Way back in March, after Nick announced it was bringing back some of its '90s shows, reports surfaced that Hey Arnold! would be coming back, too -- but with new episodes. While I was happy to hear the news -- I am to this day a huge Hey Arnold! fan -- I was almost relieved to hear it wasn't true. (If you read the article, it seems the source was a high school newspaper.) The thing is, I'd rather Nick just bring back old Hey Arnold! episodes. But nothing has been said by Nick about it since. I'm thrilled that Kenan & Kel and The Amanda Show are getting a reprise -- but Arnold deserves one just as much. Here are the five reasons I think it's a really, really good show; why it holds up -- and why Nick should bring it back. (In the mean time, Season One just came out on DVD if you get desperate.)
Arnold
As my brother so plainly put it, Arnold was such a great character because "he had swag." I'd try to put it more... poetically, but it's just the truth. After so many neurotic, loud, crazy cartoon characters on TV -- SpongeBob, I'm looking at you -- Arnold was a breath of fresh air. He was always unruffled. Most episodes revolved around him helping people out or hanging with his friends in the neighborhood. He always wore the same flannel shirt and baseball cap, which highlighted exactly what people made fun of him for -- his football headed-ness. He liked jazz music and knew how to play the harmonica. Still don't think he's cool? His room was a converted attic -- meaning his window was also a door to the roof of his building. Then there was the remote control that with one click revealed his huge stereo system and hideaway couch. It was every adolescent's dream. And to get serious for a second -- Arnold had depth; he didn't have a perfect life. His parents left him after his first birthday, which gave the series a darker tone -- he lived with his grandparents at the boarding house they owned. Because of that, it was clear he largely took care of himself and found things out on his own. Still, he kept this optimistic, idealistic outlook no matter what. You couldn't help but like him.
Helga
Oh, Helga. I so loved Helga. The first and best thing about Helga was that her character turned the boy-crushes-on-girl story completely on its head. Usually with cartoons in the '90s you saw boys fawning over girls -- Doug and Patti, for example -- but Helga was full-on obsessed with Arnold, to the point of objectifying him. And the nice thing was she wasn't some girly girl-type that would help explain away her obsession -- she was, in fact, a tomboy. (Her unibrow was hard to ignore.) She played sports with the boys, she was aggressive, tough, bossy -- and as we found out later on in the series, extremely smart. And mirroring how many boys act when they have crushes on girls -- Helga was mean to Arnold instead of just telling him how she felt. Not only did she come up with the nickname "football head," she had a picture of Arnold she would talk to, saying, "How I love you... and yet I hate you." Even Helga had a sense of humor about Helga. Her crush actually went deeper than her dramatics, though -- she talked to the school psychiatrist about it and it was revealed that her poor relationship with her family was leading to her need for love from someone, and that someone happened to be Arnold. (Yep. All of this on a kid's show.)
The Collection of Strange Characters
Other than Arnold and Helga, the entire show was made up of the strangest characters imaginable. And it wasn't really a meant-to-be-funny strange, it was an it's-not-clear-why-they-were-even-there strange. Looking back, it feels like Hey Arnold! had a mature sense of humor in that way, too -- random things will happen on Family Guy now that make us laugh, but those random happenings were taking place on Hey Arnold! -- again, a kids show -- a while ago. There was Pigeon Man, who preferred being around pigeons to people, Stoop Kid, a kid who wouldn't leave his stoop, all of the international families that lived at the boarding house, Arnold's pet pig Abner, Brainy, who stalked Helga for no given reason, and Eugene, a poor kid with bad luck who was really good at clog dancing. Like I said -- they're not uplifting, laugh-out-loud funny -- it was almost twisted funny. Who were those people, and why were they there -- besides being useful for one or two episodes? We don't know -- but they were fixtures of the neighborhood, and Arnold (in his way) looked after all of them. Which brings us to...
The Neighborhood
Arnold's family, like I mentioned, was unlike a lot of classic cartoon families -- he lived with his grandparents in a boarding house. But the place he grew up in wasn't like any other cartoon setting either -- Arnold lived in a city. Hillwood looked much like parts of Brooklyn does today -- brownstones, subway stops, small schools and so on. Arnold's block was a safe area for kids, but other than that, growing up in Hillwood was pretty limiting. It was made clear that Arnold and his neighborhood friends didn't have much money, and (obviously) didn't have manicured suburban lawns to frolic in, so they had to get tough and get creative when they wanted to find things to do. That's why there were so many of the aforementioned random characters. Arnold and his friends were okay with strange people -- they were entertaining; and they were kind of all Hillwood had. But I also think that's why Arnold and his friends were so imaginative. I grew up in a city and Hey Arnold! was a perfect representation of that life -- your friends live in the apartment next to yours, but you've all got to find things to do and people to meet, otherwise you'll have to play kickball all day every day. (Kickball all day is not as fun as it sounds.)
