Actor Existence Limbo: For some reason, Lou Rawls stopped doing voice work for Harvey after the season 4 episode "Chocolate Turtles". According to the leaked plot details from the cancelled Jungle Movie, Harvey was supposed to have a speaking role again, but this did not happen in the 2017 Jungle Movie due to the death of Lou Rawls in 2006 and unlike Oskar and Pigeon Man, whose actors had likewise died during the hiatus, Harvey was not recast and was simply kept silent.
Actor-Inspired Element: When Gerald's then-actor Jamil Walker Smith started going through puberty, the episode "Gerald's Tonsils" was written to accommodate his breaking voice.
Actor-Shared Background: In "April Fool's Day", Arnold is able to trick Helga into thinking his "gift" to her is a belated birthday present, because her birthday was "last week" - as in, late March; Francesca Marie Smith, who voices Helga, was born on March 26. (By contrast, Arnold was born on "the 7th" - a reference to the series premiere date of October 7, 1996.)
Adored by the Network: Some have accused Hey Arnold! of becoming this for the NickRewind block (back when it was called The '90s are All That) on TeenNick. While most of the cartoons shown from 10:00PM-11:00PM were supposed to rotate each week, Hey Arnold! seemed to fill this slot every other week, and whenever the block has time to fill, one could expect to see Hey Arnold! there. This may be because A: the show has a huge fanbase and B: Nick is making up for having treated the show badly during its' final couple of years. This treatment stopped when the block was retooled into NickSplat; that being said, it was the final Nicktoon to air on the block before it became entirely live-action, concluding its run on 17 January 2022 (fifteen days before the block would take its final breath).
Banned in China: The show got banned in Kenya in 2017 for supposed suggestive content.
Creator Backlash: Not exactly backlash, but Craig Bartlett regrets how Lila's subplot got her a bad reputation among fans, and wished he'd have ended Arnold's crush on her long before he did.
From the episode "Summer Love", the dancing instructor named Carlos was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.
Maurice, the actor who played "The Abdicator" in "Eugene Goes Bad" was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Word of God confirmed that Arnold's middle name is "Phillip", his third voice actor was Phillip Van Dyke (though Phillip is also his grandfather's name).
Dawson Casting: Most of the child actors on the show were at least a few years older than the characters they portrayed and many were grown or almost grown by the time the show ended. For example, Anndi McAfee, Phoebe's voice actress, was 17 when she began recording dialogue for the nine-year-old Phoebe. And that's not even going into the middle-aged Craig Bartlett providing Brainy's voice.
There was a widespread internet rumor that claimed that the original ending of the episode "Pigeon Man" had Vincent plunge himself off of the building, committing suicide, and Nick execs rejected this ending due to it being too depressing. Some people even claimed that Arnold seeing Vincent fly off into the sky in the actual ending was some sort of way for him block out the image of seeing Vincent jump to his death. In an interview, Craig Bartlett debunked the rumor and stated that not only was the ending the only one they had in mind, but the image of a guy being tethered to numerous pigeons and flying away was the starting point, with the writers working backwards to figure out how to get to that. This rumor saw the final nail in its coffin when it was announced the Pigeon Man would return for The Jungle Movie.
Though lesser known than the previous one, there also was a rumor claiming that Craig Bartlett hated "Arnold Betrays Iggy" so much that he asked Nickelodeon to pull it from rotation and made the writers publicly apologize. Bartlett debunked these rumors too on his Instagram page.
In a related vein to the previous two, some sources claimed Nickelodeon trying to get Craig to sign a two-year exclusivity contract was part of the reason for the Jungle Movie not being made back in 2002. In fact, Craig and his crew simply left Nick after finishing "The Journal", and didn't come back since TJM wasn't put in production.
The claim about background character and resident in Arnold's building, Lana Vail having a crush on the 10-year-old Arnold is often attributed to Bartlett, with a claim execs wisely turned it down due to unfortunate implications.... but it has never been sourced to an actual interview, although it was on the wiki for a very long while.
