It's a Lookback, Charlie Brown: She's a Good Skate, Charllie Brown (Re-write edition)

Peanuts  The Flashback 

           So, I have written about this special  before, but I feel  since this special is turning 40 in 2020, and I have more thoughts and insights into special, that I'd do a rewrite. Keeping the old post up, but doing something a little updated and what I hope is a better look than the old one, it's always good to try and improve on something.

          Peppermint Patty is probably one of more interesting Peanuts characters because she stood out as a character with a lot character.  I always heard this rumor that Peppermint Patty was considered for her own strip, if anything, she would be a character that could hold a strip.

     "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" is the 19th Special in the Peanuts line of specials, it's first of the 1980's specials coming out on February 25th 1980 airing on the CBS network. (Charlie Brown station) As of this writing, it makes yearly appearances on ABC with "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" as a lead-in.

       This special starts Peppermint Patty. You will only see her, Marcie, Snoopy. and Woodstock in prominence. Can Peppermint Patty hold an entire special?

   
       It starts with Peppermint Patty ice skating while, being coached by Snoopy who acts like an old Soviet ice skating coach. Then after the intro, it has the familiar,from the strips, Peppermint Patty being asleep in class. Also, there's a voice for the teacher and it's trumpets it's actual woman's voice, so this a rarity.  The reason why Peppermint Patty is dozing off is because she's been waking up at 4:30AM to train for ice skating. (That is early, like even local news shouldn't be on that early early)

Sandals in  the snow, how brave/ Copyright Peanuts 

            Hey there's Chuck, she wakes up him just to tell him that she's going to wake up Snoopy, tells him to go back to sleep.   I'm pointing this out now, ABC air this differently, like really differently. They start with a scene later on that'll point out, then show the title, then they cut the part where Peppermint wakes up Chuck and just goes straight into her waking up Snoopy and bringing him to the pond to practice  They cut almost of the stuff I mentioned above, then show her practicing to the music of "O mio babbino caro" (It was my Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown will later use this piece of music) This part is where we come back together with ABC's airing.    One of the cool things about special's animation is the ice skating.  They asked professional skaters if everything they did was accurate before they finished the special. The main goal was to have it be believable that Peppermint Patty would be ice skating in a regional competition.  They filmed three skaters : Mary Ellen Kinsey, Amy Schulz, and Karen Hutton and studied the results frame by frame.  This shows the great care and attention that went into Peanuts specials and respect for the audience, I love this fact.   (my source)

She is a good skate/ Copyright Peanuts

            Up next,  some skaters show up and want to ride play hockey they want to force Peppermint Patty and Snoopy off , but these two knock them with two pushes and Snoopy just scoops them off the ice. (Don't mess with these two, ever!)   This part is where ABC starts their airing with more Peppermint Patty practicing with the music and Marcie there this time. ( Watch this post be weird f the specials change networks and that network airs this unedited.)

 
         Peppermint Patty wants Marcie to make her skating dress, and in true Peppermint Patty fashion she doesn't listen to Marcie saying that she's not someone who can make a dress. (I'm not going to mention every ABC edit because that bogs down everything)  It's interesting to hear them use a woman's voice for the fabric store woman as well, that's a little wow.   After a quick moon transition, peppermint Patty shows up to look at the dress. Marcie made one with out arms (it's hip in some countries)
                                    
                                        Fashion trend of the future/ Copyright Peanuts


more after the jump

The Flashback: Pepper Ann: Valentine's Day Tune

Disney Pepper Ann Valentine's Day  The Flashback '

        I had to do this "Pepper Ann" episode not just for Valentine's Day, but also for the fact that this episode is turning 20 this year. As it came out on February 14, 2000.    

      This is "Pepper Ann" episode 42 . 

                 Pepper Ann doesn't like Valentine's  Day. That's set up for this episode that Pepper Ann doesn't like Valentine's Day. They take first the few minutes showing the school really loving Valentine's Day (which is actually the next day) and showing Pepper Ann being really annoyed by it all.  This full 24 minute episode is going to be using a plot that's normally used for Christmas, yep, they are going to use "A Christmas Carol".   

