History Arthur / TropesAToD

** Prunella's friend Marina, who is a BookWorm but also quite good at yoga and gymnastics. She plays soccer at her school as well.

** Brain went back and forth in displaying stereotypical tendencies befitting nerds. He apparently used to have a ''huge'' comic book collection (136 of which he managed to bring to camp with him). He was also seen as having little regard for organization, leaving his bedroom in shambles - Arthur even points out how neat and tidy he was when he spent the weekend at his house, to which he responds, "Yeah, and it almost ''killed'' me!"

** As noted above, Francine was a lot meaner in earlier episodes; in fact, during the first couple of seasons in general, she was not above outright bullying others: she was the first to make fun of Arthur when he started wearing glasses, and was quick to harass him about having not lost any baby teeth; she even proudly boasts in one episode, "I'm kind of a rude person." Although she mellows out eventually and isn't much of a straight-forward bully anymore, she does still have a tendency to stoop to passive-aggressive actions against her friends, sometimes for no reason.
** Similarly, Binky ''is'' TheBully, especially in the first season, where he's more of a supporting character, and was only featured on the show on a semi-regular basis. Starting in the following season, he slowly becomes part of Arthur's gang, and also slowly and progressively evolves more into a GentleGiant, though still occasionally will do something mean and/or unnecessary, if only to maintain appearances.
** Related to Binky above, the rest of the Tough Customers started getting in on this, too, eventually interacting with and helping out Arthur and friends [[spoiler:and even swearing off bullying completely as of S16's "The Last Tough Customer". Molly in particular [[TheAtoner shapes herself up]] after seeing her brother James [[LittleBrotherIsWatching copy her tough act]], and writes apology letters to [[ButtMonkey George]] and everyone she has bullied in the past.]]

*** "Spoiled Rotten!" at the end of which she takes on a charity project/job helping sell secondhand clothing.

* ClearMyName: In "Arthur Accused!", Arthur is falsely accused of stealing quarters that were part of a fund raiser. This happens as a result of everyone getting the wrong idea when Buster brings up Arthur becoming the pinball champion in the arcade the day before.

** Francine was a JerkAss in early episodes. In the books, she didn't seem to be Jewish and in the VideoGame/LivingBooks she lacked her {{Tomboy}} personality and had a [[PuppyLove very apparent crush on Arthur]].

** In "Arthur Goes Crosswire", Arthur begins to inherit Muffy's stuck-up and snooty nature after spending time with her for a class project. When he sees all his friends imitate his behavior as a plan to show him how obnoxious he's being, Arthur says, "Vomitrocious!" He then quickly stops himself and goes back to normal.

* BrokenAesop:
** Happens with the "BeYourself" moral of many episodes. Sometimes, the actual moral seems to be, "Be yourself unless X." For example, in "Fernkenstein's Monster", Fern [[spoiler: changes a scary story she made up so it's tamer]], to placate friends who suddenly claim she is a dark, scary person ("Queen of Darkness" was the term Buster used). So...she's only allowed to pursue her interests and be herself if everyone else thinks it's okay? Other characters have fallen into this trap, too, often members of the "secondary cast".

** According to "Fern and Persimmony Glitchet", if you write happy stories, they'll be really boring and nobody will like them. Your stories have to be super dark and depressing for people to like them. This moral doesn't apply to any of the show's episodes.

** In S7's "[[Recap/ArthurS7E10April9th April 9th]]", a response to [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11th]], the characters react to a fire which damages the school. Arthur in particular becomes very worried about his father, who was in the school during the fire. Mr. Read tells him it's ''his'' job to worry about Arthur, not the other way around.

** In S9's "Arthur Makes Waves", Arthur and D.W. go to the [=MacDonald=] house during a drought to cool off in the pool in their yard, where D.W.'s classmate and ImpliedLoveInterest James shows up ''shirtless''[[note]]He's shirtless because he had been swimming in the pool himself[[/note]], nervously asking D.W. if she needs him to kiss her [[spoiler:[[Recap/ArthurS8E9FleaToBeYouAndMeKissAndTell again]]]], to which D.W. responds "Uh-uh" (meaning "No") after a brief pause. The scene is reminiscent of two lovers being nervous about sexual intercourse.

** Portia Demwiddy, the titular character of "Little Miss Meanie," is a child model who throws a massive tantrum over ''[[spoiler:not having a spotlight for her act]]''!