Another early Internet rumor was that Arnold's parents were originally meant to be dead, and that the reveal of their mysterious disappearance in "Parents Day" was just a case of Never Say "Die" mandated by Nickelodeon. But according to his interview, Craig Bartlett always envisioned Miles and Stella as still alive – in his original concept, they were documentary filmmakers who were just abroad making movies, and he only changed them to humanitarians who disappeared when he realized their absence deserved more emotional weight.
Inspiration for the Work: Many of the stories seen in the show were based on experiences Craig Bartlett and his crew had as children. Plus, several characters are inspired by real people Bartlett grew up with.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: The original pilot hadn't been seen since it was shown alongside Harriet the Spy in theaters only 3 months before the series premiered. Until 2018 when the entire series was rereleased with it as an extra feature.
In 2003, Wendy's sold bendy figures of Arnold, Gerald, Helga, and Grandpa Phil, as well as a two-sided "Urban Games" game board.
Missing Episode: For some reason, TeenNick never reruns "Married". That episode is only available in the DVD or digital releases. It wouldn't be until the month long marathon hyping up The Jungle Movie over a decade later for this episode to be seen again in syndication.
Phillip Van Dyke wasn't comfortable singing for "What's Opera, Arnold?", so Toran Caudell sung for Arnold instead, since he could still sound like Arnold when he sang.
Adam Wylie, Curly's main voice actor, was replaced and quickly reinstated twice.note Though the second time this was done using archived recordings rather than him voicing new lines, since Curly's only speech was laughter.
The Other Darrin: The show went through several instances of this in its original run, despite not being a Long Runner. This was due to the fact that the child characters were played by real children, whose voices tend to change as they get older:
Eugene was played by four actors. Ben Diskin, his 3rd voice actor, lasted the longest at three-and-a-quarter seasons.
Gerald's older brother, Jamie O was originally voiced by Ben Aaron Hoag, in his first few appearances, but was portrayed by Phil LaMarr in his later appearances.
An interesting example with Curly is that they replaced, then reinstated his 2nd voice actor, Adam Wylie, twice.
Arnold himself has probably the most extreme example of this trope, with a grand total of five (if you count the original pilot) different voice actors! They consist of J.D. Daniels (The pilot), Toran Caudell (Season 1 and Arnold's Singing Voice in "What's Opera, Arnold?", Phillip Van Dyke (Seasons 2 and 3), Spencer Klein (Seasons 4, 5 and The Movie), and Alex D. Linz (the post-movie episodes "April Fool's Day" and "The Journal"), and that's not even counting his Time-Shifted Actor Rusty Flood during flashbacks. Spencer Klein lasted the longest with 37 episodes and a movie, and is considered the favorite Arnold voice actor by many fans.
Sid was voiced by Sam Gifaldi for most of the series, but his voice changed at the very end of the last season and he was replaced by his younger brother Taylor for "April Fools Day".
Due to Season 1 episodes being held over on The Shelf of Movie Languishment, some episodes featuring Miss Slovak were aired after Mr. Simmons had already been introduced. A similar thing happened with Lorenzo. His introduction episode aired long after he'd already appeared in another episode.
"The Journal" was the last episode produced, and it was intended to be the last to air before Jungle Movie. It wound up airing before four other Season 5 episodes.
Strangely enough, this trope seems to be exclusive to the US. In every other country, every episode (except maybe holiday specials) was aired in the intended order and finished airing by 2002, with "The Journal" being the final episode.
Recast as a Regular: After Toran Caudell got replaced by Phillip Van Dyke as Arnold in Season 2, Caudell would then get recast as the fifth grade bully, Wolfgang.
Recycled Script: A fair amount of the later episodes are retreads down the paths of older ones.
"The Little Pink Book", "Helga's Parrot", "Helga's Locket" and "Helga Blabs It All" all share the same concept: an item that reveals Helga's secret crush somehow gets into Arnold's hands, and Helga goes to extremes in order to retrieve it or destroy it, usually by breaking into the Boarding House.
