| Hey Arnold! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Craig Bartlett |
| Based on | Arnold shorts by Craig Bartlett |
| Developed by |
|
| Creative director | Tuck Tucker |
| Voices of | |
| Theme music composer | Jim Lang |
| Opening theme | "Hey Arnold!" |
| Ending theme | "Stompin" |
| Composer | Jim Lang |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 100 (185 segments)(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Running time | 23 minutes (two 11-minute segments) |
| Production companies | |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon |
| Release | October 7, 1996 (1996-10-7) – June 8, 2004 (2004-6-8)[1] |
Hey Arnold! is an Americananimated sitcom created byCraig Bartlett forNickelodeon. It originally aired from October 7, 1996, to June 8, 2004.[1] The show centers on fourth graderArnold Shortman, who lives with his grandparents in aninner-citytenement in the fictional city of Hillwood. Episodes center on his experiences navigating urban life while dealing with the zany hijinks he and his friends encounter. Many episodes, however, focus on other characters, including major, secondary, supporting, and even minor characters.
Bartlett's idea for the show is based on a minor character named Arnold who he created while working onPee-wee's Playhouse. The executives enjoyed the character, and Bartlett completed the cast and setting by drawing inspiration from people and locations he grew up with inSeattle, Washington;Portland, Oregon; andBrooklyn, New York. Bartlett created the pilot episode in his living room in 1994 and official production began in 1995. The animators worked to transform Arnold fromclay animation tocel animation, leading to the series premiere in 1996.Hey Arnold! was the final series to be green lit (along withKablam!) under the leadership of network presidentGeraldine Laybourne. Production on the show concluded on December 7, 2001, after 5 seasons and100 episodes. Its last episode aired unannounced on June 8, 2004. A feature film based on the series,Hey Arnold!: The Movie, was released in theaters on June 28, 2002. All five seasons have been released on DVD.
On March 2, 2016, atelevision film continuation of the series,Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, was greenlit. It picks up from where the series ended and resolved unanswered plotlines of the story.[2][3][4] The film premiered on November 24, 2017, on Nickelodeon,Nicktoons Network,TeenNick,NickRewind and on November 24, 2018 as an international theatrical release, wrapping up the series' storyline.
Hey Arnold! takes place in the urban fictional American city of Hillwood. CreatorCraig Bartlett described the city as "an amalgam of large northern cities I have loved, includingSeattle (my hometown),Portland (where I went to art school) andBrooklyn (thebridge, the brownstones, the subway)";[5] the city also contains inspirations fromChicago, such as a baseball field called Quigley Field (a reference to the real-lifeWrigley Field).[6] Evan Levine of theHouston Chronicle commented on the series's "backdrop of dark streets, nighttime adventures and rundown buildings, all seen from a child's point of view."[7]
At the end of the episode "Road Trip", when Helga and Miriam are returning home after having car troubles en route toSouth Dakota, they pass a sign marking theWashington State border, implying that Hillwood is in Washington.[8][9] ThePig War, as re-enacted in the episode of the same title, took place on the boundary between what is nowBritish Columbia and the state of Washington.[10] A bridge that leads to downtown Hillwood resembles Portland'sBurnside Bridge, while Gerald's house was modeled after the Victorian houses seen inNob Hill, Portland.[9]
Hey Arnold! features nine-year-old Arnold Shortman (voiced byLane Toran;Phillip Van Dyke; Spencer Klein; andAlex D. Linz) and his neighborhood friends: Gerald Johanssen (voiced byJamil Walker Smith), a street-smart character who generally serves as the leader of the group; and Helga Pataki (Francesca Marie Smith), a girl who bullies Arnold in order to hide the fact that she is in love with him. Bartlett drew inspiration from people he grew up with when creating the characters for the show.[11]
Arnold lives with his eccentric but loving paternal grandparents, Phil Shortman (Dan Castellaneta) and Gertrude Shortman (Tress MacNeille), proprietors of the Sunset Armsboarding house, in the fictional city of Hillwood. In each episode, he helps a schoolmate or boarding house tenant in solving a personal problem or encounters a predicament of his own. Many episodes involveurban legends (usually told by Gerald), such assuperheroes or theHeadless Horseman.
