Tentative Title: Burning Love

Idea:

Act 1:
Phoebe and Arnold win a science fair contest, 1st and 2nd respectively. Helga

and Gerald win a poetry contest, 1st and 2nd respectively. They both go to county

fairs. However, the fairs are at two opposite ends of the county. Also, the fairs are

held on the same day, much to Helga's and Gerald's horror as they will have to spend

the day with each other. Phoebe and Arnold get on one bus, Helga and Gerald on the

other.

Act 2:
Helga and Gerald constantly bicker. Their bus driver Lenny gets annoyed. He

overreacts, stunning Helga and Gerald, sparking conversation. Arnold and Phoebe talk

science, but notice that their bus driver Brenda is continually crying. They each

figure out that their respective bus drivers' problems are due to relationship issues.

Arnold and Phoebe get to the science fair, Helga and Gerald get to the poetry

fair. Helga and Gerald are disinterested by the kids there (too touchy feely i guess),

so they find common ground and decide to leave early. Some kid burns his model

Hindenburg (filled with real hydrogen) with a Bunsen burner at the science fair,

nearly burning down the building, forcing Arnold and Phoebe to leave. They all get on

their buses prematurely.

The bus drivers are worse, with Lenny really angry and Brenda balling her eyes

out. To stop their drivers' annoying antics, Helga and Gerald give Lenny romantic

advice, as do Arnold and Phoebe.

Act 3:
It turns out that the two groups' bus drivers are in a relationship with each

other, unbeknownst to the kids. They had just argued with each other over their date

for this very same day. Both drivers were asked to put in extra hours to take the kids

to their respective fairs. They both argued about skipping their date to the beach to

watch the sunset (they each are dedicated bus drivers i guess? need to make this

reason stronger). The argument ends when they each agree that if they don't find each

other at the beach before the sun sets, then they'll each know that the relationship

is over (which in order to save the relationship will require one of the bus drivers

to skip the assignment, as the beach is in the middle of where the two fairs are being

held and it will be too late to ferry the kids back and forth in time to catch the sun

set.)
The kids convince their bus drivers that it's not too late to catch the sunset

(as they both left early, with neither aware of the situation of the other). Helga and

Gerald convince Lenny to speed to the beach where he planned to have a special moment

with Brenda, where they first met. Arnold and Phoebe do the same. *Other stuff can

happen here.* They all eventually meet each other in the middle, right before the sun

sets. The kids are surprised to find each other. After all the romantic stuff, and

Lenny and Brenda get back together, things return to normal, as the kids decide to spend

time on the boardwalk nearby, as if none of the emotional/romantic catharsis on the

buses ever happened.


Inspiration: Day of the Dot (The Adventures of Pete & Pete). I hope I didn't copy too

much. Just wanted to do it homage (with the bus drivers idea). Stu was a great

character.

Notes:
-Focus is on Helga and Gerald
-Needs a better title!

Possible Elaborations:
-Explore relationship of Helga and Gerald
-Have Helga and Gerald find some common ground, foreshadowing possible friendship,
especially if Helga and Arnold get together
-Have Arnold's, Phoebe's, Helga's, and Gerald's romantic advice foreshadow each's
subconscious approaches to their respective relationships
-Can have a small scene where the two bus drivers' conversations with the two groups of kids
are juxtaposed. (Set it up like a remote dialogue with each other. Might be difficult
in a comic though.)

Any one wish to add or critique? Should this be posted somewhere else? I just thought of an episode outline and put it in writing.

Don't worry, you're fine posting this here.

This is a very good episode idea. My main concern is that the "bus driver in love" scenario is very similar to what happened in the Hey Arnold! Movie.

Here's a suggestion: what if they had to get to their events in a way other than the bus? That way we could still keep the plot basically the same, but change it up a little so it's not too similar to what happened in HA! The Movie. Maybe we could have a situation where Sheena's uncle Earl takes two of the kids and they discover that he's in love with a woman who captains a fairy on the other side of town (and she's taking the other kids two kids)...or something like that.