"Sid the Vampire Slayer", "Sid's Revenge" and "Sid and Germs" can all be summed up in a sentence: "Sid gets paranoid about something and spends 11 minutes freaking out about it while Arnold tries to snap him out of it".
"On The Lam" is basically a combination of the above three episodes and "Full Moon".
Rhonda learns not to be stuck-up at least three times. (Rhonda's Glasses, Polishing Rhonda, Rhonda Goes Broke)
"Olga Get Engaged" and "Jamie O in Love" revolve around Helga's older sister and Gerald's older brother respectively, falling in love with complete jerkasses.
Both "Beaned" and "April Fool's Day" have Helga fake an injury long after recovering from it in order to have Arnold take care of her. "Phoebe Breaks a Leg" has Phoebe do it to Helga.
The most prominent example, however, is "Love and Cheese," which is "Operation Ruthless," just with Lila replacing Ruth while showing off the deeper development the characters had been given in the years between the episodes. Fully cognizant of this, the episode is full of references to Ruthless - several lines from the first episode are repeated and/or referenced, Ruth herself cameos on several occasions in the background (despite not appearing at all in the show for quite a while), and Phoebe and Gerald are shown walking past scenes together - a reference to how they hooked up in the background during the plot ofRuthless.
The Angry Beavers: In "Dumbwaiters", when Dagget and Norbert open up a box full of rubber masks, one of them is of Helga Pataki.
My Life as a Teenage Robot: In the final episode, one of the inventors at the convention has a machine that looks oblong when in motion. She describes it as, "And when it moves, it looks like Arnold. Remember Arnold?"
Arnold appears in a commercial for Paramount+, where Sir Patrick Stewart attempts to toss him over Paramount Mountain, due to him having a football-shaped head. Arnold ends up smacking into the wall of the mountain and sliding down.
A sketch from "Jew No. 1 Opens a Treasure Chest" involves Helga having killed Arnold and placing his head over hers so they can become one a la The Silence of the Lambs. Anndi McAfee reprised her role as Phoebe Heyerdahl.
A sketch from "May Cause Immaculate Conception'' involves Gerald finding Arnold upset on Mother's Day because he never got to meet Stella, his mother. A flashback shows Stella dying after giving birth to Arnold and Miles having also died due to falling out a window while trying to catch the newborn Arnold when he popped out.
A sketch from "May Cause One Year of Orange Poop" involves Helga killing Arnold's friends and family so that she and Arnold can be together.
In "Helga on the Couch", Harold is still voiced by Justin Shenkarow.
In "Married", in which Arnold and Helga are dreaming about growing up and marrying each other, Arnold still has Spencer Klein's young boy voice in both dreams. Francesca Marie Smith, Jamil Walker Smith and Ashley Buccille were still voicing Helga, Gerald and Lila as well.
Sending Stuff to Save the Show: Around 2009, fans started writing letters and signing petitions to get Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie back into production, and possibly save The Patakis as well. And well...they succeeded on their first mission.
Season 1 consists of 26 episodes, but Nickelodeon only aired 20 during its 1996 run. Out of the remaining six, five aired a year later at the end of Season 2; and the last one made it into late season 3 in 1998.
"Parents Day", the last Season 3 episode, was held back from a U.S. airing until May 2000, during Season 5. For comparison's sake, that episode aired in December 1998 in the U.K., a full year and a half before the U.S.
Season 5 in general. While Season 4 aired in 1999, Season 5 aired during 2000-2004. That's right: it took 4 years for one season! The first five episodes of the season (along with the aforementioned "Parents Day" and three heldover episodes from Season 4) were aired during early 2000. Then, only three episodes were aired in January 2001, and six more episodes aired in 2002. The final episode produced, "The Journal", aired in November 2002. After that, Nickelodeon held back four episodes, which were aired over the span of two years. Three in 2003, and the final one in June 2004.
