About Hey Arnold

What is Hey Arnold?

Hey Arnold! was a show focused on the adventures and imagination of a football-headed boy. This boy, named Arnold (last mname unknown) lived in the city with eccentric grandparents, wild and crazy friends, and a bully named Helga, who unbeknownst to him, had a gigantic crush on him.
Each episode featured colorful schemes of city life, important life lessons sprinkled on top of hilarious slice-of-life situations, and music to soundtrack your every mood. It was a hit for Nickelodeon through its running of 1996-2001.

Where Did This Awesome Show Go?

In 2001, Nickelodeon wanted to experiment with feature length theatrical films for its cartoons, like the successful Rugrats franchise. Craig Bartlett, creator of Hey Arnold, planned with his team an hour long TV special for Hey Arnold, titled "Arnold Saves The Neighborhood". It was about Arnold and his friends having to go to great lengths to save his neighborhood from being knocked down for a shopping mall. Between 1998 and 2001, however, a greater movie was in development finally answering this question: "What happened to Arnold's parents?"

Nickelodeon wanted a special to lead up to this movie, so Craig and his team created the TV special, "The Journal" as a prequel to the untitled Jungle Movie.

But the market for films based off of current cartoon hits became somewhat competitive, and Nickelodeon felt they needed to "up the ante" with other shows, such as Recess and PowerPuff Girls. In the end, they decided that the TV special, "Arnold Saves The Neighborhood", was going to have the theatrical release, and The Jungle Movie was going to be the TV special. In 2002 "Hey Arnold: The Movie" hit the theaters, but did not do as expected in the box offices. Due to some other issues between Craig Bartlett and the company, Hey Arnold was cancelled.

But What About The Journal?

These events led to the uproar by fans who desperately wanted to see what happened after the events of The Journal. The last minutes of the TV special had Grandpa finishing Arnold's father's journal, and Arnold sitting on the stoop to discover that there's a blank page revealing a map of San Lorenzo, the ancient city where his parents departed to. The Jungle Movie was supposed to pick up where it left off, having Arnold and his classmates fly to San Lorenzo and Arnold bent on finding his mom and dad. During the show's run, some episodes and new storylines were developed as novelizations (books such as Arnold's E-Files, which you can find on Amazon) but nothing has ever been released pertaining to the Journal storyline.

Confirmed Notes About TJM (The Jungle Movie)

(Note: These notes were decided by Craig and his team during the initial drafts of the movie. Please pay in mind that many details may change if/when TJM is green-lit.)

Arnold's last name was to finally be revealed in the opening scene.
Arnold was to win an essay contest allowing his class (along with Mr. Simmons, Principal Wartz, and Olga Pataki as chaperones) to win a trip to San Lorenzo.
The antagonist of the movie would have been La Sombra, the evil river pirate who stole an ancient Green Eyes relic "La Corazon" in The Journal. He was bent on revenge on Arnold's parents for foiling his plan.
Arnold would have met the Green Eyed People, an ancient civilization who was said to have "worshipped" Arnold and his football shaped head for events that happened in The Journal (such as a giant volcano suddenly having stopped erupting as soon as Arnold was born, and that his head has the same shape as their civilization's emblem).
Arnold and Helga would have taken the next step in their relationship, with Helga having confessed her feelings during the events of "Hey Arnold: The Movie," and the two finally discussing it. Arnold would confess his own feelings for Helga.
In the movie, Helga finally gives up on Arnold, but Brainy intervenes and "brings her back to life". He convinces her not to give up.

The Football Head Fandom

Thus the fandom rose from these events, and online campaigns started with the sole purpose of seeing Arnold and the gang on TV again. Whether it be with the Jungle Movie, a Hey Arnold! sixth season, or a Helga-centered spin-off, people around the world united online for their love of the show and worked hard to write letters to Nick explaining why. Hey Arnold! Save the Jungle Movie!! 100,00 ppl!!, is a facebook group joining all the Hey Arnold fans together who want to see the movie brought back to life, but since its beginnings it has developed to include many HA! causes such as seeing The Patakis spin-off green-lit and seeing Hey Arnold! re-air on Nickelodeon. In the summer of 2011, TeenNick started "The 90s Are All That," a late night programming block airing all of our 90s Nick favorites. Hey Arnold grew to be one of the most popular of the bunch thanks to Twitter trending and activity on the block's online sites. Events like these helped the fandom grow and our love has not gone unnoticed.

Notice From Craig & Nickelodeon

Craig Bartlett, who has gone on to do many great things, including his own series on PBS Kids! called Dinosaur Train, has never stopped loving his former success and admiring its fandom. He always manages to appear in online chats to answer questions from the football heads.
In 2012, Craig appeared on the Arun Mehta Show for an hour-long interview discussing the show, his experience, the fans, and any hope for The Jungle Movie. He has appeared in a few Arun Mehta interviews, located on Arun's mixcloud website, www.mixcloud.com/ArunMehta. Arun has also interviewed cast members of Hey Arnold!.
In 2012, Craig also appeared on a local CA broadcast station for an exclusive interview about the show.

He has stated in these interviews that even though he doesn't have the power to make The Jungle Movie on his own, that writing letters are working! In late 2012 we have learned that Craig Bartlett, for the first time in years, has been having meetings with Nickelodeon discussing Hey Arnold and other projects. Justin Shenkarow, voice actor for Harold Berman, joined the Facebook group in 2012 and had an interview with Aruhn Meta in January of 2013 discussing Hey Arnold, his love for the show, and his willingness to reprise his role of Harold for The Jungle Movie and any future projects to come. Hey Arnold trends multiple times on Twitter during its airings, and the fandom's petition, a 15 thousand signature one, has been completed, printed and sent to Nickelodeon. OpRuth has started a 30 thousand signature petition, in order to have DOUBLE the impact.

The future for the football heads is looking bright, and as long as we keep working hard and showing our love, we'll be seeing Arnold in new light in no time!