The Bright Side
One of the main "lessons" of Hey Arnold!, if you will, was that despite dark moments, things could always be worse. You just had to look at the bright side. Arnold's family always reminded him how lucky he was -- he was in the habit of realizing how good he had it. In the movie, a character asked Arnold, "Why do you always have to look on the bright side?" He responded, "Somebody has to." It's a lesson for us all, no matter how clichéd. Let's recap: Arnold, a fourth grader, lived in a boarding house in a city with his grandparents because his real parents abandoned him, and he could still see the bright side of things. Yes, yes, he's just a cartoon. But why not take note?
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I loved Hey Arnold! and I love you for writing so clearly why I loved it in this article. TWoP should consider itself lucky it has found you, because you're such a good writer! Thank You for reminding me of this beloved cartoon, I'm gonna look for the DVDs!
OMG, I haven't seen Hey, Arnold in YEARS!! My sisters and I use to watch it along with the other classics Doug, Rugrats (I still have episodes on my DVR now), Rocko's Modern Life, Aww! Real Monsters and so many more. I will have to buy the DVDs!
Another great article from the intern who still needs to be offered a full time job immediately. I hope this isn't just a summer internship. Thanks for so accurately pinpointing why this show was amazing.
When my 17 year old niece was little we watched all the time. We loved the (Russian?) guy who lived at the boarding house who used to say "Susie! Make me a sandwich!"
One of my psychology professors showed the episode where they get stuck in the subway car, and the woman has claustrophobia. He said it was one of the best episodes of a children's show that he'd ever seen.
I agree... I miss this show. It's one of my favourites.
This is a great article! My friends and I were just taking about how fantastic "Hey Arnold!" was yesterday, and you brought up a lot of the same points we did.
Also, does anyone else remember the episode with flashbacks to Arnold's parents, in which it seems to be implied that they died?
Any kids show that has Andy Dick as MonkeyMan gets my loyalty. I still quote that episode. I think I liked that show more than my daughter did!
Wow, I haven't thought about this show in years. It really was great, though...and not just because of Helga (and the unibrow).
I STILL randomly get bits of this show stuck in my head. The Carmen episode - "Do you LIKE my PANTS they were made in FRANCE"; the mayor yelling "VEGe-ta-bles, VEGE-ta-BLES, VEG-E-TE-BLES" in that kid's Field Of Dreams episode...
Yeah, Arnold's parents died.
I had the musical episode on tape! It was that good. And I loved Helga. She had such a troubled home- her mum was clearly an alcoholic and her dad ignored her. There's a great ep where he tries to reconnect with her and takes her to a show he thinks she wanted to see- "Rats". :D And of course, Dino Spumoni.
I used to watch this show every day. A friend asked me why I liked it once, and just being a kid, I couldn't really answer her- but I think you just listed all the reasons. "Hey Arnold" was a dark, twisted show, but it had hope and depth. It's hard to find a show like that for kids these days.
I can still remember the whole Rats song! "We're rats, we're rats, we're furry and forlorn, we live in sewers, love in sewers and our hearts are torn." I could recite the rest but I think I've already proven my nerdiness.
Loved this show! I still remember Helga's cousin who said everything was "ever so" something, chocolate boy, and "I saw your face and wow!"
Hey Arnold was my favorite 90s cartoon. It was smart without being "message-y" and funny without being juvenile. I STILL sing the lyrics to "What's Opera, Arnold" when I hear music from Carmen. You forgot one of my favorite wacko characters - Curly! And my favorite episodes were the urban legends ones. The Haunted Train creeped me out so badly as a kid.
Hey Arnold was my favorite 90s cartoon. It was smart without being "message-y" and funny without being juvenile. I STILL sing the lyrics to "What's Opera, Arnold" when I hear music from Carmen. You forgot one of my favorite wacko characters - Curly! And my favorite episodes were the urban legends ones. The Haunted Train creeped me out so badly as a kid.
Wonderful article! I loved this show when I was kid, and having watched bits of it on youtube recently, it still holds up very well now. This show respected its audience, if that makes sense. Glad to see others remembering if fondly as well.
Hey Arnold was fantastic, largely because Arnold was such a decent, modest, and compassionate kid, and he had great relationships with his friends (Gerald!) and relatives. And I, too, loved the urban legends, although they definitely creeped me out as a kid. I consider both Hey Arnold and Arthur to be some of the finest children's programming, with honest relationships, relatable protagonists, and street-smart lessons.
