Hey Arnold!

Well, it can't be said he didn't leave behind a great legacy.

This show was always one of my favorites. There were so many characters and all of them got their chance to shine once in a while. I was always a big fan of Helga and of Mr. Hyunh.

edited 25th Jun '14 6:30:47 PM by PPPSSC

Damn,that's really sad.I loved the episodes he wrote and Oskar was always an entertaining character to watch.My condolences to his friends and family.How did he die?

Shame. Stoop Kid is practically memetic with my generation (one of those things i can quote on my facebook and get an easy dozen likes from former classmates, both highschool and college)

We lose a few more creative people every day... Depressing.

Personally, while I don't think Hey Arnold is a great show - the only two great Nicktoons were Ren And Stimpy and Rockos Modern Life, no matter what anyone says - it was still a good show, like most Nicktoons.

I personally don't think Seasonal Rot affected the show to any reasonable extent. It was still entertaining and funny to the end, even if Arnold did become a pseudo-Mary Sue.

The series also had some great tunes written for it: who here remembers "The Simple Things" from when Mr. Hyunh became a country star?

Oh, and there's one moment from the series that I wish I could find a video of: from the "Fighting Families" episode, the host is introducing the participants on Arnold's team and ends with "... and Mr. Hee-yunh!" ("That's HYUNH!")

Interesting fact: Craig Bartlett, the show's creator, directed three episodes of Ren And Stimpy, including the infamous "Reverend Jack." While this was apparently to keep him working until his own show started production, according to Sick Little Monkeys, he really liked working on the show.

Isn't Craig now producing Dinosaur Train?

He's also developing a new show for Nick called Sky Rat.

I just loved this show to death when I was little! I loved how Arnold tries to solve everyone's problems and I also loved seeing Helga's character throughout the series as she was probably one of the most interesting characters in the entire series. It's a shame that we probably won't find out what happened to Arnold's parents since the show got cancelled before they resolved it and I'm not sure if the Jungle Movie is still in the works or not.

Yeah, gotta love this show! I don't even mind if Arnold became a Marty Stu, as I still like him.

If I could think of any noticable sign of Seasonal Rot it was that the very last points of the show seemed to be a lot more goody goody, really piling on the Aesops (this was usually only limited to when Arnold was around beforehand, probably a blessing of him being Demoted to Extra). There were still a few great moments however, I remember loving the episode Princpal Wartz quits and goes insane.

It wasn't too bad, nor was Ren and Stimpy's really. The only Seasonal Rot that I found rather noticeable was Rugrats and even that had good moments. Most Nick show's, for better or worse, stayed rather consistent.

It was odd Barlett directed an episode revolved around the team's experiences with John K when being around for such a short time. Maybe it was to keep the story allusions at least a tad subtle.

edited 28th Jun '14 6:52:24 AM by Psi001

Well, I'd also say the Rugrats Seasonal Rot wasn't that bad either. In my experience, Seasonal Rot just turns shows hit-or-miss.

Don't forget "Suspended." I thought that one was pretty funny.

He apparently thinks that the episode is right up there with the best of Ren And Stimpy and tried to get it through without messing with it.

I didn't exist during the Rugrats first run, so I never noticed the seasonal rot. I'm guessing it kicked in after they introduced Dil?

Dil or Kimi. The show was Uncancelled twice, with the very first runs being at the beginning of the 90s, and the second run being in 1996 or so, then the second comeback came in 1999 with a series leading into the Big Damn Movie, and then following it.

Seasonal Rot is YMMV in Rugrats' case because the shift of the show's themes. Early run was more slapstick (in terms of the babies inadvertently interfering with the adult world and more parental-in-jokes involving the parents). The middle run is what most people recognize, which is more about the babies adventures together and a spirit of nakama-dom between them. The later adventures are favored or disfavored depending on whether you feel that the core 5 of the middle seasons (Tommy, Chuckie, Phil/Lil, Angelica) was missing any elements, and whether you felt Dil and Kimi were good additions to the dynamic or just Scrappies.

And then there's All Grown Up, which believe it or not I actually like even though it had a ton of problems.

Same here.

All Grown Up was a decent little show.

Yeah... What does talking about All Grown Up and especially Rugrats have to do with this show truly on topic? Or is the revelation that the show on topic is not as good as Rugrats (All Grown Up is ass, IMHO, anyway!).

We were mainly compared Seasonal Rot of various Nick shows, Rugrats being the most polarizing case.

Concerning Hey Arnold, I don't think it was that overwhelming outside the fact it primarily stemmed from the main character. Out of a colorful well spotlighted cast, he had the dullest personality and the dullest plots (did anyone really enjoy the Arnold/Lila plot?) and his goody goody-ness was starting to get kinda saccharine. Even his current voice actor sounded overly deadpan compared to his first, like he knew he had little to work with.

edited 30th Jun '14 8:10:51 AM by Psi001

It still didn't matter for me; the supporting cast could still pretty well carry the show.

I'm of the mind that Seasonal Rot has its worst effects on shows that were already hit-or-miss.

As said Arnold was practically an extra by that point. The show may as well have been called "Hey Helga!".

Then again, he did play a huge role in The Movie.

As for "did anyone really enjoy the Arnold/Lila plot" I didn't actually mind it.

By the end of the show, most of the plots were about the entire supporting cast - it wasn't really just Helga, but it was more often about everyone than specifically Arnold himself, and he became a supporter more often because of this. I actually liked this, though - Hey Arnold was one of the best shows I've ever known for establishing and maintaining/balancing a large cast of diverse characters.

edited 30th Jun '14 9:41:21 AM by KnownUnknown

If you think about it, Arnold was sorta like a non-militant optimistic Huey Freeman.

In that he started out in a franchise very focused on him and then became more pushed to the sidelines more and more as time went on? I suppose, though even later on Arnold still had major roles in most episodes (even if he wasn't the main character that week), which is more we can say for Huey.

Well, I liked the Arnold/Lila plot inasmuch as it got to show us some great Helga scenes. Anything to keep that Large Ham coming.

I actually didn't have a problem with Arnold becoming much nicer in later seasons. I thought it added more to his character, even though I do agree that it kind of diminished his relevance to the plot in some cases. I also liked the fact that it started focusing on all the other characters in the show since it's rare that I see a show that actually gave everyone their own plot lines throughout a TV series unless the show ran for a very long time.

I don't think Brainy ever had his own plot line... did he?