Talk:Arthur (TV series)/@comment-24669562-20140311210922

I would like to take this opportunity to express my thoughts and opinions about this show (They Will be Positive)  WARNING:This is going to be a long review.



I started watching Arthur in December 1997 starting with the episode where Arthur learns Binky has to sleep a night light, and the other segment that goes with it. Then in late mid 2001, I started watching this cartoon more regularly when it came on at 5:30 p.m. on channel 6, at least in Southern Arizona, then switched to 4:00 p.m., and for some reason now they only show Arthur in the mornings on that channel and I'd like them to show Arthur in the afternoons again but will they ever? Only time will tell.



Anyway, I like a whole lot of things about the show Arthur and I have so many good things about this show. Arthur, in my opinion, is the best animal show ever, that is, the best anthropomorphic animal show ever. This show has just about everything from cars, television, telephones, computers, video games, schools, etc. to shopping malls, the internet, and cell phones, including smart phones. This cartoon also includes things like dealing with asthma, blindness,chicken pox, a sick pet, dyslexia, cancer, and Asperger's Syndrome, which admittedly I myself have, no lie. And it's funny because I hoped Arthur would have an episode about that since they had the other things I listed and more and they made one! I'll talk more about that either under the character that has it (I'm intentionally leaving out the character's name in this review) or under the episode that features the character, or both perhaps.



One thing I like is that this is a modern cartoon that gets more modern as time goes by, although the characters generally don't age. This cartoon to me and no doubt many others is like the Simpsons in several ways, like its long run, the main character Arthur, like Bart Simpson, has a mother, father, two younger sisters, including a baby,a pet dog, and a best friend that's an only child with divorced parents (although Kirk and Luann (might be misspelled) get back together, Bitzy and Bo don't,) and with a special need, Buster just having asthma while Milhouse has other issues as far as I know. Arthur is also like the Simpsons in getting more modern. Only unlike the Simpsons, Arthur is more for little kids than other audiences and does not include inappropriate material like sex, drug use, and high violence and heavy bmp blood shed and murder. Although this cartoon did feature an episode about profanity, only in the form of bleeps thank goodness. And in at least a couple of the earlier episodes, urinals were shown, but no character was shown using them, now, correct me if I'm wong, I don't think they show those in Arthur anymore and I think I understand why.



I also like that some of the characters are real, like Fred Rogers, Michelle Kwan, Yoyoma,(from what I heard on "And Now a Word from Buster") Koko Taylor, Taj Mahal, Art Garfunkel,Lance Armstrong, and my most favorite of all, the Backstreet Boys, and I want to see that episode again.



Some characters are semi-real like Alex Lebe k (Alex Trebek) and Hopra (Oprah Winfrey). Wonder what Michael Jackson would have been like on Arthur. Or perhaps Stevie Wonder, Bill Cosby, and Smokey Robinson just to throw in a few more. Or to be fair, Jennifer Lopez, Don Henley, U2, Heart, so that not all of them are black or male. Those are just some examples of characters that could be featured on Arthur.



Another like about  Arthur the show is Arthur the character getting an international pin-pal, whose a lot like him.



I also like Arthur's version of actual cartoons like Dexter's Laboratory, Rugrats, Peanuts, Beavus and Butthead, and South Park (the two latters I don't watch). I wonder what Fairly Odd Parents, my most favorite cartoon, would be like on Arthur, and what animal Timmy Turner would be and if Timmy Turner appeared on Arthur, I honestly hope he's a rabbit, fat chance though! I'd also like to see what the Bubble Guppies would be like on Arthur.



<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I also like seeing younger and older versions of the characters, like in "The Contest" one of my favorite episodes, Arthur and some of his friends are teenagers. I want to see something like this again, except maybe Arthur and his friends as High Schoolers (sophomores or juniors preferably), even if just for one episode. Wanna see what James would look like Arthur's age, as a teen, and as an adult, maybe as a husband and or father. In fact what would the preschoolers look like as 8 year olds and or older? Anyone?

