Hey Arnold

Today we have to write about a TV programme we enjoy when we are kids. I thing immediately in Nickelodeon, it had so many good shows in my times and where a little difficult to decide.

I´d talk about “Hey Arnold”, transmitted between 1996 and 2004. The show where about an orphan boy, Arnold Shortman, “Ball Head”, who live with his grandparents and some guest in the guesthouse. There also be his group of friends from the Public School 118, and the people of the neighborhood. The program shows the typical problems of any kid in his daily life, but also important things like the abandonment, poverty, bulling, cultural differences, diverse families, friendship, and the important of be kind, sincere and optimist in life.

All the characters are important in some way, to show some important point. But in my opinion there are, apart of Arnold, two characters who are over the rest. The first is Gerald Johansen, the best friend of Arnold. He is a black boy with a very high hair who live with his parents and siblings, a traditional family opposite to the Arnold’s. They show us a good and real friendship in every scene that they share, starting from the opening.

The other one, and my favorite character of the show, was Helga G. Pataki. She was the grumpy girl with a “uniceja” and who wear a pink dress. She’s totally in love with Arnold, in the level of have an altar in her closet and a mountain of notebook with poems she writes for him, but hide it above insults and jokes. Is one of the most complex characters, because of her familiar situation –the indifference of her parents-, and for her contradictory actions about her love and the image she wants to show in front of the rest. Finally, she’s one of the deepest, smart, loyal, kind, strong and beautiful characters I ever see, in one of the best shows I remember.