Other characters include students and faculty at P.S. 118, Arnold's school, and citizens of Hillwood. Certain episodes focus on the lives of supporting characters, such as the tenants of the boarding house that Arnold's grandparents own.
| Season | Segments | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | ||||
| Pilot | July 10, 1996 (1996-07-10)(cinemas) | ||||
| 1 | 38 | 20 | October 7, 1996 (1996-10-07) | February 12, 1997 (1997-02-12) | |
| 2 | 37 | 19 | September 22, 1997 (1997-09-22) | December 1, 1997 (1997-12-01) | |
| 3 | 38 | 20 | August 31, 1998 (1998-08-31) | March 8, 1999 (1999-03-08) | |
| 4 | 35 | 19 | March 10, 1999 (1999-03-10) | March 11, 2000 (2000-03-11) | |
| 5 | 37 | 22 | March 18, 2000 (2000-03-18) | June 8, 2004 (2004-06-08)[12] | |
| Hey Arnold!: The Movie | June 28, 2002 (2002-06-28) | ||||
| Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie | November 24, 2017 (2017-11-24) | ||||
Craig Bartlett, the show's creator, was born in Seattle, Washington, which he used as inspiration for the backdrop ofHey Arnold!. He graduated from Anacortes High School and obtained a degree in communications fromThe Evergreen State College inOlympia, Washington.[13] During high school and college, he studied painting and sculpture at theMuseum Art School inPortland. Originally, Bartlett intended to become a painter "in the 19th-century sense", but he became interested in animation during a trip to Italy.[11] His first post-graduation job was atWill Vinton Productions, aclaymation studio in Portland.[13]
In 1987, Bartlett relocated to Los Angeles, where he joined a team developing claymationcutaways for the television programPee-wee's Playhouse. The short segments centered on a character named Penny and her friend Arnold. Bartlett later made threeArnold shorts:Arnold Escapes from Church (1988),[14]The Arnold Waltz (1990),[15][16] andArnold Rides a Chair (1991), the latter aired as a filler short onSesame Street in 1991. The same year,Arnold comic strips also appeared inSimpsons Illustrated magazine by Bartlett's brother-in-lawMatt Groening, the creator ofThe Simpsons.
Bartlett later joined the staff forRugrats, where he served as story editor for three years. In 1993, he teamed up with five writers fromRugrats to develop animated projects for Nickelodeon.[13] 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 gotmigraines just counting us coming in the door."[13] As a last resort, Bartlett played thePenny tapes, intending to highlight the Penny character. However, the executives were more impressed by Arnold, despite his status as a minor character.[13] 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."[13] 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 inHey Arnold! are girls that either liked or didn't like me when I was in school."[11]
In 1994, Bartlett began work on the pilot episode ofHey Arnold!. A year later, the network decided to begin work on the series.[11] The ten-minute pilot episode, titledArnold, was shown in theaters on July 10, 1996, beforeNickelodeon's first feature-length film, its adaptation ofHarriet the Spy.[13] Apart from the animation style, Nick's Arnold wears a sweater, with his plaid shirt untucked (resembling akilt). 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 wasJamil 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 episodeGerald's Tonsils. This would last untilThe Jungle Movie, which featuredBenjamin Flores Jr. as the voice of Gerald instead.
Production ofHey Arnold! wrapped on December 7, 2001.[17] A dispute over a second then-plannedHey 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.[1]The Jungle Movie was eventually released as a television film on November 24, 2017.
Hey Arnold! originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from October 7, 1996, until June 8, 2004, with reruns until September 1, 2006.Nicktoons Network aired reruns of the series from May 1, 2002 to February 11, 2024. The show aired in reruns on the now-defunctNick on CBS programming block for two years, from September 14, 2002, to September 4, 2004.
Some of the episodes can now be viewed on the free appPluto TV under the channel Nickelodeon's 90s Kids.
Hey Arnold! premiered on October 30, 1996, in the United Kingdom, originally onCITV.Hey Arnold! aired in reruns onCanadian Nickelodeon from January 10, 2010, to August 28, 2022. In 2017, theKenya Film Classification Board bannedHey Arnold!, together with the cartoon seriesThe Loud House,The Legend of Korra from Nickelodeon,Steven Universe,Clarence andAdventure Time fromCartoon Network, from being broadcast in Kenya. According to the Board, the reason was that these series were "glorifying homosexual behavior".[18]
In an article forVox, Caroline Framke praisedHey Arnold's depiction ofadolescence andurban 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."[19] 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".[20]Bustle's Marie Grace Goris suggested the series as the "best Nickelodeon cartoon of all time" and gave sixteen reasons why, such as its diverse characters and its ability to "emotionally stir" viewers.[21]
The Patakis was an attempted spinoff that never materialized.[22][23]
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,[24] Season 4 on November 27, 2009, and Season 5 on December 4, 2009.[25]
| 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 thatShout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series.[26] They subsequently released Season 1 in a 4-disc set on August 9, 2011.[27] Season 2, Part 1 was released in a 2-disc set on March 20, 2012,[28] followed by Season 2, Part 2 in a 2-disc set on July 24, 2012.[29] Season 3 was released in a 3-disc set on January 29, 2013, as a "Shout Select" title.[30] 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[31] 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 releasedHey Arnold!: The Ultimate Collection DVD containing all of the previously released episodes and movies now packaged into one set.[32]
In Australia, all five seasons have been released byBeyond 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 4 | |||
| Season 1 | 20 | 4 | August 9, 2011 (2011-8-9) | April 3, 2013 |
| Season 2, Part 1 Season 2, Part 2 | 19 | 4 | March 20, 2012 (2012-3-20) July 2, 2012 (2012-7-2) | April 3, 2013(complete) |
| Season 3♦ | 20 | 3 | January 29, 2013 (2013-1-29) | June 3, 2015 |
| Season 4♦ | 17 | 2 | May 14, 2013 (2013-5-14)[33] | June 3, 2015 |
| Season 5♦ | 24 | 3 | October 15, 2013 (2013-10-15)[34] | September 1, 2015 |
| The Complete Series | 100 | 16 | August 19, 2014 (2014-8-19)[35] | September 1, 2016 |
| The Ultimate Collection | 100, 2 Movies | 18 | November 20, 2018 (2018-11-20)[36] | |
♦ – Shout! Factory select title sold exclusively through Shout's online store.
