There were plenty of popular cartoons among the Nicktoons lineup of the 1990s, but one particular standout was Hey Arnold!, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
The show actually evolved out of claymation shorts that Craig Bartlett had created for Pee-wee’s Playhouse, where Arnold was a friend of the character Penny. Arnold appeared in three shorts: “Arnold Escapes From Church,” “The Arnold Waltz,” and “Arnold Rides His Chair.” Years later, while working with writers from Rugrats to develop new projects for Nickelodeon, he played tapes of the shorts he had worked on, and despite Arnold being a minor character, he was what impressed the Nickelodeon executives the most.
Hey Arnold! debuted in October 1996 and focused on the character’s life in the fictional city of Hillwood, which was largely inspired by north-pacific areas such as Portland and Seattle. Arnold was joined by fellow students of P.S. 118 including his best friend Gerald and the tomboyish Helga. He lives in the boarding house run by his grandparents, Phil and Gertrude; his parents are notably absent. Most episodes featured Arnold helping one of his friends out of a sticky situation.
The show ran for five seasons and 100 episodes, and a feature film – Hey Arnold!: The Movie – was released in 2002. The film had originally simply been planned for direct-to-video, but the studio executives went for a theatrical release after the Rugrats films proved to be a financial success.
A second film is currently in development, and will pick up where the series left off. Nickelodeon announced in early 2016 that the film will be called The Jungle Movie, and announced at their SDCC panel that it will release in November 2017. Much of the original voice cast will be returning, though several main characters have been recast.