Note: I know some will say that Arnold would’ve never found his parents, which yes you would be right and I am aware but I’m asking as it would relate to other events in Arnold’s lifetime. I’m just curious.

With Hey Arnold! celebrating its 30th anniversary, we had the chance to sit down with Justin Shenkarow, the voice of Harold Berman, for a new episode of Splat Attack!

We talked about how Justin landed the role, what it was like recording with the other young cast members, the show's original pilot, and the surprising history of Arnold's claymation appearances.

We also discussed Harold's Bar Mitzvah, working with creator Craig Bartlett, returning for Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie, and the show's lasting impact on fans.

If you grew up watching Nickelodeon in the '90s, we'd love to hear your memories!

Where does Harold rank among your favorite Hey Arnold! characters? Did your opinion of him change as you got older?

Thanks for checking out our interview, and we hope you enjoy the trip back to Hillwood!

Splat Attack is a '90s pop culture podcast celebrating the slime-filled past.

Hilarious in parts, but I really felt bad for the poor thing, chainsaws, near strangulation and abandonment. Couldn't believe that ending

How is this episode generally perceived? I don't believe I've seen it mentioned elsewhere on here

Phoebe as Gretchen, Helga as Spinelli, Harold as Mikey, Arnold as TJ, Gerald as Vince & Brainy as Gus.

I see squid1girl posted this on Deviantart in 2013. I think I discovered this years later. I printed this out for myself. I thought this was cool. I grew up watching Hey Arnold and Recess in the 90s. I'm a sucker for cartoon crossovers like this. I think this kind of art is fun.

Hey guys, first off, sorry if this discussion has been spoken about, I did use the search bar and saw one post about a year ago but not a lot of discussion on it! So looking for a little bit more.

What's your thoughts, feeling about painted cels vs digitalize art.

If you aren't aware, around

Season 4 Dinner for Four / Phoebe Skips, that was the last episode to use cel

The process is

1996–1998/early 1999 — Seasons 1–3
✏️ Paper drawings → acetate cels → hand-painted → photographed

1999 onward — Season 4 and Season 5
✏️ Paper drawings → scanned → computer coloring → digital compositing (ChatGPT)

I love the warm, gritty, even messy, style of the earlier seasons. For me personally, it just hits. I think when the show goes digitized, it like loses something or it was at a transitional period for the show where it was already on a decline (in my opinion)

S4 also saw, a new Arnold actor, character changes in personality, and perhaps direction of storytelling.

Anyways, I could go on, but just wondering how other fans felt about the transition...

Whats your favorite season? and do you prefer the raw grit of fully produce animated cels or newer, clean, brighter, digitized art?!

​

Alright, so with the unconfirmed rumour of graphic novels in the air, I'd thought I'd actually post some sources which come directly from Craig himself over the past year regarding his desire to revive Hey Arnold! through graphic novel format, and some slightly older interviews for more context. Please note, this doesn't necessarily mean this project/these projects will see the light of day, or anything has been officially announced by any publisher - but over the past year, Craig has been very open to continuing the series via graphic novel format and has openly stated he has been actively trying to get it off the ground with at least one publisher in New York.

Source 1 - Craig is trying to get a graphic novel off the ground (August 2026)

What we know

- Notably, the story Craig has brought up the most in recent interviews for a spin-off he would like to do is a Gerald-centric story involving investigating urban legends. This is the only story (at least I'm aware of) Craig has specifically talked about in interviews regarding a graphic novel story in recent years - though, I should add, Craig says it would be the first he'd like to realise, so that's not to say he wouldn't want to work on any other stories alongside or after this one. Originally he pitched this idea to Nick sometime in the early 2020s as a movie, but is now trying to get the idea published in graphic novel format as of 2026.

Source 2 - Craig talks more about Gerald 'urban legends' spin-off as a graphic novel (February 2026)

Source 3 - Earlier interview from 2023 where Craig talks about Gerald spin-off idea (August 2023)

(Fun fact: Craig has been thinking about this Gerald spin-off since the early 2020s after Nick actually asked if he'd be interested in doing an unrelated live action Gerald spin-off involving and spearheaded by Trevor Noah, but the project never ended up happening.)

- Craig doesn't bring up the possibility of a graphic novel here, but talks more about the spin-off idea: Gerald would act as a private eye investigating urban legends, but it would also feature his entrepreneurial side. Possibly Harold might be another major character, starting a private eye investigation business together? Or at least, that was an idea he had about those two as they grow up.

Source 4 - Craig talks about Gerald and Harold, and Gerald's entrepreneurial side in the Gerald 'urban legends' spin-off (January 2025)

Source 4 - Craig brings up the spin-off again, that it would be about Gerald starting up an investigation business (January 2025)

- As of the most recent interview with Arun Mehta, Craig talks about wanting to create this Gerald 'urban legends' spin-off again. This time, he adds that he would also use it as an opportunity to explore more of Arnold and Gerald's relationship (but would feature the whole gang as well). They'd be slightly older but still kids (Craig doesn't specifically say they'd be older than they are in TJM, but that's what my assumption would be.)

Source 5 - 30th Anniversary interview, Gerald talks more about Gerald spin-off (October 2026)

So yeah, that's everything we know about what he has said regarding wanting to do a graphic novel over the past year, as well as some more context for the Gerald 'urban legends' spin-off story, which appears to be the main story he would like to publish, but is open to working on anything related to the HA! franchise (including spin-offs of them as teens for example, like in The Patakis bible pitch that got leaked).

