Old School Lane's Top 10 Favorite Hey Arnold episodes

To conclude our discussion of Hey Arnold, time to list our favorite episodes. When discussing our favorite episodes, it was kind of hard to find 10. We originally wanted to do 15 of our favorites because there were so many good ones, but we eventually narrowed it down to 10. Here's are my favorites.

10. Pigeon Man

In this episode, Arnold's pigeon gets sick and doesn't know what to do. When he hears about the Pigeon Man from one of Gerald's legends. Arnold wants to go to him, but everyone else says that he's a weirdo. But Arnold goes anyway and finds out that he's a nice man who loves pigeons and is not around people because they're not to be trusted. In the end when Harold and his friends destroy his home, Pigeon Man leaves with a positive message to "wash his berries before eating them" and "flying towards the sun". It's truly a favorite for many people, including me.

9. Stuck in a tree

Eugene gets himself stuck in a tree and ends up getting Arnold and Harold stuck as well. While waiting for Chocolate Boy to get a fire truck to rescue them, they argue and think about what would happen if they were stuck there for 50 years. Seeing Harold marrying a squirrel is so hilarious. In the end, with everything bad going on, Eugene teaches Arnold and Harold to look at the bright side when things seem down.

8. Eugene's Bike

Eugene gets himself a new bike and Arnold accidentally gets it broken. He tries to make amends to Eugene, but it ends up with Eugene having a broken arm, leg, getting his tonsils and spleen removed. But Arnold doesn't give up trying to give Eugene the best day of his life. Eugene, despite him going through physical pain, appreciates everything that Arnold is doing. 

7. Arnold's Christmas

This is one episode that really made me cry. We find out that all Mr. Hyunh wants for Christmas is his long lost daughter. He gave her away to an American soldier during the Vietnam War and has been looking for her ever since. Arnold and Gerald goes to the case worker and he refuses since it's Christmas and he needs to do shopping for his family. They agreed. Meanwhile, Helga is thinking about what to give Arnold for Christmas. When she sees what Arnold and Gerald are doing, she gives away for favorite present in order for Arnold to be happy. In the end, the case worker finds Mr. Hyunh's daughter and everyone's happy. Seeing this picture makes me want to cry right now. Excuse me. *sniff.

6. Longest Monday

In this episode, the 4th graders were about to go through a school tradition that is not a good one. The 5th graders would dump the 4th graders in dumpsters and trash cans. Arnold and his friends run away from the 5th graders trying to escape from them. It's an intense episode that leaves you wanting to know what happens next.

5. Big Sis

In this episode, we see Olga being involved in a sibling program being a big sister to an only child. To Helga's surprise, it's Lila. At first, Helga's happy about it, but then Olga and Lila spent too much time together and Helga's jealous. It's really funny to see Helga angry at two people who she hates a lot spend time together looking happy.

4. Downtown as Fruits

The first episode has Arnold and Gerald being in Helga's play. They don't want to, so they decided to go around the city. They get themselves in a bad situation when they take the money from a group of thieves unintentionally. It was a great start to an excellent series.

3. The Baseball

Arnold hears the news of his favorite baseball player Mickey Kaline retiring. He tries his very best to go to his last baseball game. While he eventually does, he gets the worst seat in the entire stadium. Arnold struggles to see his Kaline play for the final time. It shows the dedication of how to get closer to see our role model, despite the obstacles. 

2. Stoop Kid

For a lot of people, this is one of their favorite episodes. It's the story about a kid simply known as Stoop Kid who has always lived in a stoop of an abadoned apartment. He has never left the stoop and the kids make fun of him for that. Arnold helps him leave the stoop, but Stoop Kid continues to struggle because he feels safe there. It's such a memorable episode despite Stoop Kid not appearing throughout the entire show.

1. The Jungle Movie

Oh wait. They never showed the movie, did they? Damnit! Oh well, here's my real #1.

1. The Train

In this episode, Arnold, Gerald, and Helga go into an abandoned train station and see if Grandpa Phil's story of a haunted train exist. When they go in, a train for some reason does appear and strange things occur in it. From the smell of rotten eggs to the lights flickering to a mysterious person following them around, it makes up for a great episode.

That's my top 10. Now here's Patricia's.

10. Helga's Makeover

In this episode, Helga is the only one in the class who doesn't get invited to Rhonda's all girls party. This is due to the fact that Helga is a huge tomboy and not as feminine as the rest of them. Helga decides to prove them wrong and puts on makeup, does her hair, and puts on a dress and goes to Rhonda's party. The girls are shocked with the changes that Helga goes through and are accepting of it, except Phoebe. She tells Helga that being yourself is what a real person does and that she shouldn't listen to the other girls' advice since that's not who she is. Helga learns a lesson about being yourself and the other girls learn to not worry about growing up so fast.

