Franklin's world is not a cashless society, so unless they inherited, they have to be doing something for work. Yet, no mention of an occupation is ever made and they are actually shown to be at home during the day when Franklin is at school. Since a large amount of that time seems to be spent working in their garden, it makes sense that it is their occupation and those fruits and veggies become food for the stores in Woodland.
In the CGI Franklin and Friends series, it is revealed that Mrs. Turtle sometimes takes substitute-teaching work at Franklin's school. That's income, but it could use supplementing.
Word of God has it that Franklin and his friends have grown up a bit in the new show. That doesn't explain, though, the curious absence of certain characters like Granny, Badger, Raccoon, Aunt Lucy, Sam and Kit. (And if it weren't for a couple token appearances, one might as well include Skunk in that list as well.) Yet, aside from this and other minor issues, there is really so much continuity that it feels like the show is taking place in the same basic continuity. So it seems more fair to say that the show is a continuation of the original except where noted, rather than calling it a flat-out Reboot.
Alternately, the series is an Alternate Continuity, but one that has shifted only very slightly from the "Prime Universe" so to speak, as the characterizations are largely the same, as is a lot of the past history that has been built up.
How else can he get away with not attending Franklin's class in about half the episodes of the original television series? (He doesn't appear at all in Franklin and Friends.)
Granny lives in Woodland at a relatively close distance from her son's own home, yet her character never gets a passing mention in the series. Death by Adaptation is a possible explanation from this, as she suffered a serious illness before her seventieth birthday in Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure.
Badger was part of Franklin's class in the entirety of the Original Animation, but starting from Franklin and Friends she is suspiciously absent. Her cerebral palsy may have had an influence in this as she could simply be homeschooled now like Raccoon, moved out of Woodland in order to cope with her disability, or simply perished due to the debilitating nature of her condition.
Little Bear and his friends grew up and parted ways in order to settle down and start their new families. Little Bear, now a big bear named Mr. Bear, visited Woodland where he met the bear who would become his wife, Mrs. Bear, and together they have a son that they named "Bear" who becomes Franklin's best friend.
- Two issues with this theory. The first is the Funny Animal society differences in the nature of the two show's worlds. Little Bear lives in a forest with a cat, duck, hen and owl, all of which generally look and move like normal animals, even if they don't behave like them. He also knows two humans. On Franklin, there's an owl who's the same size as most of the other anthropomorphic characters and there's never been the slightest indication of humans. The other issue is that Little Bear's society has no electricity or plumbing; i.e. the characters are shown taking a bath in a metal washtub in the living room. Franklin's world, on the other hand, is advanced enough to have personal computers. Okay, so it is within the realm of possibility that Little Bear could just have lived in a backwards society, but still...
- On that note, it could be possible that Little Bear is Bear's ancestor and Franklin takes place in a world where humanity is either extinct or segregated from animal society.
- Or Bear could be Little Bear's cousin, instead.
- Raccoon is absent, even at such important moments as the beginning and end of the school year (of course, we do not take into account Bayside Bandits);
- Beatrice reportedly went to preschool but has not been shown in any medium (the movie only mentions it - and any other Franklin show doesn't even do that);
- What happened to coach Porcupine that Miss Koala has to train Franklin and his friends instead, and when she returns to Australia, she is replaced by Mr. Owl?
- Why is Kit not present in any other Franklin show?
- Snail actually has a more distinctly male voice, but what we (the audience) hear is one that reflects her actual gender.