Hey Arnold! is a television series created by Craig Bartlett and Nickelodeon. It aired in 1996 and lasted until 2004. The show centers on the titular character, Arnold and the daily life and struggle in his hometown, Hillwood. The origins of Hey Arnold starred when the boy was featured in claymations and shorts.
Premise[]
Hey Arnold! takes place in a rundown neighborhood in the fictional American city of Hillwood. Creator Craig Bartlett described the city as "an amalgam of large northern cities I have loved, including Seattle (my hometown), Portland (where I went to art school) and Brooklyn (the bridge, the brownstones, the subway)"; the city also contains inspirations from Chicago, such as a baseball field called Quigley Field (a reference to the real-life Wrigley Field). Evan Levine of the Houston Chronicle commented on the series's "backdrop of dark streets, nighttime adventures and rundown buildings, all seen from a child's point of view."
At the end of the episode "Road Trip", when Helga and Miriam are returning home after having car troubles en route to South Dakota, they pass a sign marking the Washington State border, implying that Hillwood is in Washington. The Pig War, as re-enacted in the episode of the same title, took place on the boundary between what is now British Columbia and the state of Washington. A bridge that leads to downtown Hillwood resembles Portland's Burnside Bridge, while Gerald's house was modeled after the Victorian houses seen in Nob Hill, Portland. New York City (with landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Twin Towers, and Statue of Liberty visible in the skyline) was also seen in Helga's dream in the episode "Married", presumably as a separate city from Hillwood in-universe.
Cast[]
Main Characters[]
- Arnold Shortman
- Helga Pataki
- Gerald Johanssen
- Grandpa Phil
- Grandma Gertie
- Harold Berman
- Phoebe Heyerdahl
- Rhonda Lloyd
- Eugene Horowitz
Recurring Characters[]
- Mr. Hyunh
- Oskar Kokoshka
- Suzie Kokoshka
- Lila Sawyer
- Robert Simmons
- Curly
- Brainy
- Nadine
- Sheena
- Ernie Potts
- Abner
- Big Bob
- Miriam Pataki
- Olga Pataki
Gallery[]
Episodes[]
- Main article: List of Hey Arnold! episodes
| Season | Episodes | Originally first aired | Originally last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilot | July 10, 1996 (cinemas) | ||
| 1 | 20 | October 7, 1996 | February 12, 1997 |
| 2 | 20 | January 6, 1997 | February 5, 1998 |
| 3 | 19 | August 31, 1998 | December 21, 1998 |
| 4 | 17 | March 10, 1999 | December 11, 1999 |
| 5 | 24 | December 28, 1998 | June 8, 2004 |
| Hey Arnold!: The Movie | June 28, 2002 | ||
| Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie | November 24, 2017 | ||
Production[]
Craig Bartlett, the show's creator, was born in Seattle, Washington, which he used as inspiration for the backdrop of Hey Arnold!. He graduated from Anacortes High School and obtained a degree in communications from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. During high school and college, he studied painting and sculpture at the Museum Art School in Portland. Originally, Bartlett intended to become a painter "in the 19th-century sense", but he became interested in animation during a trip to Italy. His first post-graduation job was at Will Vinton Productions, a claymation studio in Portland.
In 1987, Bartlett relocated to Los Angeles, where he joined a team developing claymation cutaways for the television program Pee-wee's Playhouse. The short segments centered on a character named Penny and her friend Arnold. Bartlett later made three Arnold shorts: Arnold Escapes from Church (1988), The Arnold Waltz (1990), and Arnold Rides a Chair (1991), the latter aired as a filler short on Sesame Street in 1991. The same year, Arnold comic strips also appeared in Simpsons Illustrated magazine by Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, who was also Craig Bartlett's brother-in-law.
Bartlett later joined the staff for Rugrats, where he served as story editor for three years. In 1993, he teamed up with five writers from Rugrats to develop animated projects for Nickelodeon. These meetings were generally difficult and the writers became frustrated; Bartlett recalled: "Our ideas were OK, but such a large and motley group couldn't get far at pitch meetings. Network execs got migraines just counting us coming in the door." As a last resort, Bartlett played the Penny tapes, intending to highlight the Penny character. However, the executives were more impressed by Arnold, despite his status as a minor character. After the meeting, the group began developing Arnold, creating his personality. Bartlett stated: "We did a lot of talking about who Arnold is. We came up with a reluctant hero who keeps finding himself responsible for solving something, making the right choices, doing the right thing." After creating ideas for Arnold, Bartlett began work on the supporting characters, drawing influence from his childhood: "A lot of the characters are an amalgam of people I knew when I was a kid. The girls in Hey Arnold! are girls that either liked or didn't like me when I was in school."
In 1994, Bartlett began work on the pilot episode of Hey Arnold!. A year later, the network decided to begin work on the series. The ten-minute pilot episode, titled Arnold, was shown in theaters on July 10, 1996, before Nickelodeon's first feature-length film, its adaptation of Harriet the Spy. Apart from the animation style, Nick's Arnold wears a sweater, with his plaid shirt untucked (resembling a kilt). Only Arnold's cap remains unchanged from his original clay-animation wardrobe.