9. Crabby Author

Arnold wishes to meet his favorite author Egatha Kaufield for a school report he's doing. But it turns out that no one knows where she is or if she's even alive since she hasn't written a book in 10 years. When Arnold finally does find her in a small shack in Elk Island, he finds out that she's a bitter, mean, nasty old woman who has stop believing in herself. She's constantly mean to Arnold telling him to go away. But despite that, Arnold goes back to the island every day and waits for her to talk to him. Eventually she does and is still being mean to him. Arnold never talks back at her and still treats her with respect. Unlike Mickey Kaline in "The Baseball", it shows you that not all of your role models are going to turn out to be nice people. They will be mean and nasty to you. It takes a lot of courage to still keep your cool to someone who is a jerk and Arnold demonstrated that to us beautifully.

8. Grandpa's Sister

When Grandpa Phil would tell Arnold his stories from his youth, he never mentioned anything about another sibling. Well, in this episode, we do. Grandpa's sister Mitzi visits him and stays for a few days due to her house being fixed. Grandpa hates the idea and does whatever he can to get her to leave. Arnold finds out more about why they hate each other. In the end, it's as simply stupid as you can imagine, but completely understandable at the same time. Mitzi's a great character who was voiced by the late Phylis Diller. 

7. Veteran's Day

This is an episode that I feel is very overlooked. Whenever you ask a question to any Hey Arnold fan about what's their favorite holiday episode, they would probably say either the Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas Special. No one has mentioned this one and it's a real shame. In fact, I feel that most people don't even appreciate Veteran's Day at all. But I think this episode shows the real meaning of the day quite well. Arnold and Gerald plan on something special to do for Veteran's Day whether it's the movie theater, golfing, or the aquarium. Grandpa Phil and Martin Johanssen, Gerald's father, had both fought in wars in their youth and decide to do something special to help remind Arnold and Gerald that Veteran's Day is not an extended weekend. They drive to the Washington Memorial Site and tell their stories about their time in the war. For Arnold, he doesn't believe his grandfather's story. For Gerald, he was disappointed that his father didn't fight in the war at all. He was just a file clerk. But they soon learn the real meaning of Veteran's Day. A day to celebrate the men and women who risked their lives for this country.

6. Pigeon Man/Stoop Kid

Yeah, yeah. Predictable, I know. Kevin said why he liked it and I agree. Next.

5. Arnold's Christmas

Same reason that Kevin liked it. Moving on.

4. Chocolate Boy

Talk about an episode that shows the negative side of addiction. We've all seen Chocolate Boy as a minor character who simply loves chocolate. No big deal, right? Wrong! We learn all about this character in this episode. Chocolate Boy loves chocolate more than anything. When he's constantly teased by Wolfgang and his gang about going two weeks without chocolate with a reward of a 10 pound bag, Chocolate Boy accepts. He asks Arnold to help him not think about chocolate and it's not easy. When the two weeks are up, he relapses and eats chocolate like crazy, even digging for some in the dumpster. Chocolate Boy knows he has a severe problem and talks to Arnold again about helping him out. We find out why he loves chocolate and surprisingly, the story's a bit sad. In the end, he no longer eats chocolate and is free from his habit. But now, he eats nothing but radishes. Maybe he's Radish Boy now? I don't know.

3. Weighing Harold

Sid, Stinky, The Jolly Olly Man, and others are teasing Harold because of his weight. He feels hurt about it and decides to go on a six week cruise to lose weight. Yeah, yeah. What's going to happen now? He's going to lose the weight and act like a jerk to everyone praising his new body? Well, no. He gains even more weight than before and refuses to leave his room because the teasing has gotten worse. Arnold helps Harold lose the weight, but Harold feels hopeless because he says he's always going to be fat. However, he liked who he was before everyone began teasing him, so Arnold tells him to lose enough weight to be where he was before. He does and everyone is shocked by how great he looks, despite looking the same. 

I can relate to this problem a lot! I always had a weight problem when I was younger and still do. While I was never teased about my weight in school, I was teased about it at home by my younger sister and my mother. I felt the sadness and depression of trying to lose weight, but giving up because it didn't matter. I was always going to have a weight problem no matter how much I lost. But I did learn about exercising and eating right to lose weight. Is it easy? Hell no. Do I feel like quitting? You bet I do. But I don't lose weight because I want to look good to everyone. I do it because I want to be healthy. That's what's important.

2. Helga on the couch

We all know why Helga's a bitter angry girl. Because her home life sucks! Well, we get more details about it in this episode. Helga punches Brainy in the nose for the 1000th time and Principal Wartz advises her to see a therapist. Helga says nothing at first, but then she starts warming up to the therapist telling her story about her family. My God, is it depressing. Even at 5, she has to walk to preschool by herself in the rain because her parents are gushing about how proud they are of Olga. She also tells the therapist her ultimate secret: she loves Arnold. Helga was already a well developed character throughout the show. In this episode, we see a lot more about her.

