It made us feel just a little grown, or on the way to it. If Sesame Street was the show parents put on so that their children wouldn’t forget the alphabet or how to be kind, Arthur was the daytime soap that kids graduated into. That Arthur began as a bedtime story is fitting, because watching it felt like opening a storybook that traced the contours of childhood, showing us new ways to navigate them.Īrthur distinguished itself clearly from other shows. When I discovered a love of reading at the library, there was an episode ( and a rap) for that. When I got picked on for getting my first pair of glasses, there was an episode for that. Reflecting on the place Arthur has occupied in my life is challenging because the show was so all-encompassing. How do you practice empathy when your neighbors are more skeptical of one another than ever before? And how do you come to terms with a friend leaving at a time you might need him the most? As it winds to a close, the show leaves questions behind. Today, its ideas feel radically optimistic, its mission unfinished. For the generation raised on Arthur, the show was full of meaningful lessons, never boring, and rarely heavy-handed. It’ll have been the longest-running animated children’s series in history. Read: Here come the ’90s kids: Chance the Rapper covers the Arthur songĪfter 25 years, the final season of Arthur airs this week. If he were real, I imagined, we’d hang out. He also looked a bit like me: round face, rounder glasses. I was a quiet kid, but my mother tells me that when that song started, I would light up. Those drums and rhythms sounded like my family’s music. Ziggy Marley’s smooth croon was an invitation: How about, for a few minutes, we dream up a world where we can reconcile our differences? The call was appealing and lofty. That song, which introduced the PBS show Arthur, was the leading single on the soundtrack to my childhood.
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