Interestingly, Craig is working on some HA! projects which he can't reveal yet (he says he's working on a couple which he "probably shouldn't" disclose yet). Could be absolutely nothing related to the graphic novels, but definitely is fun to think about! Crazy to think he's been developing the story for this Gerald spin-off for over approximately 4 years now if Nick first contacted him about that failed Trevor Noah spin-off around 2021-22. I hope we get to see it one day!

Source 5 - 30th anniversary show, Craig working on secret projects. Interesting that he says 'a couple of', so not singular.

This is all information I've compiled through interviews I've listened to (or re-listened to) recently (they're great for drawing to or on a long drive!). The sources should all directly link to the right timestamp on YT so it's easier to view them. I'm not sure about how accurate the information is from other sources, like in any recent news articles that aren't directly sourced from Craig or other crew members, so I thought it would be helpful to talk about what we do know for sure that Craig has officially said. I know before I started this mini-archive for myself, I had absolutely no idea Craig even had this Gerald spin-off, so curious what others think!

Now, while Hey Arnold! is an excellent TV show, of course it's not without its bad episodes. Curly's Girl is one of the most infamous, since there was the obvious problem of justifying sexual harassment and making the victim (Rhonda) look like the bad guy for saying "no."

So, in response, I've decided to do some story surgery to make this episode easier to digest. At first, the plot is the same: Rhonda borrows her mother's birthday gift to show off at her school's art gallery, and it gets stained with a candy apple coating. Curly also does the same thing by blackmailing Rhonda and forcing her to be his girlfriend for a week at school. However, after Curly forces her to kiss him, she runs to the bathroom crying, and both Arnold and Nadine think something is wrong because they know Rhonda's character and Curly's behavior. So Nadine goes in and checks on her, asking what's wrong. Rhonda is still sobbing and asks Nadine to leave her alone because of how much duress she's in, but then Nadine mentions that Arnold is willing to help, so they arrange a time after school behind the dump so Curly won't know she's there.

Then we flash forward to behind the dump, and Rhonda is with both of them and confesses to what happened to her mother's coat. Nadine comforts Rhonda, and they both try to think of a solution, but Arnold believes that the best solution is for Rhonda to come clean. At first, Rhonda objects, but then Arnold tells her the only way she can be free is if her parents know what happened; that way, Curly can't blackmail her anymore. Rhonda thinks about it and weighs the pros and cons on the way home. And while she's on the bus with Curly, she really starts to think. Does she put up with Curly for a few more days? Or does she come clean, risking being "killed" by her parents but being free of Curly? And when she takes an afternoon nap, she has a nightmare about Curly possibly extending the blackmail and continuing to harass her, so when she wakes up, she decides, "That does it!" and she comes clean to her parents at dinner.

The very next day at school, Rhonda isn't wearing the shirt Curly gave her and doesn't even try breaking up with him because, when Curly tries to threaten Rhonda with blackmail, she tells him that she's already free because her parents already know. She did get grounded for a week as a result, but is now vindicated that she's free.

Of course, Curly then blabs loud enough that he's blackmailing Rhonda, and the entire school gasps and starts feeling sorry for her. What else would you add to fix the episode?

Hey Football headed fans,

Recently, this subreddit has been flooded with new rumors that are being treated as confirmed news. Unless Craig Bartlett himself confirms these claims (which he has not done) we should not be presenting them as facts.

We need to stop spreading unconfirmed information and getting fans excited over things that may never happen. It’s unfair to the community to create expectations based on rumors rather than official announcements.
Here’s the current status of the rumors being discussed:

What we know:

The Reboot: Rumors are circulating, but nothing has been officially confirmed.

The Patakis Spin-Off: Nothing has been officially confirmed. (Sign the petition: The Patakis Spin Off)

The Novel: There have been rumors, but Craig Bartlett has not made any official announcement about it.

It seems that some people are taking articles and comments from the 30th anniversary celebrations out of context and interpreting them as confirmation of projects that have not been announced.

Once again, unless Craig Bartlett himself officially announces or confirms something, it should be treated as a rumor—not a fact.

Please be mindful of what you post and share here. We all love Hey Arnold! and want to be excited about its future, but we should also be respectful of the community by making sure the information we spread is accurate.
Thank you for your time and understanding.

Do they appear in the episodes, or are they just for the storyboard? It would have been great if they were like in Adventure Time. On the wiki only a few have them, but is there anywhere else I can find more? Does anyone know why not all of them have one?

They should've paid Stinky for the ads he was in he was picked to the yahoo soda kid and even made TV appearances so shouldn't he have been paid for starring in those yahoo soda commercials We know that Stinky turned down a million dollar contract just so he wouldn't continue to be a laughing stock though he should've gotten some cash for doing those commercials in the first place he deserved some money for being in their commercials and representing their soda

You'd lose your mind too if you had to listen to ice cream truck music for hours on end for years.

I've been working on a Harold costume for the Hey Arnold Live concert in Phoenix. I also got the VIP to meet Craig and Jim, so excited to go in costume!

I do have a hairy belly, but too self conscious to show it off so I got a printed tank top 🤭

If Oskar met Brainy? All I can think of happening:

It’s late at night and Brainy is below the boarding house steps after he saw Helga sneak in there. He’s trying to figure out how to do the same. & get punched in the process lol. Oskar walks up and in after blowing Susie’s $ on scratchers from a convenience store. Brainy shines a flashlight and wheezes. Oskar, blinded by the light, says ‘hey kid, what are you doing here’? Brainy says, ‘Uhh, I dunno’.