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User blog:WillTheArthurandBusterFan5050/The Struggle to Submit an Idea for Arthur the Series
I am trying and pushing to submit an idea to the makers and producers of Arthur, namely 9 Story Entertainment Inc. I was told about them thanks to a fellow Wiki member Orion001. I have several ideas for the show, Arthur, but there's one idea I want to see done more than all my other ideas.
I know I've been saying this non-stop and I'm sure a lot of you are tired of me talking about this but I would like to see a Railroad Crossing (or Railway Crossing, Level Crossing, At-Grade Crossing) on the show Arthur.
I've had this idea for years, I think since 2006 or so. But then since late 2008 or 2009, I had a burning desire to see a railroad crossing on Arthur. Why do I want to see a railroad crossing on Arthur? I'll give a few reasons:
- Railroad Crossings are one of my biggest interests and have been almost my whole life, ever since I was a baby.
- I want to see what railroad crossings, namely the warning devices (crossing signs, signals, flashing lights, crossing gates, etc) would look like on Arthur.
- Many other cartoons have shown railroad crossings, although some railroad crossings on some cartoons have looked silly and unrealistic. But there are some cartoons that have shown good railroad crossing signals, some better than others.
- Arthur is one of the best cartoons I've ever seen and features just about everything, and more things than other cartoons do, but railroad crossings are missing on that cartoon (as in they do exist as indicated in the episodes "The Agent of Change" where Francine, Muffy, and Molly make a movie, and "Buster's Carpool of Catastrophe" in the Bingo Card pictures, but I have not seen any actual railroad crossings on the show)
And I've been hoping that I would see a railroad crossing on one episode of Arthur, especially on the episodes I've never seen before, but I've built my hopes to be let down. I hoped they'd be featured in the season 13-16 episodes, and also season 17 but I've pretty much given up hope on that, but am still holding on to hope that I will see one before Arthur ever goes out of series, which eventually it will albiet the show has come a long way and outlasted all animated series (except the Simpsons, which has featured railroad crossings in a few of its episodes, the best one in my opinion being in the episode "Them Robot" (http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Them,_Robot) where Robots replace human plant workers. In the beginning of that episode where Homer says one of his catch phrases "Doh," he says it so loud it causes kind of an earthquake or something, and in one scene during the Doh' earth quake, two railroad crossing gates are featured and not only do they have red and white stripes on them like how I like them, but they also have a red circle-shaped light on them like real American crossing gates! But they put one light on each arm instead of three as done in real life, which I hope they'll do in future episodes. In addition, one of the crossing signals was featured and had forward and rear flashing lights, another thing you don't see on many cartoons (usually the most you get is forward facing only lights.) This was the second Simpsons episode to feature red and white railroad gates, other gates were either black and yellow or black and white in the earlier episodes, and this was one of the first and few crossing gates I've seen on a cartoon that actually had lights on it where most cartoons do not put lights on their gates, and I would like to see more cartoons do so, but that's just my desire.
Getting back to Arthur. I've also been expressing my desire to see railroad crossings on the show Arthur on this Wikia, especially in some comments. For example, I included it in the comment about Arthur the Series: http://arthur.wikia.com/wiki/Arthur_%28series%29 and in the comment about Elwood City: http://arthur.wikia.com/wiki/Elwood_City
Finally, though I've been reluctant to do so, I have recently decided to do something. I decided "If you want something done, you have to do it yourself," because the producers of Arthur, they cannot read my mind and I cannot just sit back and hope they put a railroad crossing on Arthur, I mean maybe they will and maybe they have already and just haven't shown it yet, but I'm stepping up and speaking up and taking action. So I have written letters about my idea of a railroad crossing, or two, on the show Arthur and I have snail-mailed them. Not only did I write letters, I've even drawn pictures and made illustrations to show them what kind of railroad crossing I would like to see on Arthur, because even though I do want to see railroad crossings on Arthur, I don't want to see just any railroad crossing, or just any kind of crossing signals or gates on the show.
I understand and admit, Arthur is not my cartoon and I have no control over or any say in what happens on Arthur, but all I'm doing is putting in an idea and a proposal.