I'm going to be translucent with you / Copyright Disney 

  

          The episode starts with following the normal process you'd find in "A Christmas Carol" to see how they mold it for both Pepper Ann and Valentine's Day.  First a ghost visits her warning that she will suffer if she doesn't change her way.  Then the first ghost appears, in the form of her first grade boyfriend, to take her to the past. (I like Pepper Ann enjoying that she can fly)  The ghost takes her back to a moment of time when Pepper Ann tried to get her parents back together after their divorce. And she tried it on Valentine's Day. Then it takes her to the moment where her mother got her a locket for Valentine's Day. And she does feel bad on how she treated the gift. 

I put your locket away/ Copyright Disney 

          Next, the second ghost from the present.  The mother works on her Valentine's cake and never gives up.  There's a school bully who really wants a valentine. (Yep) She sees her friends Nikki and Milo are sad that she's not the Valentine's dance. 

I also can power 3 cities/ Copyright Disney 

            Finally, she meets the ghost of future.  They keep this one in the grim reaper fashion as per tradition.  Instead of Pepper Ann being dead, she's a crazy rich old cat lady.  (At least she's rich?)  Then they go more to the future (more future-y)  the year 2468.  There's this couple hiding from Robot Pepper Ann  trying to give Valentine's because love is forbidden in the building; she kicks them out.  

Robot Pepper Ann is a head of all us/ Copyright Disney 

      They do whole thing were it takes Pepper Ann takes a while to figure it out that it's her.  Pepper Ann says she'll lighten up on Valentine's Day. She goes through the change of heart and embraces Valentine's Day.   

 

Happy Arbor Day/ Copyright Disney 

        First off, I like this episode going with the embrace  of non romantic love  for Valentine's Day and focusing on friendship and family.  That's not saying romantic love is bad or anything, it's just nice to see Valentine's Day plot line have more than just that kind of love be used. The idea of using "A Christmas Carol" as a basis for the plot is rather creative, for a piece of media that's been used a lot.   The ghosts were creative, giving people that Pepper Ann would remember or know.   

        It has the good Pepper Ann well-written humor that ties everything in a nice package. Valentine's Day is one of those easier holidays to say feels like it was there just for marketing things compared most of the other holidays giving Pepper Ann, the character, kind of a point but, they also give reasons why there's something worth celebrating. That you should appreciate the  love around you and try to spread some  as well, and I think that's great message.   

    That's our lookback, tune in next time when we do Saint Patrick's Day: A Christmas Carol style. 

 Also brought you by the Get Pepper Ann on Disney Plus squad. 

Valentine's Day: For Better or For Worse: A Valentine from the Heart

Valentine's Day The Flashback

       I have been enjoying writing about "For Better or For Worse" animated specials, and thankfully there's another holiday to use to talk about a holiday special this one being Valentine's Day.  This special came out in 1993.

      This is "A Valentine From the Heart"

   It starts with pizza, which has already shown this special understands love already.  Michael and his friends are having Pizza  and they are talking about a dance, they want to do but can't at a school because the principal is not happy with a past incident.  Michael convinces his mother if he can have a party at his house. Which she allows. (wow cool)

Yeah I need my right to party! 

      Also Brad from the Halloween special is back, and he's still creepy. Also, this special shows takes place a little later than special because Michael is fifteen.(Which fits with the comics aging in real time)  It cuts to Brad who earlier helped  Elizabeth at the grocery store when she was knocked over. While Michael's parents are talking about how great and carefree it is to be 15, we see Brad taking care of his over worked mother. I like how it contrasts so well.

   Elly and John are a great couple and they're loving shows well in this special. The party is about to start.  I wasn't expecting a song sung by Liz, like it comes out of nowhere. She wants to have a valentine. The party seems to be going well until, Brad shows up.  Michael lets him stay as long as he's not trouble.  He does try to talk this girl named Allison but she wants nothing to do with him.  When someone bumps into him , he pushes back a little hard and causes a mess and gets kicked out of the party.

 

     After the party, they lament about Brad.  Later Brad's mother comes by and she says Brad hasn't come home.  Brad calls Allison from a bus station and he's leaving to Vancouver  because she did say she wanted him to disappear. (He took it literally)

       Everyone goes to catch up, while Brad is on a  bus, all sad. They call to him  on the bus and cause people's trip to get delayed. He's quiet and hugs his mother and takes him back to the house. Liz gives Brad her valentine, since she's the boy who she saw earlier. Which I think makes him turn around a little bit.

