Arthur is Quietly the Most Relevant Show on TV Right Now
Yes, in 2019.
I’m a morning person.
Scratch that: I’m a jump-out-of-bed, let’s-get-into-a-deep-conversation morning person. The kind who doesn’t need coffee to feel jazzed but acts like she downed espresso doppio. The kind who suggests hanging out before work because that’s her happy hour. The kind who brandishes a full continental breakfast on the kitchen counter when you sleepily open your bedroom door first thing. That’s me. I am that obnoxious but well-intentioned woman, who despite everyone saying it would go away with age, and despite having a friend pull me aside to ask that I hold off sending my 7AM funny text thought, am still an early riser.
A big part of this is probably due to my Type A personality and my dislike of sleeping — yes, this is a thing — but the other reason is probably because Arthur comes on at 7AM on PBS in New York.
Yes. Arthur, the eight-year-old, library loving aardvark who taught us all that fun certainly isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card. Or to be more current (and hip), the owner of that fisted hand meme we all use when we get riled up.
Arthur has given us so much and continues to grow into what it means to be an influential public broadcast children’s show. Growing up in the ’90s, Arthur episodes had a very after-school-special quality: what happens when you move into a new grade, how to handle a bully and really get to know his heart of gold, where exactly did D.W.’s missing snowball go when she stored it in the freezer?*
*the world may never know
But even early Arthur is aware of itself as a teaching show. The kids constantly (and continue to) break the fourth wall to address us viewers about the lesson we’re about to see. Even the Word from Us Kids segment in the mid-point break lets the IRL audience share their takeaways from the episode they just watched, and we at home get to see school kids go through a parallel classroom lesson.
I feel like Arthur stood out when it started to comment on trends in children’s and youth books — something that’s inherent to the show’s mission (encouraging more kids to read or use their local library) — that opened the show to approach more political commentary that it does today.
At this time of the ’90s, we had mass paperbacks like Goosebumps and later on Harry Potter that were fantastical, and weird, and caused a deeper conversation about youth reading habits and media influence. Arthur & co. had the same fantaticscm in their town of Elwood City with their Scare Your Pants Off and the Henry Skreever books. The former led to a scandal in the Arthur-verse where the books were deemed too scary and weird and were subsequently banned by a parent group at the library (who the kids fought successfully). The latter pops up throughout the series, showing fandom reading in a positive light. The kids line up around the block for a midnight release for the next Henry Skreever book, kids compete to read as much as they can, and two girls from different backgrounds come together because they love the series so much.
It started with Arthur commenting on kids’ reading lists — which is always political — and has developed into today’s Arthur where the Elwood City kids show us current, socially responsible, critically thoughtful, and even satirical mirrors of what’s out there today. And I can’t understand why we’re not all talking about it. Because it’s amazing that a kid’s show is taking this on and producing episodes that resonate to a local and global level.
I’m sure there’s something deep and freudian about my continuing love for Arthur and his friends. And while I watch it because it’s been part of my morning routine since elementary school, the show just gives me personal joy as it continues to stretch its legs as a children’s storyteller.
It can be a bit out of the box, but bear with me.
Arthur and Government Cooperation
A wonderful classic Arthur episode, “Desk Wars” has all of the kids trapped in a hot classroom, vying for a spot close to the fan as they write papers on the United Nations.
The smartest kid in the Arthur-verse, Brain, shows everyone a diagram how he’s in the most optimum seat in the whole classroom, able to write his paper while receiving the most breeze and therefore being the most comfortable in the class. He has a better opportunity to succeed purely by luck and geography.
We also see a hot table away from the fan, which is smelly because Buster Baxter has an emergency tuna sandwich tucked inside his desk (because this is normal). And we see the hottest desk in the room belongs to Binky.
When Brain has to move, lines are drawn. Each kid manipulates their way closer to the fan, which will affect each other’s own standings. Plus no one wants to be in the worst seat. If classmate George sharpens a pencil for Muffy (who was the reason Brain had to move in the first place), Brain will smash George’s art project in his desk, and because Sue Ellen saw how hard George worked on that she will toss Binky’s rubber band ball out the window, etc. Basically no one can win in this situation, and the heat and pressure gets to everyone. In due course everything breaks down and chaos ensues.
It’s only when Mr. Ratburn comes in that everyone works together and realizes how short-sighted they all were. And while a lot of them were looking out for themselves or their friend, looking out for their own best interests resulted in a mess and zero essays on government organization.
My favorite moment in the episode is when someone from the coolest (in temperature) table makes an alliance with someone from a warmer table. George can’t necessarily sit at the coolest table, but he could be an honorary member as Muffy points out. This really would get George nothing.