The railroad crossing I would like to see is to have American (or Canadian style, since Arthur is produced in Canada despite taking place in the U.S.). I basically would like the crossing signals to look as they do in the U.S. and Canada, like for instance:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_89v_RaQ5UEU/Snw2K6y-tII/AAAAAAAACPc/H-GxGDmxyps/s1600-h/RR+strong+st.JPG
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/04/5c/fb/c3/rochelle-railroad-park.jpg
http://www.niagararails.com/images/CrossingGate-anim.gif (This is a Canadian Crossing Signal, same as used in the U.S., only the crossing sign is different.)
I would also like to see crossing gates used. But not just any crossing gates but red and white striped ones are preferred. I mean they can use black and white or black and yellow, but I prefer red and white stripe since that's what's used in the U.S. and Canada and most other countries and what's used today. In addition, I also hope, but they don't have to, but I hope they also put lights on the gate arms as pictured in the following:
http://windham.htnp.com/files/2011/06/railroad_crossing.jpg
http://www.safercrossing.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/highway-crossing.jpeg
http://www.rtands.com/media/k2/items/cache/d26259114776ab2f022f2fb482d956fe_XL.jpg
Last Example
As mentioned earlier, most cartoons do not put lights on their crossing gates, either because (and these are just my guesses)
- people generally don't notice the lights on the gates but do on the signals (the lights on the gates are kind of small and are not easy to see except at night)
- the lights on the gates are not as significant or are redundant
- crossing gate lights are too much work, time consuming and hard to do.
But some cartoons in recent years have put, or have started putting, lights on their rail-crossing gates. The Simpsons, as mentioned earlier, being one of them. Other cartoons that have put lights on their gates, or have started to, are:
- Handy Manny
- Franklin and Friends
- Curious George
- Bubble Guppies
There may be more cartoons that have put lights on their gates but these are the only ones I know.
And I was just wondering if not only could there be a railroad crossing on Arthur, but if they can also do crossing gates with lights on them. They can put one light per arm, or better yet, two lights per arm, or even four lights per arm, but I would like to see them put three lights on the arm, and if possible, have the gate arm lights function as they do in reality, having the light at the tip of the arm light up steadily or solidly while the other two lights on the arm alternately flash with the signal lights, and I was hoping Arthur could be among the cartoons that features crossing gates with lights on them, especially since, as one person said on Wrong Planet, The show Arthur tries to take a "realistic approach." Well, see for yourself and click the U.R.L. to see where this came from.
"A couple of Arthur episodes had fire alarms in them: "D.W. All Fired Up" was about a fire drill at D.W.'s preschool, and they actually used buzzers for fire alarms. I think that was a good idea, since this show is aimed at little kids and often tries to take a realistic approach. And the episode "April 9th" started with Lakewood Elementary School on fire, and they also had buzzers for the fire alarms. I think that was also pretty good, since it would seem more likely for a school to use buzzers for fire alarms, and if the school were on fire the buzzers would sound. And later in the episode, when they go to Mighty Mountain Elementary School, Binky pulls a false fire alarm, and it is again a buzzer, just like D.W.'s preschool and Lakewood Elementary! Do they get all their fire alarm systems from the same company? " ( http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt230413.html )
And the person who said that has a point and I agree with him.
When I wrote the first letter and drew the first set of pictures, at first I mailed my idea to W.G.B.H and I sent those out in March. But I was informed by Orion110 that they were the wrong people to send it to and that it was 9 Story Entertainment I should have written and sent them to. I hoped they would forward my letter to the proper recipients, even wrote the request in the letter, or that they would mail the letter back to me, which they didn't, and I was told they wouldn't. So I decided to try again and this time I wrote to 9 Story and made more illustrations and mailed them to 9 Story, my letter and my illustrations, in two separate envelopes. And I even put four stamps on both envelopes since I knew I was mailing them to Canada, and I used stamps that you use to mail letters within the U.S. I also requested that the letters get forwarded to the proper recipients and wrote on the envelopes "My Idea for Arthur" or something like that and I wrote "Return Requested if there's a problem." I mailed those letters sometime in April and it's been about three weeks and I still haven't heard back from them, nor do I know if my letters made it to them or not and my letter were never mailed back to me. A whole lot of hard work and time put into creating the letters and the illustrations, although some illustrations were extra, like a fake Elwood City map I created, using the real Elwood City map from pbskids.org/Arthur and adding to it, including more streets, and extending the existing streets, railroad lines, a main line running north and south, a rail line going to Crown City, and another rail line going somewhere southwest of Elwood City, some spur tracks, a train yard, and railroad grade crossings as well as grade separations (where streets and roads pass over or under the tracks without the interference of a train.)