I think it's a great way to get some time between Helga and Gerald, and Phoebe and Arnold. I love the hydrogen Hindenburg thing (I've done that demonstration lots of times, but thankfully I've never blown anything up )

Hi M3l0d10usMus3. Welcome to the forum.

I like the idea though I think it still requires a bit of developing.

If we work on expending relationships between characters they have to be meaningful, or else it just ends up as dry filler.

funnybones021 wrote:This is a very good episode idea. My main concern is that the "bus driver in love" scenario is very similar to what happened in the Hey Arnold! Movie.

To be honest with you, I'm one of those fans who kinda wished the HA! movie never happened. So any re-writing to bus driver relationships for me would be a blessing in disguise.

funnybones021 wrote:

This is a very good episode idea. My main concern is that the "bus driver in love" scenario is very similar to what happened in the Hey Arnold! Movie.

Good point. Maybe I subconsciously expounded upon that subplot in the movie.

In terms of how to rewrite this, the Sheena's uncle thing would work, but I'd need to find another excuse to get those four characters together. So I'd have to think about why they would need to use a boat in particular. Maybe a story similar to the wheezing ed episode (as in they split up again?)

I was thinking more along the lines of maybe using that same character in the movie. That is, all of a sudden make that bus driver Helga and Gerald's bus driver for the day. Then his love interest Mona, I think is her name, could either be made into the other bus driver or we could rehash it even more. I kind of like the idea of those four characters alone, and them giving romantic advice. Also,

mrshowtime wrote:

If we work on expending relationships between characters they have to be meaningful, or else it just ends up as dry filler.

I came up with this idea in the first place to explore their subconscious attitudes towards their potential romantic relationships. This is just a rough outline of how things will play out, but the focus will definitely be on expounding upon the relationships of the characters. I haven't actually fleshed out the details on how to do this yet, so this outline is definitely open to development. So yeah hopefully this episode idea won't just be "dry filler" material.

I have to agree that the bus driver romance seemed a bit too close to the Hey Arnold movie xD

I don't want to change the plot too much--but I can imagine Gerald nagging Helga about being too hard on everybody, while Helga... does some normal "Helga nagging". Then meanwhile Arnold tries to convince Phoebe to stand up to Helga, maybe, a tiny bit. Then at the end Helga will drag Phoebe off to throw rocks at a dumpster, Phoebe will give in, and then Gerald and Arnold exchange glances, muttering "women," or something like that.

But that's just my dumb little idea xD

It might also be ironic to have Gerald and Helga, who usually bicker, get along, while Arnold and Phoebe, who usually get along, end up arguing... Of course, that's completely out of character...

and so what of this idea? i figure it's fine if we use the bus driver Murray and his girlfriend from the movie. maybe Murray lost his public transportation job cause he crashed it in the movie, and so he got rehired as a school bus driver. and maybe his girlfriend was already a school bus driver? and of course she comes up with another excuse to want to leave the guy (besides his fake leg)

i mean, it would be something like "hey, haven't we seen this guy before somewhere?" also, the focus of this episode won't necessarily be the bus drivers' relationship; rather, it would be relationship development between Arnold and Phoebe/Helga and Gerald, and also the advice that the kids give to the bus drivers that reveals their subconscious attitudes towards their own romantic relationships. the two bus drivers are merely macguffins, two stock characters that'll just be used to get the plot moving.

Here are some of my suggestions and I don't mean to be nit-picky, but I just want to bring up some possible consistency issues.

First of all, the Hey Arnold! world doesn't seem to have school buses for some reason. I remember that's one thing that always threw me off guard, even as a kid. They always ride the city bus to school and for school events.

The other thing is that I don't think we should make any explicit references to the Hey Arnold! movie. Like Mr. Showtime said, a lot of people are kind of disappointed with the movie. I would say that it's okay to use the same bus driver with the same name, but don't directly mention any reasons why he lost his job (if that's where you wanted to go with this part of the episode).

oh yeah then, i guess you dont even have to mention the movie, maybe use the same characters as city bus drivers and leave it at that