100 Fun Facts About Hey Arnold!

Before creating Hey Arnold!, Craig Bartlett was story editor on which Nickelodeon cartoon?

Rugrats is where Bartlett, who by his own account had never written for television, met the writers who later helped him turn Arnold into a series.

In which fictional city is Hey Arnold! set?

Hillwood, Washington blends three places Bartlett loved: Seattle, his hometown; Portland, where he went to art school; and Brooklyn, for its bridge, brownstones and subway.

What is the name of the boarding house where Arnold lives with his grandparents?

The Sunset Arms is said to be haunted: in 'Four-Eyed Jack', Arnold and Gerald go looking for the ghost of a former lodger after finding his old glasses.

Which nickname does Helga throw at Arnold?

Football Head is an insult with a secret behind it: Helga bullies Arnold to stop anyone guessing that she is in love with him.

What is Arnold's surname, hinted at in the series and confirmed in The Jungle Movie?

Shortman had been said on screen for years: it doubles as Grandpa Phil's pet name for Arnold, 'Short Man', and the 2017 film finally spelled it out.

Helga fills a little pink book with what, written in secret about Arnold?

Love poems fill the book, and when Arnold and Gerald find it, Helga spends a night hiding in Arnold's closet to get it back before they reach the one page she signed.

Who is Helga's best friend and confidante, the smartest girl in Arnold's class?

Phoebe often acts as Helga's moral compass, telling her what she ought to do, and by The Jungle Movie she and Gerald are holding hands.

What number is on Gerald Johanssen's shirt?

33 is the number on Gerald's trademark red shirt. The boy his classmates think so cool had a secret, though: he couldn't ride a bike until Arnold taught him.

Arnold's 'kilt' is really which garment?

A plaid shirt, worn untucked, arrived with the Nickelodeon redesign. The tiny cap is the only thing Arnold kept from his wardrobe in Bartlett's clay shorts.

Which Simpsons voice actor played Grandpa Phil?

Dan Castellaneta voiced Phil's tall tales, including a boast that he won the Battle of the Bulge by feeding the enemy spoiled tinned meat. A hidden monument proves that one true.

Why does Grandpa Phil dread turning 81?

A family curse, he says: the men in his family all died at 81. He and Arnold spend what he takes to be his last day doing all his favourite things.

Craig Bartlett's 1991 clay short 'Arnold Rides His Chair' was shown on which television series?

Sesame Street played the short again and again. It was the last of three clay Arnold films, and those three were Bartlett's calling card when he pitched a series.

Craig Bartlett married the sister of which famous cartoonist?

Matt Groening named Lisa Simpson after that sister, Lisa, and printed Bartlett's Arnold comic strips in his Simpsons Illustrated magazine.

Before Hey Arnold!, Bartlett animated clay segments for which live-action children's show?

Pee-wee's Playhouse is why Bartlett left Portland for Los Angeles in 1987: the show had moved west from New York and needed someone to make its clay Penny cartoons.

What are the names of Arnold's long-missing parents?

Miles and Stella met while exploring San Lorenzo and went back for one last mission when Arnold was a baby. What became of them is the question The Jungle Movie finally answers.

After his voice broke, the series' first Arnold stayed on as which bully?

Wolfgang was invented for the purpose: Bartlett wanted to keep an actor who had outgrown Arnold's voice, so he wrote him a bigger, meaner kid to play.

Which Hey Arnold! character lives as a hermit because he trusts animals more than people?

Pigeon Man ends his episode by flying away, carried off by his birds after some of the kids wreck his rooftop home. Bartlett has said he pictured him heading for Paris.

Boarder Mr. Hyunh surprisingly excels at singing which kind of music?

Country music nearly makes him a star: Arnold and Gerald become his managers and take him all the way to the Grand Ole Opry, with Randy Travis supplying his singing voice.

What is the name of the school Arnold and his friends attend?

P.S. 118 even took in Grandpa Phil: after admitting he never finished grade school, he went back to class beside Arnold to earn his diploma.

