Your Hey Arnold! Story

A couple of weeks ago Tendra and I were talking a little bit about how we became fans of Hey Arnold!

I think it would be cool to hear some other stories about how different HA! fans actually became fans of the show. So, if you would like to share I think it would be interesting to read about.

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My HA! story is this:
As a kid Hey Arnold! was my favorite show. I started watching it in the 3rd grade (for me that was in 1996, when HA! first started airing). I remember one of the reasons I was really excited to start 4th grade was that I would get to be in the same grade as Arnold...I think I thought that I would be having all kinds of cool adventures and "plots" like Arnold and the gang did. I saw almost every episode, except for a few 5th season episodes before I eventually stopped watching Nickelodeon altogether.
Then, one day in late July 2008 the show just popped back into my mind. I remembered that there was a movie made, so I rented that; and the next day was the first day that HA! episodes were available for download on itunes. So, I bought that season and started doing some research about the show online. I've been crazy obsessed ever since.
A lot of people I know well in person (offline) know that I'm a big fan of the show (they probably think it was kinda strange because I went from indifference to obsessed in literally a couple of days...but I think they understand because I've always been a person with some very eclectic interests). I have still never told anyone I know in person about my trivial facts videos or HA6S, except my brother. I guess I just like keeping the two worlds separate.

lol, I know exactly what you mean, being obsessed with the show, but not telling a lot of people.. They just don't understand >< 'It's just a cartoon about a couple of kids!' *sigh*
I do mention it sometimes, when I'm chatting about random stuff with friends or family.. And rarely they ask me more about it XD

I believe I was 12 years old when they aired the first HA! episodes. And that was on a Belgium kids channel.. Now I didn't watch that channel a lot, but my best friend did, and she told me about 'this awesome new cartoon about a kid named Arnold and a girl named Helga who had a crush on Arnold' and I really had to check it out. So I did. And I loved the show from the very beginning ^^ I hurried home every everning, just to be home in time to see Hey Arnold!. And my mom and dad watched with me. But I had to go to athletics practice twice a week.. So I started taping those episodes. And then came the reruns.. I started taping the ones I likes too, cause I liked to watch HA episodes when I was sick or when there was nothing good on in the weekends..
And after about 5 years I had every episode on tape, and I found out on internet that those were the last episodes made.. So I kinda forgot about Hey Arnold.. occasionally I watched a few episodes I recorded before.. Until one day I was looking in my Media Player, I remember is as if it happened yesterday.. there were ads in Media Player, about movies and such.. And all of a sudden I saw Arnold's head in one of those ads! It said that there was going to be a movie!! I was so happy
It took a few months before the movie premiered. Of course, I couldn't watch it, couse they didn't show it in Holland.. So I downloaded the recorded version.. It was all crappy, people walking in front of the screen.. But I was so happy when Helga finally told Arnold XDD
I found a few fan sites, and started drawing fanart. And when the movie came out on DVD I ordered it right away.
But after a little while the fans disappeared, the forums were empty.. And I went too. I still drew fanart.. Heck, my whole agenda and school books were filled with Arnold drawings, together with Bart Simpson and Vegeta and Doug and more..
But then, only a year ago I guess, I suddenly felt like I needed to search for more Arnold XD And I found a lot of abandoned forums.. and one alive one!! Arnold's Eyes.. I registered.. and I started drawing again.. started downloading episodes.. met new Arnold fans.. made my own forum.. and we've been RP'ing and drawing ever since XD

My story is kinda like funnybones21's, but I was in 1st grade when it started airing. Throughout elementary school and middle school I watch cartoons all the time. I enjoyed most of the shows on cartoon network like "Dexter's lab", "Johnny Bravo", "powerpuff girls", "ed, edd n' eddy", and "tom and jerry." My favorite show was "dragon ball z" and I would even watch "sailor moon" while waiting for it to come on.

On Nickelodeon, I watched plenty of nicktoons like "Hey Arnold!", "rugrats", "Doug", and "rocko's modern life." Eventually, all these shows stopped airing, and it made me stop watching tv all together (like funnybones). I started to really get into anime. I always liked DBZ, "Inuyasha", and "Yu Yu Hakusho", but in high school, I got into shows like "Naruto" and "Bleach" and the number of shows I was watching just keep increasing. I would become addicted to an anime and wear it out over one weekend. I eventually ran out of things to watch. I decided to look up some old shows I used to watch.

