Earlier this year, though it may as well have been 1998, Nickelodeon announced that your childhood is returning to television. Much like how Cartoon Network becomes Adult Swim once the sun goes down, TeenNick turns into the Splat at night, airing reruns of 1990s favorites like Legends of the Hidden Temple, The Ren & Stimpy Show, and Rocko’s Modern Life. “That’s a lot of nostalgia,” says some executive at Nick, probably the same monster who gave the OK to this horrible alarm clock that I totally didn’t own as a kid, “but it’s not enough.” After hearing a failed pitch for the CatDog School of Veterinary, the board settled on a Hey Arnold! TV movie.
The Viacom-owned kids’ outlet is developing a new TV movie based on Hey Arnold! The TV movie will feature a storyline that picks up where the original series ended and resolves unanswered plotlines — including the whereabouts of Arnold’s parents, long missing from the program. Executives at the network declined to offer a specific date for when the new content might be ready or air. (Via Variety)
The Arnold’s parents angle is an interesting one to take, and potentially heartbreaking. In the two-part “The Journal,” we saw adventurers Miles and Stella for the first time, who saw Arnold for the last time.
It’s a really good series finale.
Of all the Toons Nick could bring back, Hey Arnold! probably makes the most sense, subpar movie notwithstanding. It’s adult, but in a different way than Rocko‘s above-the-heads-of-children dirty jokes; there was a maturity to the show’s characters, setting, beeper jokes, and even jazzy score. A Hey Arnold! movie wouldn’t rely on its nostalgia, like All Growed Up did. It’s a perfectly solid cartoon as is. Especially that episode where Mr. Hyunh gave his daughter to American soldiers so that she could get out of Vietnam alive.
I don’t remember that episode on The Journey of Allen Strange.
(Via Variety)