** That counts as PanderingToTheBase, too.

** D.W. seems to behave more maturely from Season 16 onward, perhaps because of positive influences from the Compson siblings Bud and his sister Ladonna.

** According to S14's "D.W. Unties the Knot", the events of S1's "D.W. Thinks Big" are said to have happened "a few months ago." In S17's "Opposites Distract", the events of S1's "Poor Muffy" are ''also'' said to have been "a few months ago."
** Then there's [[https://www.facebook.com/PBSArthur/photos/a.501573345202.387485.43562115202/10154994987575203/?type=1&theater this Facebook post]] wherein Arthur claims that the spelling bee from season one took place in 2014.
** However, in S18's "Two Minutes", D.W. says that the events of S1's "Arthur Babysits" were "a long time ago," although this might have just been an exaggeration on her part. In "The Rhythm and Roots of Arthur," Arthur and Buster remark that 3rd grade feels like it has gone on forever.
** ''WesternAnimation/AnArthurThanksgiving'' says that "last" Thanksgiving, Arthur's family didn't have Pal yet, meaning the entire series has taken place within the span of a year.
** In “Arthur’s First Day”, the main cast moves up a year to fourth grade at last (and D.W’s age group entered kindergarten). This special aired five years after “Arthur’s Last Day”, which depicted the end of their time in third grade, but evidently took place only a summer vacation later.
** The Season 25 episode “Listen Up!” has Arthur mention that Spanky, whose death was depicted in the Season 1 episode “So Long, Spanky”, died a few months ago.

** "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" has Mister Rogers coming to Arthur's school for a visit, and staying at Arthur's house. His series ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood'' also broadcast on PBS.
** "The Big Blow-Up" has a fantasy sequence involving a hockey player driving a racecar on a golf course. The athlete's jersey and car feature the logos of the show's two producers at the time: Cinar and WGBH.
** The "A Word From Us Kids" segment following "How the Cookie Crumbles" shows a group of blind children baking cookies. After the cookies are put into the oven, a girl wipes down a table while singing the "Clean Up" song from fellow PBS show ''Series/BarneyAndFriends''.
** Another ''Barney'' reference: in "Sue Ellen and the Brainasaurus", as Sue Ellen tries to sculpt a dinosaur head out of clay, she ends up making Barney's head. Unsatisfied with the result, she promptly squishes it and tries again.

* DangerousDrowsiness: In the episode "[[DeathIsASadThing So Long, Spanky]]", the eponymous budgie is seen looking droopy. He dies in the next scene.

** Dark Bunny, in contrast to the other established in-universe show, Bionic Bunny.
** In-universe, the Grotesquely Grim Bunny comics in relation to Bionic and Dark Bunny ones. They are in fact scary enough to give Arthur nightmares.

* DeathByNewberyMedal: S1's "So Long, Spanky" has D.W.'s one-off pet bird die. She is sad and tries to cope, even looking for [[ReplacementGoldfish another pet]]. D.W. eventually accepts a toad that likes to stay near Spanky's grave as her pet.

* TheDentistEpisode: Arthur goes to the dentist in ''Arthur's Tooth'' and its episode adaptation.

** "The Pride of Lakewood," a toned-down version of Film/{{The Wave|1981}}... and we all know [[GodwinsLaw what that was about...]]
** "Prunella the Packrat" is reminiscent of ''Hoarding: Buried Alive'' or ''Hoarders,'' but for kids. Similarities include Prunella saving things for odd or weak reasons, not being able to let go, accumulating more stuff, and being shocked that she actually has closet space.

** "All Thumbs," in which Arthur walks in on Buster sucking his thumb, treats the resulting embarrassment between the two as if Buster was [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown caught with his pants down]].

** In S7's "April 9th", a response to [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11th]], the characters react to a fire which damages the school. Arthur in particular becomes very worried about his father, who was in the school during the fire. Mr. Read tells him it's ''his'' job to worry about Arthur, not the other way around.

** In The kids decide to make a [[BlandNameProduct James Hound]] FanFilm because they aren't likely to be allowed into the latest, PG-13-rated, real one. HilarityEnsues: they make a model supersonic jet for their villain (which gets eaten by Arthur's dog, Pal), they use their inflatable shark, [[ALizardNamedLiz Sharky]], as part of a [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]] villain-esque peril scene (Arthur defeats it by deflating it), and [[EverythingIsOnline Brain accidentally hacks into the library's electrical power and turns it off]] while simulating trying to hack a nuclear missile. Prunella (who has seen the real film despite being only a year older) thinks the result is BetterThanCanon.

