If you grew up in the 90s, chances are you were a Nickelodeon kid. It had it all: Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sister Sister, The Rugrats and, of course, Hey Arnold.
If you were lucky enough to have access to Nickelodeon, these shows, among many others, punctuated evenings and weekends. Catchy theme songs, relatable characters, and even hilarious villains (Helga Pataki, anyone?) but for Hey Arnold especially, there’s a reason why it resonated with us kids so much.
Of course, the show was set in a suburban area, the kids featured faced the same problems as we did and the adults were as cringe and boring as the adults in our life were.
What made Hey Arnold different to other Nickelodeon shows
Unlike other popular animated shows at the time like The Simpsons, the children in Hey Arnold were actually voiced by children.
According to Screen Rant, this meant that not only did the actors grow up together on-set, playing these roles, but that they did have to be replaced over time, too.
Screen Rant said: “Voice actor Lane Toran voiced a majority of Arnold’s scenes but when his time ran short, Nickelodeon opted for actors J.D. Daniels (pilot episode), Phillip Van Dyke (seasons two through three), Spencer Klein (seasons four and five), Alex D. Linz (the Hey Arnold! movie), and an unknown actor who voiced Arnold as a baby.”
Not quite like Nancy Cartwright who has voiced Bart Simpson for the entire run of The Simpsons!
Bluey also hired children to play the roles of the kids in the show
While Bluey had a similar approach, the children that acted in the popular Australian animated show are actually kept anonymous to protect their identities.
The actress who plays Chilli praised this decision saying: “I think that was so clever and I’m so happy that, not knowing how big the show would be, they had the foresight to do it. In the long term, I think that protecting young people is so important in this industry.”
We love to see it.