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I just have a lot of things I like about Arthur and I could go on with this.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">There are some things I want to see on Arthur the show.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">One thing I really want to see on Arthur, and I look for this in episodes I have never seen, and I would like Marc Brown and the producers of Arthur to know about this, a railroad crossing. But not just any railroad crossing, one that features American railroad crossing signals with a white 90 degree crossbuck (the white X-shaped sign) toward the top of the pole, and I don't care if the crossbuck says RAILROAD or RAILWAY CROSSING and in black or red letters, or has black and white or red and white stripes or other markings, or just simply left blank, just plain white.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Like American signals, there should be a pair of flashing red lights, which should be circle-shaped, have black backgrounds and visors, and side by side from each other underneath the crossbuck. There should at least be a pair of forward facing lights, but rear-facing lights would be nice too. The lights should just be standard mast signals, but cantilever signals, the signals with the overhead lights in addition to the road-side lights would be nice. I've never seen cantilever crossing signals on any cartoon. And the lights can be 8" with 20" backgrounds, 12" with 20" backgrounds, or even 12" with 24" backgrounds, or any way as long as they're not too large or too small. The lights should alternately flash too and it doesn't matter to me if the lights fade in and out or not. The signals should either be silver, dark gray, or black.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I also would like (would've said want but I wanted to sound polite) to see crossing gates at the railroad crossing. I would prefer if the gates were red and white striped like real modern American crossing gates and the stripe angle doesn't matter to me. In addition, although this might be too much to ask, the gates should also have red circle-shaped lights on them. I prefer there were exactly three lights per gate, the light near the tip of the gate being solid while the other two lights alternately flash with the signal lights, just like real American crossing gates (it's also done in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands as far as I know.)  The gates can be black and white or black and yellow too but I prefer red and white. The gates can also just have one light, two lights, even four lights, or none at all but I'd like to see exactly three lights on the gates. It's not often cartoons show gates with lights on them and I'd like Arthur to be one of those cartoons. It also doesn't matter if the gates are single-armed or A-framed/ wishbone shaped. The gates should only block approaching traffic but they can completely block the road.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">And lets not forget the bells. They can be the classic kind or the modern electronic kind, preferably the General Signals type 1 electronic bells, or even both the classic kind and modern kind at one crossing.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">The train can either be a freight train or passenger train, short or long. And the crossing can be somewhere in or outside Elwood City. I do wonder if there are railroad crossings in Elwood City and if there are, how many are there and how many just have crossbuck signs with no lights or gates, how many have lights but no gates, and most of all, how many have lights and gates, or even gates but no lights.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I just hope I see a railroad crossing or two on Arthur, at least one of them having both lights and gates before the show reaches it's series finale, which I dont look forward to. I mean there were two episodes that featured railroad crossing signals, "Buster's Carpool Catastrophe," and the episode where Francine, Muffy, and Molly make a movie, but those were just pictures or a movie clip within the show so those don't count.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">There should also be an episode about a death of a character (an elderly character hopefully, not a young one, and an anthropomorphic character, not a pet, and like "April 9th" and "The Great MacGradey," the character's reactions to such a thing, kind of like on Full House where Jesse's grandfather dies unexpectedly, and of course a funeral should be included.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Or an episode about a tornado, but to be fair, let's keep it out of Elwood City. Some characters travel somewhere outside Elwood City not knowing that where they're going a tornado will also be there. Characters in Ewood City who hear about the tornado or the after affects of it and know the characters in it go through a state of worry. But all the characters are safe, alive and unharmed or not badly hurt and safely return to Elwood City by the end.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Or an episode where Buster goes somewhere in or outside Elwood City, and hopefully Arthur is with him, but he accidently forgets his inhaler and has a severe asthma attack and has to go to a hospital quickly, and almost dies, but of course fights for his life and  wins and survives whether by an inch, mile, or whatever so-to-speak.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Another idea I have, if a another fire drill is included,  or any fire alarm situation, strobe lights are included, also something you don't see on cartoons. Or if not strobe lights, blinking or rotating lights. And the lights should either be white or red.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">One last episode idea I have, unless it's already been done,an episode where Arthur and Buster get real angry at each other, have a huge argument, worse than they ever had before, and end their friendship and split up, refusing to interact with each other, having it seem like they're never going to be friends with each other again, but then just when you think it's over forever, Arthur and Buster eventually make up and befriend each other again, maybe include Arthur and Buster in tears and hugging each other.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I also hope they do one more Arthur movie, hopefully one that is more than an hour-long, and preferably 2-D but 3-D is fine too.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Even though I'm 28 years old now, I love watching Arthur and want to continue to do so until I die. To me, Arthur is for everyone, not just little kids. And believe me, I don't think you're too old to watch Arthur and if anyone, who's not your parent tells you you are, don't listen to them unless they are your parent or legal guardian, watch Arthur if you want to.

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">I'm going to conclude this about my view of Arthur, and again, I hope Marc Brown, or WGBH or whoever is responsible for making the Arthur cartoon reads and knows about this, especially the railroad crossing part, I want to see that on Arthur more than anything. I'll keep fantasizing or if I can, dream about it if that's as close as I'm going to get, but I hope it happens before Arthur retires. And I'm proud and amazed that Arthur went from being a book series to the longest running kid's animated show ever, Arthur's one of the best cartoons ever! Alright that's quite enough out of me!

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">

<p style="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">Thank you all for reading this.