28 Season 6 Episode Ideas

Tendra from HACA website wrote:The 6th season episodes suggested below were intended to take after “April Fool’s Day” (both Arnold and Helga are aware of Helga’s crush), and before “The Journal” (and “The Jungle Movie”).  Therefore, anything that should belong in the Jungle Movie (i.e. Arnold and Helga getting together) shouldn’t be in the 6th season.

There are around 20 episodes, and therefore almost 40 storylines, per season.  My aim is to write 40 ideas for the 6th season.  Any comments and/or criticisms for these ideas posted below would be highly appreciated!  I’ll update the pages as the ideas roll in.

1. Gerald gets a bad hair-cut.  Needs to learn how to cope with it.  Craig Bartlett has drawn a mini-comic about it in his early years, and Nickelodeon released it on their site!  Click the “Hey Arnold!” archive and select the comic called “Gerald’s Haircut”.

2. Sid and Stinky fight over a girl (most likely Lila), as it seems that the only thing that would cause the two of them to fight is a common love interest.

3. Helga has a dream, which teaches her that Arnold cannot worship her like how she expects him to when he falls in love with her.  There is already a well-written fanfic about it.  I like it, but I’m not sure what to think of Helga’s opinion of Brainy.

4. Arnold is a great guy, especially how he always helps people out.  However, the weakness of his strength is that the people he helps learn how to depend on Arnold for their problems (i.e. they do not know how to solve their own problems by themselves).  In other words, these people would not learn how to become independent and self-sufficient, should Arnold be away.  I realize that Arnold does give the people he helps some level of autonomy in that they have the choice to accept Arnold’s advice or not, but I think that we could push that level of autonomy a little further – to the point where they start learning to use their own good judgement, instead of having Arnold to guide them.  Arnold needs to learn this as well – that he can’t always be there for other people and have faith in his friends’ abilities to solve their own problems.  The plot will revolve on how Arnold and a friend, whose role is to restrain Arnold from helping a certain individual, watches how that certain individual deals with their own problem.  Arnold will learn that not all things need intervention.  The individual that needs helping can be a new character, so that the habit of asking Arnold for advice is eliminated.

5. Some people love Helga because of her complex personality, while some people don’t because it seems that Helga’s only motivation in life is getting Arnold’s love.  Hopefully, that isn’t true!  I would love to explore this aspect of Helga: what else is there that doesn’t revolve around Arnold?  In this plot, Arnold goes away for a while (maybe for a trip or something?).  What will Helga do without her Arnold?  (Hopefully not pine for him!)

6. We all know that Helga and Arnold are going to end up together.  However, will their relationship be conflicted against disapproval from their friends?  Arnold and Phoebe seem to get along, but what about Helga and Gerald?  This episode would focus on a bonding moment between Helga and Gerald because, let’s face it: when Arnold and Helga are going to get together, Helga and Gerald are going to have to spend some time together.  Because this might contribute to Arnold and Helga’s break-up, which will lead to the spin-off series “The Patakis”, this episode will not mean that Helga and Gerald are now best friends.  It just means that Gerald will begin to learn that Helga is not a bad person (doesn’t neccessarily mean that he will complete his lesson by the time they get together).

Another thing to point out is that, during the “Jungle Movie”, when Arnold kisses Helga and then gets interrupted by Gerald, Arnold makes a lame excuse with Gerald replying, “Whatever you say, Arnold”.  This indicates that Gerald is, at least, neutral about it.  So maybe having Gerald support Arnold’s decisions might be indiciated here.

7. Sid loses Sidney.  There was already a fanfic about it written called “The Search for Sidney”, but it is now currently a dead link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1409972/1/The_Search_for_Sidney.  I like the idea of the plot, but the supporting secondary characters (and the kiss) seem a bit too extreme and out of character.  If you see this fanfic with a working url, please let me know.

8. Did you see “Hey Arnold! The Movie”?  If you did, you might have noticed that there was an unfinished miniplot in the movie: Mr. Green and has estranged vegetarian son, who he hasn’t talked to in a couple of years.  It’d be nice to see what would happen if Mr. Green get together with his son again, if you know what I mean.

9. Hmm… I liked “Hey Arnold! The Movie”, but I can’t say it was the greatest Nick film that ever existed.  Many parts were rushed, and this includes the confession scene.  Why did Helga break so easily?  Of course, the movie can’t be redone to further expand that part, but we can make an episode about it.  In this episode, perhaps a nice background story (in Helga’s perspective) of how exactly Deep Voice came to be, and her opinion of her confession.  Maybe this will be a new opportunity for Dr. Bliss to come to the rescue?