* AdoptiveNameChange: Downplayed for Binky's sister: She keeps her first name Mei Lin, but her surname, which was previously unknown, gets changed to Barnes.

* AffectionHatingKid: In "D.W.'s Perfect Wish", Arthur [[ValentinesDayVitriol finds Valentine's Day gross]] because he finds the idea of everyone falling in love too soppy.

* AlliterativeName: Non-PBS news tend to refer to the show ''Arthur'' and Arthur Read as "Arthur the Aardvark".
** On the show: Francine Frensky, Binky Barnes, Buster Baxter, Timmy and Tommy Tibble.

* AllPartOfTheShow: In ''Clarissa is Cracked'' D.W. is watching a puppet show adaptation of "Rapunzel" by Mr. Ratburn. When Rapunzel's puppet falls from the castle after letting down its hair and breaks by the neck on the floor of the set, the entire group of children are mesmerized. Mr. Ratburn calls an intermission to fix Rapunzel and when Arthur asks if the show is over, D.W. tells him its an intermission because Rapunzel fell from the castle and broke her neck. D.W. likes it better than the version Mom told her.

** The kids decide to make a [[BlandNameProduct James Hound]] FanFilm because they aren't likely to be allowed into the latest, PG-13-rated, real one. HilarityEnsues: they make a model supersonic jet for their villain (which gets eaten by Arthur's dog, Pal), they use their inflatable shark, [[ALizardNamedLiz Sharky]], as part of a [[Franchise/JamesBond Bond]] villain-esque peril scene (Arthur defeats it by deflating it), and [[EverythingIsOnline Brain accidentally hacks into the library's electrical power and turns it off]] while simulating trying to hack a nuclear missile. Prunella (who has seen the real film despite being only a year older) thinks the result is BetterThanCanon.

** S2's "The Big Blow-Up", when Arthur asks Francine and the Brain which of them is better at sports. (This is before Jenna, described by Francine as "[[{{Retcon}} the only person who ever beat me at sports]]".)

** Arthur would sometimes state that the initials of his little sister D.W.'s name stood for "Disaster Warning". In "Sue Ellen Gets Her Goose Cooked", D.W. plays Virtual Goose under the username [=DisasterWarning99=].
* ArcNumber: Every episode in Season 10 has the number 10 hidden in various places and mentioned in the dialogue at some point. The first episode of the season, "Happy Anniversary", is Mr. and Mrs. Read's tenth, and the Reads have a PlotDrivenBreakdown outside a restaurant called "The Ten Spot Diner".

** [[ShowWithinAShow Dark Bunny]] is styled after WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries.

** Despite the Alan "Brain" Powers being a bear of African (specifically Senegalese) descent, there are no existing bear species indigenous to Africa. The Atlas bear, spread throughout North Africa, went extinct in the 1870s. ** It would make more sense for Arthur, an aardvark depicted as a white American, to be of African origin than the Brain.

* ArtisticLicense: From "Buster's Amish Mismatch". In general, Amish people are anxious to keep themselves separate from the outside world. Most of the time, though they are hospitable, they do NOT take kindly to outsiders just poking around. Due to a lack of modern technology to communicate with a school (i.e., phones, email) it is highly implausible that they would randomly set it up so a public school class could come to someone's house and take a tour. Even if an Amish family agreed to this, it would have to be cleared through their church elders and bishop, and the family/groups involved would need to have a close bond with the teacher or someone at the school.

** Background character Alex takes a spotlight role in “Arthur’s First Day” since Arthur is assigned to sit next to him once they enter fourth grade with Mr. Ratburn. Arthur lampshades this, saying he’s known him for years but is only now just getting to know him.

* BathsAreFun: In ''D.W.'s Guide to Perfect Manners'' (later retitled ''D.W. Says Please and Thank You'' for paperback), D.W. is shown in the bath holding a toy mermaid in one hand, a rubber duck in the other, and splashing Mrs. Read and Pal. She states that at night, it's not nice to complain about taking a bath or brushing your teeth and you can play while you get clean, but sometimes she plays a little too hard.

