Elwood City (Arthur)

Elwood City is a fictional city in the TV show "Arthur". The population of the city was revealed in an episode as 79,567.

History

Elwood City was founded in 1903 by Jacob Katzenallenbogan. He wanted to call it Elmwood City, but another guy refused. In an episode called "Elwood City Turns 100!" the city celebrated its 100th anniversary.

General information

Elwood City has a soda shop called The Sugar Bowl where the kids hangout, a mall, a movie theater, a school, a museum, a hospital, a junkyard, an ice cream shop, a fresh water lake, a waterpark, a library and a bunch of other stores. Much like Springfield from The Simpsons,the exact whereabouts of Arthur’s hometown have never been explicitly stated. Similar to Springfield from The Simpsons, Arthur's writers have given conflicting evidence regarding Elwood City's actual whereabouts. While Elwood City bears strong resemblance to the Boston area, there are references to Brown's hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania in some episodes (for instance, a sign for the Mill Creek Mall can be seen clearly in one episode).

Other evidence that suggests that Elwood City is located in New England because it is not right to work state as suggested by Francine's dad when he said Buster had to be in a union to drive a sanitation truck. More evidence of a New England location would be the portrayal of the fictional city's professional baseball team, the Elwood City Grebes, as a fictional representation of the real life Boston Red Sox, referencing baseball lore such as The Curse of the Bambino and vaguely, the rivalry between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees, by having the Grebes' World Championship (reference to World Series) opponent being the Crown City Kings, with Crown City, featured in other episodes, being apparently a representation of New York City. In Arthur's Birthday, Arthur and his classmates indicate that Elwood City is very far from Ohio. In another episode, Arthur and the Brain (Allen) visit the Exploratorium, which is located in San Francisco, though this does not mean that they didn't visit a fictional Exploratorium. Various anthropomorphic animals populate the city itself. Ironically, in some instances animals are shown both in anthropomorphic form as well as realistic animal form. For example, Arthur has a pet dog, Pal, and a friend who is a dog, Binky. Another conflicting piece of evidence is in the episode, "Buster Gets Real." Arthur and his dad go shopping at a farmer's market that fully resembles Pike Street Farmer's Market in Seattle, Washington, on the West Coast, no where near Pennsylvania or New England.

ee also

* "Arthur"

External links

* [http://pbskids.org/arthur/ PBS Kids GO!: Official Site]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1998/9-29mates.mspx 1998 Actimates press release]
* [http://pressroom.wgbh.org/pages/arth.html WGBH Arthur Pressroom - News and Pictures, Series Fact Sheet]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/cartoons/tv/arthur/index.shtml Official UK CBBC site]