10. An untouched mystery that should be touched: who the heck is Fuzzy Slippers and what is his relation to Gerald?  However (courtesy of Nat who brought this up), it would be best if Fuzzy Slippers remained a mystery.  Nonetheless, an episode where the gang tries to find out who Fuzzy Slippers is (e.g. the gang starts following Gerald around in an attempt to find out the identity of Fuzzy Slippers) but fails (thus keeping Fuzzy Slipper’s identity still a mystery) can be viable.

11. The greatest rival of the 4th graders is the 5th graders.  But, hey!  In a year, those 4th graders will become 5th graders; they’ll become their enemy!  I’d like to see an episode that has Arnold’s class imagine what it would be like for them to become 5th graders.  SquirrelTamer has done a nice design chart of how the girls would look like as 5th graders.

12. Remember the episode “Timberly Loves Arnold”?  Y’know, that episode which finally marks the day when Arnold decides to stop crushing on Lila?  Many of Arnold’s buddies (aside from Gerald and possibly Sid) don’t know that, and that includes Lila/Helga.  Hmm… new episode idea?  There’s a fanfiction that explores this by Miss Pataki, and its pretty good.

13. Arnold talks to Dr. Bliss about his ups and downs with Helga.  (Courtesy to Justine who brought this up.)  DarthRoden aka Carl has already written a popular fanfiction about this, so go check it out.  A storyline like this would be better off in the latter portion of the 6th season, as we approach the Jungle Movie.

14. A storyline (probably the full 22 minutes) about Helga’s birthday (which is around 1 week before April Fool’s).  Olafhater27 has actually written a fanfiction about it.  However, the problem is that I don’t think Arnold should play a big part in this episode, seeing how Helga was suprised that Arnold remembered her birthday and gave her a “present” in the episode “April Fool’s Day”.  If you’re going to do fanworks of this storyline, be sure not to draw anything that contradicts with “April Fool’s Day”.

Nat has suggested that on Helga’s Birthday, Arnold should bump into Helga, who is spending her time as the birthday girl alone.  Arnold notices that Helga is upset and ends up spending the day with her.  However, their time together would’ve probably been more enjoyable if Helga didn’t have her precious reputation to worry about: she spends the early portion of her time with Arnold looking over her back to make sure she isn’t caught hanging out with her beloved football-head.

15. Similar to #14 is a full-episode storyline about Arnold’s birthday, which is October 7 (when HA! first aired).  A very pretty comic about it was done by Unluckystunt at Deviantart.  Courtesy of Nat who brought this up, the role that Helga would play on Arnold’s birthday would most likely be anonymous (i.e. her actions would be done without telling anyone else), in order to keep her reputation.

There is a problem with this storyline though: it doesn’t fit well into the 6th season.  Keep in mind that “The Journal” took place on October 5, and that Craig Bartlett did say in an interview that Arnold would turn 10 in ‘The Jungle Movie’, meaning that TJM covers the day of October 7, which is Arnold’s birthday.  So, this storyline should not work, unless it’s a dream/fantasy/ect.

16. Big Bob Pataki takes one step too far, forcing Miriam to take her belongings and daughter, Helga, and move out temporarily.  This plot allows the opportunity for another mother-daughter bonding moment.

One suggestion was for Miriam and Helga to move into the Sunset Arms Boarding House, seeing how they both left the Pataki house on such short notice.  Another is to have Arnold take a major role in patching things up between Miriam and Bob.  However, it might be more practical to have Arnold influence Helga, who will take action to patch things up between her parents.  (Idea courtesy of Justine)

Thanks to Nat who brought this up, we also have to consider the fact that Bob already clips Miriam’s wings a lot as it is.  This means that in order for Bob to push his limit, he would have to do something rather drastic.  So whether or not this idea is suitable for the 6th season of “Hey Arnold!”, or for bump-it-up-a-rating spin-off “The Patakis”, will depend on how it is written.

17. Okay, so let me get this straight.  In the episode “Weird cousin”, you have Helga chasing after Arnold… who is chasing after Lila… who onced like him liked him, but is now chasing after Arnie… who also onced liked her liked her but is now chasing after Helga.   Whew!

But after recent events, if Arnie visits again, you now have: Helga chasing after Arnold… who no longer likes Lila and may now be tentatively chasing after Helga.  But!  If Arnold is going to start chasing after Helga, then he’s got some competition with his dear old cousin, Arnie, who still holds the torch for Helga.  And it’s pretty obvious that Helga, who would most likely be willing to jump off a cliff just to avoid that “weird cousin”, doesn’t like Arnie back.  …oh, and you have Lila in the background chasing after Arnie.  (Courtesy of Justine who brought this idea up)

There are tons, and I mean tons, of fanfictions about this popular topic.  Again, I can’t remember all of their urls, so I will list them as they come.  Please be my eyes and let me know if you see any fanfics out their regarding this storyline.

