Hey Arnold!
What Could Have Been in this series.
Early versions of the main characters, used in the theatrical pilot.
- The show was originally going to be in claymation, much like the Sesame Street 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.
- Craig Bartlett originally envisioned 'Penny', a character who originally appeared in his Pee-Wee's Playhouse shorts to be the main protagonist. However, when pitching the show, Nickelodeon appeared far more interested in 'Arnold', who was initially a minor character from the shorts.
- 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 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 miserable home life, this could've very well been the case.) and incurring the wrath of moral guardians, or a foolish decision, as the Periphery Demographic 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 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
- Either way, their relationship would have been contrasted with Gerald and Phoebe, the "cool couple".
- Helga herself would have still been voiced by Francesca Marie Smith and have had a redesigned and more tomboyish appearance: her pink bow would have been replaced by a beanie cap, her pink and white dress will have been swapped out for a pink T-Shirt and jeans, and she would have grown in certain areas (although still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
- 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 cellphonesnote ; there were also plans for his character to have been re-tooled to lampoon Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, in a then-timely reference.
- "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 The Other Darrin treatment, the episode would have never happened.
Hey Arnold! The Movie
- The film was meant to be a roughly 90 minute long (about the length of three half-hour episodes) TV Movie called Arnold Saves the Neighborhood and was supposed to be the season 5 finale leading into The Jungle Movie. But Paramount and Nickelodeon thought that the film should go to theaters instead, so Nick produced "April Fool's Day" and "The Journal" to fill in the gaps left by the TV movie going to the box office, as well as build up to The Jungle Movie before it was initially canned (It's also why these episodes were produced more than a year after the remainder of season 5, have better artwork and different voices for Arnold and Sid.) bringing the series to 100 total episodes. Ironically, when the Jungle Movie (originally meant to be the theatrical movie) ended up being made years later, it became a Made-for-TV movie, which was what the Hey Arnold! The Movie was originally intended to be.
Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie
- The Jungle Movie was originally to have gone into production almost immediately after the first movie premiered ("The Journal" was produced as a lead-in to it), but the failure of Hey Arnold! The Movie led to it being cancelled. The movie had already been storyboarded and partially animated before being cancelled. A clip from the unfinished movie can be seen here
. That test scene is not in the produced movie, although it might still count as canon. - The original plans for the two Hey Arnold! movies turned out the exact opposite of how they released: Hey Arnold!: The Movie was intended as a telefilm, under the name Arnold Saves the Neighborhood (about the length of three full episodes - this is why "April Fools' Day" and "The Journal" were produced so much later than the rest of the fifth season, to replace them and reach 100 episodes total for the series) and as a prelude to the theatrically-released Jungle Movie.
- A few details in the original script differed from the final version. For instance:
- Arnold was originally going to win the trip to San Lorenzo through an essay contest rather than his friends submitting a video and the reveal of his last name was going to be done through him signing for a package rather than his passport.
- Principal Wartz was supposed to have attended San Lorenzo with the class. Wartz ultimately doesn't appear at all in the final film, not even as a background character in the cameo-palooza early on.
- Nadine was supposed to receive a much-needed subplot (as she would have been in her element, surrounded by loads and loads of exotic insects) after being either a Living Prop or Rhonda's Satellite Character in the series proper, but in the final product she only had a couple of lines. Her bugs proved useful when escaping from Lasombra's clutches, however.
- Harold, Sid, and Stinky were supposed to have a subplot where they mess around in the jungle and eventually incur the wrath of the wildlife. It would have involved Harold encouraging Sid and Stinky to split up from the others.
- Harvey the Mailman was to have a speaking role after not having spoken at all since "Chocolate Turtles".note This one not happening is most likely due to Lou Rawls's death in 2006.
- The Big Damn Kiss near the end of the film was to have taken place in a very different context in the original: it would have been much more spontaneous and would have happened before the climax, in the middle of the jungle (and "in the heat of the moment", to echo the first movie). Arnold would still have initiated the kiss, and they still would have been interrupted by Gerald at the end.
- At first, Steve Viksten wanted Arnold's parents to end up being dead. When Craig returned to rewrite TJM, he decided against it.
- Reportedly, the film was announced to be a two-part film. The end result wound up being a single part, though it ran in a two-hour timeslot, clocking in at 81 minutes without commercials. Although both hours had their own director.
- Lasombra was originally designed as being much older◊. He was redesigned both so that he could convincingly (or not-so-convincingly) pass off as Eduardo, and to somewhat resemble his voice actor, Alfred Molina.
- It was originally announced that Wally Wingert would also voice Dino Spumoni. However, Dom Irerra, who played Ernie, happened to come upon Rick Corso when he was doing stand-up to tell him about the movie, and was able to get him to play the role again.
- Alex D. Linz would have reprised his role as Arnold (as would the other cast members who were replaced) had the film been made in the early 2000s as originally intended.
- More like "What Could Have NOT Been": Craig Bartlett confirmed during the interlude that Lila was not supposed to appear in the film at all, but she did show up in the video scene, albeit once again being a voiceless cameo. (She is heard laughing during Eugene's clip, but it's likely stock audio or The Other Darrin).
- As revealed in a promo during the NickSplat premiere of the film, the parade sequence was going to be longer, with Olga appearing as a Carnival Queen on one of the floats and Helga appearing on another float dressed as a monkey.