    It ends with Pizza and Brad shows up and he joins Michael and his friends.

    There's a good great use of visual work for this special. They show us how Brad's life is without any thing he or his mother saying anything, they used a contrast of Elly and John's words to Brad's segment.  They were saying that fifteen year olds have it easy and there's Brad not having an easy life.
 
   The things about these specials is how they stay in the realism and do it well. Liz's subplot plays well into the main plot and everything comes together nicely.  Much like the Halloween special, Valentine's day is used as plot device, but how it uses it here to show kindness as a kind of love more than just romantic love.  It's not something you see much especially for Valentine's Day where the focus always seems to be romantic.  It's a good special with some great heart to it that really has it 's own charm.

 That's our look back tune in next time when we send Valentine's.

 

 

     

   

The Lookback : Kids of Degrassi Street: Ida Makes a Movie

The Flashback  Joshuaonline Canada 

     "Degrassi" is an interesting show, depending on who you are, invoking this name might mean different things.  Degrassi is a franchise from Canada that being 1979 with a four short films akin to the after school special.  These films became part of the series   "Kids of Degrassi Street". The basic premise of is really just kids being kids and it focuses on kids who live on Degrassi Street. The show was mostly realistic and dealt things like honesty, death, divorce, and other issues kids could face in their lives.  It got popular and spawned a spin off series "Degrassi Junior High" and later "Degrassi High"   All these series ran in Canada on the CBC and PBS had in a America.

     It came back in a new form with "Degrassi:The Next Generation" which ran on CTV in Canada and The N in the US. It began in 2001 and ran long enough that the next generation were gone and they dropped that name and called it just Degrassi. Then as of this writing, there was Degrassi: The Next Class, which is apparently the shortest lived Degrassi series. 

    It was created by Linda Schuyler, who was school teacher and worked on short films that insipired the idea of Degrassi.

    Anyway, this blog post is going to be talking about the very very very first piece of Degrassi media that ever existed, this is "Ida Makes a Movie" that first aired September 12th 1979.


            The movie starts with Ida and her friend Cookie at the park and there's a sign for a movie competition. Ida decides she wants to make a film but finds that the camera needs a little work, but her mother encourages her to at least check to see how much it would cost to fix and to get some film for it. 

   
         The quality of the short does have this style of someone making like a low cost movie, it kind of just feels like we're watching a film of Ida trying to make a film, it's kind of a nice presentation really.  Ida doesn't have enough money to fix her camera. She tries asking her brother,Fred, for the money ,but he is of no help.  So, Ida decides to sell some of her old junk.

this must have been a good garage sale, they sold the garage! 

          This works and she figures out how to make record things.  She wants to make a movie about garbage and Fred helps her and Cookie.  I will point out that Fred is wearing a helmet that he purchased from Ida and uh this will play into this film soon.  Poor Cookie's doll got lost up in the action into a garbage truck.

       Two weeks later, Ida found out her film has selected as a finalist in the film festival. Oh, the film people think that the movie is about war and its effect on children. ( Yep, that's what I got from the movie too) Cookie says they might get made when they find out the movie is about garbage and not war.  Ida's not going to let this get out. (scandal)

           Finally, it's the awards night and she did let the guilt eat at her.  After a roundabout way of asking her mother, she decides to go to the awards show.  Ida wins the thing and they show the film, first before anything else. Yep, and I can see how the movie can be seen as like war.   Ida Lucas gets called up to the stage.  Ida explains that the movie wasn't about war, it was about garbage and she hands back the award.   The man explains that there was more to the movie than just the idea of it being about war and still felt it had merit so, Ida gets the award anyway.

   

Better than the Oscars

          You can the tell the moral is about honesty. It does have that feel like they would play this in a class then ask the students questions. (who would do that?) I do like depicts a childhood situation naturally, even the lines feel natural, and the film style does feel like someone was recording Ida's moments and just following her, that's kind of great style.  Maybe it's because were so used to polished stuff it feels like this might been an intended style and it might have been but, I'm not going to let that stop my sentence.