Which Hey Arnold! character harasses passers-by but is famously afraid to leave home?

Stoop Kid has lived on his front steps all his life and won't set foot off them. Arnold, whose ball has landed there, talks him into taking his first step down.

What business does Helga's father, Big Bob Pataki, run?

A beeper store called Big Bob's Beepers is his pride and joy. By The Jungle Movie nobody uses pagers any more, as Helga points out, and he is still selling them.

Which of Arnold's classmates is the class jinx, forever suffering comic accidents?

Eugene stays sunny through every mishap and has his own theory about them: so many happen when Arnold is around that he decides Arnold must be the jinx.

Which dessert is Stinky Peterson famously devoted to?

Lemon pudding is Stinky's great love. He was also, briefly, the face of Yahoo Soda, and quit when he found out he had been hired as a joke.

In 'Curly Snaps', Curly barricades himself in the principal's office after being passed over for which job?

Ball monitor, the kid who collects the kickballs after recess, was Curly's dream. When the turn goes to Sid by mistake, he locks himself in with the balls and pelts the school with them.

In Hey Arnold's Christmas episode, Mr. Hyunh had asked a soldier to fly his daughter out of which country?

Vietnam, as Saigon fell: the helicopter had room for only one more. Twenty years on it is Helga who reunites them, trading away the snow boots she wanted most so a clerk will trace the daughter.

What kind of animal is Arnold's pet Abner?

A pig, and a wedding present: the Green-Eyed People of San Lorenzo gave Abner to Arnold's parents, and Grandpa Phil's first thought was to barbecue him.

What is boarder Ernie Potts's job?

Demolition worker Ernie once had his eye on an old theatre that Grandma was determined to save, and Arnold had promised to help them both.

Which sixth-grader was Arnold's first crush?

Ruth McDougal lost her shine on Valentine's Day: when Arnold finally got his dinner date, she took him for the busboy and talked only about herself.

Crooner Dino Spumoni, a recurring character, was based on Frank Sinatra and which other singer?

Dean Martin was born Dino Crocetti, and the crooner shares his first name. In 'Dino Checks Out', Spumoni fakes his own death to lift his record sales.

Chocolate Boy's nanny fed him chocolate before leaving for a 'far away land' called what?

Delaware is where she moved, and the chocolate was his way of missing her. Arnold helps him quit, only to watch him get just as hooked on radishes.

Which of Arnold's classmates, a bully in early episodes, runs away from his own bar mitzvah?

Harold bolts because he thinks skipping the ceremony will let him stay a child. Elliott Gould guest-stars as Rabbi Goldberg, who has been trying to teach him what becoming a man means.

Who is Arnold's sensitive and caring teacher from the second season onward?

Mr. Simmons, who tells every pupil they are special, replaced Miss Slovak because Bartlett found her too much of a caricature. Bartlett has also confirmed that the character is gay.

Hey Arnold!: The Movie began life as a television film under which working title?

Arnold Saves the Neighborhood was made for TV and home video as the last three episodes of season five. Paramount moved it to cinemas only after it tested well with audiences.

Which Goodfellas actor voiced the developer Scheck in Hey Arnold!: The Movie?

Paul Sorvino's Scheck wants more than a shopping mall. He is out for revenge: an ancestor of his, a British governor, was humiliated on that very spot.

In Hey Arnold!: The Movie, Helga feeds Arnold secret tips by phone under which alias?

Deep Voice tells Arnold where the villain has hidden the document that can stop the bulldozers. Once unmasked, Helga admits she did it because she loves him, then takes it back.

The Jungle Movie resolves the cliffhanger of which 2002 episode?

The Journal ends with Arnold finding a map on the last page of his father's diary. Viewers then waited fifteen years, because the film it was meant to set up was cancelled and only reached the screen in 2017.

In The Jungle Movie, Arnold's parents are found alive in San Lorenzo after nine years of what?

A sleeping sickness had struck the Green-Eyed People, and Arnold's parents caught it themselves while working on a cure. That is why they never came home.

