Unintentional Period Place / Arthur

• Arthur tends to not be as obvious of a period piece as some other shows, mostly because explicit references to ongoing pop-culture were avoided in favor of using expies. It's better at this than other series, however early seasons look fairly late '90s-early 2000s with things like how one of the Tough Customers, Molly, dresses in grunge, everyone has boxy computer monitors, and the fact it had a Backstreet Boys episode and the U.S President is based specifically on Bill Clinton.
  • "Arthur's Chicken Pox" from season 1 is a Chicken Pox Episode that mentions it being a normal illness; nowadays, it's not as common thanks to vaccines.
  • Mary Moo Cow's status as a Kids' Show Mascot Parody makes her something of a relic of the time when the invoked Periphery Hatedom of Barney & Friends was starting to hit the mainstream.
  • In "Poor Muffy" from 1996, Muffy is shocked and horrified that Francine doesn't own a VCR. It was a status symbol back then to show Muffy's spoiled nature, but watching it now seems laughable, as VCRs were phased out in the 2000s.
  • "Attack of the Turbo Tibbles" features a Power Rangers-like TV show. When the Tibbles turn it on at D.W.'s house, her mother quickly warns them against it due to its violent content. This was an actual concern at the time, but by today's standards seems laughable.
  • Four-year-old D.W. rides in a booster seat in the family car in newer seasons, but did not in episodes that aired in the 1990s, reflecting a societal shift in child safety.
  • "The Contest" features spoofs of many different shows, such as Dexter's Laboratory and Beavis and Butt-Head. Only South Park is still airing, which itself is a Long Runner.
  • In "Best of the Nest", Mr. Ratburn has no idea how to use the Internet and has to be shown by Brain. While this wasn't too implausible in 2001 when the episode aired, the idea of an adult his age — especially a teacher — being unfamiliar with the Internet would be downright laughable nowadays.
  • "Arthur's T.V. Free Week" aired during a time where the most technology kids had, aside from T.V. itself, were video games, and probably computers. With technology such as smartphones and tablets, not to mention the internet, becoming near-ubiquitous, kids struggling to merely not use a television set seems pretty quaint, as they could easily distract themselves from a T.V. with these things. Each of these also allow a person to watch anything they want at a whim. These days, the concern is that kids (and society) are often too addicted to technology in general, so a more modern take on this episode would likely be something along the lines of "Arthur's Technology-Free Week".
  • In the episode "In My Africa", D.W. and Cheikh, her new friend from Senegal, celebrate the cultures of all 54 African countries that existed at the time. Two months after its U.S. premiere, South Sudan declared independence, making 55 African countries.
  • "Desert Island Dish" (2006) prominently features the USDA's MyPyramid, even having an animation of the man running up the pyramid. This nutrition guide was phased out in 2011, replaced by MyPlate.
  • "When Carl Met George", which aired in 2010, specifies that Carl has Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's was removed as a diagnosis three years later in 2013, and is now generally just described as high-functioning autism.
  • One episode has him watching an expy of Breaking the Magician's Code: Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed.
  • In "Play It Again, DW", DW loses her Crazy Bus CD and is upset about not being able to listen to the song as a result. These days, DW could likely find the song on the Internet for free, as sites like YouTube and Spotify allow people to listen to specific songs this way.

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