The first I looked up was "Rocket Power" and it was pretty good, but then I watched and episode of "Hey Arnold!" and it was amazing. I never realized how good the show actually was until I rewatched them all years later. I was hooked from the first episode and I've been watching them non-stop for about 3 months now. The show is so great! It has all the elements of a great anime like terrific story, comedy (that is more hilarious than any anime's), the most lovable characters, and much more.

Even if I watched all the shows I watched when I was young, none of them would even compare to HA! This is the longest I've ever been hooked on a show and I don't think any show will be the same now because they will be no where near as good. It's my favorite show and always will be. I going to go watch some Hey Arnold! now.

HA! forever!

It looks like my story is a bit different from the rest. Most people liked that show while being kids, and later re-attached to it when became young adults. But when I saw the show for the first time I was about 21. It started with a fire — a big fire in my college (a birthday party went really bad and one half of the college building burnt down). For about half a year the normal education process stopped and the students were mostly occupied in repairing the building. I suddenly discovered that I had much free time, and that there many pretty good day-time shows on the TV. My favorite was the two-hours time slot with Nickelodeon cartoons on the TNT channel (yeah, that's a channel's name here in Russia; the channel is famous for hosting the world's longest running reality show — it started in 2004 and has no intention to stop). At first I got hooked on the Wild Thornberrys, I really liked Debbie (probably because her attitude reminded me my hiking-phobia very much). When I showed a picture of Debbie to one of my college mates she told me that Debbie was cool, but Helga was even cooler, and that's what drew my attention to the little brat in pink. I became a huge fan of her, I was making thousands of screenshots, I have read hundreds of fanfics, I was collecting all the information I could find. Well, that's how I did end up here.

And yeah I prefer not to let other adult people know about my unhealthy infatuation with a bunch of fictional nine-year-olds.

Well... the way i got addicted to the show was kinda because of... a girl...

I started watching Hey Arnold when i was 3 or 4 years old. When i was 6, i saw the Hey Arnold movie. I never really understood the movie or the story.. since i only payed attention to the pictures... hehe

I forgot about the show afterward, including "Rocko's Modern Life", and "Johny Bravo"...

When i was 15, i was with this girl named Olivia, AND I SWEAR TO GOD she acted like Helga. Of course, that didn't remind me about the show until now, but when i first met her, she was like really nice at first. Afterward though, she was soo mean. By mean, i mean like she always disses me and stuff. Sometimes though when were alone, we text each other even though it was 2 in the morning. She was really nice inside, but in school though, shes different...

Anyways in MySpace, i faked a message that tells "a girl" that i love her. I told Olivia to check out her MySpace. I didn't think she would go after she said "ehh too lazy. I'll check tomorrow". But she did though. She was like "Ooh so who's the girl then?" and i was like "Haha! you DID check! ill tell you tomorrow in school who the girl is x]"
The next day, i told her who the girl was... and the girl was... her... i told Olivia that i loved her, and asked her out... she said yes!

8 months later, she broke up with me. I still don't know why, but her friends told me its not about another guy...
I couldn't stop thinking about her... Every time i text her, she never replies...
One day though, i made a message with 1000 texts.

Spoiler:

Anyways, i told my friend about this and he told me how it was like Hey Arnold! lol i was kinda mad when i thought he was making fun of me. I wanted to see WHY he said that, so i searched up Hey Arnold in YouTube. I clicked "Hey Arnold: All Star" and that took me WAAY back! I remembered everything about the show! especially all the ones where Helga kissed Arnold. lol of course i watched the ones where Arnold and Helga kissed, so the first episode i watched was "School Play", after wards, i wanted to see if Arnold and Helga FINALLY fall for eachother after not watching the show for 5 years. But when i found out that the show stopped in 2004, i was really disappointed.

I watched all the episodes again, especially "Summer Love"(since that's when they kiss x] lol) and "Weird Cousin"(since it kinda shows what it would look like if Helga and Arnold were together), and finally, the movie!
haha and of course, i was disappointed about the ending since they never got together xP

anyways long story short, i got hooked up with show and now, im part of this INCREDIBLE fan site that not only worships Hey Arnold, but also makes comics! Amazing!

So yeah that's my story...
Oh by the way, I'm still trying to meet my ex again cuz i know she still loves me!...
since i moved out of the city where she is, I'm planning on meeting EVERYONE again for the first and last time at 11/20/09, the day New Moon comes out... I knew that every girl loved the Twilight series and everyone's gonna be there when New Moon. Especially my ex....
so if your in West Covina, CA, go to Edwards theater! ill be there hugging all my friends and bro's

Hey Arnold is my favirate show and l moved back to kuwait I used to live in Portland/Oregan I was more intrested in fitting in (boy that worked out) but thats another story after a few years in a channel Fox movies they put the movie and everything flashed back to me in half a second I started watching the episodes in youtube and also downloaded the rare one like the journal and here I am! One of the obssesed fans, also my subcontious is starting to sound like arnold WIERD.