1. Parent's Day

I wanted to put "The Journal" at #1, but I couldn't because the ending gets me so angry! I can't believe that the final episode is left on a cliffhanger. I'm still hoping every day that The Jungle Movie will finally see a release date. But unless we get enough signatures on the petition, we won't. But this episode is still really good for the following reasons:

1. We finally get to know about Arnold's parents more. Before this episode, we only saw them in a flashback in the episode "Arnold's Hat". We know what they look like, we know what they did before Arnold was born, and we get a little backstory about how they met. It's a really nice introduction to a group of people we've been dying to know so much about.

2. The whole episode has more depth going on. In "The Journal", it's just Arnold learning about his father's past in the journal and Grandpa reading from it. In "Parent's Day", Grandpa is telling the story, but there's another plot point about a competitive event involving the kids and their parents. Arnold is the only one who has his grandparents there and it doesn't bother him at all. That is until Big Bob is furious about losing the events and not wanting to lose to Arnold and his grandparents. He calls them "an orphan boy" and "his ancestors". That's harsh, even for Big Bob. So there's more going on in the episode besides learning about Arnold's parents. 

3. It ends in a happier note with Arnold dreaming about flying in a plane similar to what his parents did in the hope of one day finding them. Unlike "The Journal" in which it leaves us in a cliffhanger ending. For those reasons and much more, "Parent's Day" is my #1 favorite episode. 

What are your favorite episodes of Hey Arnold? Post it in the comments below and let us know. 

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we take a look at Nickelodeon's first animated variety show KaBlam! 

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Kevin and Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Interview with Justin Shenkarow

The fat kid. Whether you like this cliche character or not, there's always one in every group. He can the bully, the nice kid, or just someone who simply loves food. In the case of Hey Arnold's character Harold Berman, he was all three, plus much more. Today we had gotten the opportunity the man who voiced Harold, Justin Shenkarow.



Before going on voice acting, he had appeared in a few TV shows playing as Simon Holmes in Eerie, Indiana, Matthew Brock in Picket Fences, and a few other guest roles in shows such as Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Boy Meets World, and Home Improvement. As for voice acting roles, he was in shows such as Recess as Gelman, Lloyd in Space as Eddie R. Holton, and W.I.T.C.H. as Eric. Hope you enjoy this interview.

Patricia What were your favorite cartoons/shows growing up?

Justin- Alvin and the Chipmunks, He-Man, and Garfield.

Patricia- What age did you decided that you knew that you wanted to pursue your life into acting?

Justin- 5

Patricia- How did the audition process go for Picket Fences and Eerie, Indiana?

Justin- Eerie was 10 auditions and Picket was about 4

Kevin- What kind of fun stories can you tell us about filming an episode of those two shows?

Justin- My favorite for Eerie was crawling through the fog that they blew out to create a scary feeling for the Halloween episode and also driving around in a golf cart around the studio. Picket was the episode with
Lauren Holly where I had a wet dream, I kept pretending to forget my lines so she would have to do more takes with her top off.

 

Patricia- Why do you think weird things occur in Rome, Wisconsin and Eerie, Indiana?

Justin- Don’t know, you’ll have to visit them to see.

Patricia- What did you think of those shows after you saw it?

Justin- Loved them, they were terrific.

Patricia- What was it like working with David E. Kelley?

Justin- Great, he’s a brilliant writer.

 

Kevin- You have guest starred in a few TV shows. What were your favorite?


Justin- Perhaps Home Improvement because the guys were my friends and we could hang out after shooting.

 

Patricia- What was the audition process like for voicing Harold on Hey Arnold?

Justin- I went in twice to meet the Creator.

Kevin- What was it like working with Craig Bartlett?

Justin-Amazing, he’s an awesome guy. 

 

Patricia- Did you know of Craig Bartlett's work on Pee-wee's Playhouse before you auditioned?

Justin- No, I didn’t, he’s super talented.

Patricia- Did you see Pee-wee's Playhouse when you were a kid? If so, what did you think of it?

Justin-Yea, I loved it, it was hilarious.

Kevin- Did you befriend with any of the other voice actors?

Justin- Yes, Jamil, Tauren, Franny and several others.

Patricia- Do you still keep in touch with them?

Justin- Yes.

Kevin- What would a typical day be like for voicing an episode for Hey Arnold?

Justin- The entire cast would read the script.

Patricia- What characteristics do you have in common with Harold Berman?

Justin- I’m loud!

 

Patricia- What is your favorite Hey Arnold episode?

Justin- Harold’s Bar Mitzvah

Patricia- What was it like doing The Hey Arnold Movie?

