Arthur

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 such a great show because, it has everything for kids like learning, playing, and kids sticking up with each other. It's much like watching "Flying Rhino Junior High" and "Recess", too. I had first seen this show back in 1996 (right before 1997). Let me tell you a few funny parts: Arthur imagines that he was Oliver Twist; Buster shrieks after he daydreams about the substitute teacher (which was Mr. Ratburn's sister); Francine sings loud while beating her drums and interupted everywhere in Elwood City; and D.W. pretends to be Arthur and pretends to be the audiences sleeping. Oh, yeah. D.W. makes fun of Arthur's Crunch cereal commercial song that's with the line, "my brother stinks like a piece of cheese." Man. I wuv this show and it rocks!

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.

This is a wonderful cartoon. My son is 18 months old and he loves to watch it. This is a show that deals with stuff that kids go through every day. One episode that is one of my favorites deals with Arthur being teased because he is the only one in his class who hasn't lost a baby tooth.

I now see why children like Arthur and his friends so much. Kids of all ages can identify with him, not just eight year olds (Arthur and his friends are all in the third grade), but everybody can identify with the characters. Even adults can identify with the parents on the show.

Also, I like this show because each character is different (except for Timmy and Tommy Tibbles) both physically and personally. No two characters are the same, and the friends all accept each other's differences. I think that that is one thing that parents need to teach their kids: to accept the fact that no two people are exactly the same and that everybody is different. That is what makes everybody special.

I hope that parents watch this show with their kids. If you do, I think you'll approve of it for your children. I know I approve of this one!