In The Jungle Movie, which of Helga's keepsakes stands in for the lost Corazón?

Her locket, with Arnold's photo inside, works in place of the golden heart. Using it means showing Arnold the secret she has carried for the whole series.

Nickelodeon turned down as 'too dark' a spinoff about a teenage Helga under which title?

The Patakis would have shown Helga still writing letters to an Arnold who had moved away, and never sending them. MTV passed on it as well, finding it too close to its own Daria.

After Hey Arnold!, Craig Bartlett went on to create which two PBS Kids series?

Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! arrived seven years apart. The first began when Bartlett watched his small son, mad about both, put a toy dinosaur in a toy train.

What does Arnold's odd cousin Arnie collect as a hobby?

Lint is only one of Arnie's hobbies, along with counting things and reading ingredient labels. None of it stops Lila falling for him, while he takes a shine to Helga.

Which Hey Arnold! character wheezes over Helga's shoulder and usually gets punched for his trouble?

Brainy, whose wheeze is supplied by the show's creator Craig Bartlett, finally gets something other than a fist in The Jungle Movie: a kiss from Helga.

The pilot short 'Arnold' was shown in cinemas in July 1996 before which Nickelodeon film?

Harriet the Spy was the first Nickelodeon Movies release. The short that ran before it, in which a bully gives Arnold a day to live, was later remade as an episode of the series.

Which of the boarders, a lazy schemer, turns out to be unable to read until Arnold teaches him?

Oskar Kokoshka's final exam is to be left on the far side of town with nothing but a map and written directions, and to find his own way home.

Which Simpsons and Animaniacs regular voiced Arnold's grandmother Gertie?

Tress MacNeille's Gertie has form: as a girl she tormented young Phil with pranks, much as Helga torments Arnold, and then she married him.

How did Hey Arnold! explain Gerald suddenly sounding older, after his actor's voice broke?

A tonsil operation, in 'Gerald's Tonsils', leaves him with a lower voice days before a school concert. Nobody who auditioned could replace Jamil Walker Smith, so Bartlett wrote the change into the show.

Which East African country's film board ordered Hey Arnold! off the air in 2017, along with The Loud House?

Kenya's film classification board banned six cartoons from pay TV that June, saying they were 'glorifying homosexual behavior'. Steven Universe and Adventure Time were on the list too.

In the unmade spinoff about a teenage Helga, Big Bob was to be modelled on which TV character?

Tony Soprano was the template for Big Bob in a show pitched older all round: Helga's mother would be in recovery and her perfect sister a struggling actress.

In Hey Arnold!: The Movie, which historic clash must Arnold prove took place on his street to stop the bulldozers?

The Tomato Incident was a revolt against a British tax on tomatoes, fought with the tomatoes themselves. It made the block a historic site, if Arnold can find the document that says so.

Which actor voiced the villain Lasombra in The Jungle Movie?

Alfred Molina's Lasombra starts the film in disguise, posing as an old family friend named Eduardo to lure Arnold and his class into the jungle.

Craig Bartlett says Helga's look in Hey Arnold! was partly inspired by which painter as a girl?

Frida Kahlo as a young girl was one of the models for Helga's appearance. Bartlett only revealed the link in a 2018 interview, more than two decades after the series began.

In Hey Arnold!, Gerald credits his supply of urban legends to a trusted informant he calls by which nickname?

Fuzzy Slippers is named in many episodes as Gerald's reliable assistant, the tipster behind the city myths he passes on. Those tales make Gerald the block's keeper of legends.

Which embarrassing secret about the cool kid Iggy gets out in the Hey Arnold! episode 'Arnold Betrays Iggy'?

He wears bunny pajamas, pink and white ones, as Sid and Stinky find out. Arnold takes the blame and ends up wearing the same pajamas in public to earn Iggy's forgiveness.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Arnold's Hat', Helga's secret shrine is a bust of Arnold made from what?

Bubble gum that Arnold himself had chewed makes up the statue, and Helga steals his hat to finish it. Her mother then throws the hat in the trash, which is soon on its way to the dump.