Then starting this week, I decided to email my idea to 9 Story Entertainment using photos I found on Google Images, including some of the ones listed above in this blog. I first emailed them through info@9story.com . Then I tried submitting my idea under the Submit Your Idea.button you click on. And I put my name, which is William, not giving my last name for privacy, my email address, and my phone number. I also put the Title of my project and filled in the Project Description. I even attached a few files. But just when I thought I had it made, I found out I had another thing to do, I had to read and fill out a submission release form. No problem, so I downloaded it. I tried to fill it out on the computer but I couldn't and I didn't have a printer, so I had wait until the next day, which was yesterday, to print out Submission Release form, So I cancelled another plan I had for yesterday to go to the Library to get the release form redownloaded on a public computer and then I had to print it out and it was three pages. I printed out three copies, two extra copies for back-up in case something bad happened to the first one.
I filled out the Release form, one of the copies, the other two I left blank for now. I also got a Librarian to help me, so I after I filled out the form, I had her scan the form onto computer and I was able to download it and then I attached it in the Submit Your Idea on 9 Story and refilled in where I had to put my name, email address and phone number. the Project Idea, and the Project Description, which thankfully I emailed to myself and I saved it and was able to open the email and copy it into the Project Description. I even attached a few files, including the Submission Release Form.
But when I hit Accept and Submit button, this is what happened: it said "Server Error in '/' Application and String or binary data would be truncated and The statement has been terminated. That told me, or put me under the impression that the 9 Story people did not get my idea. I tried again with one less attached file and it still didn't work. I also tried emailing the Submission Release Form to submissions@9story.com as was given me on the Submission Release slip, and I sent a couple emails only to get the emails returned to me because they were undeliverable. So I emailed myself the Submission Release form and tried to do it from my home computer. I also emailed it on my Mobile device but that didn't work either.
When I tried doing everything I did on the Library computer on my home computer, such as emailing to submissions@9story.com and filling out the Project Idea Title and Description with my name and all that and the attached files, and I also tried it without the attached files, I think, and it still gave me the same result:
"Server Error in '/' Application and String or binary data would be truncated and The statement has been terminated. And when I tried emailing through submissions@9story.com, it didn't go through again and got sent back to me. After four attempts, I found out the email address submissions@9story.com does not exist! So I had to send my emails through info@9story.com. I also had to snail mail my original Submission Release form along with a letter and one drawing I made and I put it in the mail today and I used an international stamp I bought at a post office yesterday and I bought three stamps, two for back up so this is sure to get to Canada.
So I had a lot of hoops to go through and a lot of hurtles to jump, but despite all I've done, I hit dead ends. And I'm wondering if 9 Story Entertainment has ever updated its website because their email submissions@9story.com is not working, at least not for me, and the Submit Your Idea Button has only led to a dead-end. So it's almost like my ideas, and possibly that of many others, are being blocked.
Well, now that I sent emails through info@9story.com and I sent more than one email to them, and sent a snail-mail to them, hopefully they will get my idea and hopefully I'll hear from them. I know there's a very slim chance because I know many people send emails to them everyday, but I've been very percistant at this and I'm not giving up yet.
I really would like to see a railroad crossing on Arthur among other shows, but Arthur most of all. And I've even written my own Arthur Fan Fiction featuring railroad crossings:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10243515/1/Stopped-at-a-Railroad-Crossing-1
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10311550/1/Stopped-at-a-Railroad-Crossing-2
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10262346/1/Seeing-Carl-Manino (based on a dream I had)
And if any of you want to help with my idea, whether offering me advice or helping in talking to 9 Story about my idea, please go ahead and do so. But know this, I am not reading or responding to rude or disrespectul messages.
I have other ideas for Arthur but I'm saving those for another blog. And if you want to see the email I sent them the day before yesterday, I'll put that in another blog, this one is long enough as is.
Thank you all for reading this long message. This took hours to write!
