Appreciating Arthur as it says goodbye after 25 years

The Atlantic

The beloved PBS kids' show airs its final four episodes today, closing out a run that began in October 1996. "Arthur distinguished itself clearly from other shows," says Aaron Edwards. "If Sesame Street was the show parents put on so that their children wouldn’t forget the alphabet or how to be kind, Arthur was the daytime soap that kids graduated into. It made us feel just a little grown, or on the way to it. Educational children’s television has to achieve two things: A kid has to recognize themselves in a character to internalize the show’s lessons, and the show has to be engaging enough to keep their attention. So you get characters like Caillou: a bit of a brat, but blank enough of a slate to project happiness, disappointment, anger—emotions that kids need help understanding—onto. The strength of Arthur was in its holistic approach to reflecting its viewers. It passed the baton of its episodes to a cast of characters beyond its lead. In many ways, the show was a decades-long ensemble play. Nerds, bullies, punk kids, computer geeks, tomboys, and princesses all got screen time. And not just that: They got arcs, interiority, and plots that presented elements of their identity at odds with the world around them....Something beautiful happens when a children’s show takes its characters beyond the talk-singy cadence of a substitute teacher. Arthur’s creator, Marc Brown, wrote characters who were easily digestible but rarely flat caricatures. The show rendered itself at eye level with kids, instead of patronizing them from above." 

ALSO: 

• Why Arthur creator Marc Brown stayed involved on the show: Brown, 75, tells The New York Times "not in my wildest dreams" did he think Arthur would last 25 years. "I thought it’d last two years — if I was lucky," he says. While many authors who help create a TV show usually step back, Brown kept intensely involved in Arthur. Why? "I still have the same feeling I had when PBS came to me and wanted to put Arthur on television," he says. "I had invested 15 years before that in the characters, and I was getting lots of letters from kids. It felt like a little family, and I wanted the characters to be faithful to my vision. And so I’ve been a guard in the corner in that way."
• Nine people voiced Arthur over 25 years
• From Alex Trebek to The Backstreet Boys to Mister Rodgers: Here are the most memorable Arthur celebrity cameos