Postcards from Buster website (PBS Kids)

Busterwebpromo — Website promo after each episode

The PBS Kids website is the primary online destination for games, activities, videos, and other information relating to programming aired by PBS Kids. Most shows that aired on PBS Kids had their own dedicated mini-web site including Arthur and its spin-off, Postcards from Buster. In 2004, PBS launched the PBS Kids Go! programing block; a division of PBS Kids that had its own website (www.pbskidsgo.org). The Postcards from Buster sub-domain would be featured on this site until the block went discontinued in 2013.

Website History[]

2004[]

During summer 2004, a preview webpage promoted the then upcoming spin-off series, Postcards from Buster. It was entirely separate from the Arthur site, having its own subdomain of pbskids.org/buster.

Once the new show launched on-air October 11, 2004, the full website went live. Much like the Arthur website, icons for each section of the Postcards from Buster site linked to different activities:

My Blog
Games
Songs
Video Clips
Recipes
Search

Busterpbskidssite2004games — Games page 2004

Visitors to the site could also see blogs from Buster which focused on a place he visited. The Blog page advertised on the website was every week though updates to the blog itself slowed because of the hiatuses in the show's production of episodes.

Some games on the Postcards from Buster site were also featured on the Arthur site to help promote the show:

Connect the states
Travel Bingo
Where's Buster (Not featured on the Arthur Site)

The "Songs" pages featured songs heard in the show including the theme song. It was updated with every new season that premiered. Click on a song and on the right side there was the lyrics to the song being played. The songs are copyrighted by Great Blue Hills Music and CJar Music Publishing (representing WGBH and Cookie Jar Entertainment, production companies for the show).

The "recipes" page featured recipes for foods that were shown to made by various cultures in episodes of the show and how to make the food. It was also updated with the release of every new season to the television show.

The "Video clips" page featured clips of from Postcards from Buster show's episodes. Click on a song and on the right side, the transcript of the video will be present. The videos at the time used the QuickTime and RealPlayer plug-ins to play.

2006 - 2012[]

2006 saw the release of the "Postcards from You" page. The page featured a way to submit short videos by the viewer that focused on their life and culture that could air as interstitials in PBS airings and home media releases of season 11, 12 and 13 Arthur episodes and be part of Postcards from Buster episodes. Viewer-sent Postcards from You videos would also later be featured in the "Video Clips" page. Instructions on how to make the video and guidelines were also provided. Submissions for videos that would be featured on Arthur were originally taken until April 17, 2007 ^[1] however "Postcards from You" proved to be successful and more submissions would continue to be accepted up until 2018. The "Postcards from You" page later became the dedicated section for the viewer submitted clips and new videos sent would later only be featured on the page if they did not make it on the Arthur television show.

Games[]

B.I.G. Show
Build a Flag (Also featured on the Arthur website)
Dream On (Also featured on the Arthur website)
Coast to Coast
Where's Buster?
Connect the States (Also featured on the Arthur website)
Travel Bingo

2013 - 2018 (Demise)[]

Despite Postcards from Buster last episode airing in 2012 and PBS stations dropping the show from their line-up, the website remained live for several more years with the submission page for "Postcards from You" still being up (although, new entries were no longer featured on Arthur episodes). PBS Kids Go! would be discontinued as of 2013 with the Postcards from Buster subdomain now being found on pbskids.org. The site remained inactive with no new additions until its removal in 2018, following the PBS Kids website's switch to HTML 5 instead of flash, the latter being what the Postcards from Buster website mostly uses to run. As of 2019, the subdomain now redirects to the main Arthur webpage.