Hey Arnold! was Nickelodeon's first animated series to feature kids voiced by actual children instead of adults. As a result of this, many of the boy characters, including Arnold himself, were recast at least once throughout the show's run, due to the child actors reaching puberty. One notable exception to this was Jamil Walker Smith, the voice of Gerald. After Smith's voice changed, auditions for a new actor were held, but the crew felt none of them were suitable replacements. As a result, Smith was kept on as the voice of Gerald, whose voice subsequently changed in-universe with the episode Gerald's Tonsils. This would last until The Jungle Movie, which featured Benjamin Flores Jr. as the voice of Gerald instead.
Production of Hey Arnold! wrapped on December 7, 2001. A dispute over a second then-planned Hey Arnold! movie, The Jungle Movie, resulted in Bartlett leaving Nickelodeon. The last season's episodes were released over four years, beginning on March 4, 2000. The series aired its final episode, unannounced, on June 8, 2004. "The Jungle Movie" was eventually released as a television film on November 24, 2017.
Broadcast[]
United States[]
Hey Arnold! originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from October 7, 1996, until June 8, 2004, with reruns until September 1, 2006. In 2002, Nicktoons Network began broadcasting the show, and aired reruns of Hey Arnold! until May 30, 2007, when the show was taken off its nightly schedule. The show aired in reruns on the now-defunct Nick on CBS programming block for two years, from September 14, 2002, to September 4, 2004.
International[]
Hey Arnold! premiered on October 30, 1996, in the United Kingdom, originally on CITV. Hey Arnold! aired in reruns on Canadian Nickelodeon from September 5, 2011, to August 29, 2022. In 2017, the Kenya Film Classification Board banned Hey Arnold!, together with the cartoon series The Loud House, The Legend of Korra, Steven Universe, Clarence and Adventure Time, from being broadcast in Kenya. According to the Board, the reason was that these series were "glorifying homosexual behavior".
Critical Reception[]
Retrospective[]
In an article for Vox, Caroline Framke praised Hey Arnold’s depiction of adolescence and urban life, stating: "Hey Arnold wove urban legends into its empathetic narrative of how hard it can be to grow up — and how rewarding the process can be when you have some friends and a whole lot of imagination." Rafael Motamayor of /Film echoed that sentiment, writing "Rather than show it as a scary place where every cop show in America is set, Arnold and his friends demonstrated that the city is also a place with endless possibilities, myths, and characters. Not that the show encouraged anything bad; the kids always knew where to go and where not to go. But it showed the reality of millions of kids who grew up in urban areas, and challenged the idea of the perfect American life". Bustle’s Marie Grace Goris suggested the series as the "best Nickelodeon cartoon of all time" and cited sixteen reasons why, such as its diverse characters and its ability to "emotionally stir" viewers.
Home media[]
Nickelodeon released all five seasons on DVD in Region 1 via Amazon.com through its CreateSpace Manufacture-on-demand program in 2008 and 2009. Season 1 was released on August 21, 2008, Season 2 on August 29, 2008, Season 3 on December 8, 2009, Season 4 on November 27, 2009, and Season 5 on December 4, 2009.
| CreateSpace Releases | Release Date | Discs | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | August 21, 2008 | 4 | 20 |
| Season 2 | August 29, 2008 | 4 | 19 |
| Season 3: Volume 1 & Volume 2 | December 8, 2009 | 6 | 20 |
| Season 4 | November 27, 2009 | 4 | 17 |
| Season 5 | December 4, 2009 | 4 | 24 |
On May 9, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series. They subsequently released Season 1 in a 4-disc set on August 9, 2011. Season 2, Part 1 was released in a 2-disc set on March 20, 2012, followed by Season 2, Part 2 in a 2-disc set on July 24, 2012. Season 3 was released in a 3-disc set on January 29, 2013, as a "Shout Select" title. On May 14, 2013, Season 4 was released in a 2-disc set as a Shout exclusive followed by Season 5 released in a 3-disc set on October 15, 2013, also as a Shout exclusive making the entire series available on DVD. On August 19, 2014, the complete series was released in a 16-disc set through Shout! Factory as a Walmart exclusive. On November 20, 2018, Paramount Home Entertainment released Hey Arnold!: The Ultimate Collection DVD containing all of the previously released episodes and movies now packaged into one set.
In Australia, all five seasons have been released by Beyond Home Entertainment under license from Nickelodeon. A 16-disc collector's edition was released on September 1, 2016, containing all five seasons.
| DVD Name | Episodes | # of Discs | Release Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 20 | 4 | August 21, 2008 | April 3, 2013 |
| Season 2, Part 1 Season 2, Part 2 |
19 | 4 | March 20, 2012 August 29, 2008 |
April 3, 2013 (complete) |
| Season 3 | 20 | 3 | December 8, 2009 | June 3, 2015 |
| Season 4 | 17 | 2 | November 27, 2009 | June 3, 2015 |
| Season 5 | 24 | 3 | December 4, 2009 | September 1, 2015 |
| The Complete Series | 100 | 16 | August 19, 2014 | September 1, 2016 |
| The Ultimate Collection | 100, 2 Movies | 18 | November 20, 2018 | |
♦ – Shout! Factory select title sold exclusively through Shout's online store.
External Links[]
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