Eugene Goes Bad

When Eugene sees that the actor who portrays his favorite TV character, "The Abdicator," doesn't do his own stunts and acts like a prima donna on the set, he decides that there's no use in being good, and he turns into a bad kid.

Brainy, Mr. Packenham, Lila Sawyer, Mr. Simmons, Ruth P. McDougal, Eugene Horowitz, Martin Johanssen, Sid, Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, "Big" Patty Smith, Marty Green, Eugene Follower Kid, Eugene Horowitz, Phoebe Heyerdahl, Harvey, Nadine, Suzie Kokoshka, Harold Berman, Helga Pataki, Arnold, Stinky Petersen, Edmund, Principal Wartz, Jerry Berman, Thaddeus "Curly" Gamelthorpe

Hey Arnold! showed us that having a football-shaped head is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the struggles of being an orphaned fourth grader.

The title star of Hey Arnold! was an unkempt, wise-beyond-his-years blonde boy. Arnold's guardians were his senile Grandfather and his Grandmother, a former librarian with an active imagination. The family of three lived in the grandparents' urban boarding house, along with a cast of odd grown-ups who often acted more like children than adults.

Arnold was just like any other kid growing up in the city, assuming those kids also had a room operated by a remote-control and a pet pig. He liked to hang out with friends, play stickball with kids from the neighborhood, and get into trouble–like when he and his best friend Gerald accidentally wound up downtown, DRESSED AS FRUIT! Gerald was remarkably cool, calm, and collected for a ten year-old. Arnold's other friend (and sometimes enemy) was Helga, a thick-skinned girl who both hated Arnold and loved him.

Along with Phoebe, Brainy, and resident jinx Eugene, this amusing group of fourth-graders had what it took to survive life in the big city. They even managed to survive the rigors of a regular television series, as Hey Arnold! became yet another successful "Nicktoon."