       It is based off a book of the same name.  But from the cover, Ida wasn't a cat in this film. (Hollywood, uhhh Toronto always trying to make things more flash)

     It's kind of an interesting way to see how Degrassi got its start with focus on normal kids doing normal things and presenting  a moral for it's audience to think about without forcing it.   It was a nice bit of slice of life. 

    That's our lookback, and we've now go to tell someone that this blog isn't about the dowers of war, I'm still confused on how they got that confused. 

    If you are interested in this series and are in the United States, PBS has it for sale on their site. https://shop.pbs.org/the-kids-of-degrassi-street-complete-collection-dvd-3pk/product/WG31169  They didn't pay us to say that, we just wanted to pass it along.  I've also seen it on Amazon in the US and Canada, I wish I could say where else in Canada it's sold.  

   

     

     

But First These Messages : Post AT&T

Commercials 

          Many of our readers (I hope we have older readers too, please?!) may have been around when there was really only one telephone company. We mean when telephones required a cord and had to be in your house or on the side of the street to work.   To put history short,  AT&T was brought to court and 1982 agreed to be broken up into seven regional companies. These companies were :  Ameritech. Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and. US West.  

       This time we are be going to be breaking our normal format to look at ads from these post AT&T companies with  some history tidbits thrown in for effect.  If you like our more wackier format , that's not going away , I just wanted to try something a little different.   

    But First These messages....

       

         Ameritech , alphabetically, is the first company to arise out of the break up of AT&T in 1983, it embosed Illinois Bell, Indiana Bell,  Michigan Bell, Ohio Bell, ,and Wisconsin Bell. 

      

    Wow an early ad from the company's existence.  They play off the tech part of their name here by talking about their modern 1984 tech.

 This company was so powerful they merged these states in one 

         

Ahhh pay phones. I like how the lady broke down near a pay phone very convenient .

   For the first few years , The other bell names stayed so that's why this says Indiana Bell with the tag line of "An Ameritech Company" In 1993 they dropped those names and just went with Americtech,

They put this pay phone in the sky! 

    In 1999 Ameritech merged with SBC, a company we'll get to later.  More after the Jump

WGN America to Have News Once Again

TV NEWS 

    Nexstar Media the owners of over 170 local stations in the United States, announced Wednesday that come summer they will be launching a new 3 hour national prime time newscast on cable network owned by the company , WGN America.

     For those that might not remember , WGN America was launched in the 1970's as cable repeater of WGN-TV Chicago it brought the nation, programming relayed from the independent station in Chicago. This is how much the nation was able to see Cubs game, along other Chicago mainstay teams.  Also WGN's newscasts aired nationally on the station. At one point, the station was called Superstation WGN  aired WGN Chicago's Midday and 9pm newscasts.  Even after the station stopped being a full national relay of WGN-TV In 2014,  the station had dropped airing these simulcasts in the idea of moving to full national general channel.

        In 2019, Nexstar Media completed a purchase of the Tribune Company (named after the Chicago Tribune, which started WGN-TV in 1948) the owners of WGN-TV and WGN America. WGN America has tried it's hand at original and original to the channel programming, but now it seems they want to go a news direction.

       Nexstar announced Wednesday, they will be launching "News Nation" will be broadcast from WGN-TV's home in Chicago, a 3 hour prime (7-10 PM CT) newscast on WGN America.  This will be Nexstar's first attempt at working in the national news casting realm , as they normally only broadcast in local news. They have the resources to do such thing with a mass over over 170 local stations, stretching across the nation.

      The primetime idea is interesting  to note as the US cable news channels fail to provide news in those hours , as they focus on politics and opinions, it may provide an oasis for an audience looking for something different.

   From the press release:

Nexstar’s Sean Compton, Executive Vice President of WGN America, believes News Nation will fill an important void in the current television news landscape.
“No one else is delivering news in prime-time,” said Compton. “Others are airing entertainment programming, sports programming or opinion shows, which creates a great opportunity for WGN America to provide an alternative in this daypart with News Nation. Across our markets, we consistently hear from viewers who are seeking straight-ahead, unbiased news reporting that is grounded in fact, not opinion. News Nation will deliver exactly that.”

       WGN-TV's  current presidential/  news director, Jennifer Lyons, will be overseeing the task.   News Nation is also set to be launched as an app called newsnationnow.   The program is set to launch in the summer.

