A 25-Season Animated Show That Debuted 30 Years Ago Surprisingly Aged Like Fine Wine

Published Sep 7, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

Zach Moser has been writing for ScreenRant since 2022, covering movies, classic TV, and streaming TV. His areas of expertise cover a wide range of genres with a particular interest in horror and drama, and the conversations around the TV and film industry. When he's not covering the latest film releases or chronicling the latest season of a new show, he's writing humor pieces for McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Slackjaw, and Points In Case or working on short stories and his second novel. 

Nearly 30 years ago, one of the greatest animated TV shows ever debuted, resulting in 25 seasons of TV that still hold up to this day. When it comes to the greatest animated shows ever, you can point to the Nicktoons of the 1990s and 2000s as a Golden Age, with SpongeBob SquarePants and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Maybe Cartoon Network is more your jam, or the classic animated series of Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Some of the greatest animated shows have come out in the last 10 years, as the medium has gotten more mature and experimental with Arcane, Scavengers Reign, and Rick & Morty.

Whatever is your cartoon of choice, it's likely you might be forgetting about one key network and all it has done for animation: PBS. Shows like The Magic School Bus, Dragon Tales, and Clifford the Big Red Dog were formative for a generation of kids. None have stood the test of time as well as Arthur, however.

Premiering in October 1996 and based on the children's book series by Marc Brown, Arthur follows Arthur the aardvark and the other anthropomorphic inhabitants of Elwood City in their day-to-day lives. The series went for 25 seasons, finally coming to an end in February 2022.

It's the second-longest-running children's animated series ever, and the fifth-longest-running American animated series ever. Every episode was around 265 minutes long, usually divided into two shorter episodes, and over the course of its run, Arthur more than proved why it should be ranked among the great animated shows of all time.

Arthur Was For Kids And For Adults

Credit: Everett Collection

Arthur was always very clearly a show for children and younger viewers. Most of the characters were kids; they dealt with problems school children would be most familiar with, and the stakes were rarely higher than a character having to tell their parent about a mistake they made.

Yet Arthur has so much for adults that it's actually worth watching even now, when you've aged well out of the target audience. The show had references to South Park and The Sopranos; there are a host of celebrity cameos including everyone from Matt Damon to Alex Trebek, and the creativity on display makes every episode unique.

A lot of bad children's programming runs into an issue where every episode looks and feels the same. The same can't be true of every episode of Arthur, where something different happens each episode, a unique idea is explored, and a new character is centered; it gives the series a lot more energy than you might initially guess.

Arthur Has Aged Better Than Most Animated Shows

Credit: Everett Collection

Arthur has aged extremely well in the 30 years since it premiered. The show was always willing to tackle big, more mature issues including autism, dyslexia, cancer, religion, and socio-economic differences. Arthur always seems to have a level-headed take on whatever issue it confronts, and there's still a lot of wisdom to be found in it.

Arthur also does not dance around the more unpleasant aspects of childhood. There's name-calling in the series, brothers punch their little sisters, other kids are ostracized, and these realities of growing up are usually left hanging in the air rather than quickly glossed over. It gives Arthur a maturity and a solid foundation that other animated shows lack.

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  Patricia Rodríguez

  Sue Ellen Armstrong (voice)

• Arthur Holden

  Mr. Ratburn / Bionic Bunny (voice)