Arthur - Where is the Show Going?

Her dad probably has a LOT of business meetings or something. They never said she was from a single parent house hold, something they would discuss in length as Buster is from one. For that matter, I've never seen Prunella's dad, and if I did, I forget what episode he was in. The Tibbles DID mention their mother works overseas a lot in that Omble episode(which is why they live with their grandmother).

I honestly can't believe I never even wondered or questions where the Tibble Twins' parents were, or why they live with their grandmother... but that probably explains their constant bad behavior, asenabling grandparents is a stereotype, and that seems to be pretty evident int he Arthur universe thatthe elder Mrs. Tibble never says no to the boys, let alone punishes them for anything they've done (like where they dug a hole in the yard that Mr. Haney fell into, and all she did was tell them they didn't have permission to dig the hole).

I was going through old tapes again, and I figured out why some speculate why that little poodle in D.W.'s preschool is Fern's little sister... because in that episode where Sue Ellen decides she wants a sibling, the two of them are seen together in that three-legged race.

I wish I could remember what that strange fanfic was that I read a couple of years ago...

I forget what the story was about, but onething that stood out was a suplot about Buster always being high because he was on drugs; remember the episode where he hated to read, and Arthur had him try to read a book about blue for a book report? Well, in this fic, Buster actually did a book report about colors, and rambled on and on and on and on about how he had yet to "master the wonders of secondary colors". Oh, and the kids were in high school, so... lol.

Wow! I mean seriously, WOW! We must have been on our best behavior, or PBS must have had mercy on us or something to just have five straight weeks of good episodes from good seasons for a change! Seriously, that's the longest period of time we've had such episodes in a loooooooooong time, we usually only get a week or two at best in between five-to-eight week periods of bad episodes from bad seasons. I've even got to see episodes I forgot had existed, like D.W. learning to ride a two-wheeler, or Francine wanting Arthur off their soft ball team. It's been great!

But, looks like the fun's over, we're back to bad episodes... like Drtooth's personal favorite is on today: the Africa musical episode.

I've killed this thread, lol.

But surprisingly, after just two days of bad episodes from bad seasons, we're getting another good one today for a change, the original snowball episode; it's been great having so many good episodes on for a change, it's been doing wonders for my "morale" I have to admit, it's a little hard to imagine how a daily dose of Arthur does me good.

I just have to wonder though if there's any development on continuing DVDs... they randomly released Season Ten and Eleven (I think) a couple of years ago... neither of which are good easons, but whatever.

I wish the Simpsons would take a cue from that. Every time I see the syndicated rerun rebroadcast, it's always something from the last 5 seasons. I can't afford to go out and get every classic DVD set out there, and sometimes I want to watch the "Baby on Board" Barber Shop Quartet episode or something and it's always something I saw 2 years ago in broadcast.

As for Arthur, I'm waiting impatiently for the new episodes that were done well over a year ago that EVERY country in the world got but us that WGBH was in a snit fit and had to pull everything down for it.

I read that! I found it highly amusing, but not as good (or bad?) as the Sue Ellen x Fern as teenagers slashfic I found - that was pure gold, intentional or not.

THAT'S IT!!! That was the fic! Yeah, I remember now the main plot had to do with Sue Ellen and Fern basically trying not to get caught while trying to almost get caught at the same time, but still, Buster and the drugs, and those secondary colors were hilarious... and when he jumped off the balcony of his apartment trying to fly or something. XD

I don't usually read slash fics, but I've often thought that Fern and Sue Ellen would make an interesting slash couple, I kind of wish there were more fics about that.

As for couples, who do you guys think should be with who? The only thing I can think of is Binky and Sue Ellen seem to have some hidden irresistables for each other, especially since Binky wonders if she's written lovey-dovey stuff about him in her lost diary... but in that same episode, Sue Ellen gives Arthur a not-so-subtle hint that she's written nice things about him. But also, they often seem paired together in stories, like when Binky went obsessive compulsive over that butterfly. And so many people like to think Arthur and Francine should end up together, I think at one point, someone edited Wikipedia to say that Francine openly had a crsh on Arthur, but that of course hasn't happened, they may haven taken the square dance episode out of context (where both Arthur and Francine are lead to believe the other is in love with them).

And the ending of "And now let's talk to some kids" where they're either married or in the same retirement village and no one else is around. There are some implied pairings, but that's what fan fic is all about... exploiting implied relationships and overuse of single episode appearing character. I'd almost call the Rescue Rangers BOOM published comics official fan fics, considering the way they used Dale and Foxglove.

Of course, it was also hinted in the lost diary episode that Sue Ellen liked Arthur ("I've written some pretty nice things about you").

That said, back to the show... can anyone pinpoint the exact moment where Brain started becoming Brainy Smurf? I know the Kafka's Metamorphoses parody Pest episode was a key point in that... but I can't help that it started earlier.

