Fans of the beloved children’s cartoon Arthur have mourned the end of the long-running animated show after it aired its final episode on Monday.
The PBS series, which follows anthropomorphic aardvark Arthur Read as well as his friends and family, has ended after a 25 year run following the announcement that this season would be its last.
As fans said ‘Hey!’ to the family-based show for the final time, they were treated to a flash forward of the cast of characters to see what Arthur, Francine, Buster and DW went on to do.
In the future-set episode the characters are seen as adults, with a bearded Arthur having become a graphic novelist, with an eerily familiar debut book telling the adventures he and his friends had as youngsters.
Meanwhile, his sister DW went on to become a police officer, bunny Buster a teacher and Francine channelled Phil Knight as she runs a sneaker company.
Elsewhere, Muffy is running for mayor, Binky is the animated Alex Beresford as a weatherman and George is now manager of the Sugar Bowl.
The emotional end to the animated show’s 25 seasons saw many fans taking to Twitter to express their sorrow, with several upset over the decision to take it off the air.
One fan wrote: “Why am I 27 but ready to shed a few tears by the final Arthur episode?” as another tweeted: “Y’all the Arthur finale just made me cry! Why does it have to end?”
A third fan tweeted: “It was really mean of them to make me cry when Arthur revealed his graphic novel."
A fellow social media user wrote: “Loved that ending. I may have tears in my eyes. Thank you, Marc Brown.”
“Having it end with Arthur and the gang becoming adults and Arthur narrating his story from the first episode as one of his books is probably the best ending the series could’ve had,” wrote one person.
Another posted: “Dang, I'm gonna cry "Goodbye, Arthur" thanks for the childhood memories, godspeed Arty” alongside a string of crying emojis.
A spokesperson for PBS told Variety after the axe announcement that Arthur will live on in future via “a podcast, video shorts that tackle timely and compelling topics, and digital games”.
Carol Greenwald, Senior Executive Producer of GBH Kids, also said: “It’s been a privilege to work with an extraordinary and talented team to bring Arthur to public television audiences for more than two decades.
“We’re excited about Arthur’s next chapter — sharing the stories and experiences of Arthur and his Elwood City community to the media platforms where the next generation of kids and families will connect with them for years to come.”
Arthur episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime.