Short Run in Peru: Interestingly, pretty much all of the delays mentioned above were US-only. In most other countries, the series was aired in the correct order, and was finished by 2002!
Bob's business is built on selling beepers/pagers. Today, beepers are obsolete, having been replaced by cellular phones and then smartphones.
The events of "Buses, Bikes, and Subways" likely wouldn't have happened in The New '20s. Although cell phones did exist in 2000, a 9-year-old having one was unheard of at the time. Now that cell phones and smart devices are far more common for kids to carry, Helga likely would have been able to call or message Phoebe to have her alert Mr. Simmons to turn the bus around, and she and/or Harold wouldn't have had to resort to using a pay phone where they could only afford one call each.
Mr. Simmons. His voice actor is openly gay as well. This one's more a confirmation of some deliberate subtext in the series itself (it's pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that Mr. Simmons' "friend" Peter from "Arnold's Thanksgiving" is actually his romantic partner). Made about as Canon as possible without explicitly saying it in The Jungle Movie, where Peter is at the airport to see Mr. Simmons off on his trip to San Lorenzo and they share a very intimate embrace.
Arnold and Helga are meant for each other, and they do ultimately get married as adults.
Helga's mom is an alcoholic and those "smoothies" she drinks are just a child-friendly substitute for booze as Nickelodeon is, first and foremost, a kids' network and, despite having adult jokes in it for the Periphery Demographic, references to alcohol and alcoholism is best left to the adult shows on Nick at Nite (though there are mixed alcoholic drinks that exist as smoothie-type drinks, like the daiquiri, the hurricane, and the pina colada). The scene in "Arnold's Hat" where she asks Helga to pass her the Tabasco is especially telling, considering it's an ingredient for a Bloody Mary (or a Bloody Maria, if Miriam prefers tequila to vodka) and Caesar. She also tries reaching for Tabasco from a high shelf in "The Beeper Queen".
Arnold's last name? Turns out it's been said many times by Phil: Shortman. His middle name is Phillip.
The show takes place in the Pacific Northwest, most likely in Washington State.
Craig Bartlett has announced that if The Jungle Movie is successful enough, then Hey Arnold could be revived for at least one more season.
Sometime between the events of "The Journal"note Which, production-wise, is the last regular episode of the series prior to The Jungle Movie and The Jungle Movie, Suzie finally divorced Oskar and moved out of the Sunset Arms Boarding House.
Working Title: "Love and Cheese" was originally called "Operation Lila-less". And for good reason.
Written by Cast Member: Oskar Kokoshka's voice actor, Steve Viksten, wrote a large amount of episodes for the show and helped developing it.
Write What You Know: Some stories are based on experiences the production crew had when they themselves were kids. For example, the episode "Field Trip" was inspired by Craig Bartlett's own experience of freeing a turtle in a lake.
Write Who You Know: Craig Bartlett based many of the series' characters around people he knew growing up. In particular, Curly was inspired by a friend of Craig Bartlett in elementary school named Tim Jenson who once jumped onto his desk and sang the entire theme song to Daniel Boone.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The circumstances around Arnold's parents. When Craig Bartlett pitched the series to Nickelodeon, he told them something along the lines of "His parents make documentaries in Africa, and that's why they're not around". Aside from one tiny appearance in "Arnold's Hat", they were completely forgotten about... until fans began writing in to Nickelodeon asking about them. To respond to the fans, Bartlett wrote "Parents Day", which went into detail about their absence to answer fans' questions. Then, a few years later, when Nick ordered a Hey Arnold! theatrical film (which later became known as "The Jungle Movie"), they told Craig to do "the biggest idea he could think of"; and that idea ended up being Arnold going on a search for his lost parents. And then, at the very end of the seriesnote When the movie about saving the neighborhood was nearly complete, and The Jungle Movie was the only thing left to do., Nick told Craig to make a prequel episode to The Jungle Movie, "The Journal".
and preview the episode "Stuck In A Tree".