For those who still think ARTHUR began as a TV series back in 1996,
Don't say things like that.
ARTHUR as a franchise actually predates the PBS Series by about 20 Years.
Yes, That's right.
MARC BROWN's Famous AARDVARK goes all the way back to the year 1976.
Yes. That 1976.
Events that took place are:
My Mother's birth on JUNE 26 of that year,
-No Photos available-
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA's Bicentennial of that year,
Then Incumbent President GERALD FORD went head-to-head against JIMMY CARTER but lost reelection on November of that year,
TAXI DRIVER was released to CINEMAS to great SUCCESS,
FOX releases the TEASER TRAILER for STAR WARS during showings of KING KONG and therefore raised hype for GEORGE LUCAS' film for it's 1977 premiere,
The FAIRCHILD CHANNEL F is released as the first game console to use ROM CARTRIDGES for it's games,
Apple releases their APPLE 1 Logic Board for sale,
While MOS TECHNOLOGIES releases their KIM-1 Hobbyist board
BRIAN DE PALMA's CARRIE was released to cinemas
And BILLY COORE's favorite childhood Mall
CAROLINA CIRCLE MALL opens in GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
Alongside all those,
A Former College Professor who goes by the name of MARC BROWN
Had then recently lost his job as a teacher after the College he worked for went bankrupt.
His then FOUR YEAR OLD son TOLON BROWN asked his father to tell him a story
No, unlike the FAMILY GUY screenshot here,
it's not about advertising a Restaurant with competitive prices...
but rather it was about a funny animal
Yes.... It's about an AARDVARK......
"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME AARDVARK!!!"
This has nothing to do with FRIZ FRELENG's THE ANT AND THE AARDVARK.....
Rather it was an original AARDVARK character made by MARC BROWN himself:
DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ARTHUR.... Doesn't it.....
Well, Artists have to start somewhere.
This story was about ARTHUR READ, an AMERICAN AARDVARK living in the city of ELWOOD in the U.S state of PENNSYLANIA, where he's suffering from FACIAL DYSPHORIA due to the fact that like real-life aardvarks, he's got a long nose where his mouth is also .
So he contemplates getting RHINOPLASTY but after testing out various other animal faces, he reconsiders.
Go check out a PDF on ARCHIVE.ORG so you can read the gist of it all.
Also, you may notice that in this book, ARTHUR is not even wearing glasses as the character's eyesight was still perfectly fine......
Though that would change when ARTHUR'S EYES was published in 1979
And it's here where his more familiar design is solidified if still a little off from his more common design we're familiar with nowadays.
This book from 1979 is where ARTHUR gets his trademark
PERSCRIPTION SPECTACLES.
For several years since the book was published in 1979,
The READ family have maintained their pseudo-aardvark nose designs for the better part of the first half of the 1980s
As time went on, MARC BROWN decided to allow his character to evolve artistically and ARTHUR subsequently had his snout shortened, probably because the long snout made him more angst-ridden like he was from his 1976 days and it made expressions more difficult to achieve.
Though ARTHUR's aardvark ears were retained which made some people think that he looked like a mouse but he's definitely an aardvark.
Anyway, I think this book ARTHUR'S BIRTHDAY from 1989 is where the final designs were heavily solidified but you decide in the comments.
In the later years, many TV stations in the UNITED STATES expressed heavy interest to adapt the books into a TV SERIES because the stories provided good educational value for children but MARC BROWN routinely turned down offers due to the fear of losing his creative rights to the characters.
But then he relented on JANUARY 1993 when CAROL GREENWALD of WGBH assured he'd keep the characters if he were to be an executive producer as the show's curriculum is to encourage children to go to the library and read books.
In 1996,
PBS, alongside the Canadian studio CINAR, collaborated with MARC BROWN to adapt his then 20 year old ARTHUR franchise into a ANIMATED TV SERIES.
And thus was born an ANIMATED Long runner, though it started with the Second Book
Production however was no easy WALK IN THE PARK....
More like it's NO EASY WALK IN THE TAPE AND COMPUTER DEPARTMENTS.
Even though ARTHUR is an AMERICAN FRANCHISE, Production services were split where most of the PRODUCTION is done in CANADA...
Specifically at CINAR(now COOKIE JAR) where the art, Layouts, screenplays, voice recordings, etc. are produced.
And as is the norm for Animated Tv Shows that were made in AMERICA or CANADA,
Animation Services which include In-betweens, breakdowns, etc. are sent to SOUTH KOREA.
And here's the kicker:
ARTHUR NEVER USED ANY PHYSICAL ACETATE CELLULOID!!!!!