Perhaps the episode where he and Sue Ellen do that dinosaur project together, but Brain tries to insist on doing the work himself, fearing that any of Sue Ellen's contributions would be too girly, and cost him a perfect grade?

But one thing that stands out in my mind now is when he introduced the show by talking about the difference between day and night because of the earth's rotation, then Arthur interrupts him saying they don't even know what he's talking about, but Brain says they're smarter than he thinks... then looks straight at the audience and says in a baby tone, "Would you lke to learn about gravity?" and it turns out he was talking to Kate and Pal.

I mean, the constantly correcting others over and over to an extent of annoyance from the other characters. There were subtle tones of that through the years... Brain correcting Arthur's space version of the events of how he got his dog, then again correcting Francine's school project comic page about Romans at the Olympic games... of course, those were more suggestions than outright Brainy Smurfness.

I know there was a certain specific point where Francine stopped being extremely nasty and actually learned to care (halfway through the end of the one where Jenna goes to the sleep over). Worked wonders for the plotline of the one where MacGrady gets Cancer.

Somehow, I think if this wasn't voiced in Canada and was made in the 1980's, Barry Gordon would've done Brain's voice too.

Sometimes I kind of wish we could see just a little more of what goes on in the Read house, specifically all the occasions where D.W. is like, "Gee, that Mr. Rathead, Ratburp, Arthur's teacher's not scary at all like Arthur says..." I'd just love to see Arthur telling D.W. all these tall tales about Ratburn and hear what exactly he tells her that makes him out to be so scary, and how she would react to those tales. I wonder if he told her the same things he was told about him, like eating nails for breakfast, secretly being a vampire with hypnotic powers, or sending you to death row if you give incorrect answers.

Watching some of those old episodes, I actually hate the kids' insinuations that Ratburn is some sort of monster. That was cute in one episode sure... but after a while it just seemed tiresome.

I dunno... maybe it's the adult in me, but I see Ratburn as caring oh so much for the future of the kids, he bogs them down with work to test their potential. And the whole Mr. Pricejones was his model bit.

The getting pleasure from giving them too much homework bit I do get, though.

Apparently, they released a few more episodes on DVD (if they haven't already). there's 2 disk sets at Target that are 10 bucks each, but between 2 disks, they only have about 4 or 5 full episodes on there. And they're fairly current... I forget which ones were on there, but I remembered Binky vs Binky on one of the sets.

Still, how come Mill Creak can get 10 episodes of the lousy Postcards from Buster on a 5 dollar budget disk, and we can't see a reasonably priced season set of this show even though it's the same production companies on every level?

Yeah, tell me about it... I never really understood why they released Seasons 10 and 11 on DVD, I mean, that's such a weird place to start releasing season sets.

Yes with an if and no with a but. I never liked their releases of seasons 10 and 11. Over 50 bucks for 10 half hours? It's a cinch that's the reason we haven't seen more. Imagine if they released the 30 episodes from season 1? OUCH!

Of course, I'm thinking that was release for teachers to buy for students. I've seen other DVD in the classroom prices. 30 bucks for an episode of Bill Nye! A SINGLE episode! And all it came with is a crappy study guide. I think I said that before. But honestly, no wonder schools have horrible budget problems. The Text books and teaching materials are insanely priced.

Think I said that before, though....

But they got 10 episodes of Postcards are Lackluster for 5 bucks through Mill Creak. They have some deal with Cookie Jar to release low cost DVD sets. Too bad Arthur doesn't get that treatment. They got all 65 episodes of Bravestarr on DVD for 20 bucks. Collecting Arthur episodes the same way would be easier. And it would help against the freaking internet piracy they whine about that takes down YTP's.

"Postcards are Lackluster" Good one!

Well, as for that set, isn't Mill Creak sort of an "off-brand" studio anyway? It seems like all of their DVD sets automatically go to that five dollar discount bin at Walmart anyway... I know a few years ago, they released "The Essential Ernest Collection", which had the last two Ernest movies, the TV special Hey, Vern! It's My Family Album, and over a hundred of those old Ernest commercials... it was a good buy, though I still think an "essential" collection would include all of his movies, all of his commercials, etc.

"The essential what we have the rights to collection!"

Mill creak is kinda off brand, but only in the sense it's always been a budget DVD producer. They're selling seasons of Third Rock from the Sun for (get this) 5 bucks each... BUT they're uncut editions, unlike the 30 dollar ones in the fancy boxes that had the syndication edits. Sigh... if only Mill Creak could get the rights to ALF from Lionsgate. We'd probably get both the cartoon series in a huge set for chum change too.

Yeesh. Syndication edits... that ain't right...

I mean, other shows like Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, etc have the little cuts; the Seinfeld sets even acknowledge thaton their packages as "special features": the additional 1-2 minutes worth of footage not seen since their original broadcasts... but isn't this sad? I mean especially nowadays considering it's my understanding that half-hour shows without commercials aren't going to be 21 minutes anymore, but rather, 18 1/2.