Lydia Glenn

News Editor

lmg5921@psu.edu

The show that shaped my childhood sadly aired its last four episodes on February 21. Arthur was the longest running animated children’s series in history, and it aired on the PBS network. 

Arthur was not only for entertainment, but it was an educational children’s show that taught lessons like how to be empathetic and other challenging topics for kids. 

Arthur was my life every day after school at 3:00 p.m. Not only was the theme song the catchiest theme song I have ever heard, but Arthur was how I learned a lot of life lessons, believe it or not. 

Both my sister and I grew up watching Arthur. It was a show my mom could put on the T.V. for us while she made dinner or did laundry. We both loved Arthur so much that we had a couple of Arthur themed birthday parties. 

Arthur wasn’t just an outstanding show because it made for a good party, but every episode encompassed a lesson important for a child to learn. 

Aaron Edwards wrote in his article for The Atlantic that he got picked on for having glasses, and an episode of Arthur helped him get through it. 

I can also relate to Edwards’ experience. I had glasses and other classmates also picked on me, but after I saw this episode where Arthur also got teased, I didn’t feel alone. I saw how Arthur handled his bullies and didn’t let them get to him, and that actually helped me as a child in that situation. 

Arthur was my role model, and the everyday insecurities and problems that I had as a kid were usually always solved by watching an episode of Arthur and taking a lesson from it. 

According to Edwards, an educational children’s television show has to achieve two things: A kid has to recognize themselves in a character to internalize the show, and the show has to be engaging enough to keep a child’s attention. Arthur excelled at both of those things.

When I watched Arthur, some days I related to Arthur, but other days I related to DW because she was the younger sibling and so I was able to see myself in her character. 

Not only did Arthur have a character that encompassed almost every personality and every problem, but their characters were fun animated animals! 

I think the decision to make the characters into animals was a well thought out choice because animals are fun, and they also bring light to a show that touches on somewhat troubling subjects. 

Although Arthur’s plot did not touch on subjects deeper than bullying or feeling insecure, these subject matters are heavy on kids, and they were definitely heavy on me. So the fact that the characters all represented different animals helped keep the mood light, and it altogether just made the show more fun to watch. 

The best memory I have of Arthur is one with my sister, Hadley. 

One time, when I was about two or three and my sister was around four or five, we were traveling in the car, most likely coming back from our grandmother’s house. My mom always kept crayons and coloring books and word games in the back of her van for us because we had short attention spans. 

So, one day, on our ride back, my sister took one of the crayons and drew all over the ceiling of our blue minivan. 

When we got home, my mom asked who did it and my sister blamed it on me, and my mom believed her.  

Hours later, the guilt my sister had for blaming the ceiling crayon art on me ate away at her and she came clean to my mom. 

Only years later did I learn that she came clean because she asked herself “what would Arthur do?” and she concluded that he would never lie. 

Not only did Arthur help my sister to make a tough decision to come clean about her lie, but it also made me see that Arthur did have an impact on kids. 

Arthur truly shaped me into the person that I am today, a person who can feel empathy and knows that it can be hard to say goodbye but copes with it. My sister can also attest to the fact that Arthur played a large role in her actions as a child. 

Even though Arthur is over, it is with a heavy heart that I say that Arthur will forever be a part of me and the lessons it taught me will never leave.