History Trivia / HeyArnold

** ''WebVideo/SuperMarioLogan'': "Friday the 13th!" begins with Bowser Junior, Joseph, and Cody watching a fictional episode of ''Hey Arnold!'' on Nickelodeon. In the episode, Arnold bumps into Helga, who tells him "Watch where you're going, Football Head!" Arnold then says "Football Head? My head's not the only thing shaped like a football!" and promptly rapes Helga.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: The events of "Buses, Bikes, and Subways" likely wouldn't have happened in TheNew20s. 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.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: Bob's business is built on selling beepers/pagers. Today, beepers are obsolete, having been replaced by cellular phones and then smartphones.

* TechnologyMarchesOn:
** The events of "Buses, Bikes, and Subways" likely wouldn't have happened in TheNew20s. 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.

** Helga's mom ''is'' an alcoholic and those "smoothies" she drinks are just [[FrothyMugsOfWater a child-friendly substitute for booze]] as Nickelodeon is, first and foremost, a kids' network and, despite having adult jokes in it for the PeripheryDemographic, 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 a Bloody Mary (or a Bloody Maria, if Miriam prefers tequila to vodka) ingredient. She also tries reaching for Tabasco from a high shelf in "The Beeper Queen".

** Played straight and averted during the preschool flashback in "Helga on the Couch". Arnold and Helga are indeed voiced by younger actors, but Harold is still voiced by Creator/JustinShenkarow.
** Likely PlayedForLaughs in "Married". When Arnold and Helga are dreaming about growing up and marrying each other, Arnold still has Spencer Klein's young boy voice in both dreams. Why they didn't bring back one of Arnold's previous voice actors (especially since both [[Creator/LaneToran Toran Caudell]] and Philip Van Dyke were still around voicing side characters after their voices changed) to voice the older Arnold is anyone's guess (It's possible that the crew didn't want the older Arnold to sound like Wolfgang or Ludwig). Creator/FrancescaMarieSmith, Jamil Walker Smith and Ashley Buccille were still voicing Helga, Gerald and Lila as well, but it's less of an issue since the former two already sounded like adults due to them staying on post-puberty and the latter doesn't sound too girlish.

** Grandpa Phil, The Jolly Olly Man, and Nick Vermicelli were all voiced by Dan Castellaneta.

** The claim about background character and resident in Arnold's building, Lana Vail [[MrsRobinson having a crush on the 10-year-old]] Arnold is often attributed to Bartlett, with a claim execs wisely turned it down due to UnfortunateImplications.... but it has never been sourced to an actual interview, although it was on the wiki for a very long while.

** Maurice, the actor who played "The Abdicator" in "Eugene Goes Bad" was voiced by Maurice [=LaMarche=].

* DawsonCasting: 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.

* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Mr. Simmons, who's [[WordOfGay confirmed to be gay]] and shown as such in ''The Jungle Movie'', is voiced by openly gay actor Dan Butler.

** "WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot": 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?"

* TheWikiRule: The [[http://heyarnold.wikia.com/wiki/Hey_Arnold_Wiki Hey Arnold! Wiki]].

* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** The show was originally going to be in [[StopMotionAnimation claymation]], much like the ''Series/SesameStreet'' shorts it was adapted from. Craig Barlett, who animated the shorts himself and knew how grueling the process was, immediately shot the idea down and decided it'd work better in hand-drawn animation.
** Helga was supposed to get her own spin-off (a more mature version of ''Hey Arnold!'' called ''The Patakis'', meant to air on Nick at Nite) set a few years into the future (around the time that the kids would be high school-aged), but the idea was axed because it would have been "too dark" for Nick's target audience. It was also rejected by sister channel MTV, since they said the spin-off would have been "...too much like ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}''; and since the show is owned by Viacom, it could only air on one of those channels. Depending on who you ask, rejecting the idea was either a wise decision to keep the series from becoming too depressing (Considering the glimpses we got of Helga's [[AbusiveParents miserable]] [[TheUnFavorite home life]], this could've very well been the case.) and incurring the wrath of {{moral guardians}}, or a foolish decision, as the PeripheryDemographic of the show would miss out on an adult take on a kids' show that ''wasn't'' poorly-made, fan-written trash. Thanks to Craig Bartlett revealing details about what the show would have been like, we ''do'' know this:
*** Arnold would have moved away (though it's unclear under what circumstances)[[note]]Although the universal {{fanon}} supposition is that he would have returned to San Lorenzo with his parents, Bartlett said that hadn't been decided - Arnold simply being gone was far more important than where he went[[/note]] and he and Helga will have dated for several years at that point, either breaking up before the start of the series or having a very strained long-distance relationship.[[note]]One of Bartlett's story concepts for the show involved Helga running away from home to try and find Arnold, suggesting the latter.[[/note]]
*** Either way, their relationship would have been contrasted with Gerald and Phoebe, the "cool couple".
*** Helga herself would have still been voiced by Creator/FrancescaMarieSmith and have had a redesigned and more tomboyish appearance: her pink bow would have been replaced by a beanie cap, her pink and white dress will have been swapped out for a pink T-Shirt and jeans, and she would have [[SheIsAllGrownUp grown]] in certain areas (although still stubbornly refusing to maintain her appearance beyond that, such as retaining her unibrow and pigtails). She would be a budding author and still going to see Dr. Bliss for psychiatric help.
*** Of their other classmates from P.S. 118, only a handful were confirmed to return alongside them for the spinoff: Sid, Stinky, and Brainy.[[note]]Craig Bartlett eventually said in retrospect that he was so fond of Olivia Hack's talent for playing teenage girls that Rhonda probably would have returned as well, but there's no indication that she was part of the original development pitch. Notably, Lila, who is almost ubiquitous in HighSchoolAU fanon, is conspicuous by her absence.[[/note]]
*** With regards to Helga's family, Miriam's alcoholism would be confronted head-on (as she would be attending AA meetings) after only hinting at it in ''Hey Arnold!'' and she would now be working at a TV station. Olga would have returned home after college to live with her parents and sister, pursuing a career as an actress (and without much success, at that, only managing to get parts in "off-off-''off''-Broadway plays") and having a falling out with her parents over it. Unsurprisingly, Big Bob Pataki would have switched his line of business from beepers to cellphones[[note]]As it turns out, he didn't actually do this in ''The Jungle Movie''.[[/note]]; there were also plans for his character to have been re-tooled to lampoon Tony Soprano in ''Series/TheSopranos'', in a then-timely reference.
** In the first season, there was another tenant named Lana who was originally going to have a crush on Arnold, getting him to do favors for her and regularly making him uncomfortable by sexually harassing him. Nick execs of course found this too disturbing and axed the idea. Since Bartlett couldn't figure out a new direction for the character, Lana vanished after the first season (save for some later cameos in flashbacks or the animators mistakenly placing her into scenes at the boarding house).
** "Gerald's Tonsils" was only created when the creators couldn't find a suitable replacement voice actor for Gerald after Jamil Walker Smith hit puberty. If they were able to give him TheOtherDarrin treatment, the episode would have never happened.