Justin- Fun, similar to doing the show.

Patricia- Were you disappointed that The Jungle Movie never saw the light of day?

Justin- Yes I was.

 

Patricia- You also voiced other cartoon characters. What were your favorites?

Justin- Lloyd in Space and Recess.

   

Kevin- What were your favorite Nickelodeon shows?

Justin- Hey Arnold.

Kevin- What do you think of Nickelodeon now?

Justin- It’s fine, I don’t really watch it.

Kevin- How does it feel now that Hey Arnold has finally got a proper DVD release?

Justin- Great!!!

Patricia- What made you decide to do TLC's Flip That House?

Justin- I thought it’d be fun.

 

Patricia- Do you have any upcoming projects?

Justin- I’m working on a feature film in China.

Patricia- Alright. That's all our questions. Thank you so much, Justin.

Justin-  You're welcome :) 

To find out more about Justin, you can visit his website at  http://justinshenkarow.com/. You can also follow him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/justinshenkarowfans and on Twitter @justinshenkarow.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Patricia and Kevin

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Interview with Anndi McAfee

The smart one: one of the many roles in an animated show that you always include in. In Hey Arnold's case, you have Phoebe Hyerdahl, the Asian genius who sides with Helga Pataki every step of the way. Today, we have interviewed the young woman who voices her, Anndi McAfee. 

 

Besides voicing Phoebe, she's known for many of her voice acting roles such as Ashley A. in Recess, Robyn Sterling in Tom and Jerry: The Movie, The Land Before Time sequels as Cera, The Mass Effect series as Emily Wong, Hermia, and Hallia, and Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2 as Lebrau. Hope you enjoy the interview.

Patricia- What age did you decided that you knew that you wanted to pursue your life into acting?

Anndi- I was born a singer. I was always singing everywhere and at about 7 or 8 years old I started doing musical theater locally in Los Angeles. I began acting professionally because I sort of fell into it. I went
from stage to on camera as a natural progression. I feel like I didn't decide to act, I was born to do it! ;) I believe my first professional job was singing for a radio spot when I was about 8.

Kevin- What was the audition process like for voicing Phoebe on Hey Arnold?

Anndi- I showed up to the casting offices with a bunch of other kids and read a script into a microphone for the role of Phoebe for Joey Paul (the casting director). At the time, I had very little information about
Phoebe, I just kind of picked a voice just slightly more shy and younger than my own. I found out I was picked for the role a few weeks later. It was really a painless process.

 

Kevin- What was it like working with Craig Bartlett?

Anndi- Craig is a big goofball and he's incredibly creative which makes him an EXCELLENT guy to work with as a kid. He has a ton of patience with his cast members and often lets them just run with their instincts
when it comes to getting into their characters. For example, the little "romance" between Phoebe and Gerald was never written in the script. Jamil and I were just fooling around in character and Craig loved it and went with it!

Kevin- Do you still keep in touch with any of the voice actors from Hey Arnold?

Anndi- I was friendly with all the voice actors. I was the oldest kid and was the first to drive, which made me the coolest! haha. I keep in touch with the cast on Facebook but Olivia Hack and I are still close and we
see each other and talk often. Sometimes I see the other voice actors around town and we love to reminisce about the good ol days! ;) We are all a super friendly bunch. No one disliked each other or didn't get along.

Kevin- What would a typical day be like for voicing an episode for Hey Arnold?

Anndi- Recording could be a long day because sometimes there were a LOT of kids with a LOT of energy trying to focus on working! But most of the time we got to record as a full cast which was an amazing experience. You truly create something magic when everyone's energies are all working together. Generally we all had the same time we were supposed to be at the recording studio and we would go in and out of the booth as our characters were needed (or not). Usually we would pick up lines from other shows at the end of the day.

Kevin- What is your favorite Hey Arnold episode?

Anndi- My personal favorite episode was "What's Opera Arnold?" I have always LOVED opera, which is kind of weird/not entirely normal for a kid, so when we got to show up for work and sing different words to some of my favorite opera music I was in heaven! Harold's "Big ugly clown" song is HILARIOUS.

Patricia- What was the audition process like for Ashley A. on Recess?

Anndi- To be honest with you, I can't even remember if I auditioned for that or not, and if I did, I can't recall the audition. That was another fun show to work on. I'm still close with Paul and Joe (the creators) and they are friends with Craig. It's a small industry...everyone knows each other! ;)

Kevin- What were your favorite Nickelodeon shows? What do you think of Nickelodeon now?

Anndi- I used to watch Clarissa Explains it All and Double Dare. I LOVED both of those shows. Oh, and Fun House. Nickelodeon had great game shows for kids. Man did I want to run through those obstacle courses! And of course, Hey Arnold. I don't watch Nickelodeon now because I watch very little TV in general. I'm kind of addicted to Masterpiece Classics from the 70s and 80s though. And they're remaking some now like Great Expectations and Little Dorrit which are SO amazing. I LOVE me some Dickens!