In Hey Arnold!'s Halloween special, the whole city mistakes a prank by Arnold and Gerald for which kind of emergency?

An alien invasion is what the city believes is under way, in a parody of the panic over Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds.

In the Hey Arnold! Christmas special, Helga gives up which prized gift so Mr. Hyunh can be reunited with his daughter?

Snow boots of a sought-after brand were a rare sign of love from Helga's parents. She hands them to the records clerk who can trace the daughter, then listens to the reunion from outside in her socks.

Gerald's famously tall hair in Hey Arnold! is styled after the look of which hip-hop duo?

Kid 'n Play's towering style tops off the coolest kid in class: athletic, street-smart Gerald, who has been Arnold's best friend since preschool.

In Hey Arnold!, which pet name does Grandpa Phil use for his wife Gertie, Arnold's eccentric grandmother?

Pookie is Phil's name for a wife who dresses up as figures such as Calamity Jane and holds a black belt. His twin sister Mitzi calls her Gertie instead.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Helga Blabs It All', what leads Helga to confess her love on Arnold's answering machine?

Laughing gas loosens her tongue, and once she comes to she must reach the machine and delete the message before anyone else can hear it.

Which exclamation is Helga's catchword in Hey Arnold!, the one she blurts out whenever she is stressed?

Criminy is Helga's trademark outburst, part of the tough front she puts on. She even calls her parents by their first names, feeling they have not earned Mom and Dad.

In Hey Arnold!, Helga is allergic to which fruit, a food that brings her out in hives?

Strawberries give Helga hives, a rare weak spot for the class tough girl. Corn is the other food she avoids, though only because she hates it.

Grandpa Phil earned the nickname 'Steely Phil' in Hey Arnold! as a youthful master of which game?

Chinese checkers made Phil's name, and in one episode he enters a tournament to win back the pride he lost forty years earlier. A character in it, Robby Fisher, is named in parody of Bobby Fischer.

In Hey Arnold!, Grandpa Phil claims he won which World War II clash by feeding the enemy spoiled canned meat?

The Battle of the Bulge was won, in Phil's telling, by tricking enemy soldiers into eating cans of bad CHAM, the show's spoof of Spam. Arnold doubts it until he sees a small monument to his grandfather.

Which city, Craig Bartlett's hometown, did he blend with Portland and Brooklyn to create the setting of Hey Arnold!?

Seattle supplied the hometown feel, Portland the art-school years and Brooklyn the bridge, brownstones and subway. Gerald's house was even modeled on the Victorian homes of Portland's Nob Hill.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'School Play', Helga schemes to star opposite Arnold in which Shakespeare play?

Romeo and Juliet has Arnold cast as Romeo, so Helga does everything she can to land Juliet and the kiss that comes with the part.

In Hey Arnold!'s 'What's Opera, Arnold?', a dozing Arnold and Helga dream up a parody of which opera?

Carmen casts Arnold as Don José opposite his sixth-grade crush in the title role, until Helga dreams herself in as a Valkyrie and slingshots her rival through a stage trapdoor.

Arnold's grandmother spoils his Thanksgiving in Hey Arnold! by confusing the day with which other holiday?

Fourth of July is what Gertie thinks she is celebrating, so dinner is hot dogs followed by fireworks. Arnold walks out, meets Helga, and at his teacher's house they learn their own families are not so bad.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Field Trip', Arnold and his grandmother sneak into the aquarium to free which animal?

A turtle named Lockjaw, old, neglected and covered in graffiti, moves Arnold to pity on the class visit. That night he and his grandmother sneak back in and set the animal free.

Which job does the bad-tempered Jolly Olly Man do in Hey Arnold!, working for a boss who is also his father?

Ice cream man Willie drives his truck around the city in a foul mood, hated even by his employer. On Career Day Arnold is paired with him and coaxes him into being nice to the children.

Which comic actor voiced Hey Arnold!'s bellowing Coach Wittenberg, who asks Arnold to be best man at his wedding?