In this 2002 feature film, Arnold, Helga and Gerald set out on a quest to save their old neighborhood from a greedy developer who plans on converting it into a huge shopping mall. This film was directed by Tuck Tucker, and featured guest voice talents ofJennifer Jason Leigh,Paul Sorvino andChristopher Lloyd.
In 1998, Nickelodeon gave Craig Bartlett the chance to develop afeature adaptation of the series.[37] As work on the fifth season was completing, Bartlett and company engaged in the production ofArnold Saves the Neighborhood, which would eventually becomeHey Arnold!: The Movie.[37] TheNeighborhood project was originally made for television and home video,[37][38] but executives atParamount Pictures decided to release it theatrically after successful test screenings.[38] According to animation historianJerry Beck (in hisAnimated Movie Guide), the decision was buoyed by the financial success of the first twoRugrats movies,The Rugrats Movie andRugrats in Paris: The Movie.[37]
In an interview with Arun Mehta, Craig Bartlett announced that he was working withNickelodeon on aHey Arnold! revival.[39] In September 2015, Nickelodeon president Russell Hicks announced that the company was considering revivals for a number of their older shows, includingHey Arnold!.[40] According to an announcement byThe Independent, aHey Arnold! revival is "very much on the cards".[41] On November 23, 2015, Nickelodeon announced that aTV movie is in the works and will pick up right where the series left off.[42] The film will also answer unanswered questions about the fate of Arnold's parents.[42] On March 1, 2016, it was announced that theTV film,The Jungle Movie, would be divided into two parts and would air in 2017.[4] On March 6, 2016, voice actressNika Futterman confirmed on Twitter that she and her character Olga Pataki would appear in the two-hour film.[43] In June 2016, it was confirmed that the TV film would be titledThe Jungle Movie, and that 19 of the original voice actors from the series would lend their voices in the film.[44] New cast-members included Mason Vale Cotton as Arnold;Benjamin "Lil' P-Nut" Flores as Gerald; Gavin Lewis as Eugene;Jet Jurgensmeyer as Stinky; Aiden Lewandowski as Sid; Laya Hayes as Nadine; Nicolas Cantu as Curly;Wally Wingert as Oskar;Stephen Stanton as Pigeon Man; andAlfred Molina as the villain Lasombra.[45] The film debuted on November 24, 2017, on Nickelodeon.
Before the premiere ofThe Jungle Movie, Nickelodeon stated that if the ratings of the film would succeed they would consider rebooting the series. Though the ratings were a success withmillennials, it ended up missing the mark withGeneration Z, so the idea of bringing back the show on Nickelodeon was scrapped. However, in August 2018, musical composer for the show Jim Lang revealed in a Tunes/Toons podcast that while Nick will not produce the show at the studio due to the poor ratings ofThe Jungle Movie, he said that: "Netflix,Amazon,Apple were all people that they were going to go out to with the idea of trying to make a season six ofHey Arnold!. We haven't heard anything yet, but we've got our fingers crossed."[46] In October 2019, Craig Bartlett revealed in an interview withThe Arun Mehta Show thatHey Arnold! could come back as a series with the characters aged up for season 6 if theRugrats reboot is successful.[47]
Hey Arnold! The Music, Volume 1 was released on July 3, 2020 as avinyl record, marking the first-ever official release of the show's music. The soundtrack included 45 minutes of previously unreleased music that had been remastered from the original audio files byEmmy Award-winning sound engineer Dave Marino in conjunction with show composer Jim Lang, as well as new original exclusive artwork done by Bartlett.[48]
As part of a presentation to promote its upcoming slate of programs, the kids-content media empire (comprising several cable networks and more) will unveil a live-action TV movie inspired by its mid-1990s game showLegends of the Hidden Temple, as well as a two-part TV movie based onHey Arnold!, one of its best-known animated series, which ran between 1996 and 2004.
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