Hey Arnold!

[D'Snowth]

RECESS and HEY ARNOLD! shared some of the same voice actors; not just Phoebe and Ashley A., but there was also Helga and Upside Down Girl, Harold and Gelman, and even the first kid who did Arnold's voice (and also Wolfgang) also did King Bob. I recently learned the kid who did Menlo's voice was Waldo in LITTLE RASCALS . . . it totally makes sense.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Since Gene Wilder passed away, i've been thinking about him a lot and was reminded of the "Monkey Man" episode of Hey Arnold.
I'm not sure if this was a coincidence or what, but Monkey Man looks and sounds just like Gene Wilder. Not only that but, when he starts going to all those parties, he looks a lot like Willy Wonka:

 

[Drtooth]

Ahhhh...Andy Dick back when people actually liked him.

I always loved when he said "it's my mmmmonkeyman job." One of my favorite episodes and it comes off a lot less of a tearjerker than the slightly similar Pigeon Man story.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

One of my favorite episodes and it comes off a lot less of a tearjerker than the slightly similar Pigeon Man story.

Man, the Pigeon Man episode is depressing as heck. Remember the ending when the pigeons took him and flew him away? Well I read that originally the ending had Pigeon Man jump off the building and commit suicide. It's pretty obvious why Nickelodeon didn't let them use that version.

Sometimes I kind of feel like Craig Bartlett hates children. At one point he planned for there to be an episode where Arnold was pursued by a grown a** woman, and it was going to be played for laughs! Another thing Craig had planned was a much darker spin-off series about Helga and her family. The series would've dealt with some serious issues, including, actually confirming that her mother was an alcoholic.

 

[D'Snowth]

The never-made Pataki spin-off was supposed to be aimed at an older audience though, so they probably would have gotten away with tackling some of those more serious issues.

Nevertheless, compared to most other cartoons of the day, HEY ARNOLD! was still pretty bawlsy at times.