Jim Belushi plays a coach who can yell but not motivate, and whose teams tend to win only once Arnold steps in. The wedding is his second to ex-wife Tish, who coaches the girls' teams.

Which Star Trek actor voiced the father of Helga's best friend in Hey Arnold!?

George Takei voiced Kyo Heyerdahl, who speaks fluent Japanese. Kyo's wife Reba, a Southerner from Kentucky, was voiced by Jean Smart.

Which sitcom star voiced Miss Felter, the substitute teacher Arnold falls for in Hey Arnold!'s 'Crush on Teacher'?

Julia Louis-Dreyfus's teacher seems to invite Arnold to dinner at her house. The Arnold she means turns out to be her fiancé, who shares his name.

Which veteran comedian voiced Mitzi in Hey Arnold!, the twin sister Grandpa Phil had not spoken to in decades?

Phyllis Diller's Mitzi fell out with Phil when they were children, after their Scottish terrier Pooter got out of the yard and was killed by a milk truck. They did not speak for some seventy years.

Which member of the Monkees voiced himself in the Hey Arnold! episode 'Fishing Trip', taking requests on stage?

Davy Jones appears with his band at the end of the episode and offers to take requests. One of the boys asks for a playground rhyme about a tugboat, and the band performs it.

Which actor voiced Mickey Kaline, the retiring baseball idol whose last home run Arnold catches in Hey Arnold!?

Ron Perlman's slugger takes his name from two real greats, Mickey Mantle and Al Kaline. After retiring he runs a baseball-themed restaurant, Mickey's Dog Pound.

Which soul singer voiced Harvey, the mailman who hands out advice along his route in Hey Arnold!?

Lou Rawls gave Harvey his voice through the first four seasons. After that the mailman appears without a single line, even in both films.

Which Oscar-nominated actress voiced Lola, the tall model Ernie falls for in the Hey Arnold! episode 'Ernie in Love'?

Jennifer Tilly's Lola is a kind, plus-size model who enjoys her date with Ernie, then hesitates over a second one because he is so much shorter than she is.

Which Hey Arnold! boarder is so secretive that his face is never seen and his voice never heard?

Mr. Smith appears only in the first season, where a package addressed to him sends Arnold and Gerald searching all over the city. The other boarders resent how little of his life he shares.

In Hey Arnold!, the boarding-house tenant Mr. Hyunh earns his living working in which kind of restaurant?

Mexican food is his trade, and when a new owner wants a family man as head chef he borrows a pretend family: a fellow boarder as his wife, Arnold as his son and Grandpa as his father.

After a baseball hits her in Hey Arnold!'s 'Beaned', which condition does Helga keep faking to stay near Arnold?

Amnesia is real at first, and a guilty Arnold stays with her all day. When her memory returns the next day, Helga goes on playing the part in the hope of more time with him.

In Hey Arnold!, which pet of Big Bob's overhears Helga's secret and then flies in through Arnold's window?

A parrot is a risky confidant for a girl with a secret crush. When the bird flies off to Arnold's the next day, it is up to Helga to get it back.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Married', which fortune-telling device pairs Arnold with Helga as future spouses?

A cootie catcher, the folded-paper fortune teller, is Rhonda's tool for predicting who will marry whom. The result gives Helga a dream of the presidency and Arnold a nightmare of a crummy job with her father.

In Hey Arnold!'s 'Curly's Girl', Rhonda poses as Curly's girlfriend after he cleans which garment of her mother's?

A fur coat, her mother's birthday present, gets stained when Rhonda secretly wears it to a school art show. Curly's family runs a dry-cleaning business, and his price is a week of pretend romance.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Sid's Revenge', Sid carves a voodoo doll of Principal Wartz out of what?

A bar of soap becomes his weapon after Wartz gives him detention for a prank he did not pull. Sid then comes to believe the doll has actually killed the principal.

In Hey Arnold!'s 'Helga Sleepwalks', eating which snack sets Helga wandering at night and uttering her secret?

Pork rinds are the trigger, making this one of several close calls for her secret about Arnold, alongside a blabbed phone message and an indiscreet pet bird.

