Arnold's Adventures Archive

Characters 

Arnold: The ten-year-old protagonist and title character of the series. Arnold tends to day dream from time to time. He lives in a boarding house with his grandparents. The fate of his parents remains a mystery. He is often seen as the voice of reason in any dispute that comes up, whether it involve his friends or the boarders. Arnold has had two major crushes in the series: one with sixth-grader Ruth MacDougal (through most of season 1), and one with a classmate named Lila Sawyer (introduced in season 2). Arnold's most catalytic relationship is with his classmate Helga Pataki. Unknown to Arnold, Helga is secretly in love with him, though to keep these feelings secret she bullies Arnold so he will never come to that conclusion. According to series creator Craig Bartlett, had the canceled "Jungle Movie" sequel been animated, Arnold would have returned Helga's feelings with a kiss of his own. Arnold's best friend is Gerald Johansen, whose relationship dates as far back as preschool. The mystery surrounding Arnold's full name became a running gag on the show, by the last name almost being revealed, then someone or something interrupting or otherwise preventing it from being heard. Arnold acts like a teen.

Grandpa Phil: Arnold's cheery, fun-loving grandfather. He is 81 years old, as of the episode "Grandpa's Birthday". Arnold often comes to him for advice. He often tells Arnold stories about his past experiences, although he's had the tendency to stretch the truth a lot. Despite responding frivolously to Arnold's problems, he will often provide good wisdom. He is a World War 2 veteran, in which he claims to have single-handedly won the Battle of the Bulge by tricking a large troupe of Nazi soldiers into eating numerous cans of spoiled CHAM, thereby poisoning them and creating a hole in the enemy line for the American troops to break through. Arnold didn't believe his story at first, but it was later proven when Phil showed him a small monument of him hidden in some bushes in a park in Washington D.C. Phil is also a master at Chinese checkers, which earned him the nickname "Steely Phil". He is very athletic and can bench press up to 210 pounds.

Grandma (Pookie): Arnold's wacky but wise grandma who is often seen doing outlandish things. She is called "Pookie" by Grandpa Phil. She has a black belt. She and Phil had a similar relationship that Helga and Arnold have when they were kids (though her antics were a bit more vicious).

Miles and Stella: Arnold's parents. They were explorers who mysteriously vanished on an expedition during Arnold's infancy, leaving their son presumably orphaned and living in a boarding house with his grandparents and pet pig Abner, who was given to his parents by the green-eyed people. Little is currently known about their fates.

 Aunt Mitzi: Arnold's great aunt, Phil's twin sister and childhood rival.

Grandpa Phil's father: He is often seen in Grandpa's flashbacks from the 1920s.

Grandpa Phil's grandfather: He was seen in another one of Grandpa's flashbacks. Grandpa remembered doing chores one winter while his friends were ice skating, only to be hit with a snowball by his grandfather who gave him permission to stop his chores and play.

Oskar Kokoshka: A lazy, self-centered con artist, presumably an immigrant from an Eastern European country, who remains unemployed through most of the series until becoming a paperboy. He is hated by pretty much everybody in the boarding house, especially Ernie Potts.

 Helga Geraldine Pataki: Helga is nine years old and in fourth grade. She is secretly in love with her classmate Arnold because he's the first person to give her attention and was nice to her. In one episode, Helga revealed to Lila that she loves Arnold so that she could get the role of Juliet in the school play and kiss Arnold. Later in the series, Helga admits to being in love with Arnold to the school psychologist, Dr. Bliss. Helga is never shown admitting her secret to her best friend Phoebe, but it is implied that she is aware of it when they use the word "ice cream" as a code word in conversations, and in the episode "Helga Sleepwalks", Phoebe helps to prevent Helga from admitting her secret to Arnold while she sleepwalks. Helga is often shown devoting her time to writing poems (mostly about Arnold) and collecting Arnold's used gum so that she can add it to her shrine of him which is a work in progress. She is neglected by her parents and calls them by their first names because she does not think they are worthy of being called "Mom" and "Dad". She resents her overachieving, perfectionist older sister, Olga. Once in a while Helga will show a very small amount of love for her sister. As in the episode "Olga Gets Engaged" when she intervenes on Olga's behalf, saving her from what would have been a bad marriage and "Big Sis" when she reveals her jealousy of Olga's relationship with Lila. Probably because of her dysfunctional home life, Helga is an insecure person and puts on a mean, and/or tomboyish front, making her the school bully.