Kevin- How does it feel now that Hey Arnold has finally got a proper DVD release?

Anndi- I actually did not know it had been released on DVD. It's a great show so the more people that can enjoy it for as many generation as possible, the better!

Patricia- You also voice characters on video games such as Mass Effect, Everquest II, and Final Fantasy XIII and XIII-2. Are you a gamer? If so, have you played any of the games you voiced?

Anndi- I was quite a gamer all the way since I could operate an Apple2E all the way through college when I was the Tony Hawk champion amongst my friends. After college, it seems like games started getting too
complicated for me so I don't play very much anymore. My favorite games growing up were a few in the Final Fantasy franchise so when I actually got hired to voice Lebreau in Final Fantasy XIII (1 and 2) I
was PSYCHED. 



I own Ape Escape 3 and Everquest 2 (both of which I am in) but I just can NOT get very far in either. Thank goodness for YouTube! Now I can see my characters in action without having to feel like a complete loser because I lost my video game skills!

Patricia- That's all the questions we have. Thank you so much, Anndi.

Anndi- Thanks for the questions.

To know more about Anndi, you can check out her official site at http://www.anndi.com/. You can also follow her at Twitter @AnndiMcAfee.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Patricia and Kevin

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Interview with Ben Diskin

Every character in any cartoon always has to have a pushover. That was the case for Eugene Horowitz. He was clutzy and had a streak of bad luck around him. However, he was always optomistic about everything and always tells his friends to look on the bright side. Today we had the opportunity to interview the kid who voiced Eugene, a prominent voice actor named Ben Diskin.



Besides Hey Arnold, he has voiced in other cartoons and anime such as Naruto: Shippuden as Sai, Katao in Blood+, Eddie Brock/Venom in Spectacular Spiderman, and Numbah 1/2 in Code Name Kids' Next Door. I hope you enjoy this awesome interview.

Patricia- What were your favorite shows growing up?

Ben- I was big into cartoons as a kid.  I loved the 90s Spider-Man show, Gargoyles, Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, Goof Troop, Batman the Animated Series, Freakazoid, Pinky & the Brain, Tiny Toons, Loony Toons, etc.  The list goes on and on.  It’s too hard for me to pick favorites!

Patricia- What made you decide to go into voice acting?

Ben-I had been auditioning for various voice-over projects since I was around 6 years old.  I only really began to pursue voice-acting after I did a show called Problem Child when I was 10.  I loved the fact that I could do acting work and still be a normal kid.  No one, not even my closest friends, recognized my voice in the show.  Nobody ever picked on me for being an actor after the majority of my work became voice-over.



Patricia- Who are your influences?

Ben- Like I said, I was big into cartoons as a kid.  Everyone who made my childhood what it was is an inspiration to me.  This is another one of those lists that could go on for miles without end.

Kevin- What was the audition like for Hey Arnold?

Ben- When I auditioned for Hey Arnold for the role of Eugene, I actually didn’t hear back from them until much later.  I was their third choice to play the role so I only got called in to work on the show once the other two boys got too old sounding to play him.  Funny note: the second guy to play Eugene was Jarret Lennon who played the role of my best friend in the movie Just Like Dad.

Kevin- What was it like working with Craig Bartlett?

Ben- Craig’s a great guy to work with.  I’m honestly surprised we didn’t drive him completely nuts.  Directing kids can be difficult, especially with a room FULL of us.  Actually, I remember they put up sound proof walls between the mics so we’d stop chatting with each other and interrupting other people’s dialogue.  Hee hee!  (We’d just lean our chairs back and talk around the walls anyway, though.)

Patricia- Did you know of his work on Pee-wee's Playhouse before you auditioned for the show?

Ben- No, I never knew he worked on Pee-wee’s Playhouse!  That’s so cool!

Patricia- Did you see Pee-wee's Playhouse as a kid? If so, what did you think of it?

Ben- Hah!  Well, that’s another show I should have included in my list of shows I liked.  I loved Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.  It’s only as an adult looking back that I realize how lucky I was to have cool shows like that as a kid.



Kevin- Can you tell us any funny behind the scenes stories on working on Hey Arnold?

Ben- The funny thing about Hey Arnold for me is that people keep asking me questions about it and I really only barely remember what went down on that show.  I think I was 11 or 12 when I did it, so it’s kind of a blur to me.  Most of the sessions were pretty straightforward and I can’t think of anything that really stuck out as being funny.  Sorry :(

Kevin- What similarities do you see yourself as with Eugene?

Ben- Eugene and I are pretty different from one another.  I’ve never been much of a klutz or had long periods of bad luck.  We do both tend to be optimists, though, so there’s that.



