't want to get rid of them, so you know what she dose, she gives legit all her toys to the tibble twins and like the brats they are don't give them back and she acts like a brat for the rest of the episode and doesn't really learn anything at the end of episode. Or The episode DW flips she could have been replaced with Sue Ellen or any other girl character. Overall I was just ranting about DW a bad character in a show full of great ones.....but really there should have been less of her.

I am 32 years old. I started watching the show just because I had PBS on for my son. Now I watch it even when he's not there! There is so much subtle humor for adults in this show. I, too, dislike the way they sometimes get heavy-handed with the "lessons," but that's an educational kids' show for you. This show illustrates how people aren't perfect (Francine is too bossy, Muffy is spoiled, etc.) and that is soooooo refreshing! Plus, they make fun of themselves (The Andy and Company episode, the Magic Toolbox, etc.) Arthur is written in such a way that it is appealing to kids AND their parents, whereas most kids' shows make their parents want to vomit.

Don't let the PBS Kids label fool you--"Arthur" is really a show for grownups that children can enjoy as well. The writers constantly throw in witty cultural and pop cultural references that the kids (and many adults) don't catch. Here's an incomplete list of references/spoofs from the latest season (7) alone:

"Alan Greenspaniel" extolling the virtues of the "sock market" The famous artist "Andy Warthog" Dr. Phil MacGraw "Waiting for Godot" (Binky and Brain wait a long, long, long time to be picked up, while subsisting on carrots and turnips) A combined "Back to the Future"/"Bill and Ted" spoof N'SYNC Muffy the Vampire Slayer And everybody's favorite, Harry Potter.

Not to mention appearances by Larry King, the Backstreet Boys, and those guys from Car Talk. Seriously, it's becoming the "Simpsons" of public TV.

Some notable moments from previous seasons (again, incomplete):

A Teletubbies spoof that has them reciting Shakespeare. The poet William Carlos Williams shouting, "Free verse! Free verse!" "I am educational...I am educational..." "Is there someone inside your head watching everything you do on TV?" "The Contest"...a tour de force featuring spoofs of South Park, Dexter's Lab, and WWF. Bionic Bunny vs. Elias Howe. Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Redman in the same episode. The Spinach Heads. "Nancy Drew gets criminals to confess by wearing attractive pastels." Jekyll Jekyll Hyde Jekyll Hyde Hyde Jekyll... "It's like being dead, only there's homework." Hound. James Hound. "Initials? That's it? Didn't you give the kid a full name?" Buster's "Planet of the Apes" reverie. An introductory narration directly lifted from Boris Karloff's "Frankenstein" ("This story will thrill you and shock you...").

This show is great fun for everyone. I hope the high level of quality continues, and that the writers continue to come up with great ideas.

For some reason, I have always been taken with this show. It's devoid of the fast-paced "ADD" glitz and flashing lights and endless one-liners. It's simply about a young Aardvark trying to survive in his family. There's not a better word to describe this show other than "delightful." It's simple, entertaining, and I'd watch it over anything else on TV. It's not blatantly "educational," it simply follows Arthur around, discounts his irrational beliefs and supports he and his friends' right answers and good deeds. I'd recommend this show to anyone and everyone-- especially if you are tired of head-spinning animated features like Shrek, and you want to enjoy a moment of purity on TV in an otherwise deteriorating field.

Arthur is a very good animated show. Based on Marc Brown's wildly popular series of books for children, Arthur - a third-grader in an aardvark suit - and his anthromorphic family and friends attempt to make sense of one another and the world in general. Arthur has a pre-school sister, D.W., who just for fun annoys him. Very believable, and very good if your child is 4 to 8 years old. Grade A