Monday marked the last wonderful kind of day for the citizens of Elwood City, with PBS Kids’ Arthur coming to an end after 25 seasons.
Whether you’ve been a faithful Arthur devotee since 1996, a casual purveyor of the fans’ twisted memes, or didn’t even realize that the show was still airing until you heard about Mr. Ratburn’s gay rat wedding a few years ago, we can all agree that this marks the end of an era.
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The show’s final segment, appropriately titled “All Grown Up,” offered a glimpse at what the future holds for Arthur the aardvark, Buster the bunny, and… you know, whatever everyone else is. Here’s what we learned about where they’ll all end up:
* Thanks to an instructional drawing book he wasn’t even supposed to get from the library, Arthur grows up to become a graphic novelist. The episode ends with Arthur, who’s rocking some very 20-years-later facial hair, reading the first chapter of his first book to his old friends. And wouldn’t you know, his book series is literally just Arthur all over again.
* Muffy is running for mayor of Elwood, with new Sugar Bowl owner George eager to see her defeat Mayor Hirsch.
* Francine, whose new haircut deserves its own spinoff, is happily working for a company that makes sneakers.
* D.W. is now a traffic cop, and not even the flirty advances of Bud Compson can keep her from giving a ticket where a ticket is due.
* And Buster is working as a teacher. It’s unclear whether he enjoys his new life, but he certainly has the wardrobe for it.
Of course, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Marc Brown’s anthropomorphic animal creations. PBS is already developing multiple digital extensions of the popular kids’ franchise, including games, a podcast and educational video shorts.
Will you rest a little easier tonight, knowing what the future has in store for Arthur and his many friends and frenemies? Grade the final episode below, then drop a comment with more of your thoughts.
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