More after the jump

2020 Oscar Nominations announced

Oscars 

        The 92nd annual Academy Awards nominations have been announced we have the full list for you here : and the awards air on Sunday, February 9th at 8pm/5pt on ABC


Here is the list


Best Picture
Ford v Ferrari”
“The Irishman”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“Little Women”
“Marriage Story”
“1917”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“Parasite”

Lead Actor
Antonio Banderas “Pain and Glory”
Leonardo DiCaprio “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Adam Driver “Marriage Story”
Joaquin Phoenix “Joker”
Jonathan Pryce “The Two Popes”

Lead Actress
Cynthia Erivo “Harriet”
Scarlett Johansson “Marriage Story”
Saoirse Ronan “Little Women”
Charlize Theron “Bombshell”
Renee Zellweger “Judy”

Supporting Actor
Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”
Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Supporting Actress
Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
Scarlett Johannson, “Jojo Rabbit”
Florence Pugh, “Little Women”
Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”

Director
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
Sam Mendes, “1917”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”

Animated Feature
“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” Dean DeBlois
“I Lost My Body” Jeremy Clapin
“Klaus” Sergio Pablos
“Missing Link” Chris Butler
“Toy Story 4” Josh Cooley

Animated Short
“Dcera,” Daria Kashcheeva
“Hair Love,” Matthew A. Cherry
“Kitbull,” Rosana Sullivan
“Memorable,” Bruno Collet
“Sister,” Siqi Song

Adapted Screenplay
“The Irishman,” Steven Zaillian
“Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi
“Joker,” Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
“Just Mercy” Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Lanham
“Little Women,” Greta Gerwig
“The Two Popes,” Anthony McCarten

Original Screenplay
“Knives Out,” Rian Johnson
“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach
“1917,” Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino
“Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho, Jin Won Han

Cinematography
“The Irishman,” Rodrigo Prieto
“Joker,” Lawrence Sher
“The Lighthouse,” Jarin Blaschke
“1917,” Roger Deakins
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Robert Richardson

Best Documentary Feature
“American Factory,” Julia Rieichert, Steven Bognar
“The Cave,” Feras Fayyad
“The Edge of Democracy,” Petra Costa
“For Sama,” Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
“Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov

Best Documentary Short Subject
“In the Absence”
“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone,” Carol Dysinger
“Life Overtakes Me,” Kristine Samuelson, John Haptas
“St. Louis Superman”
“Walk Run Cha-Cha,” Laura Nix

Best Live Action Short Film
“Brotherhood,” Meryam Joobeur
“Nefta Football Club,” Yves Piat
“The Neighbors’ Window,” Marshall Curry
“Saria,” Bryan Buckley
“A Sister,” Delphine Girard

Best International Feature Film
“Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa
“Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov
“Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly
“Pain and Glory,” Pedro Almodovar
“Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho

Film Editing
“Ford v Ferrari,” Michael McCusker, Andrew Buckland
“The Irishman,” Thelma Schoonmaker
“Jojo Rabbit,” Tom Eagles
“Joker,” Jeff Groth
“Parasite,” Jinmo Yang

Sound Editing
“Ford v Ferrari,” Don Sylvester
“Joker,” Alan Robert Murray
“1917,” Oliver Tarney, Rachel Tate
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Wylie Stateman
“Star Wars: The Rise of SkyWalker,” Matthew Wood, David Acord

Sound Mixing
“Ad Astra”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“Joker”
“1917”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Production Design
“The Irishman,” Bob Shaw and Regina Graves
“Jojo Rabbit,” Ra Vincent and Nora Sopkova
“1917,” Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh
“Parasite,” Lee Ha-Jun and Cho Won Woo, Han Ga Ram, and Cho Hee

Original Score
“Joker,” Hildur Guðnadóttir
“Little Women,” Alexandre Desplat
“Marriage Story,”Randy Newman
“1917,” Thomas Newman
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” John Williams*“The King,” Nicholas Britell

Original Song
“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” “Toy Story 4”
“I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” “Rocketman”
“I’m Standing With You,” “Breakthrough”
“Into the Unknown,” “Frozen 2”
“Stand Up,” “Harriet”

Makeup and Hair
“Bombshell”
“Joker”
“Judy”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
“1917”