Patricia- Were you disappointed that The Jungle Movie never was released?

Ben- I wish The Jungle Movie had been released.  Like I said, I don’t remember much of working on the show, but I remember enjoying that script quite a bit.



Patricia- Do you still keep in contact with the voice actors from Hey Arnold?

Ben- I’ve kept sporadic contact with some of the people from Arnold.  I’m Facebook friends with Craig Bartlett, Franny Smith (Helga) lives in the same part of town as me but I haven’t actually seen her in a while, Anndi McAfee (Phoebe) used to be with my agency for a long time, and Olivia Hack (Rhonda) still is with my agency.  Plus, I’ve worked with Olivia’s dad, Michael Hack, on anime before.

Patricia- What was the audition like for Naruto: Shippuden?

Ben- The audition for Naruto: Shippuden was pretty standard.  I actually didn’t get to find out much about the characters I auditioned for, but I was hoping to get Sai.  I’m pretty good at having trouble staying in touch with my emotions, so I figured he’d be an easy fit for me ;)



Patricia- Do you like anime? If so, what are your favorites?

Ben- No.  I HATE anime.  I can’t STAND that stuff.  ...  Kidding!  :P  I grew up on freakin’ TOONAMI!  I don’t think it’s possible for me to hate anime ;)  I like *takes deep breath* DBZ, Death Note, Naruto, Wolf’s Rain, Digimon, Deadman Wonderland, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Eureka 7, Blue Exorcist, One Piece (Funimation, not 4kids,) and mounds of others that I can’t remember right now.

Patricia- What was the thought process of coming up with the voice of Eddie Brock/Venom from Spectacular Spiderman?

Ben- I was a big fan of the 90s Spiderman cartoon show, so I wanted to do the Symbiote vocal effects myself.  During the audition, they told me that they were considering doing a dual track voice and asked me to first record myself doing the Symbiote voice and then they’d play it back in my headphones while I did my Eddie Brock voice in time with it.  I got through the first paragraph and they told me that they’d heard enough, so I went home and hoped I gave them what they were looking for.  So, honestly, I can’t really take credit for coming up with the voice for Venom.



Patricia- What was it like doing the voices for Numbah 1 and 2 in Code Name Kids Next Door? How were you able to differentiate the two voices from these two different characters?

Ben- Working on Kids Next Door was really awesome.  It was cool because basically every single person who came in to join us in the recording sessions was a big name voice actor who I’d grown up listening to.  Heck, Cree Summer of Tiny Toons fame was on the main cast!  I was in my “dark” phase during that time of my life (yeah, kind of a late bloomer in that regard since I should have gone through that in my teens,) so I probably came across as surly, but I was actually really honored to work with all the greats in VO on that show.



Patricia- What cartoon character do people demand that you do the most?

Ben- Sadly the voice most people ask me to do is the Venom voice.  I say “sadly” because I have to keep explaining why I CAN’T do it for them.  I can do the Eddie Brock voice; I can do the Symbiote voice, but I can’t do them at the same time.

Patricia- How does one become a prominent voice actor?

Ben- If I knew how to become a prominent voice actor, I’d be one ;D  No, seriously, the best advice I can give is to keep on truckin’.  It takes a lot of time, effort, and luck to make it big in voice over.  No one who’s successful in the business today got there without a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

Patricia- What advice would you give to someone who wants to get started on voice acting?

Ben- Getting started in voice over can be really tricky.  I’m probably not the best person to ask because I was fortunate enough to have an agent while I was still in my mother’s womb.  ...  No, really.  Not kidding.  If I could give any advice, it’d probably be to start out small.  Go for the smaller jobs that don’t pay so well.  The casting directors are probably more willing to take a chance on you since none of the big names will work for peanuts.  Build your way up from there.  Or, take the opposite approach.  Go for the biggest talent agency and start going up against the big names in the biz right from the start.  If you’re able to snag prominent roles away from successful voice over actors, you’re probably destined for this.

Patricia- Alright. Thank you so much for answering our questions, Ben.

You can follow Ben on his official Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BenDiskinOfficial. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Patricia and Kevin

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Hey Arnold

While Harriet the Spy was successful financially, it wasn't critically acclaimed by viewers or critics. One of the highlights of the movie was the pilot of Nickelodeon's upcoming cartoon. That cartoon was Hey Arnold which debuted on October 7, 1996.

The show was about a young 9-year-old boy named Arnold who lives his everyday life with his grandparents at their boarding house. He goes to school everyday and hangs out with his best friend Gerald Johanssen as well as a bunch of other kids. They consist of Helga Pataki, a girl who constantly teases Arnold, but deep down, she loves him, her best friend Phoebe Hyerdahl, Stinky Peterson, a kid who has a Southern accent despite being born in the city, Harold Berman, a fat, dumb, tough bully with a kind heart, Sid, the hyperactive kid, Eugene, the clutsy, yet optamistic kid, and many more.



