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Arthur Celebrates Earth Day

Perhaps my favorite show!

ArthurArthur Celebrates Earth Day with 5 New Episodes Beginning Friday, April 22, 2011 on PBS KIDS GO!

Features a Special Visit from NASA Astronaut Mike Finke, Thursday, April 28, 2011

BOSTON, MA (April 11, 2011) – PBS KIDS GO!’s iconic kids series ARTHUR continues its 14th season with five brand-new episodes highlighting environmental protection, cultural awareness, and teamwork beginning on Earth Day, Friday April 22, 2011, and continuing through Thursday April 28, 2011 (check local listings). The fun starts with a special Earth Day message from Arthur and his friends in Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea. In this episode, Buster discovers a message in a bottle on the beach while on vacation with the Read family. Could it be an urgent message from the people of the Lost City of Atlantis? Buster is determined to find out and sends messages back…by throwing his own bottles into the ocean. Join Buster and Arthur as they learn that keeping our beaches and waterways clean is the real message.

Online, kids are invited to take the Go Green Challenge (pbskids.org/arthur/thetreehouse/gogreen) on the ARTHUR website. In this special section, kids can join their favorite ARTHUR characters in support of a green cause. Whether it’s making better food choices with Buster, or saving energy with D.W., kids have opportunities to take simple green steps that can help save the environment. Also, kids will be able to print out a “Challenge Page” to keep track of their green actions.

“This Earth Day, we wanted to show kids how simple actions can affect the environment,” says Senior Executive Producer Carol Greenwald. “Through this episode and the Go Green Challenge, kids can learn simple steps that they can take to help protect the world around them.”

Throughout the week of new episodes, Arthur and friends will follow a soccer ball as it makes its way around the world.  In Follow the Bouncing Ball, airing Friday, April 22, 2011, Alberto Molina’s beloved soccer ball, signed by his favorite Ecuadorian soccer star, “El Boomerang,” is lost. Kids are invited to join Arthur in learning about new cultures and track all the places “El Boomerang” goes as it travels around the world (and into outer space!).

In a special episode airing Thursday, April 28, 2011, kids learn that teamwork can help their dreams soar when NASA Astronaut Mike Finke guest-stars on ARTHUR in Buster Spaces Out. Inspired by footage of the moon landing, Buster wants to go to outer space. Well, someday. For now, it would be really cool to build and launch a rocket.  So Buster enlists his friends to help…but they can’t agree on anything and the mission stalls.  Luckily, their new friend Astronaut Mike teaches them that only teamwork will accomplish this mission–and then it’s blast-off!

Tune in for these adventures and more as your favorite ARTHUR characters travel the globe in Around the World in 11 Minutes, start competing blogs in Muffy and the Big Bad Blog, try their hand at fashion design in All the Rage, cope with teasing in D.W., Queen of the Comeback, explore Africa in In My Africa, and discover knitting in Arthur Unravels. The full schedule of airdates is below (check local listings):

Friday, April 22, 2011 – Follow the Bouncing Ball, Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea
Monday, April 25, 2011 – Around the World in 11 Minutes, Muffy and the Big Bad Blog
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – Arthur Unravels, All the Rage
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – D.W., Queen of the Comeback, In My Africa
Thursday, April 28, 2011 – Buster Spaces Out, The Long Road Home

ARTHUR Online at PBSKIDSGO.org/arthur
The award-winning ARTHUR website is home to many games and activities, including the new game “Buster Baxter, Lung Defender.” In this game, kids fight common asthma triggers in a wild ride through Buster’s lungs. Supporting material for parents and caregivers can be found in the new Kids & Asthma section on the Parents & Teachers site. Also new this season, Arthur and his friends team up with Martha from Martha Speaks in a new game called “Marthur Stickerbook Mashup.” Kids can choose characters and props from each show to create unique mashup scenes. Finally, in a comic-creator feature inspired by Neil Gaiman, who guest-starred on ARTHUR last fall in Tales of the Grotesquely Grim Bunny, kids can create their very own comics, featuring Arthur and his Elwood City friends. The ARTHUR website is also home to most of the series educational materials including resources, lesson plans, and activities and has features to help kids understand their neighbors, near and far, and gain a better appreciation for the world around them. Kids can also watch video clips and full episodes of ARTHUR at PBSKIDSGO.org/video.

About ARTHUR
ARTHUR, based on Marc Brown’s best-selling books, reaches over 5.1 million people each week (NTI, Sept. 2010-January 2011).  ARTHUR has won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, a BAFTA and six Daytime Emmys®– four for Outstanding Children’s Animated Program. ARTHUR is produced by WGBH Boston and Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. Carol Greenwald is Senior Executive producer (WGBH) and Executive producers are Toper Taylor (Cookie Jar), and Marc Brown (Marc Brown Studios). The series is directed by Greg Bailey.

Funding for ARTHUR is provided by public television viewers. Corporate funding is provided by Chuck E. Cheese’s®.

About WGBH Boston
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of one-third of PBS’s prime-time lineup along with some of public television’s best-known lifestyle shows, many public radio favorites, and a roster of children’s programs that empower kids with innovative, entertaining, curriculum-based content. Among the WGBH produced children’s titles: Arthur, Curious George, Postcards from Buster, Between the Lions, Design Squad, Martha Speaks and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. WGBH is the number-one producer of websites on pbs.org, one of the most trafficked dot-org websites in the world, and a pioneer in educational multimedia and in technologies and services that make media accessible to the 36 million Americans who rely on captioning or video descriptions. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards . . . even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH received a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information, go to www.wgbh.org.

About Cookie Jar Group
Cookie Jar Group develops, produces, distributes and markets quality products to children, their caregivers, parents and teachers. Cookie Jar Group’s products reflect its commitment to providing the best in children’s published content, animated and live action programming and innovative educational and entertainment-driven products worldwide. The group of companies consists of Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. and Cookie Jar Education Inc. Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc., Cookie Jar Group’s entertainment operation, is a leading, global, independent producer, marketing and brand manager of such renowned children’s properties as The Doodlebops, Caillou, Arthur, Spider Riders and Johnny Test. Combining globally renowned intellectual properties with an industry-recognized management team, Cookie Jar Entertainment Inc. is a market-driven, brand building company that is committed to children first and foremost and is dedicated to the development and production of quality programming that embraces the whole child, with animated and live-action series that entertain, inspire and enlighten children and family audiences worldwide.

About PBS KIDS GO!
PBS KIDS GO! offers early elementary children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online and community-based programs.  For more information on specific PBS KIDS GO! programs supporting literacy, science, math and more, visit PBS.org/pressroom.