Costume Design
”The Irishman,” Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson
“Jojo Rabbit,” Mayes C. Rubeo
“Joker,” Mark Bridges
“Little Women,” Jacqueline Durran
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Arianne Phillips

Visual Effects
“Avengers Endgame”
“The Irishman”
“1917”
“The Lion King”
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

Arthur: Season 22 The Longest Eleven Minutes/ The Feud

Arthur   PBS 

  

   I've not written about anything "Arthur" related in a while.  So, let's get back into that.  I'm writing about some Season 22 episodes.  This season is short it's only 4 episodes, or 8 segments.  It premiered on May 13th and ran to May 16th 2019. (Using the PBS airing dates, other country airings may vary). 

   Season 22 Episode 2b : The Longest Eleven Minutes 

        I picked this episode because it stuck out to me in a few ways.  Some of it has to do with the context of the show itself and the content of the episode at a strange dissonance. 

       

          I always start these "Arthur" posts with the monologue, the thing they do at the start of episodes. 

  

      The Monologue :  Arthur is doing a school presentation talking about inventions people have come to rely upon. It shows how life was like before the wheel (lots of people being killed by mammoths apparently) Before the printing press, and life without the telephone being invented.  Ending with the question: I wonder what invention in our day, we wouldn't be able to live without.  (The toaster?) 

    The Episode:  It shows Arthur, Muffy, Ladonna, and Buster all on laptops, mobile phone, and a tablet doing internet stuff.  D.W comes into the living room and is bored and wants Arthur to play with her. Then internet goes down. This is weird question, how does Muffy's phone lose internet? Like is she connected to Arthur's wi-fi? But wouldn't it go to her carrier's service internet then?  I'd think the rich girl would have carrier internet as well. Are the mobile phones in this world the same as the internet carrier?  Are we asking a lot of questions and diverting too much? Well,yes. 

COMMENTARY / copyright WGBH 

         Buster is like hit refresh, but that doesn't work. So, the internet is down.  Now the kids are confused as to do with their lives. Then D.W says try restarting  the router. (This episode was written when someone's internet went down and they went through the stages wasn't it? )  They find out the internet is out on the block. (If people have the same service , I guess)  

        The episode gets weirder. Like, they apparently don't know what a radio is because they wonder if Arthur's dad is streaming music. (Umm what?)  Ladonna seems to know something about the radio. Then, Muffy finds an instant camera and they don't know what it is either.  Also Encyclopedias (fine, they win this one)  Since encyclopedia's go by a one to three letters they  made a joke, that I at least liked.   

They might have internet in Argentina/ Copyright WGBH

         Okay earlier this episode they have fake Google, called Boogle but Wikipedia gets name dropped,so apparently, what? They save a bird.  This episode used the terms selfie, and IRL so, I'm out.   They seem to be getting along without the internet; oh it comes back on and it was eleven minutes. 

      What's funny about this episode in the context of this show is that this show as on the air before the Internet was really more mainstream. (1996) With the books coming out before even that. The kids on this show have been shown to know how to use an instant camera, encyclopedias, and radio. It's funny on the meta level that they forgot all this because of how long this show has been on the air and how they need the newer episodes to fit in for the modern audience.  If a PBS station was airing this episode then a season 3 episode after this than it's even funnier. There's even an episode where Arthur messes up a computer all the way back from 1996.   

    

    The other meta thing, I really like is this episode is real time, it's eleven minutes long and internet is out for eleven minutes. Implication is there's no time skip (though, we don't see them calling Brain on the phone with dialing or something), yes land lines still exist in the Arthur world.  That's really amazing.     

     

    The opening shot of the episode is a great touch, there's cobwebs on the outdoor playground and ball in Arthur's yard, making it seem like they've not not used the stuff in sometime. 

    It would be really easy to say this episode was bad because look how modern society has fallen or Arthur has fallen but, that has nothing to do with this episode. It's a fun episode, you do see how much the internet has become part of our lives where it is part of everything, and we do get kind of lost with out it.  Not just kids, but adults too. It's like when the power goes out, it's a strange experience because we depend on electricity.  (There's an Arthur episode that mentions this)  The episode was fun to watch, it made me laugh  at times.  They some good stuff in current "Arthur". 

      More after the Jump