In Hey Arnold!'s 'Mr. Green Runs', the butcher runs for city council over which ignored problem outside his shop?

A large pothole in front of his shop goes unfilled despite his requests, so Mr. Green takes on a professional politician, with Arnold as his campaign manager.

In the Hey Arnold! episode 'Sally's Comet', what must Arnold and Gerald persuade the whole city to do?

Turn off their lights is the plea, because the city's glow is too bright for the stars to show. The boys had mailed in cereal box tops for a telescope just to see the comet.

In Hey Arnold!'s 'The Sewer King', Arnold and Gerald go underground to recover which treasured item of Grandpa Phil's?

His pocket watch, a gold one, slips from Arnold's pocket into a hole dug for new sewer pipes as he brings it home. Below ground, the boys find it in the hands of the Sewer King.

Which office does Gerald hold at school in Hey Arnold!, a post that left Rhonda holding a grudge against him?

Class president Gerald pays for it in 'Cool Party', when Rhonda puts him on her Geek List out of spite. Classmates are surprised, since Gerald is widely agreed to be cool.

Arnold's first teacher in Hey Arnold!, Miss Slovak, gives up the classroom to pursue a career in which sport?

Golf lures Miss Slovak away in the season two episode 'New Teacher'. One replacement, the drill sergeant Lieutenant Major Goose, proves so unbearable that Arnold's class drives him to resign.

Which classic make of car does Grandpa Phil prize in Hey Arnold!, only to have it stolen at an antique car show?

Packard is the make, and its theft sends Arnold and his grandmother into detective mode to track the car down. The story was the last to air in the original run.

Before marrying Big Bob, Helga's drowsy mother Miriam was a champion in which rodeo event, Hey Arnold! reveals?

Bull riding is one half of Miriam's surprising past: she was also an Olympic-class swimmer. On screen she is forgetful and prone to napping in odd places, which makes the reveal land.

Craig Bartlett's first clay short about Arnold, made in 1988, shows the Hey Arnold! hero escaping from where?

Church is the setting of 'Arnold Escapes from Church', the first claymation short to feature the character. 'The Arnold Waltz' followed in 1990 and a third short a year later.

Hey Arnold! was born when Craig Bartlett screened clay shorts about which girl, the character he meant to pitch?

Penny was the star of the tapes Bartlett played as a last resort at a pitch meeting. The executives were more impressed by a minor character in them, a boy named Arnold.

What is the real first name of Curly, the unhinged Hey Arnold! classmate with an enormous crush on Rhonda?

Thaddeus Gammelthorpe is his full name, though everyone calls him Curly. He was voiced mostly by Adam Wylie, with Haley Joel Osment stepping in for one episode.

In Hey Arnold!, Sid pairs a backwards green cap and a black leather jacket with which white footwear?

Beatle boots complete the look of the most paranoid member of the class. Sid's panics include a spell of germ phobia and a firm belief that his friend Stinky is a vampire.

In Hey Arnold!, Rhonda's best friend Nadine is a budding expert on which kind of creature?

Insects are her field: Nadine is a young entomologist. She once put the hobby to use for Helga, setting cockroaches loose in a restaurant as a favor.

Which composer wrote Hey Arnold!'s jazzy score after co-scoring the John Carpenter film In the Mouth of Madness?

Jim Lang scored the series, the 2002 feature and the 2017 TV film, and won an ASCAP Award for the show in 2004. He went on working with Craig Bartlett on the creator's later cartoons.

Which television presenter voiced the game-show host in the Hey Arnold! episode 'Fighting Families'?

Ryan Seacrest hosts the contest in which Arnold, his grandparents and two of the boarders take on a supposedly perfect family from another school.

What is the nickname of Gerald's bullying teenage brother in Hey Arnold!, who turns kind when he gets a girlfriend?

Jamie O softens so suddenly that Gerald and Arnold spy on him and learn his girlfriend is only using him. Gerald must choose between the truth and a brother who finally drives him places.