Now we're getting to the good ones...
Of all of the Nicktoons, "Hey Arnold!" is probably my favorite... and possibly one of my favorite TV shows in general. It follows Arnold and his group of friends as they go about their 4th grade lives in their city.
When it was first introduced, one of the biggest hype factors was that all of the young characters were actually going to be played by kids. Opposed to Doug and Rugrats where the adolescent/baby characters were all done by adults. And with the exception of Arnold himself (who went through at least 4 actors because their voices kept changing, haha), I think all of the younger characters maintained the same actors. As someone who has literally stopped watching shows due to casting changes, that's a nice change of pace.
What is it about this series that is so great?
It's hard to describe, exactly. It'd be easy to say it's just because Helga Pataki is my spirit animal... her infatuation with Arnold, the little moments where the tension eases between them and all of the close calls... I lived for all of it.
But MUCH more on that later... trust me, there'll be a lot of Helga-centric discussions upcoming.
The long answer... the writing was just so good and so relatable to me at that time when I was in 4th grade up to, I want to say, 8th grade... the situations the characters get into and just getting to know the various personalities...
One thing I noticed while doing the groundwork for the upcoming dozen or so posts (oh yeah, we're gonna be here a while)...
The episodes in season one were centered around story and accomplishing a certain objective. But going forward, the focus shifted to the characters. And it's a super colorful and memorable cast of characters at that.
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To make this post a little different from the previous intros, I'll highlight a handful of episodes before calling it quits.
Most of these were from season one and the storylines were so memorable, I still quote them to this day.
24 Hours to Live
For the sake of argument, this was the pilot of the entire series. Before the actual premiere, this was our first taste of it.
The kids are playing baseball and Arnold accidentally hits the baseball into face of bully Harold Berman. At the advice of Helga, he agrees to give Arnold 24 hours to think about what he did... before he pounds him.
The running gag throughout: Helga keeps showing up in random places telling Arnold to the second how much time he has left. When it progresses to her calling his house and shouting at him overnight with a megaphone, it's pretty hilarious.
He goes to his grandparents for advice, neither of them particularly helpful.
Grandma is in character as someone out on safari.
"Stay downwind or your breath. Carry plenty of ammo and eat everything you kill..."
The phone rings and he halfheartedly asks her to take a message.
It's Helga... and Grandma takes her message, not quite getting the implications of it.
"And is that fry or fly, dear?... oh, die... yeah, underline three times"
Hahaha! Awesome...
Grandpa suggests skipping town ("but you'll always be looking over your shoulder..."), reasoning with him ("ah, moron, eh?")... then he says "well, Arnold in my 80 years, I've only learned one thing for sure. ("What's that?") Never eat raspberies..." and he runs into the bathroom... that's a running gag for him throughout the series... you'd think after a while he'd make better choices.
The day finally comes... what Arnold does is literally crazy... he goes all James Brown on their butts, improvising a song & dance number and wins Harold's admiration.
Helga is happy he survived to live another day, but then adds, "Wait a minute! No fair. What about the fight? I sold tickets. There's gotta be a fight."
Harold picks two random characters to start fighting while he and his gang carry Arnold off on their shoulders.
Downtown as Fruits
Helga is directing a play where all of the kids in class are playing various food groups. Arnold and his best friend Gerald are sick of Helga's dictator directing style and ditch on opening night. What starts as an innocent trip on the bus where they decide to skip out on their spot... turns into an unexpected adventure.
They get off at the end of the line, stranded. Then out of nowhere, some random guy throws a sack of money at them. About which Arnold marvels, "wow, people downtown sure are friendly..." So they buy new clothes and ditch the costumes. But then they learn the money was meant for two thugs who were also dressed as fruits. While evading them, they duck into a psychic's office where Arnold decides they have to go back.
The funny part is where they leave without paying and the psychic bemoans, "Wait, where's my $3.50? I should have foreseen this..."
In the end, they get back in time to fulfill their roles in the play.
Another running gag from the series is introduced here: Helga finds out that the guys ditched and she screams Arnold's name at the top of her lungs.
Cut to Arnold and he says "Did you hear something just now?" Gerald did not... yeah, he has some weird Vulcan hearing when Helga screams his name. It's weird, but it's a fun little detail.
Heat/Snow
These are actually back to back episodes so why not talk about them together?
