Arthur is an animated children's television series developed by Marc Brown and Kathy Waugh and produced by WGBH Boston for PBS. Based on Brown's Arthur book series, the series is set in the fictional city of Elwood City and follows the everyday lives of Arthur Read, an anthropomorphic aardvark, his family, his friends, and their interactions with one another.
Production was first announced in 1995 by WGBH and Montreal-based animation studio CINAR, and the series premiered on October 7, 1996, on PTV, later renamed PBS Kids. During its 25-season run, Arthur aired 253 half-hour episodes. In June 2018, the series was renewed for four additional seasons, extending its run through season 25. On July 27, 2021, it was announced that the 25th season would be the series' last. The series concluded on February 21, 2022.
Arthur received critical acclaim for its portrayal of issues affecting children and families, including asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes, and autism. It also promotes reading and emphasizes the importance of family and friendship through its diverse cast of characters with varying personalities, beliefs, and interests. It was the longest-running children's animated series in the United States until it was surpassed by SpongeBob SquarePants in 2024, and is the fifth-longest-running American animated television series, behind The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Setting Arthur Read, the series' titular character, is an anthropomorphic brown aardvark who lives in the fictional Elwood City, which is located in North America. He is a third-grade student at Lakewood Elementary School. Arthur's family includes two home-working parents, his father David (a chef) and his mother Jane (an accountant), his two younger sisters, Dora Winifred (D.W.), who is in preschool, and Kate, who is still an infant, and his dog, Pal. Arthur also has several friends who come from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, and he also occasionally meets with members of his extended family.
Elwood City is portrayed as a largely suburban area which bears a strong resemblance to the Boston area; the TV series is partially produced by WGBH. There are also firm references to Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania. Most notably, the local shopping mall in the TV show is called "Mill Creek Mall", a reference to Millcreek Mall. Brown himself stated that the series is influenced by his upbringing as a child in Erie, and specifically noted that Mr. Ratburn is based on a middle-school algebra teacher he had at Westlake Middle School.
Production Development In January 1993, Marc Brown was approached by WGBH, a PBS affiliate, about the possibility of adapting his Arthur books into a television series. Brown was reluctant at first for he didn't want to give up creative control of his characters. However, future executive producer of Arthur, Carol Greenwald from WGBH, assured Brown that their agenda was to encourage children to read and visit the library. Brown agreed; he himself signed on as an executive producer, and was involved creatively. Initially, screenplays were based on Brown's Arthur book catalog of around 20 stories. Subsequent to going through those, they branched off to write episodes they felt children would find interesting and relate to.
WGBH and CINAR officially announced the series on March 13, 1995, and that both companies would share production on the series, which was aimed for a 1996 release. Random House, the publisher of the Arthur book series, was announced as the home video distributor for the series in North America while CINAR would distribute the series on both television and home video internationally.
A majority of the show is produced in Canada, including animation and voice acting which were both done within Montreal, where CINAR's studios were located. Production and voice acting would relocate to Toronto in 2004 after CINAR went under new management and rebranded as Cookie Jar Entertainment. Animation outsourcing was done within South Korea and Hong Kong, with AKOM Production Company handling the first eleven seasons and Animation Services (HK) Ltd for seasons 12 to 15. The series upgraded to 16:9 1080i HD for its fourteenth season, although the series remained in a 4:3 SD ratio on PBS until October 2012. On September 20, 2011, WGBH announced that 9 Story Entertainment would take over the co-producing role for the series beginning with Season 16 in Fall 2012 and distribute the newer seasons internationally. The major change to the series saw the animation production being moved in-house using Adobe Flash. On September 29, 2015, WGBH announced that animation production would move to the Montreal-based Oasis Animation for Season 20 in 2016.
The only segments of the show that were filmed outside Canada were the "A Word from Us Kids" interstitials, filmed at elementary schools or other educational sites in the Boston area. Beginning in season 11, the "A Word From Us Kids" segment was replaced by a segment called "Postcards from You", where live-action videos sent in by young viewers were spotlighted per episode, and then replaced with "A Word from Us Kids" in season 12. The segments are omitted from all airings outside the US.
Marc Brown's children, Tolon, Eliza, and Tucker, are referenced in the show several times, just as they are in the Arthur book series. For example, the town's moving company is called "Tolon Moving", and everyday items such as cups or pencil sharpeners have the word "Eliza" printed on them. References to Cookie Jar Entertainment and WGBH also appear often on the show. In one episode, Francine and Buster are shown playing a table hockey game in which one team's players wear shirts in the Montreal Canadiens' signature colors with Montreal-based CINAR's logo on them (CINAR was the predecessor to Cookie Jar Entertainment) and the other team's players wear shirts in the Boston Bruins' colors with Boston-based WGBH's sting logo on them. Subsequent episodes that involve hockey also depict players wearing these sweater designs. Also, in the episode "The Big Blow-Up" in season 2, a racecar driver wears a jersey with "CINAR" written on it and a car with "WGBH" written on it. In the episode "Prove It" in season 4, Brain introduces D.W. to science while watching a live-action episode of Nova, a science series also produced by WGBH. Brown's son Tolon, for whom Brown first invented the character of Arthur the Aardvark in a bedtime story, was the executive director of the show.