Arthur writers created an environment that showcased how a bit of luck in placement — the fan is a neat trick for that — plays into who has more power in the classroom. To an extent, it was fine until someone said they didn’t want to be last.
And the episode is a nice example of how strategy and alliances makes something straightforward into something rather messy. And inevitably nothing gets done.
Arthur Takes on Harassment
It’s admirable that Arthur writers don’t protect their characters. We saw it in “Desk Wars” where each kid showed their ugly, vindictive side, but in episode “So Funny I Forgot to Laugh”, the writers don’t shy away from showing the show’s namesake at his worse.
Arthur’s classmate Sue Ellen gets a glorious yak-wool sweater from her pen pal. It’s so furry and looks super ridiculous as far as cartoon sweaters go. And on her first wear at school, Arthur unwittingly makes a jab at her for looking like a sheep dog in a pretty crowd pleasing bon mot. Even Sue Ellen concedes it’s a solid joke, considering it’s Arthur, the least funny character in their friend group. But the joke gets out of hand when Arthur, greedy for the same laughing limelight, continues with the joke at Sue Ellen’s expense.
Over a short montage, you see Ellen’s face go from patient friend to fed up woman as Arthur hollowly continues to drag her with various canine jokes.
Sue Ellen does everything she can to confront what’s an uncomfortable situation that escalates to harassment. First, she takes it in good-naturedly. She plays along, jokes about biting Arthur like a dog, even. But when she starts to ask Arthur to back off, he calls her sensitive, continues to invalidate her feelings with a begrudging and dismissive remark that “it’s just a joke”, and comes off as a hollow, um, douche. When Sue Ellen reports him to Mr. Ratburn, Arthur’s school-mandated apology letter is more sarcasm and insincere than actual chagrin.
Some might say, hey Georgette, you’re really digging into this rather straightforward episode on bullying and looking at it as harassment aren’t you? Well, for one, the Arthur writers chose their namesake lead for this messaging. In past episodes, we looked at bullying from side characters like Binky Barnes or the Tibble Twins which would make it far removed from those characters we know to be inherently good through amount of exposure. Arthur is us in most cases as he works through issues, but here, as we see our hero continuously do the wrong thing, we edge in our seat a bit. We’re uncomfortable as he makes bad, worse.
I also think it’s telling that so many of Arthur’s responses grow increasingly hollow as we see Sue Ellen approach him logically: asking him to stop, telling their friends, reporting it to their teacher. This isn’t purely an after school special bully versus nerd scenario. This is a close friend or classmate who’s continuing to target someone and refuses to hear reason.
Harassment that targets women or minorities has had a stage not seen before on the news, through social media, in public discourse. These stories are coming out of the woodwork more empowered and to open ears. Granted, there’s more work to be done in these cases, but there’s serious attention happening as people feel empowered to come forward and the public continues to support them. Simultaneously, there’s a discomfort when these stories come out as we wonder how long our current society has let this happen.
And so many of the ways in which Arthur continues to bully Sue Ellen resemble a lot of the discourse happening. He blames her for her own feelings, he eschews responsibility, while Sue Ellen is the one who’s held to public ridicule, who has to report him, who vocalizes it to everyone, and who has to move schools.
It ends well. Arthur learns a lesson, but the narrative puts Arthur — and us— in our place with a very hard look.
Arthur Takes on Immigration
Yes, there’s an episode that parallels the refugee crisis.
As any Arthur fan knows, Arthur’s Lakewood Elementary has one true rival, Mighty Mountain. It’s usually for sports related storylines that’s all very David and Goliath— Lakewood taking on the role of David— but in the episode “When Rivals Came to Roost”, these two schools are pitted against one another in the (drum roll) science fair!
The episode shows the rivalry in quite a different light than before. Rather than acting like a default underdog, Lakewood students seem cocky, confident. Arthur & co. (well, mostly default smart student Brain) are super pumped about their project on worm tunnel habits that will surely kick Mighty Mountain’s butt. Things get interesting when the Mighty Mountain kids are transferred to Lakewood because their classroom’s flooded.
The room’s crowded, and Mr. Ratburn advises the class to make Might Mountain feel at home as they would want if they were in their shoes. So Lakewood students do their best to make them feel at home, going so far as to make room for them at their lunchroom table and to bring them school supplies they might need. Everyone except Brain seems open to welcoming them, who wants to protect the science fair project.
Brain does his best to imbue his suspicions to the Lakewood kids, but to his disappointment, their response is a cheery and immigrant welcome message of “the more, the merrier.”
