Hey Arnold - Arnold’s Thanksgiving
I know it has been QUITE a while since I updated, but here I am again, with a brand new Thanksgiving recap! Yes, this time Hey Arnold himself is getting the turkey treatment.
(Also, it’s surprising how few Nickelodeon cartoons have Thanksgiving episodes - Rugrats, Hey Arnold, and As Told by Ginger are the only ones I think).
Anyway, the city is preparing for Thanksgiving as Arnold rides his bike past a recreation of the Mayflower ship that is about to set sail. Although this seems like sort of a cool idea, it also seems like a bad idea. Did they retro-fit an existing ship, or did they somehow build a Mayflower ship from scratch?
Arnold can’t stick around though, because he’s late for his class’ Thanksgiving Pageant Play.
Elementary school Thanksgiving plays seem to be a huge deal in cartoons and TV shows, but I don’t remember ever having to do anything like that. The closest thing we did was color in some cornucopias and read books about turkeys that ran away from farms or whatever.
Mr. Simmons seems to have penned this particular play himself, and this dude seriously needs to chill. Like he’s having fourth graders perform it, what was he expecting, Fiddler on the Roof? Not to mention the dialogue is so maudlin and sweet it just makes you want to barf. Mr. Simmons should definitely keep to teaching and stay away from play authorship. (Although when the kids are freaking out during scene changes he keeps shouting “STAY FROSTY!” and I found that hilarious).
The play is a collection of scenes about the history of Thanksgiving (go figure) that start at the first Thanksgiving and goes all the way up to a 1950′s Thanksgiving, where Helga and Arnold are given the parts of Son and Daughter. I was surprised to see that Helga actually seemed to be pretty on board with the role of a traditional 1950′s woman, something I would think she would rebel against, but my theory is that she feels she has never had a real Thanksgiving, and so gets to pretend at having one here.
The play ends, Mr. Simmons sheds a tear (Dude. Come on. Get a grip.) And the kids are released for their Thanksgiving holiday.
Everyone’s excited to celebrate Thanksgiving except for Arnold and Helga. Arnold because his grandma always thinks it’s the 4th of July and they have to celebrate accordingly, and Helga because her mom is always a drunken mess and burns the stuffing, Big Bob sits in front of the TV and ignores her, and she is constantly compared to her “perfect” older sister Olga.
I do see where Arnold is coming from about not wanting to celebrate the 4th of July on the roof in the middle of November, but I feel like Helga gets the more raw deal here, because at least Arnold is still surrounded by his loving (if very weird) family.
Thanksgiving Day arrives at the Boarding House and Grandpa Phil starts delegating out roles such as grilling the hot dogs, putting up red white and blue flags, etc. Arnold suggests that maybe this year they should have a real Thanksgiving and everyone is like LOL Arnold you fool, obviously your grandma is confused and we must go along with her every year.
You know, even though Arnold is annoyed by it, I think it’s kind of sweet that the Boarding House just generally goes along with Pookie, as she clearly has some kind of dementia. They could try to force her to celebrate Thanksgiving like “normal”, but that would make her unhappy, so they just go along with her 4th of July thing. Arnold ain’t having it this year though, so he GTFO’s in hopes of finding a real Thanksgiving somewhere.
Over at Helga’s house, Miriam is super hung over - I mean, uh, “tired” - and overcooked the stuffing again. Hegla enthusiastically tells her dad happy Thanksgiving and shows him the centerpiece she made, but he’s more interested in his football. Aw. That hurt my heart a little bit.
It looks like Miriam is about to burn down the entire house. Luckily super-woman Olga is there to take over the cooking and make a beautiful feast - except she ropes in the whole family to help her. You know, I don’t understand why everyone is so against helping Olga make dinner? Like they wanna eat, right? Do they just expect her to do everything by herself? I swear I could write a whole essay just on the family dynamic of the Patakis.
Helga goes along with it for a bit, but when it comes time to say what she’s thankful for at the dinner table, she’s had enough and says she’s thankful for nothing in her stupid family. Big Bob tries to send her to her room, but she hits the mean city streets in hopes of finding something better instead.
Helga and Arnold run into each other, and since they both are having shitty Thanksgivings, decide to hang out together. Arnold says they should try to be optimistic, but Helga isn’t having that either. They decide they should go see what Mr. Simmons’ Thanksgiving is like, because the Thanksgiving he wrote about for the play was so perfect.
I get where they’re going with this and all, but if I was a teacher and two of my students showed up at my door, I’d be a little weirded out.
Mr. Simmons isn’t weirded out though - he’s happy to see Arnold and Helga and doesn’t question why the hell they’re there or if he should call their damn parents. He brings them into his dining room to introduce them to everybody, and it turns out he named the characters in the play after his own family. Except, instead of being perfect 1950′s-esque people, Mr. Simmons’ family is the absolute worse. They’re depressing, rude, and selfish.
Also this is where we meet Mr. Simmons’ “friend”, who based on cues and the fact Mr. Simmons is coded as gay, this is probably Mr. Simmons’ boyfriend. Which would explain why Mother Simmons is so hostile to him.
The abject awfulness of the Simmons family makes Arnold and Helga a little uncomfortable and they adjourn to the kitchen to discuss it. Mr. Simmons overhears, and lets them know that even though his family is difficult, he loves them, and that’s why he makes an effort to bring them together every year, because he’s thankful they’re in his life.
This flips a switch in the kids’ brains and they decide if Mr. Simmons can deal with those whackos, they can deal with their own families, and they head back home.
When Helga gets home, she finds her family in a rampant craze, calling the police and making flyers in order to find her. This touches her enough that she is able to forgive them, and shares a group hug with her family. Aw.
Arnold returns to Grandpa Phil apparantly freezing on the roof, and everything deserted. When he asks what’s going on, Phil said everything descended into chaos after Arnold left, and when they heard he was looking for a “real” Thanksgiving, they all decided to throw him a surprise party, with all the traditional Thanksgiving food (plus fireworks). Awww.
And that is Arnold’s Thanksgiving.
THOUGHTS: This is a great Thanksgiving special. Whereas a lot of specials focus on teaching kids the lesson of being thankful for what you have, Arnold’s Thanksgiving shows that nobody really has a “perfect” Thanksgiving, and everyone’s family is just as weird as yours. (Of course they’re kids - they haven’t discovered yet that the real joy of Thanksgiving is getting wine-drunk and falling asleep on the couch). I did feel that Arnold’s disappointment with their weird November 4th of July tradition wasn’t as meaningful as Helga’s story with her (frankly, rather abusive) family. I liked seeing the kids come to their own conclusions after meeting Simmons’ family, and the ending is very sweet.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
