Whats the history of the character Arnold?
Back in 1986 or so, animator Craig Bartlett (who also did the first set of “Penny” cartoons (a girl with actual pennies for eyes) for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) developed the character “Arnold”, a young boy usually dressed in a school uniform, complete with little hat (this is why Arnold has a hat on the show), who was always daydreaming, whether in church, in school, or just watching TV – and his daydreams were quite vivid. (When a preacher read Psalm 23, Arnold visualized it literally; when his school band played “The Skaters Waltz”, Arnold daydreamed he was a figure skater.) In 1991, “Arnold” became a comic strip in the short-lived “Simpsons Illustrated” magazine. (It didn’t hurt any that Craig is married to one of the sisters of The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.) A few years later, Nickelodeon was looking for some new ideas for animated shows, and asked to see Craig’s work. When they saw Arnold, they said that they wanted a show based on him. The pilot episode (an early version of “24
Back in 1986 or so, animator Craig Bartlett (who also did the first set of “Penny” cartoons (a girl with actual pennies for eyes) for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse) developed the character “Arnold”, a young boy usually dressed in a school uniform, complete with little hat (this is why Arnold has a hat on the show), who was always daydreaming, whether in church, in school, or just watching TV – and his daydreams were quite vivid. (When a preacher read Psalm 23, Arnold visualized it literally; when his school band played “The Skaters Waltz”, Arnold daydreamed he was a figure skater.) In 1991, “Arnold” became a comic strip in the short-lived “Simpsons Illustrated” magazine. (It didn’t hurt any that Craig is married to one of the sisters of The Simpsons creator Matt Groening.) A few years later, Nickelodeon was looking for some new ideas for animated shows, and asked to see Craig’s work. When they saw Arnold, they said that they wanted a show based on him. The pilot episode (an early version of “24
