Early on, one of the commont themes of this show was urban legends.
Each of these back stories followed a similiar script. It's as if a group of people filled out the same page from a book of Mad Libs (anyone else remember those?), but each one had their own unique rendition. It's pretty cool.
They'd start with Sid saying how the legend of (insert name here) has been passed down from kid to kid for generations and "our own Gerald is the keeper of the tale."
And Gerald takes over. Other than being the Cameron to Arnold's Ferris Bueller (more on this in Gerald's own post), his big contribution to the series is telling these stories. And he's a REALLY good storyteller.
Various things that recur in every story: where it all began, various theories about what made them who they are or what became of them and sometimes you can see/hear a trace of them to this day. The End
Often times, Arnold investigates these legends and uncovers the truth. He's exceptionally good at befriending outcasts, but when it comes to reintroducing them to society, his record isn't as perfect. It's such a common thing for him; Gerald actually brings it up in one episode, about how he'd helped people in the past, but might not be so lucky this time. One of those rare instances where there's some sort of continuity in this series.
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Wheezin' Ed/Haunted Train
I decided to put both of these together because they occur early in the series... and they have one funny thing in common: Brainy making a random cameo.
Brainy is the weird kid that shows up whenever Helga has an aside to gush about Arnold... he starts breathing and he's literally right behind her and she smashes him in the face.
Somewhere in the middle of Arnold and his friends looking for treasure in the caves in Elk Island or investigating the legend of the "haunted train," there's heavy breathing that drums up tension, but when the lights come on, we see him.
Arnolds asks "Brainy, what are you doing here?"
Then he either says "Umm... something" or "Uh... I dunno." And there's a rimshot.
I do love myself a good rimshot...
It's even funnier on the train where Helga just throws him off the train without batting an eyelash.
But yeah... Brainy is this weird random dude that only says a few words the entire series. And he's voiced by show creator, Craig Bartlett... so it's pretty much a cameo by him.
So "Wheezin' Ed" apparently is a prohibition era gangster that stored his treasure on Elk Island and the kids go there to see if it's true. Instead, they find a couple of crooks that are hiding out there to forge counterfeit pennies. And the legend appears to be a falsehood... or at least inconclusive at this time.
Then with the Haunted Train, supposedly there's a train that'll pull you on when you're blinded by a white light. The lights flash on and off. Then there's a smell of rotten eggs as you arrive at the destination, which is rumored to be the gates of Hell. Arnold, Gerald and Helga are the only ones involved at this point.
By the time they arrive, an adult scolds them for trespassing. The train leads to a steel mill and only workers are supposed to be using the train. So they think the whole thing was made up... but we also see an apparition of the mad engineer from the story, so who knows?
Stoop Kid
There's all kinds of theories about how Stoop Kid came to live on his stoop. One about him being abandoned and another about him being dropped off there by aliens. But he grows to love his stoop so much that he becomes protective of it. Which is why he heckles anyone who dares to walk by or even look at it.
Arnold meets him when he accidentally loses his football on the stoop and is scared to retrieve it. He eventually gets up the courage to get it back when he surmises that since Stoop Kid never leaves his stoop, he wouldn't be able to chase him down afterwards. To which Gerald amends his common phrase "you're a bold kid" and changes it to "Arnold, you're bold. Bold and crazy."
His theory winds up being right... and word quickly gets around that Stoop Kid is afraid to leave his stoop. The other kids aren't afraid of him anymore and instead tease him about it.
Arnold overhears him sobbing and offers to help him overcome his fear. How he eventually convinces him: he shows him a library book of the greatest stoops in the world. The Spanish Steps and various famous landmarks. Word gets around and everyone sees Stoop Kid actually step off his stoop.
In the final scene as he and Arnold are talking, he thanks him and says he's not quite ready to travel the world yet. Also, "you've taught me a great thing. Now I can harass people from my stoop and from off my stoop" and Arnold replies "Gee, that really wasn't the point."
Harold makes fun of Stoop Kid as he walks by... but then Stoop Kid calls him out and starts to chase him down... frankly, he deserved to be his first off-stoop victim.
For some, this episode rings a little differently... a lot of people suffer from varying degrees of agoraphobia and it's not typically that easy to get over.
Pigeon Man
There's one episode where we see that Arnold has a trio of pet pigeons who deliver messages for him. Lester, Fester and Chester. One day, Chester falls ill and after hearing the legend of "The Pigeon Man," Arnold decides to take Chester to him.
The two of them kindle a nice little friendship. At one point, Arnold gets Vincent to leave his rooftop to share a pizza with him.
If I remember right, he said "these little pieces of pineapple, now that's weird..."
