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Author Topic: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll  (Read 1372 times)

MCCJ

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Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« on: October 21, 2012, 01:37:09 pm »
This is also another good special I saw. The funny thing about this special is that it rarely airs on TV compared to Arthur's Perfect Christmas. I never found out the reasoning as to why that's the case. Any input on this?

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Muppetfan

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #1 on: October 21, 2012, 02:37:25 pm »
I think that it may be because there isn't a real reason for them to go to the trouble of making time to show it. Arthur's Perfect Christmas has an ideal airing time at Christmas, but I guess they just don't feel it's worth the trouble to actually take the time to show a non-seasonal special?

MCCJ

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2012, 02:49:22 pm »
I think that it may be because there isn't a real reason for them to go to the trouble of making time to show it. Arthur's Perfect Christmas has an ideal airing time at Christmas, but I guess they just don't feel it's worth the trouble to actually take the time to show a non-seasonal special?

I was thinking of the Spring or Summer time they could show it.

Muppetfan

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2012, 02:50:34 pm »
I think that would be good, but for some reason I just think they don't want to be bothered with showing a special altogether.

Snowth Woogle

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2012, 03:08:14 pm »
I have NEVER seen this special. Never. I can't even remember my PBS ever airing it, though I have seen the promos for it... keep in mind, previously, my PBS had been skipping Season Six in reruns, and Season Seven hadn't aired yet, so I remember looking at the promo for this special and wondering why did the coloring look so different.
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Roabe

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #5 on: October 21, 2012, 03:59:23 pm »
My PBS station used to show this during their yearly donation drive, until about 5 or so years ago.

Before this special first aired (September of 2002) PBS promoted the heck out of it for months. I forgot how it was obtained, but PBS gave away packets that contained a wall poster (a real version of http://pbskids.org/arthur/pdf/backstreet/backstreet_poster.pdf) as well as a CD-ROM with video clips, three songs from the special as well as artwork. I never got one, but it definitely was an exciting time to be an Arthur fan.

The special occasionally gets posted on YouTube. I can't bring myself to watch it now, because I get depressed knowing the animation won't ever look that good again.
« Last Edit: October 21, 2012, 04:02:39 pm by Roabe »

Earwig

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2013, 03:40:05 pm »
It's too bad it doesn't get shown because it  has some really complicated and great animation and design in it. It had some good music and the story was quite good. Unfortunately it had the Backstreet Boys in it as well. I guess they just aren't as timeless as Christmas. My favorite part is the beginning when they do the animated version of the BSB song I Want it that Way. It's like a shot by shot copy of the rock video that the BSB made only all the characters are animals.

I'm attaching a link that has all the famous people that guest starred on Arthur (though they forgot Koko Taylor and Taj Mahal and Frank Gehry). It also has a video of the recording session with the BSB singing the Arthur theme. It was used on the end of the special. I hope it sounded better than this in the final mix. The sound of it makes me queazy. You can see in the video that the cute one, who is the youngest of them, had gotten a little chubby just before this session.  He came up with a solo album after this but they were pretty well done at this point. AJ had just come out of a well publicized stint in rehab and he looks really in good shape here.
 In Sync had already taken over the top boy band spot. There are some parody names in the special in reference to In Sync. Arthur's breakaway band is called We Stink or something like that.

It's embarrassing to admit it but I kind of liked the special because of the quality and there is lot packed into it. It has that big concert scene at the end which is also pretty well done.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/17-famous-people-who-guest-starred-on-arthur

MCCJ

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2013, 05:40:51 pm »
It's too bad it doesn't get shown because it  has some really complicated and great animation and design in it. It had some good music and the story was quite good. Unfortunately it had the Backstreet Boys in it as well. I guess they just aren't as timeless as Christmas. My favorite part is the beginning when they do the animated version of the BSB song I Want it that Way. It's like a shot by shot copy of the rock video that the BSB made only all the characters are animals.

I'm attaching a link that has all the famous people that guest starred on Arthur (though they forgot Koko Taylor and Taj Mahal and Frank Gehry). It also has a video of the recording session with the BSB singing the Arthur theme. It was used on the end of the special. I hope it sounded better than this in the final mix. The sound of it makes me queazy. You can see in the video that the cute one, who is the youngest of them, had gotten a little chubby just before this session.  He came up with a solo album after this but they were pretty well done at this point. AJ had just come out of a well publicized stint in rehab and he looks really in good shape here.
 In Sync had already taken over the top boy band spot. There are some parody names in the special in reference to In Sync. Arthur's breakaway band is called We Stink or something like that.

It's embarrassing to admit it but I kind of liked the special because of the quality and there is lot packed into it. It has that big concert scene at the end which is also pretty well done.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/17-famous-people-who-guest-starred-on-arthur

I've always liked this special the best (not to take anything away from Arthur's Perfect Christmas), but this one right here had all the element wrapped into one.

Bionic Bunny

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #8 on: July 24, 2013, 10:10:33 am »
I've never seen this special,but I've heard of it.

Mr. Rocketburn

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2013, 04:54:08 pm »
It's on YouTube for anyone who never saw it.

Disaster Warning

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2013, 12:04:56 am »
I'm pretty sure my PBS station only aired this once, and I thought it was great watching it as a kid. Just recently rewatched it recently on YouTube. I think it is very well done. I love when episodes feature the whole gang (of course, this is an hour special...)

I don't know the exact reason why this special rarely airs, but I do know the PBS likes to keep its programming current and up-to-date. So a show featuring the BSBs really puts the late 90s/early 00s date on it. (Maybe 9Story could do a remake with One Direction or something. I'm sure Muffy has a crush on one of those boys, too. :P )
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ralfsmouse

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Re: Arthur, It's Only Rock and Roll
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2013, 08:29:52 pm »
I don't know the exact reason why this special rarely airs, but I do know the PBS likes to keep its programming current and up-to-date. So a show featuring the BSBs really puts the late 90s/early 00s date on it. (Maybe 9Story could do a remake with One Direction or something. I'm sure Muffy has a crush on one of those boys, too. :P )

As previously stated by Earwig, this special is kind of hard to schedule. It IS an hour long, which means that it takes up double the time of a normal Arthur timeslot. On top of that, there is not a certain time of year when this special is particularly appropriate. With the BSB thing on top of all that, it very rarely gets scheduled.