* BewareTheQuietOnes: Fern is very quiet, but she will act on her anger. She gets half of her class (including Binky) to join a poetry contest (“I’m a Poet”), starts an anti-Francine comic campaign [[DisproportionateRetribution after being insulted by her]] (“Draw!”), and tricks Brain into thinking giant worms were attacking Elwood City (“War of the Worms”).
** She also has a much higher tolerance for horror stories than her classmates.
* BewitchedAmphibians: One of the episode title cards that were commonly used from Seasons 1 to 15 shows D.W. as a fairy who magically turns Arthur's head into that of a frog.

* BigBlackout: As a consequence of the heavy snow, the power goes out in "[[SnowedIn The Blizzard]]". The SequelEpisode, "The Blackout", has the Reads dealing with the heat after their electricity goes out.
** In "Elwood City Turns 100, Muffy's super extravagant sign causes the city to lose power.
** In "Poor Muffy", Muffy causes the apartment to lose power by having dozens of plugs plugged into a single power outlet.

* BigGame: "Muffy's Soccer Shocker" has one against Mighty Mountain Elementary. It ends [[spoiler:with a tie.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: In "D.W. Thinks Big", cousin Cora acts like a brat when she's alone with D.W. and acts like an angel when grown-ups are around. In the end, her true SpoiledBrat nature is exposed in front of everyone at the wedding when she refuses to recover the lost ring from inside the church organ, when she could easily fit in there, simply because she'd get dirty.

* BlackBeadEyes: Arthur without his glasses in the post-1997 episodes (in the first season he had normal eyes when he wasn't wearing his glasses), and Prunella in most cases.
* BlahBlahBlah: Played straight in the Kate and Pal episodes, when listening to anyone else speaking from their point of view.
** Done figuratively in "Arthur's Family Feud" during Arthur's fantasy where he is serving prison time for D.W's crimes of stealing Mary Moo Cow products. When Arthur tries to tell D.W. that she knows she should be the one in prison she remarks "Blah, blah, blah, you'll be out in thirty years."

* {{Bookends}}: "All Grown Up" ends with an adult Arthur revealing his first children's book to his friends, telling the story of how he got his first pair of glasses -- the subject of the original ''Arthur'' book and the first segment of the first episode of the series. The camera zooms into a photo of Arthur's house at a similar angle to the one first depicted at the start of the series.

** In one episode, Grandma Thora acknowledges that she only has over-the-air antenna television at her house, but tells Arthur that there's always public television -- a remark that elicits a somewhat negative response. Also a bit of BitingTheHandHumor, as it's a PBS program.
** In another episode, DW is upset that her favorite show, ''Mary Moo Cow'', was cancelled in favor of a financial news program. It turns out that the anchorwoman was actually the person who played Mary Moo Cow, and had decided it was time for a change. It's partly TruthInTelevision, as a number of early children's shows on local TV were hosted by news anchors portraying characters.

* BrainyPig: In "Sue Ellen Vegges Out", Sue Ellen befriends a pig named Sally, who can do tricks, jump through hoops, and take a bow. Sue Ellen winds up enjoying her time with Sally so much that it leads her to [[VegetarianForADay become vegetarian]].

** Cousin Cora from "D.W. Thinks Big" makes D.W. look like an angel.

* ButtMonkey: Principal Haney always seems to have bad things randomly happening to him in Season 1, though he gets better. In later seasons, it's Arthur who occasionally suffers misfortunes.

* ChainedToARailway: In "Kiss and Tell", while at the mall, D.W. watches a situation on TV where a man saves a woman from a railroad, ending in a kiss. She tries to imitate this by spinning herself on the merry-go-round and getting James to save her; he stops it and she falls on the ground.

** D.W. seems to be maturing, perhaps because of positive influences from the Compson siblings Bud and his sister Ladonna.

* ClassicalMusicIsCool: D.W. gets Yo Yo Ma to come to the library to play the cello. Arthur and his friends are sure it's going to be boring. Francine has invited her uncle, jazz musician Joshua Redman, to visit the same day. The kids hope that the two will get into a fight. An ImagineSpot has them in a wrestling ring; Ma pulls out his cello and puts Redman to sleep. But on the day of the meeting it actually goes well, both get along and Redman expresses his enjoyment of classical music.

