One of the highlights during Nickelodeon’s classic Nicktoon era, Hey Arnold! remains one of the best coming-of-age animated series that the network ever aired… and unfortunately could never quite re-capture again. A mix of comedy, adventure, and occasional drama, Hey Arnold! stars Arnold, an optimistic and clever kid with a football shaped head, who attends fourth grade with his slew of neighborhood friends, including his best friend Gerald.
Raised by his eccentric grandparents, Arnold navigates life by helping others and realizing his own purpose, all while living in his boarding house with a slew of equally eccentric tenants and his pet pig. It wasn’t just a funny series, though. Hey Arnold! was very down to Earth in the way it depicted kids living in the sprawling fictional city of Hillwood (a combination of New York, Oregon, and Seattle). Arnold lives a life that’s not nearly as upbeat as you’d imagine, yet he approaches every obstacle with a positive outlook and an infectious sense of hope.
The unique art style of the series owes much to its creator, Craig Bartlett, who developed Arnold’s life based loosely on his own in Seattle. Hey Arnold! was never short of some truly funny and entertaining episodes, many of which manage to establish a genuine connection with empathetic viewers, in addition to a slew of really funny running jokes and sight gags. Not surprisingly the series even embraced urban folklore, implementing a lot of urban legends for some of the spookiest stand alone episodes.
Among the best running gags over the course of the series were the mysterious last name of Arnold, the consistent mention of his head resembling a football, and his secret crush on school bully Helga, a unibrowed and aggressive girl who admires Arnold from afar, but struggles to express her true feelings. There’s a heavy emphases on Arnold’s life within the boarding house, spotlighting a lot of the unusual tenants, and Arnold’s own grandparents, both of whom are very loving but always on the verge of lunacy. Voiced by Tress MacNeille and Dan Castellaneta they’re constant highlights in Arnold’s universe, guiding him to become a better person, all the while attempting to maintain their general sense of reality.
The series ran for five seasons on Nickelodeon with a total of 100 episodes, and serves as a stellar example of animated television of the 90s. Among the best episodes were Arnold and Gerald trying to live out the perfect day, Arnold and Gerald skipping a school pageant as revenge on Helga and running in to trouble, Arnold creating his own rooftop party when his friends are excluded from a “cool kid’s party,” and the kids getting lost on the subway after a wrestling match. I also really love the episode where Arnold helps the agoraphobic “Stoop Kid” get off his stoop to explore the world.
While the series mainly focused on Arnold, it also took time out to delve in to the personalities of many of the supporting characters with such touching results like when Gerald moves out of his house because he feels overcrowded by his family. In one of the best installments, a psychologist meets with Helga to gain insight on why she can’t express her emotions to Arnold without becoming violent. There’s also a fine episode where another local bully, Harold, has to embrace growing up and read the torah to celebrate his bar mitzvah.
The series was never afraid to focus on the boarding house residents, either, with a Christmas episode centered on Vietnamese immigrant’s (Mr. Hyunh) reunion with his long lost daughter. Arnold also takes it upon himself to help boarding house resident Oskar, when he reveals he is illiterate. Later in the series, the writers took time out to delve in to the mysterious origins of Arnold’s parents. In one of the more gripping episodes, Arnold takes part in a family competition with his grandparents at a picnic, prompting Helga’s over competitive father to mock Arnold for being an orphan. This causes Arnold to reflect on his childhood and learn the ultimate fate of his parents. It’s one of many touching and sweet episodes that featured characters which could make you laugh, but also win you over with their genuine sense of humanity.
After its long and impressive run on Nickelodeon, Hey Arnold! flourished in syndication for many more years. It was later released on VHS and even spawned an inspiring series of books chronicling the adventures of Arnold and his friends. In 2002, Nickelodeon released a rather awful feature film adaptation of Hey Arnold! to mixed reviews, followed by a series of Season DVD releases by Shout! Factory in 2011.
Sadly, on June 27th 2014, series writer Steve Viksten – who penned fan favorites like “Arnold’s Hat” and “Stoop Kid” in addition to providing the voice for Oskar Kokoshka – passed away. The hard work and timeless creativity from Viksten and Bartlett has lived on, though, as Hey Arnold! remains a favorite among kids that grew up in the 90s and has even found a fan base with a newer generation of viewers. It’s a series that hearkens back to classic Nickelodeon, when they focused on kids that were merely trying to grow up… instead of becoming famous or rich.
