Wednesday Trivia Question

On what series did Arthur make his first appearance?

It’s hard to have been exposed to PBS Kids over the past 25 years and not know who Arthur is. The bespectacled anthropomorphic aardvark starred in his own animated series from 1996 to 2022. That’s 25 seasons & over 250 episodes! Based on the book series by Marc Brown, ARTHUR was set in Elwood City where the title character lived with his parents, siblings and his dog Pal. The shows featured the elementary school student, his friends, family, teachers, neighbors and even suitably animated celebrity guest stars as they lived, learned, laughed and other kid-friendly L-words.

But one of the neat things about Arthur’s journey is that the first episode of ARTHUR which aired in October 1996 was not the character’s first PBS appearance. That, as best as I can tell, happened on 27 July 1983. With that big of a gap between the first appearance and the series debut, you can easily guess it wasn’t a back-door pilot or anything. Arthur’s PBS (and possible TV) debut was completely unrelated to the series that eventually came along a baker’s dozen years later. Even Arthur didn’t quite look like the character we’d come to know and love. Moreover, that very first appearance wasn’t even fully animated!

This is a bit of a deep cut but I personally find it very interesting. And there may have been a few clues to help you figure it out.

So what was it? What was the show on which the character of Arthur Read made his first appearance back in 1983?