Pineapple does not belong on pizza, dang it!
But during this, Harold and, I think, Sid and Stinky go to the rooftop and mess with the birds. They make such a huge mess of things, the Pigeon Man is disheartened and decides he needs to leave for another city. He'd lived his whole life away from people because he felt they didn't understand him the same way his birds did.
It's a really sad moment in the series. Arnold blames himself for what happened, but Vincent reassures him: "you've shown me that some people can be trusted and I'll never forget that." Together with his pigeons, he flies away to the next city. Thinking about it earlier kinda choked me up a bit...
Big Casaer
There's a huge fish that lives in the city lake, so ancient that it was around during the same time as the dinoasurs. And it wound up in the lake because the shifting of the tectonic plates shrunk its environment.
During this time, there's a city wide fishing contest and Arnold boasts that he'll catch Big Caesar. Supposedly his Grandpa made an attempt to catch him decades earlier, but lost the battle.
By the time Arnold and Gerald arrive for the contest, all of the boats are gone except one... thus we have one of the running gags in the series.
"Oh no! There is no way we're fishing in a swan boat." (a few seconds later) "I can't believe we're fishing in a swan boat."
...yeah, there's often a situation where someone says "there's no way" they're doing something... cut to the next scene... and they say "I can't beleive" they're doing that exact thing. One of my favorite running gags for sure.
So Arnold and Gerald do net Big Caesar and are prepared to bring him back... then Arnold has some second thoughts as the fish looks at him with one big sad eye.
Gerald is dismayed: "Oh no! You're not thinking of letting him go." Arnold reiterates "He's one of our urban legends."
Gerald tries, but ultimately fails to change his mind. "Don't you wanna be rich and famous?... oh man! Let's just do it quick before I change my mind."
Meanwhile, Grandpa is telling the story about how he fought the fish. He tells an officer that he has photographic evidence and hands him a picture.
"Sir, this is a photo of Hedy LaMarr."
"Exactly!... let me see that."
And Grandma is dressed as a pirate and keeps sqawking "making it up, making it up!"
The episode ends where Arnold and Gerald come back empty handed, but tell Grandpa the truth. After Grandma refuses to believe him (and drop character), he bemoans "why didn't I marry Hedy LaMarr when I had the chance?"
I found out years later that Hedy LaMarr is an actual actress. I haven't seen any of her movies yet, but when I hear her name, this episode is the first thing that comes to mind.
Monkeyman!
Throughout the series during the exterior cutaway scenes, you'll see or hear him running by as he yells out his catchphase.
We finally get to meet him in person in Season 4. Arnold is about to be mugged when he comes to his aid.
After hearing the legend, Arnold manages to track him down to thank him. They start to spend a lot of time together and Monkeyman finds himself fascinated by various things in society that he'd given up to fight crime. He gets so enthralled that he starts hanging out with a stuffy crowd of rich people. Arnold starts to get concerned about this change in behavior and worries things might have gone too far.
At the crux, Sid is mugged and his Beatle boots are stolen and he blames Monkeyman for not being there to help him. He's so upset about neglecting his duties of protecting the "weak and downtrodden" that he wants to leave, a move Arnold ultimately talks him out of.
The episode ends with Monkeyman sending Arnold a package containing Sid's boots and we hear him call out "Monkeyman!" in the distance.
Crabby Author
I had to include hermits in the title for this person in particular.
Arnold wants to do a school report on his favorite author, Agatha Caulfield. He learns that she lives alone on Elk Island and Sheena's uncle Earl (the same boatman from "Wheezin' Ed") offers to sail him there.
But when he meets her, he learns she's a mean old lady. Despite his insistence on interviewing her for his report, she tells him to leave every single time. He keeps this up for nearly a week until she finally lets him in the house.
The interview doesn't go any better. She criticizes his questions and says how writers make things up... pretty much saying that writing is a sham profession and they just write what they think will sell, not believing in what they're putting out there.
(As someone who aspires to be a published writer, I find that insulting... sure, I make stuff up, but I believe in my stories).
When it's time for him to leave, he says he's still going to do the report on her and she's at a complete loss as to why. He says it's because of the books she wrote and believes at one time, she believed in what she wrote.
He gives his report and while it's not the report he dreamed it would be, it's a really good one.
Meanwhile, she's inspired by the encounter to write a new book: "The Weird-Headed Boy and the Mean Old Witch." And it talked about how the witch forgot how to believe in magic and thanks to the boy's persistence, she was able to find it again.
As far as writing goes, this episode is one of my favorites, but I'd probably put in my top 20, not quite my top 10.
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