!Trivia for ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie'' go [[Trivia/HeyArnoldTheMovie here]] and [[Trivia/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie here]].

** In Summer 1997, Dairy Queen released a set of four Nicktoons beach toys, which were based on this series, ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} (1991)'', ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'', and ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters''. The ''Hey Arnold!'' toy was a beach gear holder.

* RelationshipVoiceActor:
** Greek dub: Creator/SofiaKapsambeli (Helga) and Creator/VoulaKosta (Arnold) have also worked together on ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol'', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'', ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017'', ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'', ''WesternAnimation/JetsonsTheMovie'', ''WesternAnimation/AlvinnnAndTheChipmunks'', ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'', ''Anime/BDamanCrossfire'', ''Toys/{{Lalaloopsy}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLifeAndTimesOfJuniperLee'', ''WesternAnimation/LittleBill'', ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain'', ''Manga/OnePiece'', ''Anime/SailorMoon'', and ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperforceGo''.
** Italian dub: Creator/TatianaDessi (Gerald) and Creator/SimoneCrisari (Wolfgang) have also worked on the Italian dub of ''Animation/NoonboryAndTheSuper7'' as Lukybory and Noonbory, respectively.

* NamesTheSame: There was a real politician named Pataki serving the State of New York while this show aired, specifically former Governor George Pataki (1995–2006). Speaking of the Pataki family, [[WesternAnimation/{{Recess}} Big Bob the Beeper King wasn't the only Bob with a unibrow who also happened to be an unofficial King.]] There's also the late actor, Michael Pataki.
** Speaking of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', the character Stinky Peterson shares the exact same name as a one-shot minor character from that show.
** Arnold's Grandpa Phil isn't the [[WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}} only Nicktoon character who happens to be a fraternal twin with that name]].
** One of Frankie G's gang members, Joey C, shares the same name as [[Music/KidRock Kid Rock's]] hype man and sidekick, Joe C.
** Speaking of Frankie G, he shares the same name as the actor Franky G, who played Xavier from [[{{Franchise/Saw}} the Saw movies.]] The episode aired a few years before the actor gained notoriety.
** Oscar Kokoschka shares his name with a famous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Kokoschka Austrian artist]].
** Dino Spumoni's ex-wife Candy Maldonado shares her name with a real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Maldonado major league baseball player]].
** This wouldn't be the last Nicktoon [[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants with a first-season episode titled "Hall Monitor"]].

* ActingForTwo: Whenever Helga talked to Campfire Lass, or Sheena, or Stinky's girlfriend Gloria ("Helga's Boyfriend"), it was Francesca Smith doing both voices.
** Grandpa Phil, The Jolly Olly Man, and Nick Vermicelli were all voiced by Dan Castellaneta.
** The same could be said for Big Bob Pataki and Creator/OrsonWelles {{expy}} Douglas Cain, who were both voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche.

* TalkingToHimself: Whenever Helga talked to Campfire Lass, or Sheena, or Stinky's girlfriend Gloria ("Helga's Boyfriend"), it was Francesca Smith doing both voices.
** Grandpa Phil, The Jolly Olly Man, and Nick Vermicelli were all voiced by Dan Castellaneta.
** The same could be said for Big Bob Pataki and Creator/OrsonWelles {{expy}} Douglas Cain, who were both voiced by Creator/MauriceLaMarche.

* TheOtherDarrin:
** The show went through several instances of this in its original run, despite not being a LongRunner. This was due to the fact that the child characters were [[ChildrenVoicingChildren played by real children]], whose voices tend to change as they get older:
*** Eugene was played by four actors. Creator/BenDiskin, 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 Creator/PhilLaMarr 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 TheMovie), and Creator/AlexDLinz (the post-movie episodes "April Fool's Day" and "The Journal"), and that's not even counting his TimeShiftedActor 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".