LOVE NOUF

Hellerick wrote:My favorite was the two-hours time slot with Nickelodeon cartoons on the TNT channel (yeah, that's a channel's name here in Russia; the channel is famous for hosting the world's longest running reality show — it started in 2004 and has no intention to stop).

There's actually an American cable channel called TNT. They never show Nicktoons, though.

Mine started with the hatred of this show. When i was a kid, i was pretty much rebellious. And I would hate hate HATE shows where good people start giving advices and stuff like that (reason for hating Barney). And whenever one of the kids learn their lesson I'll be like, "Boo! I hate this show!" Why did I watch it then? I honestly had no idea ;s

But anyway, as i watched the show over the years, I'll be like, "Hey, this show isn't THAT bad." Then I'll just watch it when it comes on TV and, recently, before going to school (I need a little Hey Arnold to start my day know?). But I wasnt an obsessed fan like now.

Then i recently watched 'School Play' and I'm like "Awww, how cute" [which is amazing because i watched that episode thousands of times] and then I got interested in the show. I watched 'Married' and I'm like 'AWWWWWWWW' at the ending. But, amazingly, the episode that got me hooked was... The Racing Mule. I dunno why O.O After that I REALLY loved this show and i was like getting all obssessed about it. I kept searching facts about it and then i spazz whenever i think about football >_> Lol, i am so weird!

Yep, My Hey Arnold! Story for you

Those are all very interesting stories XD It's always so cool to hear about how someone gets ... hooked on something.

Guy on Street: "Hey, you. Come over here."
Unsuspecting Kid: "Who, me?"

j/k j/k j/k j/k XD

My story is a bit like Hellerick's. I was never a HA! kid to begin with. Watched some episodes, but not a lot. The Simpsons was the rage when I was a kid (I feel so old saying that lol) and I was (and technically still am) a huge Simpsons fan. Hey Arnold never really crossed my mind much (if at all...) until 2 years ago.

So about 2 years ago, Bleedman, who is a popular online webcomic artist, posted a piece of HA! fanart. Hey, I actually found it: http://bleedman.deviantart.com/art/Hey-Lila-66213671 So I guess I actually can pinpoint the exact date, which is Sep 30, 2009. Huh, cool. So I recognized Arnold, but didn't know who the hell Lila was. So I began to search up Lila fanart (and LilaxArnold fanart) on Deviantart. I eventually came across HelgaxArnold fanart, and it ensued from there. XD

Tried looking for HA! episodes online, and after several failed attempts, started to watch tons of HA! music videos on YouTube. I think one of the reasons why I got hooked onto HA! longer than other cartoons is because it so damn hard to find HA! episodes. Nickelodeon kind of had a tight lease on YouTube in that you couldn't find any videos, or even clips (i.e. clips with both original movie and sound), on YouTube. So being stubborn as the stubborn girl I am, I searched hard. Finally came across Hannah's website (thank you, Hannah! :3) and managed to come across all the episodes. Of course, I had to download the movies before watching them, and I think that's another reason why I stuck onto HA! for so long. I usually bulldoze through my cartoons, but b/c I had to wait for quite a long time to download them, it slowed down the rate that I watched the HA! episodes. So that's reason 2.

3rd reason why I think I stuck onto HA! for so long is b/c I couldn't find/watch HA! The Movie. lol, I know it sounds dumb, but when I watch a series that has a plot to it, I usually like to watch all episodes. And of course, HA! left us at the biggest cliffhanger ever, so that's reason #4. lol

...Yeah, that's my story XD

Mine is kinda like funnybones021 too. I started watching hey Arnold in the 2 or 3rd grade? Anyway, i was really looking forward to the fourth grade because I thought it was going to be exactly like fourth grade in the HA! universe. I was kinda worried about the mean 6th graders too. Anyway I got to the fourth grade and it sadly wasn't any different from 3rd. Overtime i forgot about Hey Arnold, but I didn't leave cartoons completely. Instead I found my number one obsession Danny Phantom.

I think it was in my freshman year of highschool when I was walking home listening to music. I like to imagine a certain cartoon to every song I hear, don't know why, that's just how I am. Suddenly Everywhere by michelle branch came on and I spent the entire song thinking about what cartoon would go best to it, since none of my regular cartoons fit. Suddenly, and completely randomly, Hey Arnold popped into my head. I though it fit really well, but i didn't remember much about the show except Arnold was a sweetheart and Helga a bully, but secretly in love with him. My idea to have a Danny Phantom shrine in my closet came from the small memory I had of her having a shrine for her obsession. So I decided to watch an episode... big mistake.