18. Arnold (and perhaps Dr. Bliss?) helps Helga get to the bottom of her fear of rats (Idea courtesy of Justine)

19. When Arnold struggles with his English assignments, Mr. Simmons assigns him the best poet of the 4th grade to tutor him: Helga.  (Courtesy of Justine who brought this up).

Azure129 has already written a fanfiction about this, so go check it out!  (Thanks to Gen who helped me find its url)

However, the problem with this idea (thanks to Nat for the criticism) is that you have to keep in mind that although Helga is capable of being a very bright student, so is Arnold.  After all, Arnold must have some talent in English given the fact that he was one of the top spellers in the 4th grade.  Plus, if you have read some of the online interviews with Craig Bartlett, you will recall that Bartlett has said that one of Arnold’s essays wins his class a trip to the jungle where his parents are in “The Jungle Movie”.  In addition to that, Arnold should be relatively good at Social Studies since he is practically the “god of diplomacy”, good at Math because he tutored Torvald, and good at science seeing his work ethic was in the episode “Biosquare”.  Seems like this boy is almost perfect, huh?

However, that doesn’t mean that Arnold can’t be tutored.  This idea can still be work if written properly.  Helga can still give Arnold some writing tips so that he can improve himself (especially if he is in the middle of a writer’s block), to the point where his writing skills are so good that they can win his class a trip to the jungle in “The Jungle Movie”.  -hint hint-

But if you insist that Helga must tutor him in a subject where Arnold may lack talent in relative to Helga, it could be art!  (And maybe have Arnold make a statue of Helga!  Just kidding.)

20. It’s hard to be Mr. Simmons, especially when you have a class that can be as rowdy as the 4th grade class of P.S. 118.  When things get out of hand, you don’t want to be the teacher when the principal, Mr. Wartz, walks in… especially if you don’t want to be fired.  Check out the fanfiction that Simmer2000 has written about this storyline!  Courtesy of Buckysbone who brought this up!

21. In Nickelodeon’s earlier days, “Hey Arnold!” was the 2nd longest running series, with 100 episodes.  Because of its long saga, the cartoon was able to do something that many other cartoons weren’t: expand on its secondary characters, such as Stinky, Rhonda, Iggy, ect.  This is one of the reasons why “Hey Arnold!” is such a great series.  There are many other secondary characters who haven’t gotten their own episode yet, which leaves the door wide open for more episodes.  I recall Craig Bartlett saying he wanted to do an episode about Peapod Kid in one of those online interviews.  (If you can find the url of the specific interview he said that, that would be greatly appreciated).  Courtesy of Nefarious who brought this idea up.

22. Have the 4th grade students of P.S. 118 have a taste of what it’s like to walk in each other’s shoes when their newest school project is to switch houses and trade lives with one another!  Many pairings are possible, and with that comes many possible plotlines.  Go crazy with this plotline and see which pairings you like the best!  Some possible pairings are Arnold x Helga, Arnold x Phoebe, Rhonda x Stinky, and Gerald x Helga.  I would suggest picking out pairings that are the most contrasting, then there would be lots of room for comedy and character development.  Also, MeganKoumori has written a fanfic about this storyline with Arnold switching houses with Helga temporarily, so go check it out.  Courtesy to Hellerick who brought this idea up.

23. Hillwood City is full of urban legends.  What harm can another one do?

24. Big Bob Pataki is always watching “the Wheel”, which is presumably a variant of “Wheel of Fortune”.  What will happen if Bob gets to play in one of his favourite game shows?

25. How did Helga and Phoebe manage to become best friends?  Craig Bartlett once said in an interview that he would like to do an episode where we see them in preschool becoming best friends.

26. As you know, the HA! sixth season would probably take place between “April Fool’s Day” (April 1) and “The Journal” (Oct 7).  This would mean that sometime in between those episodes, Arnold and the gang would actually turn into 5th graders.  How would their first day as fifth graders be like?

27. Some time in 2008, SquirrelTamer and several other HA! fan-artists collaborated to work on a possible HA/Nicktoon crossover, taking place in a fantasy world.  However, this project never got finished, and it would be a shame to let this work sit unfinished.  My question is: how well could this crossover idea be adapted into a HA! 6th season episode?  In order to do that, the fantasy world/story would have to be told from the perspective of the kids as 4th/5th graders.  And considering it was supposed to be an “epic tale”, this project, if it were animated, would probably be a 1 hour episode.

28. After a minor robbery in the Sunset Arms Boarding House, the boarders try to train Abner into an adequate watchdog.  Er… I mean watchpig.  Somewhat related, Cybra2003 wrote a small drabble on how Abner would be “better than a watchdog”, which is also the title of the fic!