This was weird and mostly shocking because we are made to think that 90s Animation
DIGITAL INK AND PAINT was only a DISNEY thing through their THEATRICAL FEATURES
HERCULES(1997)
Because most animation in AMERICA often refused to switch to DIGITAL INK AND PAINT until the late 90s due to either cost of the equipment or personal beliefs.
With the exception of some shows like REN & STIMPY & 2 STUPID DOGS,
Artists like DON BLUTH and JIM JINKINS refused computer coloring early on due to their fierce belief that Computer Ink for 2D Animation does not look AETHETIC for their tastes regardless if they use SILICON GRAPHICS workstations.
So until ANASTASIA(1997)
DON BLUTH refused DIGITAL INK AND PAINT in his movies.
And despite the advantages it would bring to DOUG in the DISNEY years,
JIM JINKINS still refused DIGITAL INK AND PAINT even in the DISNEY series.
So it was a shock for many people to realize that ARTHUR exclusively used DIGITAL INK AND PAINT for all the FRAMES in the series, even as early as SEASON 1.
But like I said, It was no Cakewalk in the Park.
That's because AKOM, the KOREAN animation house responsible for the FINAL ANIMATION services on ARTHUR(They also did THE SIMPSONS),
used AXA, an Early DIGITAL ANIMATION software for MICROSOFT WINDOWS
(I'm going to guess WINDOWS NT 4.0 running on Intel Pentium Pro CPUs.)
Though this MAGAZINE AD from 1993
shows NT 3.1 being used.
But the reason why people thought ARTHUR used CELS until the end of Season 5 was because AKOM was restricted from using BRIGHT COLORS due to concerns from WGBH regarding NTSC COLOR BLEED on their TRANSMITTERS.
"NO ARTHUR!!!
YOU CAN'T USE BRIGHT DIGITAL COLORS,
OTHERWISE YOU'D SCREW UP WGBH's TRANSMITTERS!"
And yes, WGBH was right about requiring the use of DARKER COLORS since many late 90s and Early 2000s animation are guilty of brightening the colors just because Computers.
It wasn't until SEASON 6 that ARTHUR was allowed to use a BRIGHTER Color Palette.
Also, CINAR & AKOM have made mentions that AXA was primitive when compared to more professional software like TOONBOOM or even CAMBRIDGE's ANIMO.
That's because according to my research,
AXA, being an early WINDOWS NT product, was very limited in what usable colors could be used regardless if you have a GRAPHICS CARD that supported 256 COLORS or even 24-bit TRUE COLOR.
For example, the COLORS per frame were limited to 48 before the RAM BUFFER caused the software to crash.
So with those limitations in mind, this also meant that BACKGROUNDS had to be hand painted before they are scanned into the computer.
Episodes were edited on 2" SCOTCH branded QUADRUPLEX AMPEX TAPES for final editorial and for it to be broadcast on PBS affiliates
I know this is slightly unrelated but.....
I think that to build hype for the PBS SERIES and because they also shared the same writers,
(For example, Joe Fallon worked on both DOUG & ARTHUR.)
DISNEY'S DOUG included a LAWYER FRIENDLY CAMEO of the two characters
ARTHUR & BUSTER
And considering ARTHUR premiered exactly a month after DOUG,
(DOUG premiered on SEPTEMBER while ARTHUR premiered on OCTOBER)
This CAMEO was fitting.... even if they are from different networks
Though the main difference is that DOUG already gets his funding from DISNEY
While ARTHUR's funding comes from both the U.S GOVERNMENT and the TAX PAYERS.
Yes, I know it's late for me to celebrate ARTHUR's 50th ANNIVERSARY but I didn't want to limit myself only to the PBS series despite it's everlasting appeal to my generation.
And yes, I've read the original books back in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in the 2000s so that says much for my experience.
The Tv Series, long runner as it was, ended it's run on tv back in......
While production actually finished at the end of 2019, the series finale didn't air until February 2022...
Hmmm..... I wonder why it took so long to air the finale?
And for anybody who wants to watch ARTHUR through means without resorting to YOUTUBE, the Arthur website, or even archive.org,
The episodes are readily available for viewing through the PLUTO streaming app on you device of choice whether it be PS5, XBOX, PC, APPLE TV, ROKU, etc.
At first, this looks like any POWERBOOK laptop made by APPLE in the 90s....
Some are just stations that accept the use of expansion cards and higher watt power but still let you use the laptop's screen and keyboard.
DOUBLY SO since the POWERBOOK DUO that JERRY SEINFELD had does not support the DOS COMPATIBILTY PDS Card that allowed the use of MS-DOS(and WINDOWS) to be used on a MACINTOSH of the era.