* CorrectionBait: One episode has DW starting a neighborhood science class where she teaches [[LittleKnownFacts blatantly wrong facts]], such as that [=H2O=] stands for "Hose + Oxygen", hence why water comes out of the hose. Arthur gets so fed up with it that he takes her to the science museum to teach her the proper facts, [[spoiler:where she reveals she had been getting them deliberately wrong so Arthur would take her to the museum, when previously he claimed he never would.]]

* CreatorCameo: Marc Brown appears as himself (drawn as an aardvark, of course!) in the episode "Fern's Flight of Fancy" where she signs a book of hers for him in a fantasy sequence.
** In the series finale "All Grown Up", Brown appears as a library patron.

** In "Prove It," Arthur and Brain watch ''NOVA'', and D.W. joins in, taking on an interest in science.

** In "Hic or Treat," Arthur and D.W. watch a Dark Bunny/Mary Moo Cow crossover.

** Arthur goes from being a JerkWithAHeartOfGold (in "My Club Rules", he tries to get D.W. to kick a bowling ball because [[DisproportionateRetribution she asked what he and his friends were doing]], and he screeches at his band in "Arthur and the Crunch Cereal Contest" when they start playing without his permission) to a NiceGuy.

** In S7's "April 9th", a response to [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September eleventh]], the characters react to a fire which damages the school. Arthur in particular becomes very worried about his father, who was in the school during the fire. Mr. Read tells him it's ''his'' job to worry about Arthur, not the other way around.
* DomesticApplianceDisaster: In "Is There a Doctor in the House?", Arthur and D.W. try to take on the household chores after Mrs. Read gets sick with a bad cold. It doesn't go well - Arthur causes the vacuum cleaner to start smoking by vacuuming up paper clips and other objects that are too large for it, the dishwasher doesn't clean the dishes properly because they weren't scraped first and the detergent door wasn't closed, and there's other problems as well that aren't even related to appliances. Mr. Read is less than happy, especially when he discovers D.W. cut a hole in his pajamas to try to hang them, but can't grump about it too much, as he's coming down with the cold too. Fortunately, both of them turn out to be fast learners. The next day they wash the dishes by hand and are otherwise smarter in their chores, negating Mr. and Mrs. Read's plan to call in Grandma Thora for help.

** Played straight in "Water and the Brain" when Brain states that sperm whales eat 60 tons of plankton. Sperm whales do not eat plankton at all.
** In another episode, Brain refers to scorpions as vertebrates.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite the Alan "Brain" Powers being a bear of African (specifically Senegalese) descent, there are no existing bear species indigenous to Africa. The Atlas bear, spread throughout North Africa, went extinct in the 1870s. **It would make more sense for Arthur, an aardvark depicted as a white American, to be of African origin than the Brain.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite the Alan "Brain" Powers being a bear of African (specifically Senegalese) descent, there are no existing bear specifies indigenous to Africa. The Atlas bear, spread throughout North Africa, went extinct in the 1870s. ** It would make more sense for Arthur, an aardvark depicted as white, to be of African origin than the Brain.

** "Arthur's TV Free Week" attempts an AntiEscapismAesop by trying to tell the children that they should turn the TV off, not watch it ''at all'', and do a bunch of other stuff instead. Which is delivered via a TV Show - making one wonder if the writers were aware of the inherent hypocrisy of the message.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Despite the Alan "Brain" Powers being a bear of African (specifically Senegalese) descent, there are no existing bear specifies indigenous to Africa. The Atlas bear, spread throughout North Africa, went extinct in the 1870s. **It would make more sense for Arthur, an aardvark depicted as white, to be of African origin than the Brain.

* ArtisticAge: ''Every single character''. Seriously, they're supposed to be elementary schoolers, but most of the characters behave like they're between the ages of 13 and 15, with some of the kids such as Binky and the Tough Customers acting like they're as old as 17. The ''preschoolers'' who are D.W.'s age are the ones who behave more like elementary school kids. To make matters worse, whenever a character has an illusion of the future, when the characters are ''supposed'' to be in high school, they are drawn to look like they're in their early twenties at the least.

** ''Buster's Sweet Success'' has Buster trying to create homemade chocolates with predictably disastrous results.

** ''Lights, Camera, Opera!'' deals with Muffy going out to see a performance of ''Theater/{{Carmen}}''