So here I am after re-watching every single episode, reading a bunch of amazing fics, and watching awesome fan videos. I'm impressed that after all these years there is this amazing fan base that seemed to come out of no where. And now we are continuing the HA! legacy in the best way we know how.

I'll I have to say is I'm really glad that song played on my ipod when it did.

I first started watching the show back in about 04. T.v back then wasnt really important to me. XD I forgot about HA! and others and focused on Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob. Both shows got unfunny and I just hate Nick for canceling old shows and destroying good ones. Anyways, I started to look back at memories and remembered Rugrats. I watched a couple of episodes on youtube. Later I researched ( I dont know why ) the show when I came across the date of 199?. I looked for 90's show intros and I came across Hey Arnold! I was like my gosh I used to watch this show! Then I stopped watching R episodes and switched to HA! I couldnt watch the movie so I am just watching eps and I feel sad about not getting to see Helga confess. I am now not only obbsessed with but I am addicted to HA! I even drew a small picture of Helga in one of my school assingments! XD (this wasnt just a doodle I really had to draw something!)

Any ways while I serched for more HA! I came across deviantart.com. There I commented people and bloochikin told me about HAS6 and here I am now as a translator. Alot can happen in 09! Bye!

I feel a little late putting this up but oh well.

I started watching HA when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade which was when it first aired. I had already been watching nicktoon like Rugrats and Doug. I really don't remember much from back then (haha, I said back then) except playing outside or watching nicktoons. Then when I got into 6th and 7th grade I stopped watching Nickelodeon and switched to Cartoon Network. (So I never got to see the last season of HA). Then about a month ago I was throwing in back-- watching Ed, Edd, n Eddy on youtube-- and I think I entered a fuge state because the next thing I remember is trying to track down HA episodes. Haha. But I'm glad I did. Even though my childhood memories are fuzzy I can look at an episode and say, "I've seen this before!" and I get warm fuzzies.

I know as a child I took everything for face value so I never understood how deep the characters were but now that I'm older I'm glad I can watch this show and not only be entertained but also empathise with the characters.

I was a 90s kid who grew up on HA! also. I'm still pretty young actually, I suppose. (I'm 20 now.) I guess I've been watching it since around 1998. It was always my favorite show because it was always so funny and intelligent.

I always had a secret crush on Arnold as a little girl because he was so sincere and mature for his age. (Which is the kind of person I'm still looking for 12 years later, haha )

I kind of didn't think too much about it until I graduated high school and got nostalgic for my childhood. Then I sort of fell in love with it all over again.
I still think Craig Bartlett must've secretly based Helga off of me, hahaha.

Okay, here is my story. XD

When Hey Arnold! was in its first season, I was five years old. As such, I don't remember waiting for episodes or anything really. And when I was very young, I was snobbish about which cartoons I would watch, and I didn't much care for Hey Arnold!'s art style (of course, now I adore it and wish other cartoons looked like it, because today's cartoons are frankly quite hideous).

Later, though, when I discovered I was a hopeless romantic and wasn't so ashamed of that fact (like when I was 10 or so), I started watching it. I started watching it every day. I started sitting on the school bus at the end of the day and thinking to myself, "I hope I get home in time for Hey Arnold." I loved it to bits and pieces, even if I never really saw the movie.

Now, zoom forward to June 2010. My brother and I were goofing around on Netflix with my laptop hooked up to our 42 inch TV (which makes YouTube and Fanfiction entirely new experiences, lemme tell ya), and we saw the first season of Hey Arnold! on there, the half-lidded gaze of that football-headed kid from our childhood looking at us like "Did you miss me?" I looked at my brother...my brother looked back at me...and we nodded.

Then we stayed up til 4 watching that show.

And ever since, I've fallen back in love with this show, and like Helga, I don't intend to fall out of love anytime soon. XD

My brother also watched it a lot growing up. He and his best friend at the time had a ton of inside jokes from the show, and now when we watch it together, he'll randomly laugh at something and I'll say, "What?" and he'll say, "Justin and I used to laugh at that all the time..." For example, the "I'll Hit Me" song from "24 Hours to Live." Oh, and that time in "New Bully on the Block" when Wolfgang and Ludwig are just aggressively shoving each other's right shoulders, and Helga says, "Look at them! They're beating the crap out of each other!" Apparently that used to crack my brother and his friend up, because they weren't really beating each other up at all...XD And then my brother and his friend would push each other in the shoulder and be like, "I'm beating the crap out of you!" XD

Aaaaanyway, that's my story, and a bit of my brother's. Hope you enjoyed reading it if you bothered. XD

My Hey Arnold! story...