I watched Hey Arnold! with my son when he was little, (along with Rugrats, Doug, the Powerpuff Girls, and Courage the Cowardly Dog, which was pretty weird, too). I loved how kind Arnold was. My all time favorite is the Christmas episode, where Arnold tries to find the now grown-up daughter of his neighbor, Mr. Huynh. He had managed to get his baby girl onto a helicopter evacuating his city (clearly in Vietnam thoughy its never said), and had spent his life searching for her. I always cry my eyes out at the end when poor, disconsolate, lonely Mr. Huynh is standing by the fireplace on Christmas day and suddenly he hears his daughter's voice behind him. (Jeez, I'm tearing up right now!)And HELGA is the one who brings it about! And she never tells Arnold. Such a great episode on so many levels. About the power of love, and steadfast hope, and how its better to give than receive. A classic.
I am also a major Hey Arnold fan. I also loved "As Told by Ginger" and think that's another of Nick's shows that was brilliant but cancelled
"Hey Arnold!" definitely deserves a chance to be rerun, but it wasn't the best of NickToons' cartoon shows, in my opinion. That honor would go to either "Ahh! Real Monsters" or "Rocko's Modern Life" -- now there are two classic gems. At least they're showing "Doug," another great show. I can see why you'd be wary of a "Hey Arnold!" revival -- after all, look what happened to "Rugrats" when that ran too long on Nick. Side Note: This comment was written before I read Cierrq's, above, which also includes all four of those shows. That solidifies in my mind that these four were the best and most memorable cartoons Nickelodeon had to offer back in the day.
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Im a big fan of the show ever since it came out when i was 8 or so. I wish Nick would bring it back, it was such a dark, twisty, uplifting , funny show. I liked it when it got dark, you dont find that anoymore. But, i got to nitpick about you said that Arnolds parents leaving him. They left him so they could help a tribe in San Lorezno that was dying off. They didn't want to leave him but they were the tribes only hope. But ya, My favorite characters are Helga, Curly and Grandpa!! Especially Grandpa
nice....!
Hey Arnold! is and always will be a classic in my mind! It would be amazing for it to be brought batwitter.com/hamiejr
Arnold's parents didn't leave him. They were missionaries and went on a flight to do thier jobs and the plane went down. I thought everyone knew that. That's where he got the pink hat. From his mom. As you can tell, i'm a huge fan.
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I wanted to spend a mitnue to thank you for this.
I'm glad to see the appreciation here for Hey Arnold! Even though you're article has made a good and basic understanding of this show, I don't think everyone understands the deeper picture. In EVERY single episode, at least the season 1, there is a message. There is a message behind every episode that entails to life. As a kid this was my #1 favorite, followed by Doug and Rocket Power. But Hey Arnold! was kept in a very special place in my heart because it truly moved me, even to this day. As a kid, I didn't understand every single message, but now I have an extremely pronounced understanding. For example, the episode "Pigeon Man". As a kid, I got the message that people are just mean and don't care about others. Now, watching it today, at the end when Vincent (Pigeon Man) decides to "leave" the city and fly away, I took it to a deeper level. Catching my drift yet? Suicide. I feel that episode was to show that when a person cannot take society and it's stereotypes, he/she can be so hurt that they decide the only way out is to "fly away". Watch the episode again and listen closely to the emotion that Arnold brings, especially when he says "Vincent..." Every episode in season 1 has at least one message, sometimes multiple. It's amazing how the writers of this cartoon brought this series to unprecedented levels, and did it ever so subtle. Not only are there lessons of life that are shown throughout this series, but even on a literal level. Watch the episodes and read some of the signs and background images throughout, it's amazing. Hey Arnold! was not just a kid's cartoon, it was truly something greater. An actual normal, everyday 4th grader would not catch some of things that are shown throughout this great animated series. Sure, they'll be able to grasp the basic concept of each episode, but when you get a little older and you relive these episodes, it's even BETTER. Ahhh and "Arnold's Christmas", what a fantastic episode, I've never been moved as a kid and an adult so much by 30 minutes of an animated cartoon episode. Kids these days don't even know what a real cartoon is, no offense, but I'm glad to know I'll have a stash of Hey Arnold! to show my kids when the time comes to show them what a real cartoon truly is.
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Dont forget the movie they made where Helga confesses her love to Arnold. It's very disappointing to me and many fans that Nick didn't make the second movie in which Arnold realizes he's in love with Helga, tells her, and kisses her for the first time. If you are interested, there is a FB fan page trying to bring back the second movie. And another group dedicated to bring on The Patakis (a spin off of HA where arnold has moved away and how Helga is just dealing with her life without him). This "cartoon" is simply amazing and deserves a spotlight again.
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