The Importance of ‘Hey Arnold’

Full disclosure, if you have not seen ‘Hey Arnold’ the series, it would be highly imperative to do so, full spoilers coming soon.

One could argue that some of the best content of network cartoon television was produced in the 1990’s. This is a time where we were introduced to Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network in it’s inf fancy, but children still had the pleasure to watch shows on ABC and CBS.

Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and Ed, Edd, Eddy directly come to mind when it comes to Cartoon Network. Some who are fans of Cartoon shows on ABC and Fox will remember Recess and Power Rangers. Then you have fans of Nickelodeon, who have arguably have produced some of the best content on television during the time.

Rugrats, All That, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, and or course Hey Arnold.

Though these television shows can bring fond memories of how great childhood used to be, there seems to be an everlasting impact of what ‘Hey Arnold’ made on children back in the day.

While many other shows brought comedy and fresh antics for a child's entertainment, ‘Hey Arnold’ seem to take on the challenge of producing real world issues through the eyes of children.

The series made a resounding impact in people’s lives young and old through the morals, and there were four key topics in which everyone can learn from in this show.

• Family
• Community
• Friendship
• Love

FAMILY

The show presented a number of settings within the household which further explained why certain characters acted the way that they did. The base of Helga’s and Harold’s anger were a result of broken households.

Helga’s family is rollercoaster ride with her mother being an alcoholic and her father being incredibly distant and investing most of his time and money into his business instead of the family. But when Helga’s older sister (Olga) arrives, this only increases her pent up anger which she then unleashes on the person she is madly in love with Arnold. Harold; the occasional bully to Arnold and many other kids, comes from a household where he only lives with his mother and yet again, she is incredibly distant towards him. The only attention he actually gets from her is when he is in need for food and most of the time, there is none in the house.

Arnold comes from a homes where he has no relationship with his parents, they left him to his grandparents when he was a baby. Growing up in a multifamily building where his grandparents are the landlords, Arnold learned from a very young age about the importance of community and helping others in need. Hence the reason why so many characters on the show turn to Arnold for insight and advice and why Arnold is leader of the group of friends on the show.

Then there’s Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, the self proclaimed fashion queen. Rhonda comes from a wealthy family and parents who are all but existent in Rhonda’s life. This sometimes leads into a destructive narcissistic path filled with delusions of grandeur to fulfill the love and self-worth which her parents fail to provide her.

These situations are meant to display the nature/nurture effect to which children are subject to their current environments then in turn gives reason as to why they act the way that they do.

According to the nurture assumption, it is the parents who transmit cultural knowledge (including language) to their children and who prepare them for full membership in the society in which they will spend their adult lives. — Judith Harris

Examples in this show provide the importance of family, even through its various flaws.

COMMUNITY

Many episodes in the series provide scenarios where community inclusion and prosperity. Throughout the series, the children and adults come together to turn an abandoned lot into a community ball park with a garden. During the winter time, it was the community that decided to have an ice rink in the middle of the street and even in ‘Hey Arnold The Movie’, it was the community that banded together against corporate interest that wanted to tear down a neighborhood in order to replace it with a mall.

Everyone in the Hey Arnold community was in a way, an extension of a bigger family that looked out for one another despite their status, religion, color or the shape of their head.

“What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”
― Kurt Vonnegut

FRIENDSHIP

The show presents many different variations of friendships. Whether be the “brother from another mother” friendship between Gerald & Arnold or even Sid & Stinky. The counseling friendship between Pheobe and Helga or the one-sided relationship that Rhonda has with Nadine.

There are many kinds of relationships that spawn from the show which brings a sense of realism and insight of the do’s and don’ts from any kind of setting. What Hey Arnold did right on a number of occasions was bring the feelings out of each character and exposing themselves to how they truly felt at some point in time. There is a moment where Pheobe get’s overwhelmed by Helga’s need to rant and rave about her family. There is a moment where ideology gets in the way between what’s most important between Arnold and Gerald.

These moments breathes a fresh scent of truth for young audiences to grasp and reflect on their own actions that they may have taken in their own relationships.

LOVE

There are moments in the show where relationships take place in either romantic or kinda of awkard settings. Helga reveals on a number of occasions that she is in love with Arnold, yet his love is focused on a different person Ruth. Brainy is another character on the show that has a really awkward way of showing love to Helga by stalking her in a multitude of place.

Then there’s Gerald and Pheobe; a very mature dynamic case of Romanticism and Realism.

Gerald who is more of a romantic, believes that despite the obstacles that get in the way, his love for Pheobe will never change and things ultimately work out in the end. While Pheobe on the other hand has a realist approach. She understands fully that relationships are not perfect and if there is a scenario where life splits them apart then that is what life has intended for them. This leads to another of conflicts between the two and leaves one to think about their own situations they might be going through. Unfortunately, for Gerald and Pheobe, life does get in the way and both of their goals pull them in two completely different directions, yet their love for one another remains strong.

CONCLUSION

What ‘Hey Arnold’ brings to viewers young and old is a sense of realistic situations that presents the true character of children and the adults. The show became the first to introduce characters with addictions, diseases, real phobias and certain preferable sexualities.

It is truly a diamond among the golden age of 1990’s cartoons that has made a huge impact in many people’s lives.

From the words of the Great Advocator, “It’s time to take you out to lunch!”