However, Lakewood’s feelings turn as they see their resources run low (they run out of pizza in the cafeteria) and resentment runs high as they wait longer in line to sharpen their pencils. Personal inconveniences that add up and speak to a lot of worries as far as immigrant reform in our own country.
On top of that, Mighty Mountain student “Los Dedos”, Brain’s rival in chess — los dedos means fingers in Spanish — also moves into Mr. Ratburn’s class. And while she reassures Brain in her Spanish accent that she intends to play fair for the science fair, he doesn’t believe her best intentions. And neither does Lakewood as they grow angry and begin to worry that the Mighty Mountain kids might stay forever
At one point, Los Dedos even tells a classmate, “It feels like everything we do here is treated with mistrust.”
It’s only when Brain sees the devastation of Mighty Mountain’s flooded classroom and hears Los Dedos talk about the damage that he sees he’s been unfair.
The episode ends with the Mighty Mountain and Lakewood students combining their projects of worms and ants, and both are surprised to find that their test environment results in a more fruitful community, like a huge moral metaphor.
Arthur and What Makes “Fake News”
In the current season, Arthur approaches survey numbers and the press in a funny duel between two characters, Binky Barnes and Brain. Their names sort of tell you this but Binky is Brain’s foil. Brain’s obviously all head, logic, and hubris, but Binky’s the bully who was ashamed of his love of ballet, clarinet playing, and any challenge to his toughness.
Binky argues that a recent math test was hard and Brain suggests they survey other classmates to get a broader opinion. The result is a blue and red pie graph that puts Binky to shame. However, he realizes soon after that rephrasing the question to “couldn’t the test have been easier?”, he can get a pie graph that visually supports him.
What follows is a quick montage of Binky abusing this and carefully wording surveys to misrepresent results in his favor, like getting the cafeteria to order only his favorite ice cream, rhubarb.
Witnessing all of this Brain does his best to counter survey, but more to troll Binky and to get him to give up surveying, rather than for the good of the class.
As Binky and Brain continue their dual of left- and right-wing media outlets, Lakewood quickly become jaded and overwhelmed by the contradicting pie graphs littering the school. What actually started out as an interesting way to actual make change at the school is now defunct.
Now Let’s Talk About the Latest Episode About Mr. Ratburn
While not explicitly stated in a recent buzzy episode, Mr. Ratburn marries a man. There was so much press about this one, and so many people returned to watch Arthur to expressly see this beautiful moment happen on a kid’s show. Yet Alabama chose not to air this episode, which is hilarious when you consider how Arthur’s been pedling social satire and even local upheaval in their episodes low-key, but it’s also sad as this episode was beautifully done in anticipation of being banned.
Arthur & co.’s teacher Nigel Ratburn has been surprising us over seasons. Not just the third grade teacher who gives the most homework, Arthur and the gang have come to appreciate him all the more over the years they’ve been in this third grade class. (Yeah, they never age.)
To sum up: the kids mistake a rather insensitive woman named Patty to be Mr. Ratburn’s fiancée. Hoping to save him for a life of misery, they begin their search for a better wife. Spoiler: they fail, and so they walk into Mr. Ratburn’s wedding prepared to interrupt the ceremony as a unit. To their surprise, Ratburn doesn’t marry Patty, who ends up being his sister. Mr. Ratburn walks down the aisle with a man.
The episode never explicitly calls out that we’re watching a gay marriage. You don’t see the actual “I do’s”, and the script is all visual cues: the two men walking down the aisle, both of them dancing together at the reception, and the lingering image of the two male cake toppers on the wedding cake. And because of this, it makes it more powerful as the animation is usually reserved for the kid’s enjoyment. In most cartoons, I experience mature jokes auditorily and in passing.
The episode also confronts society’s default towards heteronormativity. And more importantly, it looks at marriage through very innocent eyes as we follow Arthur & co. simply wanting their teacher to be happy with his life partner. The moral takeaway directly confronts Alabama’s reason for wanting to ban its viewing. Shouldn’t marriage be because two people make each other happy? Should Ratburn have married Patty in an Alabama-approved marriage?
Yeah, I didn’t forget that Patty’s his sister. I stand by my joke.
After this episode aired, so many people commented on social media the surprise that Arthur was still airing new episodes. And I’m happy that they are. Arthur as a platform has pushed social commentary and moral values in an eloquent, cheeky way for years, and I hope it continues to do so.
The show’s not without faults, of course. There are new characters, a few guest spots, and a few nonsensical episodes that seems sort of extra, but the writers continue to push themselves with finding nuanced ways to approach grand issues.
Sure there are some storylines that are purely silly and not educational, but that’s what you need in a kid’s show, and in life.
Especially first thing in the morning.