When it first came out, I had no idea it existed. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't know Nickelodeon existed back then. At that time, I lived in Puerto Rico and when it came to TV I watched what my family was watching and when I got the TV to myself it was the Spanish-dubbed Cartoon Network. And there was lots of playing and other annoying hyper active kid stuff involved in that part of my childhood. In the summer of '97 I moved to Pearsall, TX. If you drive by there and blink, you'll miss it. Despite my parents efforts to try to teach me English before we moved by buy many Disney movies in English, I could barely speak the language. Starting second grade was a bitch. Apart from having a few Chicano friends that could understand me, I was pretty much an outcast and made fun of. As someone who was used to getting praises for being cute and shit, that was a total blow to my self-esteem. There was crying, anger, and all kinds of bad emotions at that time. I was determined to learn the language and culture, and just be loved by my classmates. I used TV to help me with English, and I noticed that everyone was way into Nickelodeon so naturally that's the channel I adopted as one of my favorites. That's when I discovered Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, and pretty much every '90s Nickelodeon show that made my childhood awesome. Hey Arnold! and Rugrats were my favorite to watch and help with my English. By the way, if you've ever seen Rugrats (which most of you have, I safely assume), then you know using that show as a reference to better your English is one of the worst ideas ever. Anyway, I loved Nickelodeon so much, I subscribed to their magazine and used that as a way to keep up with all that '90s kid info that I desperately wanted. I talked the talk and walked the walk. Or at least tried desperately. Nickelodeon, especially its magazine and Hey Arnold!, was my Bible. It all holds a very special place in my heart and reminds me of how I got over that big set back in my life.

And you guysss, I totes pulled a Helga and professed my love from afar multiple times for a boy that I had a huge crush on and pretended to hate. God, I miss the '90s.


For your imagination: Foreign Kid Me in the '90s was like the female elementary school version of Fez, except I was already a citizen and didn't have to marry someone slutty for a green card. But I'm sure I could be a killer shampoo girl. I could drop out of college and do that.

This is all babbling about my life xD but my story's a good one:

I think I was about three when I started watching Hey, Arnold! (1998) I started watching at such a young age because my sister was such a big fan of it (6 at the time).

Of course, I wasn't the hugest fan of Hey Arnold back then, but the show began to grow on me every year that I got older as my sister dragged me along into watching it. When I was 9 (2004), I was so disappointed about the show ending, I finally understood how much I appreciated the show.

For the next six years (up to 2010), I tried to find a good replacement on TV for Hey, Arnold!, along with my other favorite childhood shows. However, realizing that the only show that I watched as a young child that was still on (Spongebob) was getting terrible along with the other cartoons on TV, I realized that nothing could ever replace my childhood memories.

And then, last month, a friend of mine sent me a link to Youtube, to Sid the Vampire Slayer. And guess what happened after that?

I watched Hey, Arnold! like there was no tomorrow. For some reason I became more attached to Hey, Arnold! than all the other shows that I enjoyed watching as a child, and I had no idea why. That is, until I watched Helga on the Couch.

I realized that I related to Helga G. Pitaki tons. She has a family life similar to mine (well... I try not to be mean to people xD). And that's not even half of what got me into the show. What really took the punch was the HelgaxArnold pairing.

After seeing that little scene at the end of Arnold's Valentine, where Helga had her hand out on the table, and Arnold was about to put his hand on her's, I instantly fell in love with the pair of them.

This doesn't have much to do with anything, but I just haveee to list my favorite scenes between them:

-When Arnold is about to place his hand on "Cecile's"
-Helga's memory of three-year-old Arnold putting the umbrella over three-year-old Helga's head
-When Arnold falls in love with Hilda, Arnold's dream version of Helga.
-"I feel dizzy... I need to lie down" "Wonderful, I'll go with you!"
-When Helga and Arnold are building a sandcastle in Summer Love
-When Arnold wishes Helga a happy Thanksgiving while watching her and her family through the window of her house.
-Phoebe's idea of Arnold and Helga being married (not to mushy, yet still adorable ;3;)

ANYWAY! Helga isn't the only thing that made me fall in love with the show, although it's a big part of it. Another thing that I love about the show is the various characters. My absolute favorites are Curly, Gertie, Eugine, Chocolate Boy, and Brainy. I know you all love those characters, too! <3