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> Arthur is the longest-running kids animated series in history

No it isn't. Sandmännchen has been on the air for over 60 years.



This seems so obvious and easily researched - I'm surprised the author didn't correct it. I can't find any extenuating context. E.g. they don't mention anything about "in the US".


It's NPR (National Public Radio), it assumes 'in the US'.


Says 'in history' in the article.


The US has a very americentric culture.


That's not what's going on. It just never occurs to most people that something might have happened outside their home.

There's a popular game, Timeline ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/128664/timeline ), involving placing events (represented on cards) in the proper chronological sequence. Due to modern sensitivities, many of the cards have titles of the form "The discovery of America (by Europeans)".

But mostly they don't. "Invention of the printing press", explicitly lacking the "(by Europeans)" rider, is located in the 15th century, several hundred years after the invention of the printing press. None of this stuff is hard to look up.


My understanding is that "invention of the printing press" generally refers to movable type, the thing that caused a revolution in the mass production of written material. Other techniques like block printing or indeed any other method of applying ink in a fixed pattern, came earlier but were not as generally useful.


Porcelain movable type had been used hundreds of years prior in China, but it never quite caught on because of the number of distinct characters needed.


Printing and movable type was first invented in China (though it failed to catch on there and as far as we know was separately reinvented in Europe). However the printing press, which is a mechanical device using movable type, was first invented by Gutenberg.


> However the printing press, which is a mechanical device using movable type, was first invented by Gutenberg.

The printing press is a mechanical device which mass-produces books by pressing inked plates against paper. Movable type is just a way to construct printing plates. It makes no difference to the press.

I'm intrigued that you believe China invented movable type without inventing a press that could use it. But suffice it to say that while movable type did not catch on in China, printing and printing presses were huge.


But its not really animated. The outer / framing parts are with puppets, the inner parts can be in different styles


> said the show's executive producer, Carol Greenwald, in a statement.

That might have something to do with it. Or perhaps there was a missing ellipsis or other context that was lost.

But good call. There's a broad world outside of America that we oftentimes forget to include.


It’s probably because the average American wasn’t watching Sandmännchen while they were growing up.

And I’m sure there are radio shows in Germany not paying attention to American media.


It's ok for a radio to focus on its own country, but to make a claim for something "in all history" looking for information in at least a few other countries is the bare minimum.

Here where I live I commonly see "touristic museums" and touristic places make claims that can be easily disproven by a google search and that is just not OK.

Imagine in a few decades some museum in US about media goes on to claim Arthur was the longest running kids show in the world and even link to npr as a source?

npr should have known better and put "In US" in their title.




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