Hey Arnold!
Series, 1996, The '90s, Set in Hillwood
Hey Arnold! is #5 of 21 in release order and #5 of 21 in chronological order in the Nickelodeon Classics.
The story
The daily life of Arnold--a fourth-grader with a wild imagination, street smarts and a head shaped like a football.
Hey Arnold! recap
Arnold is a calm, kind fourth grader with a football-shaped head who lives with his grandparents Phil and Gertie in the Sunset Arms, a boarding house in the city of Hillwood full of odd tenants. He spends his days with his best friend Gerald and helps neighbours with their problems. Helga Pataki, a classmate from a neglectful family, bullies him in public and calls him Football Head, but she secretly loves him and writes poems to a shrine she keeps in her closet. The show runs five seasons, from 1996 to 2004, and mixes school stories with gentler episodes about the city's adults. Arnold's missing parents become a running thread. Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002) has the kids save the neighbourhood from a developer, and Helga confesses her feelings to Arnold on a rooftop before both agree to treat it as a moment of heat.
Hey Arnold! ending explained
The last episode made, "The Journal", has Arnold find his father's journal, which tells how his parents Miles and Stella met, how he was born and why they left for San Lorenzo, ending on a map that sets up a sequel. That sequel was cancelled, so the series stops on a cliffhanger in 2004. It returns as the 2017 TV film Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie: Arnold's class travels to San Lorenzo, Helga's locket helps release the cure for a sleeping sickness, Arnold finds his parents, and he and Helga finally kiss.
Where to watch Hey Arnold!
Hey Arnold! is streaming on Paramount+ and Hoopla in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.6/10
Where it fits
- Release order: after Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, before The Angry Beavers.
- Chronological order: after Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, before The Angry Beavers.
Cast
- Francesca Marie Smith as Helga Pataki (voice)
- Jamil Walker Smith as Gerald Johanssen (voice)
- Dan Castellaneta as Grandpa Phil (voice)
- Justin Shenkarow as Harold Berman(voice)
- Anndi McAfee as Phoebe Heyerdahl / Joy (voice)
- Christopher Walberg as Stinky Peterson / Bratty Kid #1 (voice)
- Phillip Van Dyke as Arnold (voice)
- Spencer Klein as Arnold (voice)
- Olivia Hack as Rhonda Wellington Lloyd (voice)
- Lane Toran as Wolfgang (voice)
- Sam Gifaldi as Sid (voice)
- Blake McIver Ewing as Eugene Horowitz (voice)
Created by Craig Bartlett.