Each episode has our characters go through what a typical kid goes through, similar to what Doug was. However, unlike Doug, the setting of Hey Arnold takes place in the city as oppose to a small town. In fact, looking back at all the previous shows from Nickelodeon, Hey Arnold is one of the first shows that takes place in the city as oppose to a small town or a suburban neighborhood. It gives a slight change of setting which makes the show quite unique in its own right. "I try not to be specific, since it's an amalgam of large northern cities I have loved, including Seattle (my hometown), Portland (where I went to art school) and Brooklyn (the bridge, the brownstones, the subway). It's a fictitious, unnamed city", Craig Bartlett said in a 1998 interview with Kim Burk.

Not only were we focused on the kids, but we were also focused on the adults. While Doug and Rugrats did focus on some of the adult characters, Hey Arnold developed them a whole lot more. The boarders were all unique, different, and complex. You have Ernie Potts, a very short man with a big temper who works as a demolition man, Oskar Kokashka and his wife Susie who are a bickering couple due to Oskar being a freeloader to his overworked, unappreciated wife. She had tried to leave him several times, but Oskar has such a charm to him that Susie continues to try to make things work. Mr. Hyunh, the Vietmanese man who moved to America during the Vietnam War and loves having a simplistic life working at a restaurant. He gains more depth around the Christmas Special. Then there's Coach Wittenberg and his wife Tish who constantly compete on who is the better coach. Similar to Oskar and Susie, while they do bicker the majority of the time, they still love each other. Then you have the best adults in the entire show, Arnold's grandparents. They're weird, give odd advice, tell funny stories about their youth, and still remain loving to Arnold.

My absolute favorite in all of them would have to be Helga. Her life is absoulety tragic, especially for a kid's cartoon. She's raised by parents who don't give her any attention, she's overshadowed by her perfect older sister Olga, and she's pretty much left to fend for herself. Her father Big Bob is a beeper salesman and owns a store called Big Bob's Beepers. For you kids and young teens who are reading this and don't know what a beeper is, it's basically a device that you carry around in your pocket and whenever someone is trying to reach you, the machine beeps and you call them back. Her mother Miriam constantly sleeps a lot in the kitchen table. She has had an interesting past and pretty much lost all hope in herself since Big Bob is a huge blowhard and controls everything. There's even rumors that she's a heavy alcoholic, but we've never seen her drink, so that's up for debate. While Helga has a really dysfunctional family, she's still has a soft side to her which is brought out in her love for poetry, writing, and her love for Arnold. However, she doesn't have the strength to tell Arnold how she really feels about him, which is one of the main plots of the show.



"That's Helga's deal: she's acting out her anger. Her home life sucks. Bob and Miriam ignore her.  Big Bob cares about winning, selling tons of beepers, getting rich, football, golf, alien abduction conspiracies, his Lincoln, his Humvee, and Olga's collection of awards. Miriam tries not to care about anything -- she's unrealized potential personified. Miriam's got an interesting past, but doesn't see anything particularly interesting in her future. Bob's such a blowhard, Miriam has lost the will to assert herself. Don't count her out, though. Miriam has a few tricks up her sleeve. Compared to Olga, she feels like some kind of graceless little ugly duckling. So she's developed this tough, brittle exterior as the meanest, most cynical kid in the fourth grade. How could she love Arnold, the nicest guy in school? It's her secret: she's got a soft, gooey, poetic, romantic interior. You'd think that a kid as smart and self-aware as Helga would realize that she should just tell Arnold and deal with it, but she still believes that if her secret got out, she'd die of embarrassment. But let's give the girl a break: she's nine. She'll learn someday (but not yet)", replies Bartlett.



My second favorite is definitely Arnold. While not as tragic as Helga is, his story can be sad at times. His parents were doctors who resided in a South America village called San Lorenzo. They treated the illnesses of an unknown civilization called The Green Eyed People. While going on their last exhibition, they disappeared, never to be heard from again. It's such a sad thing to consider for such a happy, optimistic guy. But that's what made him so interesting. Yes, he had the same optimism and imagination that Doug Funnie had, but Arnold was fleshed out a whole lot more. You can also say the same for all his friends and neighbors. They're interesting, they're memorable, they're compelling, and they're unique. Something that Nickelodeon hasn't done in their Nicktoons at that point.



As mentioned previously, the show was created by Craig Bartlett. Before creating Hey Arnold, he animated the Penny cartoons for Pee-wee's Playhouse in the 80's. He had replaced Nick Park, the co-creator of the Wallace and Gromit series and Chicken Run as the animator.

