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Student reacts to Arthur ending this month

February 10, 2022
The longest running PBS kids show "Arthur" will be ending after 25 years on the air.
The longest running PBS kids show "Arthur" will be ending after 25 years on the air. —

“It’s a simple message, and it comes from the heart,” the lyrics that have been around since our childhoods. The longest-running PBS Kids show Arthur will end its series this month after 25 years. PBS announced in July 2021 that the 25th season will be the last.

The show focuses on Arthur Read, an aardvark who teaches kids how to deal with challenges like homework, teachers and bullies with the help of his sister D.W., and his friends: Francine, Buster, Brain, Muffy and Sue Ellen.

Arthur has won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program three times. With the show ending next month, one student was sad to see it go off the air.

“I watched a lot when I was little and it’s amazing that it ran for so long,” media and information senior Katarina Keeley said. “Especially cause I know there are a lot of different things that happened over the course of their being Arthur.”

Keeley mentioned that Arthur did teach her some valuable lessons about life and diversity through each character. “They’re like a lot of different characters and it kind of showed each of them (and) what they went through in our day-to-day life,” Keeley said

Arthur is based on the children’s books written and illustrated by Marc Brown. It is set in the fictional city of Elwood City. Each episode teaches children about development, friendships and valuable life lessons.

The show will end with a four-part finale that will depict the main characters as adults. “That’d be great to see the characters that were once kids like us grow up just like us as we are right now,” Keeley said. “I’m sure they’ll even bring in a lot of viewers.

PBS Kids will air a 24/7 marathon of the series, including its specials on February 16 leading up to the final episode. Despite the show ending, Arthur will still go on in reruns, digital shorts and even a podcast. Arthur is set to end on Feb. 21. You can stream Arthur on PBS Kids and Amazon Prime, and on cable channel 23.1.

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