In October 1999, CINAR was investigated for tax fraud. It was revealed that both the chairman Micheline Charest and president Ronald Weinberg invested $122 million (US) into Bahamian bank accounts without the board members' approval. CINAR had also paid American screenwriters for work while continuing to accept Canadian federal grants for content. However, Arthur itself was not involved in the scandal as it was publicly known to be co-produced with an American company. Head writers Joe Fallon and Ken Scarborough left around that time, but not because of the scandal; Fallon left about a year before the investigation began. Following the departures of Charest and Weinberg, former CBC and YTV executive Peter Moss took over CINAR, assuming Charest's former position on the show as an executive producer alongside WGBH's Carol Greenwald. By season 7, Moss had left CINAR to join Nelvana as a development executive, and financial director Andrew Porporino took his place as executive producer. He was replaced by longtime producer Lesley Taylor in season 8.
Production of the final season was completed by the end of 2019. The series finale, "All Grown Up" featured Arthur's original voice actor, Michael Yarmush, voicing his adult self.
Music The TV show's reggae-style theme song, "Believe in Yourself", was written by Judy Henderson and Jerry de Villiers Jr. and was performed by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. A remixed techno version of the song has been officially released on the third album and a shortened version has been played during the closing credits for the sixth season. The Backstreet Boys covered the song with the original instrumentals for the ending credits of television special Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll. The original music score was produced by Ray Fabi.
In season 2, the song "Crazy Bus", written and performed by then-head writer Joe Fallon, was introduced. It served as the alternate anthem of the television series. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and jazz composer Joshua Redman covered the song on the ending credits of the season 4 finale episode, "My Music Rules". Joe Fallon left Arthur after season 4, after which the song was officially retired from the show. The show mentions this in the TV special Arthur: It's Only Rock 'n' Roll when D.W. says that "Crazy Bus is for babies; I know a million better songs."
Guest stars Many celebrity guest stars have appeared on the show, each providing the voice for their anthropomorphic animal counterpart. Lance Armstrong and Joan Rivers are the only guest stars to make more than one appearance on the series.
Cast and characters
Characters
Arthur's immediate family is the focus of the series, with most episodes involving Arthur, his younger sister D.W., their parents David and Jane, Baby Kate, and their dog, Pal. Arthur's closest friends include Buster, Francine, Muffy, Binky, Brain, and Sue Ellen, along with others including Fern, Prunella, Jenna, and George as frequent supporting characters.
The adults in Arthur play important roles: Mr. and Mrs. Read display a significant amount of stress from parenting, Arthur's friends' parents are shown struggling in middle-class jobs, and Mr. Ratburn endures the demands and expectations of teaching elementary school. Even in difficult, adult situations, these grown ups maintain a cheerful attitude. In some episodes, Arthur, D.W., and Kate also interact with their paternal grandmother, Thora Read, and maternal grandfather, Grandpa Dave.
Voice cast Unlike most animated television series, Arthur showcases a wide range of voice actors. While the majority of the main supporting characters such as Jane, David, Buster, Francine and Binky have been voiced by the same set of actors since the beginning of the series, many of the young characters including Arthur, D.W., Brain, the Tibble Twins, and James have each been voiced by several actors throughout the seasons to avoid noticeable voice changes caused by male puberty.
Arthur Read Michael Yarmush (Seasons 1–5, "All Grown Up") Justin Bradley (Season 6) Mark Rendall (Seasons 7–8, season 6 redub (U.S. only) Cameron Ansell (Seasons 9–11) Dallas Jokic (Seasons 12–15) Drew Adkins (Seasons 16–17) William Healy (Seasons 18–19) Jacob Ursomarzo (Seasons 20–21) Roman Lutterotti (Season 22–25) Dora Winifred "D.W." Read Michael Caloz (Seasons 1–3) Oliver Grainger (Seasons 4–6) Jason Szwimer (Seasons 7–10) Robert Naylor (Seasons 11–15) Jake Beale (Seasons 16–17) Andrew Dayton (Seasons 18–19) Christian Distefano (Seasons 20–21) Ethan Pugiotto (Season 22–25) Nissae Isen ("All Grown Up") Buster Baxter Daniel Brochu (as "Danny Brochu" from seasons 1–4) Francine Frensky Jodie Resther (as "Jodie Lynn Resther" from season 20–25) Mary "Muffy" Crosswire Melissa Altro Alan "Brain" Powers Luke Reid (Seasons 1–4) Steven Crowder (Seasons 5–6) Katie Hood (Seasons 7–9) Paul-Stuart Brown (Seasons 9–11) Lyle O'Donohoe (Seasons 12–15) Siam Yu (Seasons 16–19) Max Friedman-Cole (Season 20–21) Evan Blaylock (Season 22–25) Shelly "Binky" Barnes/Mr. Read/Bailey Bruce Dinsmore Jane Read Sonja Ball Nigel Ratburn/Bionic Bunny Arthur Holden Grandma Thora Joanna Noyes Grandpa Dave/Mr. Crosswire A. J. Henderson Prunella Deegan Tamar Koslov Sue Ellen Armstrong Patricia Rodriguez (Seasons 1–8) Jessie Kardos (Seasons 9–25) Tommy Tibble Jonathan Koensgen (Seasons 1–6) Aaron Grunfeld (Seasons 7–8)