I don't remember much about the Snow episode except two things; Arnold lingering over his radio for the DJ to annouce that PS118 is closed and Harvey the mailman doing a quick diddie about why he hates the snow. At one point, he even falls through a massive snow mountain and comes out the other side, completely unphased.
Both sides of the coin... I'd been there for sure :P The wiki just says Grandpa has Arnold doing all kinds of chores while the focus keeps cutting to his friends having fun... and he gets to join them at the end.
"Heat"... oh man... so many quotes I still use to this day. It's the middle of a heat wave. All of the citizens are looking for any way just to keep cool.
Arnold is tasked with getting ice, but by the time he gets home, it melts... by this time, Gerald finds him and when he has to bail ("What?! No ice!"), they try to find a way to cool off. With a lot of roadblocks in their way.
There's a line for the movies and none of the titles look like fun watches on a 100+ degree day. Invasion of the People-Melters, The Day the Sun Exploded, Hotter than the Sun...
Then they go to the pool and it's full... and Arnold is livid.
"C'mon, mister, make room!"
"Forget it, kid. You're too late. Besides, the water's not even cold."
"I don't care... let me in... c'mon, let me in..."
oh yeah, that's a good one.
But the ultimate... the ice cream truck driver, the Jolly Olly Man, is price gouging and the other kids are voicing their complaints. The first time I'd ever heard of price gouging... and people don't think cartoons teach you anything...
According to Sid: "The jerk's charging 20 bucks for a scoop of ice cream. ("20 bucks?") Well, rum raisin's only 15, but he wants 30 for cookie dough!"
Helga gets the bright idea to flip the truck and that's what the other kids decide to do... even after the guy says they can have rum raisin for 10...
Fortunately for everyone, it starts raining and they finally have a way to cool off physically and mentally.
6th Grade Girls
In an effort to make their "good-for-nothing boyfriends" jealous, 6th graders Connie and Maria ask Gerald and Arnold to their dance. Arnold isn't sure how to act, but Gerald insists that he can handle it... such a rare opportunity is too good to pass up.
Mainly, I remember this episode for two sections of dialogue.
Everytime someone questions if the guys are 6th graders, Gerald says "we never ate our vegetables"... yeah, sure.
But the best... Maria and her boyfriend Tommy... it's so funny.
"Maria! Come over here!"
"Tommy, you come over here!"
And it just keeps going until they say "forget you" to each other.
We see Connie and Maria in a later episode... and they're not quite as nice as they were here. At least they gave Arnold and Gerald a nice kiss before going back to their boyfriends.
This wasn't a situation I ever encountered myself... but it's an interesting concept... kids in one grade being in awe of the fact kids in an older grade is giving them the time of day.
Helga's Makeover
Yeah, I'm ending this on a Helga storyline... but not for the reason you'd think...
Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd (the rich girl of this series) is having a girls only slumber party and Helga was the only one not invited. After a series of comments, she's concerned that she's not feminine enough and that's why she was left out.
So she resolves to change everyone's minds by giving herself a makeover, following the advice of a teen magazine. Donning this new look, she crashes Rhonda's party and the other girls are impressed with all of the beauty tips she's spewing out.
Except for her best friend, Phoebe. She takes her aside and says she liked the old Helga better and how that person would never change anything about themselves to fit in with the crowd. Just before getting her first facial, Helga finally heeds her bestie's advice and gives the other girls a really good speech.
"We don't have wrinkles. We don't have signs of aging. We're 9 years old." And noting their footwork, she says "why are we wearing these? We're already taller than the boys."
Before she can answer the burning question about what's more fun than glamming up... the guys crash the party, get freaked out by the ones wearing avocado masks and run away. Except for Harold... they capture him and give him a makeover of his own.
The final comments are between Helga and Phoebe:
"Now, this is my kind of party."
"You said it, Helga."
...there's not a lot that really happenes, but it's a good episode to ponder over. I think all of us girls went through similiar experiences where the other girls were obsessing over makeup and looking pretty. And how tomboys feel out of place with their girl friends because of it. To this day, I'm still the kind of girl who prefers pants to skirts (that sometimes changes when I go out somewhere nice) and I'm still not a fan of makeup. The first time I ever wore any was for the high school musicals and it was mandatory for all people present on stage.
It's also a nice introduction to the friendship between Helga and Phoebe. Helga is a bit of a bully and it doesn't seem like she's popular with a lot of people... but no matter what, Phoebe always has her back. Even if it means giving her some tough love.
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That's good for now.
Next time: a recurring plot point from season one... Urban Legends
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