- Alternatively, George got too curious and accidentally had it lopped off.
This nonsense aside, the purpose of this WMG is to explain the apparent contradictions between the films and TV series. The timelines have several distinctive features:
Timeline A:
- Curious George's guardian is known as Ted Shackleford and wears yellow because of a mishap that stuck, and subsequently his friendship with George (source: Curious George).
- Ted has a girlfriend in Maggie Dunlop. They seemed to be getting pretty serious by Curious George 2.
- Ted works at the Bloomsberry Museum and later becomes its director.
- Ted and Curious George met during an African expedition and George comes to the city more or less by accident.
- Ted's earnings are scant enough to render him destitute the moment he is evicted from his building in Curious George 1. In Curious George 2, he seems to be making more, but he's not exactly on easy street. In both cases he seems to lack a country-house.
- Ted's apartment home has Ivan for a doorman and absolutely no animals are allowed until the cute factor sets in.
- There is no indication that The Doorman even exists in this timeline, unless he is substantially different. Giant Hologram George steps on a man in Curious George 1 during one of his foolish musical numbers; this fellow bears slight physical resemblance to The Doorman and dresses very similarly. If that is The Doorman, then in this timeline he wears green, has hair, attends an entirely different apartment building, and is very possibly missing Hundley.
- Curious George seems less human, more monkey in this timeline. He is easily distracted and does things that are straight-up wonky in a nonsensical way.
Timeline B:
- Curious George's guardian is known only as The Man with the Yellow Hat, and has been wearing yellow since his childhood. It's possible he wears it because it's his family's heraldic colour. In this universe at least, The Man is descended from a noble Scottish family (source: Castle Keep).
- Officially, the Man is single and has no girlfriend. Doubt upon this narrative is cast in the next WMG.
- The Man with the Yellow Hat has an unknown occupation, but clues point to it being scientific in nature and absolutely requiring mathematical aptitude. He seems to work in cooperation with Professor Wiseman and her colleagues relatively often, but this Museum is never named.
- How The Man and George met is unknown, but George's place in the house and The Man's parent relationship towards him is deliberate.
- Ted's earnings are generous enough for him to afford a spacious apartment in a densely populated city, a fancy yellow convertible, and a respectable country house which has apparently been in the family for at least one generation. He also seems to have no trouble paying for damages caused by George's mischief except when plot-convenient (namely in Auctioneer George).
- The Man's apartment home has The Doorman for a doorman (who'd have thunk?) and pets ARE allowed in the building. Hundley, the redoubtable, dignified lobby-dog, is present.
- Curious George is like a small child, imaginative but logical in his own whimsical way. He communicates intelligently, is capable of intense focus and determination, and when he gets things wrong, they are usually not far from the truth.
Timeline C:
- Curious George's guardian is known as Ted and there is no further clue as of his background.
- Ted has no visible relationships in the world. He's a sad little man, like Greg of Aperture Science.
- Ted works in the museum, and is likely in charge as there seem to be no other figures worthy of note in sight.
- No information on Ted and George's background, but George's place in the city seems to be known and established.
- Information on Ted's economic status is scant, but the City seems the most unforgiving and legalistic in this timeline. If the events of Curious George 2 had happened in 3, the consequences would have been proportionately more severe. How horrible! Nothing is seen of his country-house in this one.
- The apartment seems completely unattended.
- Curious George seems a blend of A and B, being smarter and more communicative than his Timeline A counterpart but not as logical or rational as his Timeline B counterpart.
- They visit each other ALL the time, at all hours and in whatever state they are in.
- Where does Professor Wiseman go on her birthday? To The Man's house, where she is flattered that he remembers her favourite symphony (source: Curious George, A Peeling Monkey).
- They see each other for companionship and advice professionally and personally (though granted, mostly her to him), one of the most notable cases being phone calls at, like, THREE IN THE MORNING (source: A Very Monkey Christmas).
- When The Man was sick, not only did she visit him, she also brought him homemade chicken soup -a classic trope for such developments (source: Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye).
- The Man (and George) come through for Professor Wiseman when she needs help, especially in Curious George, Personal Trainer. The only reason The Man isn't there helping her every step of the way is because he's on crutches.
- While this example is mainly thematic, The Man and George go on vacation and bring George's good friend Marco along for the ride too -and who do they vacation with? Professor Wiseman, who spends virtually all her time at The Man's side (source: Here Comes The Tide). Standing and doing things together, they bear great resemblance to a family. Their family-like grouping resurges in George's Backward Flight Plan as well.
- They have a lot in common, namely being professionals in the sciences, having nerdy tendencies and occasionally being incompetent outside their fields, they both love classical music and have an affinity to the arts in general, and they share affinities for philanthropic or cooperative pursuits.
- They go places together all the time. Source: too many episodes to list, but one noteworthy example is Piñata Vision. The Man leaves George at a birthday party, and where is he? Having dinner with Professor Wiseman at Chef Pisghetti's.
- In the Man's absence, Professor Wiseman acts as George's guardian figure. Notable example in Curious George, Dog Counter, where she takes him to a dog-show, buys him a souvenir, and keeps him out of trouble. He also tugs her around like a child tugs a parent by the hand.
- The Man writes Professor Wiseman a tribute in Squirrel For a Day. Sure, maybe it was principally because of her brilliance, but given that genius is part of her job description and she has two only slightly less brilliant colleagues, there must be more to it than that. And given George's imagining Prof. Wiseman responding to the tribute emotionally, it's very likely that The Man added some personal touches to his speech. After all, even George's harebrained imagination often has some rooting in reality. As if all that wasn't enough, Professor Wiseman returned with them to the yellow country-house, being one of the few city characters to do so.
- The Man and Professor Wiseman trust each other with their dearest treasures. This includes entrusting George to Prof. Wiseman (source: Curious George, Dog Counter), Prof. Wiseman entrusting her invention to The Man (source: Man with the Monkey Hands), and Prof. Wiseman entrusting her original book manuscript to The Man (source: The Big Picture).
- Their chemistry increases over the course of the series until by the time of Curious George's Amazon Adventure, Professor Wiseman is nearly Maggie Dunlop level (in Curious George 1, anyway), but more adventurous.
- Stating the obvious, given that there is no Maggie Dunlop in this universe, Professor Wiseman is the single most eligible candidate for him. All but one of the other potentially eligible candidates are minor characters and the only other major character would be Margaret. However, given that The Man has always been awkward and socially insecure, and that romance itself would probably prove too much for him in this timeline, it's virtually guaranteed that Margaret's having a nephew and niece -Betsy and Steve no less- would prove too much for him.
In Timeline A, people call him by a proper name, Ted. His name is on a plaque on his office door. But in Timeline B, no one, not even Professor Wiseman, ever call him by anything resembling a conventional name. When Flint Quint first meets him, he says: "Why, you're The Man With The Yellow Hat!" and even Chef Pisghetti dubbed him Cappello Giallo Grande (Big Yellow Hat)! But the heart of this WMG is taking a statement of The Man's from Curious George and The Trash at face value: "Without my Yellow Hat, I'm not... me!" That would also account for his desperate scream in that episode when his hat was nearly ruined by being flushed down the toilet: since his very identity is anchored in that Yellow Hat, losing it would make him even more a nobody than George Bailey in the world where he didn't exist!