Around that time, he created Arnold.  "I created Arnold when I first moved to LA, ten years ago (1988). I was still doing clay animation on glass (the Penny cartoons from Pee-wee's Playhouse) so I designed him out of clay. I cut out the football shape from a big sheet of clay, set the eyes wide apart, gave him the huge hair and tiny hat, and that was that". He had created three animated shorts of Arnold that would be shown on Sesame Street. I remember when I was five when I saw Arnold for the first time. It hadn't left my mind ever since and seeing it again for this review brought back happy memories for me.

During his time working as a writer for Rugrats, Bartlett and five of the writers worked together to create animation projects for Nickelodeon. While showing the Penny cartoons to the Nickelodeon execs, intending to make a TV series about her, they liked the character of Arnold more. However, they wanted Arnold to be traditionally animated as oppose to claymation. Bartlett decided to give Arnold a cel shaded look.

Unlike many shows at the time or even today, they casted real life kids to do the voices for the characters. Craig Bartlett wanted to bring in realism to the show that an adult couldn't do. The only downside of that is is that the kids were getting older and their voices were changing throughout the show's run, so they had to be replaced. In fact, for the voice of Arnold, they casted four different boys throughout the eight year run. It was the first show in Nickelodeon to have such a young cast voicing kids. Not since the Fox Kids cartoon Peter Pan and the Pirates had done this casting decision.

There were two Hey Arnold movies in the works that Craig had wanted to release: a TV movie and a feature length film. The TV movie was simply called Arnold Saves The Neighborhood. It was about Arnold and his neighbors learning that their neighborhood is being shut down by a corporate businessman who wishes to make a mall out of it. Arnold and his friends try to stop at nothing to prevent him from doing so. The feature film was called The Jungle Movie. It concludes the series having Arnold win a contest to travel to any place around the world he chooses. After finding his father's journal in the episode "The Journal", he decides to travel to San Lorenzo to find his long lost parents. His entire class comes along and throughout the journey, they tackle in numerous adventures, find the missing Green Eyed People, and go against the evil La Sombra, a villian who wants to stop at nothing to steal a sacred relic from the Green Eyed People. In this movie, all the questions that people had been wanting to know were going to be revealed: what happened to Arnold's parents, the relationship between Arnold and Helga, and Arnold's last name.

The Nickelodeon execs wanted Craig to switch the two movies and have Hey Arnold: The Movie as the feature film. We'll discuss about the movie another time, but I'm going to give you a bit of a spoiler of how it turns out: it sucks!!! It did so poorly on the box office that Craig's proposal to release The Jungle Movie was declined. It has not been released since and that's a crime against humanity.

But there's still hope. According to an interview on February 9, 2012, Craig Bartlett is still interested in getting the movie and if we sign a petition to get The Jungle Movie released, then it'll spark interest to the Nickelodeon execs that they want to see a closure to Hey Arnold. To learn more info on it or if you want to sign it, check out the site here and see if we can see the movie we've been wanting to see for over a decade. Please help with this cause.



The show lasted for 5 seasons ending its run on June 8, 2004. Overall, the show is unique, funny, has lovable characters, has memorable moments, and great animation. The show was praised for many things when it first came out and it put Craig Bartlett on the map as a well known animator and writer. Manic Expression's That Long Haired Creepy Guy even did a segment on his series Looking Back in Annoyance comparing Hey Arnold to the Peanuts cartoon. When seeing it, I had no idea how similar the two shows. If you want to know what I'm talking about, check it out. It's very fascinating.

Craig Bartlett even wanted to do a spinoff of Helga and her family simply called The Pataki's. It was show about Helga, now aged 16, going through a depressing time of her life. Arnold now lives with his parents and has now moved to another city with them, their friends have now separated and hang out with other people, and Big Bob and Miriam are still neglecting Helga after Olga gets married and starts to have a family. Helga constantly writes depressing poems and letters to Arnold about how she still loves him, but never mails them to him. It was supposed to be a show originally for Nick at Nite, but the execs refused to release it due to it being too "dark", "depressing", and "moody".



Afterwords, Craig left Nickelodeon and did a pilot for Cartoon Network called Party Wagon. The pilot was only shown one time and was declined to be a full length TV show. Around that time, he became a story editor for Jim Henson programs such as Sid the Science Kid. In 2008, he created a new TV show called Dinosaur Train. It's about a baby T-Rex named Buddy who gets adopted by a Pteradon family which contains Mr. and Mrs. Pteradon and their children Tiny, Don, and Shiny. He learns about other dinosaur species when he rides in the Dinosaur Train.

It's still regarded as not only one of the best Nickelodeon shows that has ever been released, but one of the best cartoons of all time. It still holds up very well and I highly recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we have three different voice actors from Hey Arnold interviewed by Kevin and myself.

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Patricia