Robert "Big Bob" Pataki: Olga and Helga's ambitious entrepreneur father, a successful beeper salesman who owns a beeper store. He has extremely high expectations for Helga and frequently compares her to her older sister Olga. However, Bob does care for Helga and it is evidenced in subtle ways. In the Halloween episode when Helga and her classmates dress up as aliens and things take a turn for the worse when the people in there city think they're real aliens, Helga's friends run to the water tower that they made to look like a UFO. Meanwhile Bob and his friends go to the water tower and throw a grenade at the water tower thinking it's a UFO. Bob sees the "aliens" and gets a hold of Helga unbeknownst to him and shakes her. All the while she keeps saying "Dad! It's me, Helga!" Once the water leaks from the explosion and rinses away the facial paint, Bob realizes it really was Helga and not some alien trying to play a mind game. He says "I almost hurt my own kid! I'm a monster!" And gives her a hug as well as a piggy back ride down the hill. The episode where it is very evident that Bob does care for Helga is near the end of the episode "Quantity Time." Bob has difficulty showing his emotions for Helga since she and he always come into conflict with each other and clash. He often mistakenly calls Arnold "Alfred".

Miriam Pataki: Olga and Helga's inattentive mother. There are implications that Miriam suffers from alcoholism, as she often drinks "smoothies", forgets things, speaks in a slow, tired voice, has had her driver's license revoked, has to do community service and sleeps a lot (often in inappropriate places). However, in one episode when Bob injures his back and can't work, Miriam fills in for him. During the episode Miriam sobers up and holds the fort. Miriam also becomes more attentive towards Helga until she becomes a workaholic and realizes that she is ignoring Helga. Then, she quits and makes Bob return to work. However, her sobriety doesn't last long because in episodes following this one, she is back to drinking smoothies. But the viewer learns in a Mother's Day episode that Miriam was a champion bull rider before marrying Bob, and learn in another episode that she used to be an Olympic class swimmer.

Olga Pataki: Helga's intelligent, outgoing, beautiful older sister, who attends the fictional Wellington College.Bob and Miriam consider Olga to be perfect, which bothers Helga. There are times where her parents will confuse Helga for Olga. Fortunately, Olga does give Helga more attention than their parents much of the time and has good intentions.

Sid: A friend of Arnold with paranoid tendencies. He is always shown wearing a green baseball cap backwards, a black leather jacket, and white Beatle boots.

Stinky Peterson: A tall and lanky friend of Arnold from Arkansas, has a southern accent and a love for lemon pudding. He was originally portrayed in the first season as a bully and sidekick of Harold's, though the former was later de-emphasized and he was reinvented as a more affectionate, mild mannered and romantic character viewed as the class "ladies man", as he is romantically attracted to several female characters . He is shown to make up excellent poems while Phoebe was feeling depressed.

Eugene Horowitz: A somewhat socially inept but optimistic boy, the class jinx. Eugene is proned to several forms of misfortune and is often bullied. He believes Arnold is a jinx.

Thaddeus "Curly" Gammelthorpe: – The class psychopath. He has had outbursts throughout the show such as in the episodes "False Alarm" and "Curly Snaps." He also appears to have a major crush on Rhonda. In the episode "Curly's Girl," Rhonda pretends to be Curly's girlfriend for a week, but is disgusted by his appeal.

Torvald: A fourth grader who was held back for several years and is considerably older than the rest of the students. He was tutored by Arnold in one episode. In the episode "Tutoring Torvald" he is revealed to be 13 years old.

Sheena: A nerdy girl who does not like violence.

Lorenzo: A wealthy boy who did not have enough time to be a kid, by his mother's schedule. Arnold and the other kids taught him what it means to be a kid.

Iggy: A kid that was popular until his classmates found out he wears bunny pajamas in "Arnold Betrays Iggy". His shirt tails stick out like Arnold's, creating illusion of a kilt.

Brainy: A geek who is usually knocked unconscious by Helga without Helga looking at him. He has a very deep voice and breathes noisily, never talking in a completed sentence. Rarely appearing except when Helga looks at her locket containing a picture of Arnold. Apparently Brainy has not told anybody else about Helga's crush on Arnold.

Nadine Lowenthal: A young bug lover and Rhonda's best friend. She tends to find a lot of Rhonda's more stuck up opinions ridiculous. In the episode "Dinner for Four" she sets cockroaches free in a restaurant as a favor for Helga. This is the only episode where she has a bigger role than Rhonda, for her usual role is Rhonda's satellite character.

Park: A close friend of Arnold and others. In the episode "The Longest Monday," it is revealed he has a secret hide out.